 
Introducing Minda Davison
Minda Davison joined the Office of the Bishop as Director for Communications on August 1, 2013.
Minda is a graduate of Wartburg College with a degree in both Communications and Religion. In addition to her experience as Associate Program Director for Southeast Asian Ministry in St. Paul, MN, she has most recently served as the Assistant Director of Annual Giving at Cornell College in Mount Vernon. An accomplished photographer, she has owned her own small business since 2009.
Minda's enthusiasm is contagious and her commitment to the ministry of Christ's church is evident. In 2012 she chaired the committee for the CROP Walk in Johnson County and earlier the same year, she traveled to South Sudan to work on a clean water project. She is a member of Zion Lutheran Church, Iowa City, where she has served as Sunday School Coordinator and currently serves on the congregation council. In April 2013, she participated in the ELCA World Hunger: Ethics of Eating Conference.
Please join us in welcoming Minda to this new position and to the mission we all share.
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Art and Faith: Starting a Christian Arts Ministry
"God was movin' and shakin' today." - Art and Faith workshop participant.
On August 3, 32 members from around the Synod gathered for a day long workshop to learn about the connection between Christian art and Christ's mission. The workshop was led by six artists from the Des Moines area who are involved in art ministry within their congregations. The workshop used an experiential teaching model, and covered : The importance of Christian art; program ideas and resources; and how to start a Christian arts ministry.
The arts impact congregations, communities, and individuals in a way that allows an offering of God's love to the world. To help spread this offering of God's love through art, the Commission for Evangelical Mission is creating a network of people who are involved in or would like to start an art ministry program. When creative gifts and the arts are embraced within congregations, it allows for God's Holy Spirit to move within our congregations and communities.
For information on starting a Christian Arts Ministry program and future art and faith workshops, please contact Minda Davison at 319-338-1273 or davison@seiasynod.org.
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Thank YouDiane and I are deeply grateful for the kind expressions of sympathy and support that followed the deaths of both her father and mine. Our lives were further complicated by my unexpected need for medical attention and finally, surgery (for kidney stones) during the same brief period of time. Many people who became aware of that additional "twist" offered more prayers and support. In all of this we are reminded that the Body of Christ is indeed, the real presence...that you are to us, and that we are all, to one another, reminders that the loving God who claims us in baptism, continues to hold us throughout all of our days. For the care we have received, especially from the people of the Southeastern Iowa Synod, thanks be to God.
Bishop Michael Burk
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25 Days of Prayer
How does it work?
For the 25 days leading up to the assembly, this church will be invited into prayer for the ELCA, for the voting members who will gather in Pittsburgh, and for thanksgiving for the past 25 years of this church's life and for the next 25 years and beyond.
The resources for prayer and study below are based on the readings for the 2013 Churchwide Assembly Bible studies that will occur Tuesday through Friday, Aug. 13-Aug. 16, of the assembly. The Bible studies offer members of the assembly an opportunity for communal conversation centered in God's written word. For more information about the Bible studies click here
These prayer resources are available for use by individuals, small groups or as a congregation-wide initiative.
For more information click here
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READing to End Hunger
This synod's hunger working group had a vision of groups of about ten people gathering in congregations to read David Beckmann's book Exodus from Hunger. To date, thirty-six congregations have formed reading groups and another twenty-three have expressed their intent to do so before the end of the year.
Chaplain Vicki Pedersen, Director of Spiritual Care at Lutheran Homes in Muscatine, wondered if there might be residents at this facility who would be interested in forming a reading group. "I thought this might be a helpful means for the residents to feel connected to the Church and its ministry outside the walls of what occurs within Lutheran Homes."
Read Chaplain Pederson's story
If your congregation or any group of which you are a part has not formed a reading group or would like to form another group using books provided by the synod, please contact Pastor Paul Ostrem at ostrem@seiasynod.org.
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