The Silas Lawrence Gerling Scholarship
Stephen and Hannah Gerling at Stephen’s MLC graduation in 2022
This scholarship honors the life—the heartbreakingly short life—of Silas Lawrence Gerling. He is a child of God and the son of Stephen Gerling and Hannah (Stellick) Gerling, which is where our story begins.
Stephen and Hannah first met in Taichung, Taiwan. Some years later they reconnected and were married. At the time, Steve was working in the restaurant business, and Hannah was teaching at Divine Savior Academy in Doral, Florida, filling a call she had accepted after graduating from Wisconsin Lutheran College.
God led the couple to make a life-changing decision: Stephen would go back to school, pursuing preseminary training as a second-career student at Martin Luther College. They moved to New Ulm in the summer of 2020. Stephen began working and attending class at MLC, and Hannah began teaching in Mankato. Their first child, Sofia, was born in February 2021.
In 2022, Steve and Hannah received the happy news that they were expecting a second child. But as the pregnancy progressed, doctors informed the couple that there were concerns. Due to congenital malformations, the child would probably not be able to sustain life after birth. The family prayed and prayed. God answered those prayers on October 27, 2022, when Silas Lawrence Gerling was born. The couple loved him, held him, and sang hymns to him for the four hours of his short life. Most importantly, they had time to tell him about his Savior and to baptize him before God took him from this earth to be with himself for all eternity.
Hannah and Stephen were so thankful for the hours they had with Silas and the assurance of his eternal salvation received through baptism. They took strength from the promises of our Lord in Isaiah 25:8: “He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces . . . The Lord has spoken.” The day of Silas’ burial, Hannah wrote him a letter that ended with the words, “We didn’t lose you. You just went safely home before we did.”
Silas’ great-grandparents, Norman and Betty Stellick
In 2023, Silas’ great-grandparents, Norman and Betty Stellick (pictured), established the Silas Lawrence Gerling Scholarship in honor of little Silas and in gratitude to our Savior God, who took Silas home to be with himself and who promises eternal life to all who believe.
As other second-career men move their families to New Ulm to pursue preseminary training at MLC, as Silas’ father Stephen did, the entire family hopes this scholarship will provide both encouragement and financial support.
Scholarship recipients are primarily second-career students who are pursuing preseminary training at MLC and who demonstrate financial need. If no students qualify in a given year, the scholarship may be given to second-career teaching ministry students or traditional students in the preseminary program.
You Can Give to Any Scholarship Fund!
You can donate to the Silas Lawrence Scholarship Fund or any other named scholarship at MLC.
