Alan Baglien:  

Life I was born in Hillsboro, Oregon, on July 14th, 1956, the fourth of 6 children. I remember little of Hillsboro. My father was a home mission pastor, and as a result we moved a lot. Once Dad established a mission we would move. Kindergarten and first grade were spent in Pocatello, Idaho. We moved then to Pennsylvania, where Dad worked in the national office of the old Lutheran Church in America (LCA) for two years. My most formative years were spent in Bozeman Montana, my heart’s home, where I spent from 4th Grade to my sophomore year in High School. There I learned to hunt, fish, and camp, climb, and discovered my love for the Lutheran Church. The summers at Bible Camp outside Livingston, Montana still stand out in my mind. High School was finished at East Anchorage High (a school of over 3,000). My father moved to Anchorage to take over a failing mission congregation. I hated school in Alaska, and thanks to superior education in Bozeman, graduated in February, mid way through my senior year, working full-time at F. W. Woolworth’s in downtown Anchorage. I hated school, but loved Alaska, where I enjoyed hiking and canoeing, and a deeper love for the church. Luther League (our church youth group) was my lifeline to sanity. I chose to go to Midland Lutheran College. I went to Midland to get an education and to find a wife. I was successful on both counts. I started with a religion and philosophy major as I knew I was going on to seminary, but on the advice of my advisor, took up an education major to compliment my ministry as a pastor after seminary. It was one of the smarter things I have done. My first year at college, I met my wife, Charlene (Char), and we and that year pretty well figured out we would be getting married when we finished school, and did so in December our senior year. We were married December 30th, 1977. Char and I worked a year after college to help pay off debts and prepare for seminary. She worked at a coun...Expand for more