自由之旅

Getting Access To Books Was A Big Deal, And When I Got A Book, I Lost Myself In It. Even Then I Knew Something Was Wrong With The World. My Mom Was Sick And My 父母 Struggled With Daily Life, So I Lost Myself In Books.

英语 Professor Camelia Raghinaru found scholastic and spiritual freedom at Concordia after being born and raised in Communist Romania.

“我有一个快乐的童年, but looking back I realize how hard it was for my parents,这位罗马尼亚出生的亚洲体育博彩平台说. “有停电, 日日夜夜没有电, 没有热水——像这样的基本必需品.”

Her parents left their rural villages to work in factories in the city. Austere, communist-style buildings offered no hot water, and food was lacking at times.

“作为孩子，我们不知道什么是更好的. We were just happy to live the city life during the school year and village life during the summer,Raghinaru说. “这是历史上失落的一段时间, but I’m so glad I had the opportunity to see that because it gives me a perspective on life. 对我来说最重要的是, 我经常想到这个问题, is I realized that material goods and possessions are nice and comforting, 但它们并不重要. 生活中还有很多事情要做. 你能忍受这么少的东西. If you have more it’s nice, but it’s not necessary.”

In sometimes-harsh living conditions, books breathed life into Raghinaru’s imagination.

“Getting access to books was a big deal, and when I got a book, I lost myself in it,” 她说. “Even then I knew something was wrong with the world. My mom was sick and my parents struggled with daily life, so I lost myself in books.”

Her mother — a peasant who became a nurse — developed breast cancer and died before seeing the end of communism. She had raised her children in the underground church, where the church leaders suffered persecution from the authorities, 牧师因病在监狱里去世了. 拉吉纳鲁很小的时候就听了福音, but because church leaders were separated from training and mentorship, their brand of Christianity was sometimes rigid and legalistic.

“That’s how they understood it, very black and white, do’s and don’ts,” 她说. “I had to work through that part of my theology emotionally and spiritually.”

In 1989, Raghinaru 13岁的时候, 戏剧性的历史事件展开了, including the summary trial and execution of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu and his wife.

“The thing I remember most vividly was being in bed at night and hearing gunshots outside,” 她说. “没人知道发生了什么. The revolutionaries had stormed the TV stations and took over and reported what was happening in the streets, 但不清楚是谁在向谁开枪.”

武装部队分裂成几个派系, but one thing was certain: communism was over and the wall to the West had come down. Gone were the days of having to hide a radio in the closet to listen to the Voice of America program. Gone were days of missionaries smuggling Bibles and hymnals into the country. Now western popular culture rushed in so fast that it disoriented many.

“I remember MTV which was so confusing for us,Raghinaru说. “Western entertainment came in like a wave — movies, TV, things we weren’t used to. 从无到有. 作为一个十几岁的孩子，我必须解决这个问题.” 

蒙神的恩典, 她说, 传教士来到这里提供更深入的教导, 医疗队, and teams of American college students to put on campus in the former Eastern bloc. Raghinaru spent summers interpreting for American missionaries, and the church she attended grew.

“That’s where my formative years begin, with this sense of admiration for America,” 她说. “他们涌向我们. 我们都很年轻. It extended to me a sense of freedom; there was more to Christianity than I grew up with.”

She soon earned her BA in 英语 language and literature at University of Transylvania, 在美丽的, mountainous region that provided the setting for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. (Raghinaru still takes her children there every summer so they can experience how she grew up.)

然后她来到了位于西西的哈丁大学, 阿肯色州, as an international student and earned a master’s degree in 英语 education. She later earned a second master’s degree at the University of Central 阿肯色州.

“南方是来美国的好地方.S. because the people are so warm and friendly,” 她说. “这是不同的文化. 一切都慢了下来.”

Next she moved to Florida — whose warm climate felt like “heaven” — to get a PhD at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Her first son was born while she was writing her dissertation on British and American modernism, 关注像弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫这样的作家, D.H. 劳伦斯，詹姆斯·乔伊斯和约瑟夫·康拉德.

这个关于职业的想法真的打动了我...I Can Be A Mother And A Professor And Do My Research And It's All Part Of My Vocation.

Seven years later, she accepted a job 在欧文的康考迪亚大学.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be in California,” 她说. “I was really impressed with Concordia because it had such an intimate feel. This idea of vocation really spoke to me, that what we’re doing is not a job, it’s a vocation. It has allowed me to pour myself into it with a different mindset. I can be a mother and a professor and do my research and it’s all part of my vocation. 这不仅仅是一份工作.”

在更深层次上, she found greater spiritual freedom through the Lutheran conception of the gospel presented in the Vision, 部, Vocation programs Concordia holds for new faculty.