By Town Crier Staff Report

The Los Altos Lutheran Church officially welcomed new pastor David Bonde during a Sunday installation service. The move to Los Altos Lutheran marks a homecoming for Bonde, 49, a Peninsula native, who is back after more than 20 years in Michigan.

“I’m very pleased to be back in the area,” said Bonde, who began serving Los Altos Lutheran on Palm Sunday four weeks ago. “This is a very warm and hospitable congregation. I feel very at home here. It’s nice to be back in the California climate and close to my family.”

Bonde spent nearly eight years as pastor of an inner-city church in Detroit. Most recently, he was pastor of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Westland, Mich., for 12 years.

“It’s an interesting contrast coming from the Detroit area,” said Bonde, who co-developed a program for substance abuse intervention in inner-city Detroit.

Bonde graduated from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., in 1974 and Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., in 1978. He was ordained at Grace Lutheran Church in Palo Alto that same year.

“My goal is to help on the word of God, but God always speaks to us in our context. The way the message is articulated in Detroit will be different over here. What are the fears, hopes, sorrows and challenges of that community? You just have to listen.”

Bonde also hopes to build the membership of the congregation.

His daughter Megan is a freshman at the University of Michigan. His other daughter, Anna, was one of three St. Olaf students killed by a drunk driver in Springfield, Ill. March 17, 2001.

“There are no words to describe the wound of burying a child,” Bonde said. “But I am always amazed at the power of God to bring something new and unexpected out of life’s sorrows.”

Los Altos Lutheran Church is located at 460 S. El Monte Ave., Los Altos. Founded in 1956, Los Altos Lutheran Church is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). For more information, logon to www.losaltoslutheran.org.