Korra Looschen A.I.M.
Youth Director

Creston Nebraska, population of 200, was her home place until attending high school.  Then she moved to the Big City of Columbus, NE, which was about 100 times more populous.  Involved in Luther League and a cheerleader for the high school, Korra also found time to work.  Sometimes she bussed tables.  Other times she was a cashier for a local grocery store.  Before either, Korra was a papergirl.

Korra, as a child and growing teenager, was immersed in the church.  To her, it was family.  Her parents divorced when she was 12, so the benefits of that extended family wrapped her in a love that enabled her to face the trauma.

Entering the University of Nebraska at Kearney, Korra majored in tourism with a marketing minor.  One summer she interned at a Minnesota youth camp as Director of Transportation, because they had kids coming from all over the States and abroad.  Another year, she interned at Disney World in Florida.  Inevitably, the college graduate decided to go West, and wound up with her grandmother in Scottsdale.

One day, the grandmother asked if she'd like to go to a baptism party, and that's where she met Cliff.  Cliff's nephew was the infant being baptized.  That was in October, 1993, and "attraction at first sight" turned the individuals into a pair.  By May, 1996, they were wed.

While living in Scottsdale, she attended Ascension Lutheran.  They needed someone to accompany their teens to a California event.  Korra applied, was accepted, and loved the experience so much she wanted to know what it would take to become a youth director.  "It was the coolest thing," she said.

The word got passed around that Korra was available and Pastor Pike was not one to let that word fall on deaf ears.  That was just before she and Cliff were to be married, and immediately after their honeymoon, the arrangements were worked out.  Cliff gave up his job and the pair scooted to Sierra Vista.....where neither had ever visited before.

Why be a youth director?  "It's something I feel strongly about," says the lithe mother of 4-year-old Carson.  "I know how the church comforted me, and I want others to know that too," she added.

For eleven years Korra has been the congregation's youth director.  What Pastor Pike said at a Back Pack Sunday event......that she's the reason for the growth of the Wednesday evening confirmation program, Good News Bearers and Sunday youth program......is an accolade that others rejoice in and celebrate.