By Harold Reutter
harold.reutter@theindependent.com

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Independent/Barrett Stinson During a break from dodge ball and other activities on a Wednesday youth night at Peace Lutheran Church in Grand Island, Carl Eliason, director of Christian education, provides a devotional period of worship. Once a professional opera singer, Eliason found his passion for working with kids later in life. Independent/Barrett Stinson Not only can he teach The Word, but Carl Eliason, director of Christian education at Peace Lutheran Church, can hurl a mean dodge ball as well. Click Thumbnails to View

That's how Carl Eliason, director of Christian education at Peace Lutheran Church, describes the winding path that took him to Grand Island.

Eliason is a native of Rapid City, S.D., who went on to attend Concordia College in Moorehead, Minn., where he studied to be a high school choir director.

But that was the first turn in his path.

During his junior year, he began singing opera, discovering that it was "just beautiful musical theater in a foreign language. I used to think it was a fat lady in a Viking helmet singing."

During his senior year, Eliason got a different voice teacher because his regular voice coach took a sabbatical. That person encouraged him to go to graduate school.

As a result, Eliason went to Wichita State University as a graduate assistant, majoring in opera performance.

"I was making a living as a professional singer," he said.

That continued after graduation, with Eliason singing as a tenor for three years with the National Opera Co. of Raleigh, N.C., for three years and singing with the Cincinnati Opera for a year.

"We went all over the country," said Eliason, who noted he also sang with a number of smaller, regional opera companies.

Eliason's next bend in the road came when he decided to begin selling insurance for AAL, Aid Association for Lutherans. He thought insurance sales would be his day job and opera his night job. He quickly discovered most of insurance calls were in the evening.

However, working for AAL meant Eliason took on more of a leadership role in his church, where he began working with youth and teaching classes.

As much as he loved opera, he discovered working with young people was his real passion.

"Kids are always full of questions," Eliason said. "They like to figure things out. They're trying to figure out who they are. They try on different personas all the time."

Eliason said he likes trying to help young people find answers or if not answers, at least point them in the right direction. He noted it is hard to provide all the answers because "God is a mystery."

But he hopes the work he does with young people now will help them find themselves in a good place later in life.

To prepare himself for that work, Eliason returned to school at Concordia College, now Concordia University, in Seward to get a degree in Christian education. He was 30 years old at the time.

He spent his first four and a half years following school working in Wichita, Kan., followed by eight and a half years at Elk River, Minn.

He's been in Grand Island since last July. He answered the call from the Peace Lutheran Church, noting that he really had two calls at that point.

The first call was to the church where he was and the second was to Peace Lutheran. He needed to decide whether to answer the call to stay or the call to come to Peace Lutheran.

Prayer was involved in making his decision, but he noted that he got to attend a performance of "Thoroughly Modern Millie," which allowed him to see the support the community gave to the fine arts.

He soon learned that the support was not just at Northwest, but at all the schools in the community.

Since coming to Grand Island, Eliason has participated in Voices of the Island, a program where adults in the community come to school and rehearse the Chamber Singers, and also sing with them during public performances.

Jesse LaBrie, choral music director at Grand Island Senior High, said Eliason has made a big impression on his students.

"All the adults make an impression on students because they have more mature voices," LaBrie said.

But in terms of sheer talent, LaBrie said, he has heard students talk about how much fun it is to sing with a person who has a true operatic voice. LaBrie said there is another reason students like Eliason.

"He's a genuinely nice person," he said.

Eliason said he would like to do something similar with students at Northwest and has talked to "Shack" (David Sackchewsky) about the possibility.

He also was attracted by the position Peace Lutheran Church is in. The church is growing and Eliason said the church will be working with a consultant to see "if we should expand, if we should birth a new church or pick up everything and move to a another site."

As for Eliason, he feels he had lots of other training to go into his youth ministry work in addition to his formal education.

As a high school student, Eliason, said he learned how to build houses from his father, who was a homebuilder. And while he was a high school student and college student, he also learned to cook while working in a kitchen hospital.

"I started out as a dishwasher," Eliason said.

He noted his housebuilding skills come in handy when going on mission trips while cooking skills are useful for things such as the youth Easter breakfast or the youth Lenten soup supper.

Singing, of course, happens a lot in church and when working with youth groups. But Eliason said he likes being part of Voices of the Island because it lets him see some of the students in his youth group in a different setting at school with their friends.

That's why he'd like to do something similar at Northwest.

But he won't be able to do that with all the students who attend Peace Lutheran.

"We have kids from Cairo, Wood River, Aurora, St. Paul and Heartland Lutheran," he said.

Not even a 30-year training plan could get him into that many schools.