Meet Our Missionaries

Ascension has a long tradition of supporting the work of Lutheran missionaries. Recently, we added two new pastors “out in the field” to our ministry focus. Let’s meet them!

Reverend Kristin Engstrom is stationed in Zambia in southern Africa. She serves as a facilitator for leadership development and capacity building, working with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zambia, with Zambian pastors and lay leaders to strengthen the church and grow in congregational leadership.

She earned her undergraduate degree in International Relations and Comparative Literature from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She earned her M.Div. from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, IL. She was ordained in 2009.

She says, “After serving for five years as the Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) country coordinator in Senegal, I look forward to the new challenge and opportunity of serving with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zambia. International service continuously shapes and stretches my faith in a God who is more mysterious than we can comprehend and works in ways we could never imagine. Our global siblings help me to trust in God and in our shared humanity beyond my doubts and frustrations. We need one another to be faithful, and especially to be the church.”

Keep up with Pastor Kristin at her blogspot: Along with Pastor Kristin

Reverend Wal Luat Reat is serving in South Sudanese refugee camps in Ethiopia, South Sudan and bordering countries. He earned his two-year degree in Human Service at Riverland Community College in Albert Lea, Minnesota, and his certification in Theology at Pacific Lutheran Seminary.

He and wife Nyakuich have a son and two daughters. Rev. Wal’s home synod is the Southeastern Minnesota synod and he can be contacted at .