Cape Girardeau resident celebrates 50 years in ministry on Sunday

The Rev. David V. Dissen will never forget his brush with death during the Cuban revolution.

A Lutheran seminary student at the time, Dissen was spending his vicarage in Havana from 1958 to 1959. One afternoon Dissen drove past a movie theater and through a stoplight when he heard an explosion. The walls of the structure collapsed only seconds after Dissen passed by.

Other memories of danger included a stewardess from his mission dying in a hijacked plane and government soldiers stopping Dissen numerous times at checkpoints.

"Was I afraid?" Dissen said. "Not particularly. I was in the Lord's hands and doing his work."

Of the 50 years the 75-year-old Cape Girardeau minister has spent in the ministry, Dissen said those 12 months in Cuba were his best. Sunday his friends and family will gather at Zion Lutheran Church in Gordonville to celebrate Dissen's service in Cuba and other parts of the world. The event will include a 10:15 a.m. worship service and a reception from 2 to 4 p.m. for Dissen and his wife, Judy.

Dissen's ministry has included serving as a pastor, chaplain, broadcaster and most recently a college minister.

The son of a pastor, Dissen said entering the ministry was natural. Though he had a chance to pursue careers as a sports writer for the Salt Lake City Tribune or manager of an A&W Root Beer stand upon his 1951 graduation from Burley High School in Idaho, full-time Christian service was a passion for the Garrison, N.D., native.

"My parents used to tell me as a child I used a chair as a pulpit," Dissen said. "There was something that pulled me to the ministry because there is no higher calling than to share God's word and help others realize this life is short. I had a passion to share with others so when they died they'd be in heaven."

After graduating from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis in 1959, Dissen began his ministry by serving a dual pastorate in Colorado. Dissen would serve as pastor of churches in Wisconsin, Illinois and Florida before moving to Cape Girardeau in 1981, his last full-time position in the ministry.

In his 18 years in Cape Girardeau, Dissen has been a chaplain for the Cape Girardeau police and fire departments, a longtime member of Downtown Rotary International, vacancy pastor of many congregations and creator of Trinity Lutheran Church's television ministry "Living Hope" that began in 1983 and continues to this day.

For the last 10 years Dissen has served as vacancy pastor of the Lutheran Chapel of Hope on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University. While Dissen said he's old enough to be their grandfather, the age difference has not been a barrier. He feels the student ministry keeps him young at heart.

"Campus ministry is not age-specific," Dissen said. "When I first was asked to do this I was told it's if you can relate to students and they can relate to you. Once I started, I found that we were relating."

Whether the Southeast student ministry is his final stop or another position awaits in the future, Dissen said he'll continue touching lives for Christ in Southeast Missouri and beyond.

"I've had no regrets," Dissen said. "It's been a wonderful 50 years."

bblackwell@semissourian.com

388-3628

Pertinent address:

176 County Road 226, Gordonville, MO