Several years back, Rev. Dr. Norm Shoemaker told me that even though he had personally led over 35 mission projects, he had never been to the African continent. It felt important to see Norm with the church in Africa.
With my LoveWorks experience in Rwanda, Malawi, Kenya, and Uganda, and my long-term work in the Democratic Republic of Congo, I have known African leaders as uncles, aunts, and mentors. I have experienced tremendous African diversity, received generous African hospitality. When Norm and I would meet, with a twinkle in his eye, he would say, “I think I have one more LoveWorks mission in me.” I began inviting Norm to join LoveWorks one more time – and this time to Africa.
Five years ago at Nazarene General Assembly, I approached Rev. Dr. Jim Bond, retired PLNU president and retired Nazarene general superintendent. We had a short conversation while he gave me a long comforting handshake in the “Gentleman Jim” way. I said, “Dr. Bond, thank you for hiring Norm Shoemaker to create a spiritual life department at Point Loma.” Bond replied, “When I look back on my eleven years as president at Point Loma, I often conclude that hiring Norm and creating the Office of Spiritual Development [now Student Life and Formation] was the most important decision I made.”
Throughout Norm’s early ministry career, he developed mission trip programs at the local church level, the denominational level (Youth In Mission/ CAUSE), and at PLNU with LoveWorks Short-Term Missions. LoveWorks is a three-week summer mission trip program with a three-month program of training and preparation. God has used those mission trip programs to shape thousands of lives over at least 40 years.
Even though Norm is now well into his active retirement, the legacy of his mission and ministry philosophy thrives in the way that PLNU LoveWorks trains students and team leaders for a ministry of mutuality, self-awareness, other-awareness, and situational awareness. LoveWorks teams are known across the world for their flexibility in ministry service, their strong team dynamics, and their eagerness to learn from everyone they meet – to meet them with inter-cultural humility and Christ-like love.
It took a few years for Norm to feel that everything was settled enough with his familial responsibilities to be away for three weeks so far from home. He joined a small but dynamic LoveWorks team training last spring to serve in Zambia and Malawi, two wonderful and welcoming countries in Central Africa. As Norm attended team training meetings, I couldn’t help but feel renewed and uplifted as the program’s lead trainer. So many of the foundational concepts in LoveWorks come from Norm’s work.
The LoveWorks Zambia/Malawi team that Norm joined was led by Dr. Mike and Ms. Melodi Leih. Mike is a mathematics and computer informational technology professor at PLNU. Melodi is a senior trainer with The Mom Co. Both are PLNU alumni as well as parents of alums. There was also an unplanned Loma family connection – Norm was a campus pastor to Mike and Melodi decades ago.
The team also consisted of six female students: Kiana, Cate, Grace, Karissa, McKenzie, and Sara. When I arrived to visit the team in Kitwe, Zambia, Norm leaned over to me and whispered, “You have a strong team here. These young women are dialed in, learners, and all supportive of one another.”
In Zambia, the team was well hosted by missionaries Nicholas and Lydia Barasa. The local church district focused the team’s work around revitalizing the Chamboli Church of the Nazarene. The team joined activities with children and youth. Norm provided a half-day ministry and church development workshop for about 40 pastors and their spouses.
As we traveled across Zambia, Norm shared with me stories of his ancestors’ very early involvement at the foundations of the Church of the Nazarene. His grandparents were traveling missionary evangelists across towns in rural Texas and Mexico. Their work was not unlike the contemporary LoveWorks teams, bringing energy, new relationships, and testimonies of Christ’s love and transforming grace.
The team’s ministry continued in Lilongwe, Malawi, at the Nazarene Theological College of Central Africa. LoveWorks partnered with Joshua Williams and the Nazarene Global IT Team to install computer networks and wifi. Norm and Melodi provided another day of ministry training for church leaders.
Norm is always listening for the music in life – life and jazz are not distinct. Norm looks for daily opportunities, not so much to be the soloist, but to join in the ensemble. He doesn’t want to miss out on opportunities to build connections and learn from new experiences. Along the way in Zambia and Malawi, he would look for anyone and talking – and then he’d approach them and mine the potential for a genuine connection – something he called his “strategic conversations.” If the team had some down time in the morning at breakfast, Norm would pick up an ukulele and get the team grinning and singing a folk song. If the team came anywhere near ice cream, Norm could gently but persistently work grandfatherly ways to buy a cone for each member of his strong team.
LoveWorks teams read the book Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life by Henri Nouwen, et. al. Norm shared that the book taught him a most important lesson in pastoral ministry: just show up. When families are struck by grief, the things that should be said will be theirs to say – compassion is just about being there in the room with suffering and loss. It is a ministry of presence – displacement from the comfortable place into community and togetherness.
Norm reminded the team that while a three-week mission trip is short, compared to a long life, we should, “Never underestimate the power of defining moments. There is a lot of life that will be lived between defining moments – but that ordinary life is significantly influenced by moments like these.”
