Our new Children’s Ministry Director!
Meet Andy!
We are delighted to introduce our new Children’s Ministry Director, Andy Rohrback! You may recognize Andy from Classic service, Praise Puppets, Orbit (Bible teacher or small group leader), student ministry, or you may have not yet had the opportunity to meet. Look for him in the children’s wing and give him a welcoming high-five! Andy’s passion for the gospel, love for people, and general enthusiasm overflows into all of his conversations. Want to know more about Andy’s journey to this role? Keep reading!
When I was a volunteer working with Karen, we used to talk about our approach to children’s ministry, and I landed on this: “Just because it’s important, doesn’t mean it can’t be fun; just because it’s fun, doesn’t mean it isn’t important.” I truly believe in children’s ministry right now we are at the apex of both “fun” and “important” in the lives of people and families. I am overwhelmingly thrilled to encourage, support and get to know each of you in my new role as children’s ministry director. Here’s a starting point: a chance for all of you to get to know me.
I was born and raised in Kansas, and this community and especially this church have let me stick around (despite being a Jayhawk) for nearly ten years now. My wife, Susan, and I moved to Ames in January, 2012, a pair of newlyweds with next to no local connections and no idea how deeply this place would become home. We moved here from South Korea, which is where we met — I moved to Korea to teach English after ten years working for newspapers left me ready for a change, and Susan was an Iowa girl using her teaching skills to travel the world. We crossed paths in an English-language church which was a ministry of a big Korean congregation there, and during three years worshiping in a joyful international congregation and putting together English-language Sunday school programming for the Korean kids of the church, we fell in love and decided to come home and get married.
Before Korea, I was a copy editor and graphic designer for newspapers in Omaha and Colorado Springs, and along the way became involved in teaching Sunday school and VBS at my local church as well as helping to get school newspapers started at a couple of Christian high schools. I think that’s how I figured out that I liked teaching a lot more than making newspaper pages. Since coming back, I’ve worked at the Tribune and the Register, and then spent the past seven-plus years as a web developer at Iowa State University. That last part has been my favorite so far, because that’s when our kids were born: twins Hezekiah and Hannah in November 2016, and Micah in October 2019. Based on where I’m sitting and what I’m doing now, though, I’m pretty sure that the best is yet to come. I’m excited to head into it with you.