New Pre-Deaconess Club holds their debut event to serve students with “Pastries and Prayers”
Pre-Deaconess Club members junior Rebecca Duerr, junior Alyssa Heimann, and freshman Naomi Eden greet students at the Pastries and Prayers table.
Photo credit: Natalie Guske
By Natalie Guske
Friday morning the newly formed Pre-Deaconess Club held their debut event, “Pastries and Prayers” in J-Top, inviting students to write down their prayer requests while indulging in an array of baked goods.
Club president, junior Alyssa Heimann, said that the idea for the event was first mentioned by the club’s social media manager, junior Brianna Burns.
“We knew we wanted to help people, and we also knew that people really enjoyed food like sweet treats and things like that,” Heimann said. “So, we decided that we wanted to combine praying for people and desserts together. Since we just got our club going, we’re hoping to promote our club and to serve the campus.”
Friday’s event also gave club members the opportunity to educate students on the role of deaconesses in LCMS churches.
“We’re hoping to tell people what a deaconess is, as well as serve them,” Heimann said. “So, we’ve been asking people, ‘Hey, would you like a treat?’ And then following up with ‘do you know what a deaconess is?’ Because there are so many people around campus who have no idea.”
Junior Aubrey Burmeister said that she was drawn to the event to support her friends in the club and that she enjoyed the education and outreach aspects of it.
“Learning about deaconesses is really cool because you hear a lot about pastors in the churches, but not a lot about deaconesses,” Burmeister said. “I like this event because it informs people of what a deaconess is and what her role is in the church, and I think it helps gets more people involved, especially women who are maybe interested in church work but don’t know a lot about it.”
The idea for the pre-deaconess club originated out of a desire to create a community for women going into church work that was separate from the pre-seminary club.
“We decided that we had a great time with the pre-seminary club, but we wanted our own community of just women who are pursuing church work, specifically the deaconess vocation, and so we made our own little club,” Heimann said. “Not to say we don’t want to be with the guys, but so that we have our own space too.”
Serving others in Christ is an essential aspect to the club. Heimann wants to continue to do more service events in the future to help the campus community.
“We would like to do a service event every semester,” Heimann said. “Pastries and Prayers is just one of them, and we hope that we can serve the campus community in different ways, just helping out.”
