Focus on Alumni

by Director of Alumni Relations Steve Balza DMLC ’90

Christian Worship Hymnal Project

In anticipation of the fall 2021 release of the new Christian Worship hymnals, MLCAA has selected 100 (or 200) hymnals and their corresponding resources as its current project.

Using the new Christian Worship in daily chapel services will help our future leaders, musicians, and educators become thoroughly trained in and knowledgeable of our synod’s vast worship resources.

Please consider a gift to support the scholarship endowment and hymnal purchase. Online donations (credit card or ACH) can be made at bit.ly/MLCAlumni.

Checks can be made out to MLCAA and sent to MLC Alumni Association, 1995 Luther Ct., New Ulm MN 56073.

The college needs about 1,000 hymnals, so we hope that others (families, reunion classes, congregations, schools, individuals) will also adopt 100 hymnals ($3,000). The goal is to purchase all 1,000 hymnals immediately upon their release.

If your group would like to claim 100, please contact Vice President for Mission Advancement Mike Otterstatter (ottersmj@mlc-wels.edu or 507.354.8221 x 386).

The Last Word

Since 2017, the MLC Archives Committee has interviewed each retiring professor about their ministries and more.

The latest interviewee was President Emeritus Mark Zarling NWC ’76, WLS ’80.

His interviewer, Lois (Sievert) Bode DMLC ’67, writes: Outgoing MLC President Mark G. Zarling’s first step onto the campus was accompanied by “a little bit of fear—okay, more than a little bit.” He revealed that he had to overcome a tendency to be a quiet person in order to become the “face of the college.”

The building of the Chapel of the Christ highlighted his tenure. “As the chapel went up and students saw the beauty of it and the scale of it,” he said, “there was no doubt in their minds. Jesus was most important here.”

Listen to the whole collection of interviews and read the transcripts at http://mlc-wels.edu/history/professor-interviews/