Articles

Missionary Support Code: 3021334

Michelle S. Dromgold is a mission intern with the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church, serving initially with the Evangelisch-methodistische Salem-Gemeinde Neukölln, Kindertreff Delbrücke (Kindertreff) in Berlin, Germany.

Mission interns serve half of their three-year terms in international assignments and half in their home countries. Michelle was commissioned in August 2011.

The Delbrücke children's program of the Salem Methodist Church was set up in 2001 to reach young people in the neighborhood around the church on Delbrücke Street in Neukölln, a district of Berlin. Interfaith in outreach, the work seeks to foster peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims. Michelle, who speaks both German and Turkish, works with students, mostly from poor families, who need tutoring and assistance with the building of social skills. The program welcomes immigrants and promotes community solidarity.

Michelle hails from Rochester, New York, where she grew up in a Lutheran home. She came into the United Methodist orbit while studying at American University, Washington, DC, and became involved in the Dumbarton United Methodist Church, where she is now a member.

A Fulbright student scholar (in Germany) in academic 2010–2011, she received Bachelor of Arts degrees in both international studies and German/Europe area studies from American University in 2010. Michelle was an intern at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies in 2010 and worked with the American Friends of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 2009.

Actively involved in a Lutheran congregation in her childhood and high school years, Michelle says she "found a home" in the United Methodist Campus Ministry at American University and in Dumbarton Church. In college her sense of the importance of social justice combined with "a growing desire to understand the broader role of the church and Christians within a multifaith and multicultural society," a goal enhanced by the time in Germany as a Fulbright student scholar.

Michelle celebrates her "God-given gifts of learning languages, working with children and youth, teaching, sharing the joys of music, and bridging peoples of different cultures, and backgrounds." In response, she wants to use her gifts to work with persons of "all faiths, races, sexual orientations, nationalities, and abilities" to create a society of respect, dignity, and love.

Read More