Augustana Lutheran

Augustana Lutheran
Church

Organized 1850
Andover, IL

God's Work

Our Hands

An expression of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America - Northern Illinois Synod

A Commitment To Grow
To the Glory Of God

“Coming Home”

As a kid, my family moved four times before I was in the fourth grade. At that point, we lived in Escanaba, Michigan until I graduated from high school. Then, while I was in college in Ann Arbor, Michigan, my folks moved to Wisconsin. All of this had the end result of leaving me feeling that I really didn’t have a ‘home town.’ My parents’ relatives are scattered between Montana and Michigan and Iowa. As an adult, once I moved to Milwaukee…. I stayed there for 27 years, and yet, I still didn’t feel as if I had a home town.

But, more importantly, I have home congregations! Yes, plural. Immanuel Lutheran in Escanaba where I was confirmed. Nativity Lutheran in Wauwatosa, WI where my children were baptized and my call to ministry was identified. Mt Zion Lutheran in Wauwatosa where I worshipped and served in a variety of ways during seminary. Lake Park Lutheran in Milwaukee where I did my first year of field education; St Luke’s Lutheran in Greendale, WI where I did my internship and the Augustana Chapel at the Lutheran School of Theology where I went to seminary. And, now, Augustana Lutheran in Andover. These churches are all home congregations for me because it was in those faith communities that I worshipped God the Father with my brothers and sisters in Christ. It was in those communities that my faith was nurtured, my spiritual gifts identified and strengthened, and where I encountered people of faith who taught me, encouraged me, loved me, laughed and cried with me and shared their faith with me. Each community equipped me for the ministry that God was calling me to do.

I tell you all of this so that you know that the connections to the faith communities where I have worked and worshipped have proved more important to me than the places I have lived. In Andover, though, for the first time in my life, the place where I live: the lovely parsonage next door, is connected in my heart and soul to the faith community where I now will serve as pastor and where I find you: my sisters and brothers in Christ. God is so very good. This journey has been long, perhaps my whole life, but from the very first time I drove to Andover, I have felt that I was coming home.

Thank you all for the warm welcome, for the sparkling clean parsonage (and food in the refrigerator!), for the many inquiries about our move, our settling in, and for the opportunity to share in your lives lived in faith. I look forward to meeting each one of you and discovering together the new things that God is doing with and through us together.

Pastor Jan Veseth

Publications: [ The Lutheran ] [ Spire ]