Shana currently lives in Moorhead, MN, with her family. She is on staff as the Children’s Ministry Director at Triumph LBC in West Fargo, ND. Her husband, Andy, is a software engineer. They have three children: Hannah (senior), Noah (freshman), Joshua (7th grade). She originally got her BA in Elementary Education from Arizona State University and was a school teacher for three years until her first child was born. Initially, she was mostly a stay-at-home homeschooling mom, but now she works at church while her kids attend a local private school. They stay busy with church, school, and family activities. She will begin taking a class a semester working toward the CTS degree to better support the ministry spheres she is called to: church, family, school, and relationships.
Lukas, his wife Taegan, and daughter Millie live in Fergus Falls, MN. Lukas is currently working toward his undergrad, taking online courses at Charter Oak State College in Connecticut. He will continue there while attending classes in-person at the seminary. He has spent most of his young adult life working at the New Life Center in Fargo, ND, in various roles but mostly as a case manager for homeless men. Now that they live in Fergus Falls, he is working from home for Pure Water North. Taegan and Lukas enjoy spending time at one of the many lakes around Fergus Falls, camping, walking around the park near their home, and pretty much most things that get them outside of the house. He is excited to get started toward his DCM this fall and to dive into Scripture in a way he has not done before. This semester he will be learning how to juggle being a good husband/father, a student (at two different institutions), and working full-time.
Caleb is from a small city in the Central Valley of California, known for hot, dry summers, miles of almond orchards, dairy ranches, vineyards as far as the eye can see, and also as the home town of George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars. After high school, he joined the U.S. Marines, serving a five-year contract, during which time, he traveled as far as West Texas, and spent the remainder of his service in different parts of California (which he found to be quite anticlimactic at the time). Feeling the desire to see more of the world than he was able to during his time in the Marines, he decided to begin working toward a career as an international English teacher. Caleb studied Linguistics at UCLA, and later TESOL (ESL teaching) at UPenn, taking advantage of the required moves to undertake two cross-country road trips, allowing him to visit around 30 of the states in―as Caleb puts it―“this beautiful land God has blessed us with.” Later, his pursuits brought him to his current country of residence: Taiwan. From there, he travels back once or twice a year to spend time with his mother and two younger sisters in California.
Caleb is a self-described “language nerd,” in that he is fascinated by languages, and has spent much of his life studying and exploring them, whether the language is modern or historical, widely spoken or only in small communities, or perhaps even artificial languages such as those created by the most famous linguist (philologist) of modern history, J. R. R. Tolkien, for his Lord of the Rings series. He has studied dozens of languages to varying degrees and has been at least conversant in seven, the latest being Mandarin-Chinese, which he’s found to be the most challenging of the languages he’s seriously wrestled with (e.g. Arabic and Russian).
Grant and his family live and work in Eau Claire, WI. He has attended a number of schools and has successfully navigated all of them without actually getting a degree. He is a firefighter and paramedic for the City of Eau Claire. He and his wife are high school sweethearts and have been married for 14 years. They have four children, aged six and under, with their youngest at eight months. Grant claims to have “practically no hobbies,” but if he’s not working for the city, he says he mostly enjoys working with chainsaws and operating equipment. He’s excited to embark on this journey and engage in seminary.
Cherise lives in Watford City, ND, where her husband, Nate, serves as the Pastor at Living Faith Church. They have seven children and three dogs. Cherise is a Registered Nurse and graduated from M-State in Fergus Falls in 2023. She also has an Associate of Liberal Arts degree. She has worked in healthcare for almost 20 years, beginning as a CNA after high school, then becoming an LPN a few years later. Currently, Cherise works for a Christian company based in the Twin Cities, providing after hours triage nursing services to assisted living communities.
In addition to nursing, she serves on the Board of the Bakken Christian Homeschool Foundation, which supports several homeschool co-ops in her community. When she’s not working or homeschooling, Cherise says she “enjoys studying how God’s creation can be used for healing and sharing that knowledge through my small business, Northern Plains Naturals.” She also loves reading, especially fantasy, and can often be found escaping into a good book.
She has enrolled in seminary with a desire to better serve her family, church, and community.
Alexander is a father and husband from Ottawa, IL. He has only done some community college and has worked as a truck driver for the last 11 years. He claims that if his wife and daughter had their way, they would have two zoos worth of animals! He also says they tend to be a lot more “nerdy” than most other families and actively participate in video games, to TTRPGs, to anime, and will likely talk your ear off if given the chance. Alexander is a woodworking enthusiast and has been blessed to get to build all of their furniture. They are aiming to become missionaries in the near future, so in order to be best equipped, Alexander and his family have moved to Fergus Falls so he can take courses in-person.
Wade lives in DeWitt, IA, with his wife, Ellen, and their two kids, Walter and Elaine. They also have a young puppy named Kevin.
He and his wife met at the University of Northern Iowa, where he graduated with a B.S. in Industrial Engineering, while his wife earned her master’s degree in Speech Therapy. He’s had an exciting career as an engineer for the past 12 years, working in both the agriculture and defense industries. Wade has always enjoyed creating things and learning new technologies and engineering strategies to bring ideas to life.
He grew up on a small acreage in northwest Iowa where he spent much of his time outdoors and in his dad’s shop. You can almost always find him outside doing something! From bike riding to gardening, he enjoys just about anything that gets him outdoors, and he especially loves when his family can be involved, too.
Wade is taking courses this fall as he begins to pursue the call to pastoral ministry, a call he’s felt since he was a child. He’s excited to learn, grow in his faith, and discern where God is leading him as he pursues becoming a pastor.