Twenty-five Concordia faculty and administrators recently returned from a unique study abroad experience designed to help them better understand the life and teachings of Martin Luther.

Sponsored by the college's Lilly Call to Serve Project, the group traveled to Germany and Scandinavia during three weeks in May to study the spiritual, intellectual and cultural heritage of the Lutheran Reformation.

"As a Cobber graduate, current education instructor and lifelong Lutheran, it's humbling to go on a trip like this," says Patty Gulsvig. "It really gives you new eyes and enables you to see things from a different perspective."

While in Europe, the seminar participants, from a wide array of departments on campus, toured more than a dozen cities, including Wittenberg, Germany, and Oslo, Norway; visited important sites, including Wartburg Castle and the Buchenwald Concentration Camp memorial; and attended worship services and lectures. They also had time to experience the cities on their own.

"This was the opportunity of a lifetime," says Dr. Mark Jensen, chair of the chemistry department. "It was my first trip overseas and I was very excited to see Europe. It was a very relaxing, education and rejuvenating trip."

Jensen says he really appreciated the Lutheran focus of the trip, to see first-hand the places of importance to the reformation and Luther himself. "Luther's life really did come alive to us over there," he says. "It gave us a deeper sense of the history and heritage of the college. We need to have a sense of our roots."

Read the seminar blog written by traveler Amy Aasen, director of Web Services.

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