Want to meet the person who may be your next pastor or Christian day school teacher? This series profiles the men and women who are in their final year of preparation for the public teaching or preaching ministry at our Immanuel Lutheran College and Seminary in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Age: 21
Program: Education
Year in School: Senior
Where were you born? I was born in Lewiston, Idaho, but my home was in Clarkston, Washington.
Where did you grow up? I moved from Clarkston to Markesan, Wisconsin, and I lived there until I was fourteen years old, when I moved to Watertown, South Dakota.
Married? Unmarried? Tell us about your family. I am not married. My parents are Pastor Paul Krause and Teacher Collette Krause who both serve at Trinity Lutheran Church in Watertown. I am the youngest of five children and I have two older sisters and two older brothers. Alyssa, Dwight, Nathaniel, and Rebecca. My siblings are spread out in our country with my sister Alyssa living in California, Dwight living in South Dakota, and Rebecca living in Omaha, Nebraska
What hobbies, sports or extracurriculars interest you? Some of my favorite things to do are bowling, tennis, volleyball, football, and basketball. I have always enjoyed playing piano and I have been playing ever since I was five or six years old.
Tell us one thing about yourself that most people don’t know. I am able to write calligraphy quite well. I’m not the most artistic person in the world, so not many people know that I can do this.
Which academic subjects especially interest you? A few of my favorite subjects are astronomy, history, geography, choir, and mathematics.
How did you first come to consider the public teaching or preaching ministry as a career? My senior year of high school, I heard a chapel given by seminary student Drew Naumann and he was talking about using our God-given gifts and talents and how we can always use more pastors and teachers. I looked at my strengths and I found that I had enough gifts that were necessary to become a teacher. The first two years of the teaching program were tough for me because I had to work through the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. When I got to junior year of college here at Immanuel, I knew I had made the right decision, and I am very thankful that God moved me through Drew Naumann’s chapel.
What have you appreciated most about your time at ILC? I am very appreciative of the people I have met and become friends with, I’m thankful for the professors who have guided me through tough times in my life, and I am extremely grateful to be surrounded by God’s Word each and every day. That is going to help me a lot when I’m a teacher, because some children might not hear the Word of God much when they aren’t in school. I want them to have the same experience being surrounded by God’s Word that I was blessed to have in these eight years at Immanuel.
What qualities do you think will most be needed by the future leaders of the church? There are a few qualities that I think are very important to be a leader. You need to be very grounded in the truth of God’s holy Word. You have to be kind and compassionate but also firm when tough times arise. God should always be number one in whatever you do. I think 1 Timothy 3:2,7 puts it quite well, “A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, apt to teach. . . . Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.”