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Spirit of Ministry: Affiliate befriends new immigrants

Last fall a new program created by the FSPA affiliation ministry subcommittee was launched. The Ministry Renewal Program was put into place to refresh affiliates in their current ministry or stretch them to embark on new ministries.

In celebration of the new effort, we will highlight covenant affiliates and their ministries in a series of stories for Perspectives called Spirit of Ministry. This is the first story in the series.

Diane Vaaler Lindahl makes it sound easy to give to others; she says you just have to be “present.” To hear her tell it, you would think everyone stops on their way to work to pick up donated baked goods for hungry school children, or sells hand-stitched purses to raise money for a family in need, or allows a family to stay with them so they don’t have to sleep in their car. The list of kind acts she’s undertaken goes on and on. But according to Lindahl, the calling is there for all of us to help the needy, if we only stop to listen. For her, giving so freely to help people is simply part of who she is.

“It’s just being watchful and aware, I think, and then asking God every day to ‘bless the work of my hands.’ That’s one of my prayers, ‘Come Holy Spirit and bless the work of my hands,’” Diane explains.

Diane Vaaler Lindahl, a covenant affiliate with FSPA, assists student Plia Vang with her studies at Western Wisconsin Technical College.

Diane is one of the 201 FSPA affiliates (making her commitment in 2002) who makes a difference in the world through her ministry. As an instructor at Western Wisconsin Technical College in La Crosse and the head of the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESL or ESOL), she is especially in tune with the unique needs of the Hmong population in the La Crosse area. She sees first hand the hardships Hmong refugees face when they move to a country where they don’t speak or write the language, where they don’t know how to access services to get the food or housing they need for their families.But Diane doesn’t just see the hardship, she takes steps to help.

For example, Diane noticed that Hmong women who were divorced or widowed needed extra support, so she started a group that met at her house once a week to discuss the challenges they face. But she also saw a larger need for community members and Hmong refugees to come together to reach a deeper level of understanding of each other’s cultures. So, with the help of other affiliates, a new program has taken form, called “Franciscan Neighbors.”

Through Franciscan Neighbors, Diane will match up FSPA and affiliates with Hmong neighbors to forge friendships that help break down those barriers that can form between people of different backgrounds. Participants will make a six-month commitment to spend time with their new friends and do ordinary activities, like grocery shopping. Diane hopes the partnerships will lead to greater understanding of cultural nuances.

Achieving new cultural under-standing may seem like an enormous undertaking, but Diane is hopeful. “I used to get overwhelmed by saying, ‘Oh, my, how am I going to take care of this big deal?’ But if you start taking small steps, the footsteps suddenly lead to something.”

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