Every other month we get an update on what’s been happening recently at our Immanuel Lutheran High School, College and Seminary in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
The start of school at Immanuel every fall is exciting, in part, because of all the new students we are privileged to welcome to campus and get to know throughout the year. This fall, though, we are also very happy to welcome our new dorm supervisors. Jaqi Bredehoft is the girls’ dorm supervisor, and Henry Lau is the boys’ dorm supervisor. (For information about our new professor, Matthew Thurow, see the July 2024 Lutheran Spokesman).
Jaqi is certainly familiar with dorm life at Immanuel. She is from Mukonago, Wisconsin, and lived in the girls’ dorm herself while attending high school at Immanuel Lutheran. After high school, she moved to the Twin Cities. She met her husband Jake while both were working full-time as IT technicians for the National Guard in St. Paul. Jake, originally from Wabasha, Minnesota, started joining Jaqi in church almost immediately after they and met. He became an active member at Berea Lutheran Church in Inver Grove Heights after completing instructional classes. Jaqi has since taken classes for several years in art and design. Jake earned a BS in management information systems from Winona State, and an MS in cybersecurity from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. For fun, they love to camp and hike and enjoy board games and reading. Jaqi and Jake will be joined by their one-year-old daughter Charlotte (Charlie). They are both excited to come to ILC to make a difference in our students’ lives and to positively impact the culture here. Having lived in the dorm herself, Jaqi will be able to support students from a place of empathy and understanding, and she looks forward to being a help in providing them with a sense of family and home when they need it most.
Henry is from Eau Claire and attended high school at Immanuel for his junior and senior years. He returned to Immanuel for college and graduated with a BA in Pre-Theology. He then enrolled in the Chippewa Valley Technical College truck driving program and received a commercial driver’s license (CDL). After earning his CDL, Henry worked as a school bus driver for Student Transit. Since 2023, he has worked as a semi-truck driver for Indianhead Foodservice Distributor. He has also taught Sunday School at Messiah Lutheran in Eau Claire and volunteered at God’s Kids Bible Camp. Henry enjoys playing and writing piano music and hymns, studying the Bible, hiking, canoeing, outdoor adventures, and playing disc golf, basketball, and various other sports. He is excited to be back on campus and looks forward to the daily opportunities to hear God’s Word with others in chapel services and also to be able to share that Word with others during evening chapels and through daily interactions. Henry also looks forward to working alongside his mother Jessica, who works in the General Business Office on campus, and his brother Brett, who is a maintenance worker at ILC.
One of the most important roles on our campus is that of dorm supervisor. Jaqi and Henry will be interacting with our students on a daily basis, providing them with spiritual comfort and direction. It is truly a blessing to be able to find such dedicated, caring, and gifted Christians who are willing to serve the Lord by devoting their time and talents to nurturing and educating our students. “Serve one another, each according to the gift he has received, as good stewards of the many forms of God’s grace. . . . If anyone serves, let him do it as one serving with the strength God supplies so that God may be glorified in every way through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.” (I Peter 4:10-11 EHV)
is President of Immanuel Lutheran College in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
