Pastor Andrew J. Abraham was born in Wyandotte, Michigan, but moved with his family to Tennessee when he was ten years old. Immediately after graduating from high school, his Army Reserve unit was deployed to the Persian Gulf where he served as a soldier in Operation Desert Storm (1991). Returning from that war, he entered a Roman Catholic seminary and was eventually ordained to the priesthood in April of 2000. After a few years, he left the priesthood and planned to go into education. Soon he discovered Lutheranism and was profoundly inspired by the life and theology of Martin Luther. While engaged to Monique, he took instruction with her and they became Lutherans together in 2004. It would not be long before he wanted to go back into the ministry, this time as a Lutheran pastor. He was colloquized by the Missouri Synod in 2008 and has happily served Lutheran congregations ever since. In addition to being a husband, father and pastor, Pastor Andrew loves to fly fish, study theology and classic literature, and to read vigorously Agatha Christie novels. Pastor Andrew and Monique have three sons: Andrew II, Gabriel and Atticus. They are excellent young men who make their parents very proud!
Pastor John L. Beabout is a native of Canton, Ohio. He earned his undergraduate degree in photography and his graduate degree in Radio and Television at Ohio University. After graduating, he spent the next 31 years as a faculty member and administrator at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Purdue University, Kutztown State College, and Eastern Illinois University. Retiring from University life, Pastor Beabout entered Concordia Seminary St. Louis in the summer of 2001 to begin working on his Master of Divinity degree at age 54. He graduated, and then was ordained and installed as the Pastor of St. Peter Lutheran Church in Waymansville, Indiana on July 17, 2005 where he served as their Pastor until retiring in May 2018. Then in July of 2018, he accepted a one-year call as chaplain and theology teacher at Trinity Lutheran High School in Seymour, Indiana. He also served as a Circuit Visitor for the Indiana District. In May 2020, Pastor Beabout and his wife Stella moved to Fairfield Glade and began serving Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church as their part-time Assistant Pastor. They have five children and eleven grandchildren.
