Opportunity is a funny thing. Doors can open at any time in life, leading us on unexpected journeys and linking spheres in our lives we always kept separate.

Dana Heckman-Beil knows firsthand the power of opportunity and the importance of following your dreams. From business student to ordained minister, Ms. Heckman-Beil has followed her heart and found herself living out her dreams.

Like many adult students, Dana was working full-time when she began taking classes at Lehigh Carbon Community College. Always an active member of her Lutheran congregation, Dana decided to return to school and earn her degree so she could become an associate in ministry. She earned an associate’s degree at LCCC and started taking classes at Muhlenberg College soon thereafter.

Although Muhlenberg’s Lutheran heritage was an attraction for Dana, she was sold on the college when she received a warm welcome from the staff. “Muhlenberg was a place that, as an adult student, you felt safe and that people cared about you academically, personally and professionally. Anybody in the office would sit down with you to go over your classes at any time. The location and flexible class times were great. I felt called to Muhlenberg.”

Dana soon realized that God was calling her to service as an ordained minister. With a definite goal in her sights, and at least another four years of seminary ahead of her, Dana left her job as assistant to the vice president at Lutheran Services Northeast and started attending classes full-time. She pursued her studies with the same zeal she exhibits in the rest of her life. By December of 1999, she had completed the coursework needed for a business degree.

Throughout this time, she was meeting with candidacy staff of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod to discuss her desire to become a candidate for ordained ministry. She completed the process and was approved as a candidate for ordained ministry. In 1998, she also met her future husband, David. They were married in the summer of 1999, while Dana was attending Muhlenberg full-time.

After graduating from Muhlenberg, Dana and David moved to Columbia, S.C., so Dana could attend the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary. Soon after arriving Dana learned she was pregnant. In January 2001, daughter Emily Sue was born and started her life as the “dorm baby” of the seminary. Emily attended classes with Dana that spring. “Every one of my classmates changed at least one diaper,” noted Dana.

Dana, who grew up in Lehighton, has been called to Good Shepherd Lutheran in Ashland, Pa. She will realize her dream to become an ordained minister on August 8 at the synodical Ordination Service to be held at Faith Lutheran Church, Whitehall, at 4:00 p.m.

(Excerpted from the newsletter of the Wescoe School of Muhlenberg College. Used by permission.)