University of Dubuque Theological Seminary invites an accomplished alum to deliver the 2025 Berger Lecture

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LOUISVILLE — The Rev. Gilo Gora Agwa, a 2014 MDiv graduate of the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, spoke about the importance of ministry to people on the margins Monday during the Berger Lecture he delivered Monday in Blades Chapel on the seminary campus.

Agwa’s talk, “Proclaiming and Demonstrating God’s Care for Those on the Margins,” was delivered in two parts on Monday and can be viewed here. He's introduced by the Rev. Dr. Beth McCaw, dean of the seminary, at the 8:30 mark.

“As a UDTS student and then as an alumnus, Rev. Agwa’s ministry in Ethiopia and among refugee adults and children in the United States has modeled Matthew 25 ministry,” McCaw said. “We are honored to welcome him back to refresh our connection to the global church and our commitment to God’s children at risk.”

From 2000-2011, Agwa served the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus East Gambella Bethel Synod. After seeking asylum in the U.S., he enrolled at UDTS. He currently serves the Fountain of Life Faith Community, a joint ministry that worships at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Mahtomedi, Minnesota, and is supported by the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area and St. Paul Area Synod. He’s also a part-time chaplain at Sanford Health/Good Samaritan Society Nursing in Stillwater, Minnesota.

His current ministry in Minnesota includes arranging for micro projects focused on serving refugees from Ethiopia and South Sudan, particularly the Anuak community.

“It’s good to be here. This is my home, the place where my story started,” Agwa told those gathered online and at Blades Chapel. “The people of the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary loved me, and I love this place and its people so much. I wish I had 10 hours to talk.”

The corn in Agwa’s homeland grows nearly as tall as it does throughout Iowa, “but you have to leave when the conditions are not good,” he said, and Agwa left his family behind, later being joined by them after he gained asylum in 2011. “I left in tears,” he said, “and I came here and I was welcomed by those who didn’t know me.”

Agwa gave great credit to the work of such legendary PC(USA) mission co-workers as Don McClure, who “came from far away and lived in a malaria area with no good food where it rained all day. He spent his time listening to the stories of people.” After decades of ministry, McClure was killed in 1977 by guerillas in Gode, Ethiopia. “Even though he was killed, his work continued in Ethiopia and South Sudan,” Agwa said. Today the Ethiopian church started together by Presbyterians and Lutherans has more than 11 million members, almost three times the combined membership of the PC(USA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

“God can work in the margins,” Agwa said.

Nearly four years ago, Agwa visited the village where he grew up. He saw firsthand the work fighting guinea worm and malaria, work that had been taken up by the Carter Center. “That’s the project of your president who passed away a while ago,” Agwa noted. “We are called to make a difference in remote parts of the world — or maybe around you here, maybe in a hospital or in [fire affected] Southern California, or your neighbor.”

Agwa then asked his son to read Deuteronomy 10:12-22 from the New International Version, and Agwa read Matthew 25:31-40 from the NIV.

He told about being asked recently to coach his sons’ soccer team despite having no experience. On the first day, the young white players asked if they could rub their hand on Agwa’s forearm, pronouncing it “as smooth as a baby.” When more players came over to find out for themselves, he laughed and said, “All right! Let’s go and play.”

“We can’t understand people until we sit with them and hear their stories,” Agwa said. “You can be with someone for years without knowing who they are.”

He noted God’s accountability, which is present in both biblical accounts. “Today we don’t talk much about the Second Coming or what we might receive after the work we do,” he said. “But there is someone looking from above at the work we do.”

Love those who are foreigners, Moses instructs Israel, “for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.”

“We gather here today because there was a great man who did something great in this country, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” Agwa said. “He was a great man not because he was president, but because of the great work he did for all. His work went beyond America to other countries across the globe.”

Agwa’s own asylum process “was not easy,” he said, and he held aloft the thick book he and others compiled as part of his own asylum process. “I worked on this with my attorney, even as I did my work as a student.”

But always at UDTS, Agwa felt welcome. Lifting up a pillowcase, Agwa recalled the story of how McCaw and others donated household goods when he and his family first arrived. “You welcomed me, trained me and challenged me to complete my coursework,” Agwa said. After earning his MDiv, “I would have stayed here, but then I thought of people at the margins suffering.”

“Let’s continue the work that may look small, but it’s big,” Agwa said. “May God keep us together and continue the good work.”

After he and his family returned to Minnesota from their trip to Ethiopia, his children — thrilled to be home — kissed the carpet and the refrigerator, exclaiming, “home, sweet home.”

But Agwa had a different take.

“I said, ‘Where is home?’” he said. “I will send you home with this question. May God bless you and be with you, my friends.”