April 28, 2001

Dear Members of Trinity Lutheran Church,

It has been three days since I heard my name called out as the next vicar of Trinity Lutheran Church in Gillette, Wyoming. Being that the smallest city I’ve ever lived in has had a metropolitan area of 3.5 million people, it took a little time to get over the shock. But now that I’ve had a little time to think through this great milestone in my life, I thought I would sit down and write a little bit about myself.

I grew up in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. This is significant because over the course of next year you will see that I still wear my state pride. I mean this literally, as about half of my shirts have some logo from a Michigan sports team on them. I was the youngest in my family by four minutes. Along with having a slightly older twin brother, I have a brother who is three years older than I am. They both still live in the town we grew up in, near my mom who works as an Insurance Claims Agent. My father passed away while I was a freshman in college. I spent most of my time as a kid playing sports with friends in the neighborhood. As I got to high school sports were still my main area of focus and I earned a number of varsity letters in football, wrestling and lacrosse.

Upon graduation from high school in May of 1993 I enrolled at Concordia University in River Forest, Illinois. Initially I went there to play football, but the Lord had many other plans for me during my four years there. You see, I am not a life-long Lutheran. However, through the friends I made and the loving witness they shared of Christ my faith was cultivated and strengthened. It was a great four years of discovery and learning, both in and out of the classroom. My interest in sports waned a little, and I enjoyed other activities such as drama and youth ministry. The city of Chicago also provided many opportunities for culture and entertainment. I still keep in close contact with many of the friends I made there.

Sadly, college came to an end in May of 1997. It was time to grow up. Luckily for me I didn’t have to go too far to do so. I ended up with a job in the Admissions Office at Concordia. This was a great job for me as I got to utilize my degree in communications and travel to other states and recruit high school students to come to the University. It was also a bonus to be close, because the girl who would become my wife still had two years of school left. Gail and I were married a few months after her graduation, on August 14, 1999. This provided a great transition time for me. I had been thinking about the Seminary for a while, and I knew with the added support of Gail it was a decision I could take a leap of faith on. So a week after our wedding we packed up the U-Haul and headed to St. Louis, Missouri.

Our time in St. Louis has moved extremely quick. Gail has been busy with her job as a Program Manager for Judevine Center for Autism. She supports adults with developmental disabilities. She hopes to find a job in Gillette in another form of the social service field. I have been busy with a heavy work-load of classes. The great professors here have taught me much. My field work church in the inner-city of St. Louis has also kept us busy. I have gained quite a bit of experience working with youth and the under privileged. The last few months were also exciting as the buzz about our placement service gained steam.

So that brings us to the present. In a year I will be able to add another paragraph or two to this biography. I’m not sure what it will say but I hope that it will mention how you have been a blessing to me and my formation for the ministry. I pray that it mentions some of the great opportunities I was given to learn and serve. And most of all I hope it says that a city guy like myself moved all the way out to Wyoming and became friends in Christ with some of the nicest people he’s ever come across.

God bless you until I can start writing the next chapter of my life. I will be praying for you, and hope you do the same for me and Gail.

In Christ,

Mark Milatz