Susan Peterson, Zion Lutheran:

A Renewed Relationship

I was the Chris Ed Director at Chisago Lake Lutheran Church in Center City MN for 8 1/2 years. There, I was introduced to Milestones Ministry, With the encouragement and support of our pastors and an enthusiastic Christian Ed committee, we were able to go from the traditional Lutheran 4 (Baptism, Bibles, First Communion and Confirmation) to a fully functioning Milestone journey representing every year from Birth to 6th grade.  To this day, the Faithchests at Chisago Lake Lutheran are beautifully hand crafted and comparable to none!   When I left Chisago in 2009, all Milestones were alive and thriving.

I am now into my second year as the Director of Children and Family Ministries at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chisago City, MN where they have the traditional Lutheran 4.  Last year, we tweaked the Bible class and did some baby steps with introducing “My Church” to the preschoolers the Lord’s Prayer Milestone to 1st and 2nd grade.   Zion is a small church, with about half the enrollment I was accustomed to at Chisago.  This has proven to be a challenge for me.  Having a milestone and only one child in the class is difficult.

Recently, our new pastor, Dwight Rudquist attended the Rethinking Confirmation seminar at Luther Seminary. Had I known what kind of conference he was attending, I would have switched VBS to attend with him!   There, he got a little taste of Milestones. Together, we hope to build up a program here at Zion that would make David Anderson, Dick Hardel, Marilyn Sharpe and the rest of the ‘old crew’ proud!

I’m excited to finally be in contact with the Milestones Ministry program.  When I came on staff at Zion, in the spring of 2014, I did a google on Milestones Ministry and found NOTHING!!!!!   It was devastating!   But am now happy to have your website on my favs and have ‘liked’ you on FB!

I look forward to a renewed relationship with Milestones!