Pastor Willie Rosin
Siblings in Christ at Zion Lutheran Church – greetings in the name of our crucified and risen Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ! My name is Pastor Willie Rosin and I am excited to serve in God’s ministry with the people of Zion Lutheran Church.
I am a native South Dakotan who relocated to Iowa when I married Jennifer Rosin in July of 2002. I love to hunt, fish, garden, read, bake, spend time with our family, and make music. I met Jennifer in the music department at South Dakota State University and we both graduated with our Bachelor of Music Education degrees in 2002. Since then, Jennifer has been teaching band in various districts and I entered the candidacy process to become an ELCA pastor after a year of teaching 5-12 band and I graduated from Wartburg Theological Seminary in May of 2010. In the time between teaching and seminary I worked with a farm drainage and tile company as the office manager, ditch digger, and machine operator and then spent a year as a church administrator at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Hampton, Iowa.
I served my First Call from 2010-2015 with two congregations in the Montevideo, Minnesota area. In July I accepted a call to serve with First Lutheran Church Britt, Iowa. In June of 2021 we moved to Muscatine after the school district offered Jennifer her dream job – teaching junior high band at Susan Clark Junior High.
I started my fourth year serving with Zion on December 12, 2024 and I look forward to the year ahead. I had another successful year of gardening and have over 800 cloves of garlic in the ground for the 2025 garden. I enjoyed fishing the Mississippi River and we’ve had successful deer hunting this year as well. I enjoyed getting the jazz combo back together for the Swing Dance back in March and we have been asked to play again for the Swing Dance on March 8, 2025.
For continuing education I completed the Leadership Muscatine program back in May and started another 9 month program as a member of the first cohort of the Iowa Preacher’s Project through Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa. I hope to continue to grow as a preacher and leader through this program. We kicked off the year back in September with a few days of in-person learning and formation. We have since continued meeting digitally through Zoom and will have our next in-person session January 19-22, 2025 in Costa del Mar, California.
Jennifer continues to teach kids to love music through her work at the Susan Clark Junior High in Muscatine. The 7th and 8th grade bands continue to grow and succeed and she has the largest jazz band you’ve ever seen! She loves being a mom to our five kids, helping them learn to read, cook, quilt, craft, and have fun. She recently completed the last of the five full-size quilts for the kids, a beautiful design for Ezra with a large cross in the center – his favorite! She also enjoys helping lead worship at Zion from the organ and piano benches. I am thankful for her patience and her love for me, our kids, and her students!
Grace is 21 years old and in her final on-campus semester at University of Northern Iowa. She studies bassoon as a non-music major, performing with the UNI bands. She will walk for graduation in May, but still has a semester of student teaching. She will graduate with a degree in special education as a Instructional Strategist II, which is working with students who have a higher level of special needs in the classroom. This past summer she adopted Frida, a friendly mixed breed dog, from It Takes a Village here in Muscatine. She continues to enjoy fishing and deer hunting and killed a trophy whitetail buck on New Year’s Day! She is a fantastic older sister to the three younger kids and we are excited that she has been assigned to the Muscatine area for student teaching in fall of 2025 and she plans to live at home with us during student teaching!
Isabelle is 19 and in her second year at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She is studying a dual major of music education and music performance on her beloved French Horn. She moved off campus this year and is learning to navigate the adult life and independent living. In summer of 2025 she plans to work at Outlaw Ranch near Custer, South Dakota. Outlaw Ranch is one of the camps in the Lutherans Outdoors in South Dakota system, which is the camping ministry of the South Dakota Synod, ELCA. We will get to see her when we go to Outlaw Ranch for Family Camp and continuing education in late July!
Lydia is a fourth grader at Mulberry Elementary in Muscatine. She loves all things crafting and is a voracious reader.
Abner is a first grader at Mulberry Elementary and loves all things outdoors and his toy cars and remote control trucks. He is starting to read and write independently, which opens up a whole new world of learning and imagination for him. He has been out deer hunting with us this year and was along with me when I filled my deer tag and has claimed it as “his” deer. He is excited to keep growing bigger and stronger so that he can start hunting with dad and Grace!
Ezra is also in first grade at Mulberry Elementary and loves going to school to see Mrs. Smith! He is just starting to read and write on his own. Ezra loves all things music – especially anything in a minor key. He is an energetic and active young man and LOVES coming to worship and being at church. He gets very excited about seeing crosses and listening to Jesus stories as he learns the stories of faith. He enjoys helping cook some of his breakfast favorites with me in the morning before school.
We are so thankful that we landed in Muscatine and love this community and the people. I pray that 2025 brings new and wonderful surprises as we continue to call this lovely community home.
I love finding out what God has in store for us as we serve in ministry together here at Zion Lutheran Church! Thank you for serving in God’s kingdom and I am excited to serve with you!
Peace in Christ,
Pastor Willie Rosin
