Our Impact

Caroline Rorhus (‘25, pictured center, above) did not grow up Lutheran, but was searching for a church that felt like a fit when she arrived to Michigan Tech. During her freshman spring, she noticed the pride flag waving in front of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church and decided to step inside.

“What I found,” Caroline recalls, “was a community where everyone was genuinely happy to see each other.” That authentic welcome made Good Shepherd a place she would eventually look forward to attending each week.

College brought its share of anxiety and uncertainty. “When I started, I was a lot more panicky,” Caroline says. “LCM/Good Shepherd helped me learn to trust in God’s unfolding—that you don’t have to have steps one through thirty-eight figured out. You just do your best in the next one.”

With her family hundreds of miles away, Good Shepherd became like another home base for support.  Caroline reflected on how in college you’re an adult, but don’t know how to be an adult in many ways. At Good Shepherd/LCM, a whole community of caring adults who were right there as support for her, week by week. Through them, she understood one of faith’s most beautiful truths: there are no solo quests.

When Caroline stepped into leadership in Lutheran Campus Ministry—just after COVID and while GSLC was between pastors—there were only two students left in the group. “It was hard to recruit,” she admits. But the church community held the two LCM students in the meantime, like embers of a fire ready to be fanned back into flame.   Slowly, through prepping the Community Meal, planning events, and worship, life returned to LCM as a student org.  “Sometimes life-changing events aren’t fireworks,” she says. “They’re a slow kindling.”

Caroline found God at work through LCM not only in the big moments but in the quiet ones too—in “a joyful togetherness” while cooking for others, and “a reflective love in the calm between words in worship.”

Without Lutheran Campus Ministry, Caroline says she might never have become a regular churchgoer. Now working at an environmental education center in Minnesota, she’s seeking a faith community that feels like home again. “I’m just trying to keep the door open,” she says. “And trust the next step.”

“It was an opportunity to expand my horizons, worldview and experience some of the vastness of humanity.”  This is what Faith Lowry (above) said of her experience on the 2025 Alternative Spring Break trip to Asheville, NC with Lutheran Campus Ministry. She was seeking a place to put her faith into action, and found it on the service trip offered through LCM this past Spring. 

A native of St. Clair Shores, MI, Faith grew up going to church with her family and was influenced particularly by her grandfather, who had been to Bible college and used scripture as a way to both build faith and practice reading with his grandchildren. She had been on several mission trips in high school and had found the experience to be meaningful. When she began her studies at Michigan Tech – like many young adults – Faith grappled with uncertainty about both her beliefs and her sense of self. She explored what it meant to make her faith her own and soon joined Bible studies on campus.

Then, during the fall semester last year, Faith was serving as an RA in a freshman dorm when one of her residents—who attended Good Shepherd—told her about the Alternative Spring Break trip with Lutheran Campus Ministry. Though she had no prior connection to LCM, Faith took a leap and signed up. She threw herself into the experience, putting her mechanical engineering skills to work on the job site and also volunteering as the group photographer for the week. Her photos (one shown above) beautifully capture her faith in action.

Faith experienced God at work through the Habitat crew and other volunteers that week in Asheville. “Love is not just for the people next door,” she reflected. Through her trip, Faith found a recentering in Christ in the midst of a long academic year. And though she volunteered more than 35 hours that week, she said she found a break from the hustle of study that renewed her. 

LCM walks alongside students like Faith at MTU—forming leaders and nurturing faith through service in Christ’s name. In Spring 2026, LCM traveled Arkansas for another Habitat for Humanity service trip, and Faith signed up for another year! She even invited a friend.

Faith looks forward to another opportunity to put her faith into action and to share the hope that continues to grow within her

Three years ago, Libbie had just started her Masters in Forest Ecology, moved to Houghton, and was looking for a network of friends, when a Good Shepherd member invited her to church. From her first visit, Libbie “felt so welcomed” and planned to continue attending. For Libbie, “the welcoming community at Good Shepherd was apparent with the members inviting me to coffee hour and getting to know me.” Libbie didn’t just find a seat in a pew—she found a community that refused to let her be a stranger

One member, Janet, wasted no time getting Libbie involved with Lutheran Campus Ministry.

Libbie found a second family through the “relationships and experiences” of LCM/Good Shepherd. “Our weekly LCM Gathers and Community Meals helped me to connect with other students and get me out of my routine and comfort zone.” She particularly thanks Pr. Sarah, Dave and Lisa Nelson, and other members who supported her through tough decisions in her life. For Libbie, a community that intersected faith and academic life improved both her separate lives. 

Libbie saw God at work in the way members and students "showed up for each other" with service and selflessness. She was struck by how this small community served the community beyond its doors, whether through service trips or community meals. By giving their time and money to the kitchen remodel, Good Shepherd/LCM provided Libbie with a living example of "what faith and trust looks like."

After graduating from MTU in the Spring 2025, Libbie moved on to the University of Notre Dame to pursue her Doctorate, and she plans to continue working with faith-based communities after being part of LCM. Since departing Lutheran Campus Ministry, she’s become involved with another church in Notre Dame. She uses her experiences with LCM to “better cultivate current relationships” and ways she can give back to others now. 

For Libbie, Good Shepherd/LCM was a community giving back to community through service and kindness, a family of faith she found when she needed it, and one she will always be grateful for. 

When he searched Google Maps for a "Lutheran Church" near MTU, Paavo Nurmi (‘27) was just looking for a place to spend his Sunday morning. He didn't know that search would lead him to his current title: LCM Kitchen Boss.

This year, Paavo led more than 70 different volunteers to serve over 1,200 plates of food to their MTU classmates at LCM’s Student Community Meals.  But the impact isn’t just in the numbers.

For Paavo, a Natural Resource Management major with deep Lutheran & U.P. roots, service was already in his blood as a lifelong Scout. However, LCM gave that service a spiritual home. "When I first started coming to Good Shepherd, I kind of had no place to go," Paavo reflects. "For a while there, the meals were my favorite thing of the week... if you are hanging out with people who are taking their time to feed others? You know those are going to be good people."

Paavo watches the impact on his classmates in real-time every Tuesday: some come because they are students and trying to make ends meet with a free meal, others are there for the community aspect, and Paavo has noticed that  some volunteers don’t even count the time towards service hours: they come just to serve and to be a part of the vibe that makes people feel comfortable and want to return. 

On Tuesdays, after 90 minutes of intense cooking, right after volunteers open up the serving line, Paavo slips away to the second pew of the sanctuary. “I feel closest to God when I’m at the meals," he says. "It seems to flow easier for me when I’m actively doing something for what I see as God’s mission.”

Paavo looks forward to continuing to be a part of LCM during his senior year, through Sunday morning worship and other adventures, though he will pass the mantle of “Kitchen boss” to another student. He’ll still be a regular, he assures us!  “My life could be very different if I hadn’t found Good Shepherd and started to come to the meals…One of the best experiences for my soul has been my time working with LCM.”