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