New Members: Nancy & Leif Jensen

Welcome to New Journey, Nancy and Leif (pronounced Layf)!

We’re delighted to welcome Nancy and Leif to the New Journey Lutheran Church community. After careers that took them across the country—from Dallas to Atlanta to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and back to Dallas—they retired in 2023 and made Fountain Hills their home. Summers often find them back in Montana at Leif’s boyhood home.

Leif grew up in a rural Lutheran church in Montana and later pursued a career in commercial real estate after law school. Nancy, originally from St. Louis, was raised Roman Catholic and found the ELCA church to be a comfortable and natural fit. Like many, they stepped away from church life during COVID, but Nancy began visiting churches again and quickly felt at home at New Journey.

Nancy and Leif have three adult children—two daughters and a son—and are enjoying this season of retirement. Leif stays active as a docent at the River of Time Museum and the Spirit of the Desert Museum in Old Town Scottsdale.

Nancy is a retired psychotherapist and brings a wealth of experience in helping people navigate emotional and relational challenges. She will be leading a new discussion group, starting at New Journey Lutheran Church on Wednesday, February 4. This weekly group is offered from 10:30-11:30 a.m. and will be available for eight weeks.

The group is called, Coping with Chaos: Managing Difficult Discussions. The purpose of the group is to help participants learn to interact as positively as possible with friends, family, neighbors and others who are on the other side of the political divide. This is not a support group or a replacement for therapy.