The Outward Package
At the young age of 22, Donna Fulmer found herself widowed with a 7-month-old baby. When she eventually got remarried and started attending a Lutheran church, she worried she would be received poorly. “I felt like I had a letter on my chest,” she shared. “People didn’t know my story, but they could certainly assume it.”
To her surprise and delight, she was wrong. “I was accepted by the women in the WELCA circle at Macedonia Lutheran, in Prosperity,” Donna shared. “Here I was coming into a marriage and a new church with a child. They didn’t know my story, but they welcomed me. They encouraged me to share my faith and made me a leader in the circle. I was seen as a child of God. Through our regular program of sharing prayer, scripture, song, and message, I learned how Jesus gave the woman at the well spiritual water. I learned that we are all in this together.”
Today, Donna serves at the national level for WELCA. She remembers being on the other side of accepting those for whom we do not yet know their story.
“I was in Chicago for a WELCA event,” she reflected. “The Conventional Chaplin had an outward appearance I wasn’t used to. She had colored hair, tattoos, and piercings. She was very different from me. I admit that I wondered what she was going to be able to teach me. But then, she stated talking about how she ministers with young people in college. I found myself very thankful for her ministry. I found myself giving thanks that we are all different. I realized that I couldn’t possibly relate to those students the way that she could, and I was grateful she was part of our full ministry together.”
WELCA provided holy welcome to Donna during a time when she may have appeared to be something other than what people were used to. It taught her how to lead and tie the elements of a prayer, scripture, song, and program together. It also opened her eyes to the many gifts and talents of other women from across the church, regardless of the outward package they come in.