St John's Lutheran - Pastor's Corner

God's Gracious Direction in the Life of

Pastor Wayne. A. Laitinen
	Pastor Wayne Laitinen was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on January 16, 1952. He was baptized on March 30th of the same year. He attended public schools with the exception of his senior year of high school, when he attended Michigan Lutheran Seminary in Saginaw, Michigan. He graduated from Northwestern College in 1975. As part of his seminary training Pastor Laitinen spent his vicar year at St. John's, Bay City, Michigan. Upon graduation from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in 1979 he was assigned to Arlington Avenue Lutheran Church in Toledo, Ohio. In 1989 he accepted a call to Palos Lutheran Church in a southwest suburb of Chicago. From 1992 until 2001 he served Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Pastor Laitinen has served St. John's since July of 2001. Pastor Laitinen was married to Carol Hartwig on July 18, 1978 at St. John's, New Ulm. The Lord has blessed their marriage with four children. Jeremy is enrolled at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary; Rebekah, a senior in the educational ministries program at Martin Luther College; Daniel, who is in his second year of pre-ministerial training at Martin Luther College; and Anna who is an eighth grader at St. Paul's Lutheran School in New Ulm.

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Pastor Jeffrey A. Bovee
	Pastor Bovee was born in Saginaw, Michigan - number four of eight children. After high school he attended a community college in Michigan where he studied art for two years. He worked as a sign painter, t-shirt designer, and a silk screener, besides doing other freelance art projects, and also was a chauffeur for the Silver Lady Limousine Service in Saginaw before deciding to study for the ministry. He entered the WELS seminary certification program at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, Minnesota (formerly known as the Bethany or Meq-Beth program). He attended Bethany for three years, and then went on to Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in Mequon, Wisconsin. His vicar year was spent at Sola Fide Lutheran Church in Lawrenceville, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta). Upon graduation from WLS in 1990, he married Valerie Borcherding, who was the bookstore manager at Bethany Lutheran College. The two of them made their first home in Menomonie, Wisconsin where Pastor Bovee received his first call to St. Paul's Lutheran Church. They remained there from 1990-1994, until Pastor Bovee took the call to St. John's Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota, and became the first ever associate pastor at St. John's. The Bovees will have been in New Ulm for eleven years (as of June 2005). They have three children, all of whom were born to them in Minnesota during the time Pastor Bovee has served as pastor in New Ulm.

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This page was last updated on Friday July 27, 2007
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