It is good to be at Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Charles, MN! I want to share a little information with you about my family and me.

I grew up in Mahnomen, MN, and was a member of the First Lutheran Church. Mahnomen is on the White Earth Indian Reservation, and at the time, our sports teams were called the Mahnomen "Indians." Upon graduation, I went to the University of Minnesota, Crookston, to play basketball and get an education. It was a two-year college in which I transferred to Concordia College, Moorhead, MN. I graduated from Concordia with a Hospital Business Administration Degree and a minor in Religious Studies. I met my girlfriend, Faith (who eventually became my wife) at Concordia College. Her Major was Physical Education.

She was happy that I was not a pastor because she grew up as a pastor's kid and did not want to be a pastor's wife.

After years of working in the "real world" after college, we enrolled in school again, earning my Master of Divinity --- I could be a pastor. And my wife acquired her Master's in Special Education. During this time, we were members of Calvary Lutheran Church in Golden Valley, MN --- over 7000 members. My first call sent me to Abercrombie/Galchutt, North Dakota, and I served three congregations (Emmanuel, Galchutt, and St. John's Lutheran). I joined the Minnesota Army National Guard as a chaplain and deployed to fight the Red River Valley flood in 1997. After three years of serving these congregations, Immanuel-Trinity Lutheran in Fond du Lac, WI, called me to serve as their pastor. In 2003, I was deployed to Iraq and served in a Combat Medical Hospital and an Aviation Battalion. I was able to see the country and the effect of war on people ( if you are interested in viewing what the experience is like, Rent the documentary "Apache Warrior" on Netflix. In 2007, I accepted the call to work as the full-time State Support Chaplain for the Wisconsin Army and Air National Guard. During my career, I have deployed to other places: Nicaragua, Egypt, Canada, South Korea, COVID-19, and several Civil Unrest occasions in Wisconsin. In 2014, a group of people decided to form a mission congregation in Fond du Lac called "Holy Cross Lutheran," a part of the North American Lutheran Church (NALC). I also joined the NALC as a pastor and served that congregation on my non-drill weekends.

I recently hit my Mandatory Retirement age for the Army and wanted to continue to serve in ministry (a person never retires from the church and ministry. Most of my family lives in Minnesota, so I was praying that God would open up an opportunity to move closer to them.

Thanks for calling me as your pastor.

My children are as follows:

Andrew and his wife Emily live in Apple Valley with our grandchild Genevieve (Jen). Sarah is a pre-med student at UW-Lacrosse and is also in the Wisconsin Air National Guard. Rachel graduated from UW-Stout with an "Event Planning” Degree. Adam is a student at Concordia College, Mequon, WI, pursuing a degree in Computer Science.

God has an excellent plan for us at Trinity Lutheran in St. Charles. Jesus is the head of the church, and we are the living stones of his church. God called us to be disciples of the living God in our community: to worship together, pray together, study scripture together, give our time, talents, and treasures to something beyond us, serve at and outside our church, and always welcome the stranger. I look forward as we do ministry together. To God be the glory! Pastor Doug and Faith Hedman.