Pastor Peter and Lisa Martin recently moved from Radcliff, a small city right next to Fort Knox, Kentucky, where Peter was pastor of Faith Lutheran Church since 2014. Their story, of course, goes farther back than that. Peter was born in Platteville, Wisconsin, in 1970 and grew up in a parsonage in three different towns of western Wisconsin. Lisa was born in Joplin, Missouri, also in 1970. (In case you are wondering, she is three weeks her husband’s elder!) Hers was a farming and cabinet making family. She earned a teaching degree in Missouri. Peter and Lisa met in their college years, and married in 1995, a year before Peter graduated from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary.

At graduation, Pastor Martin was assigned to a rural mission station of the WELS, near Lusaka, Zambia, Africa. Over the next 18 years, they lived in two African countries, Zambia and Malawi. There their four children were born and grew up. Jeremiah (25) is married to Laura (nee Kramp); they have one child and live in Green Bay. Noah (23) lives in Lexington, KY. Anna (21) is engaged to be married on 1 July to Robert Kubash, and will be living in Louisville, KY. Jacob (18) is, for the time, living with his parents here at Valmy.

Lisa has had many duties and jobs over the years, but most enjoys being a mother and keeper of the house. Peter has gardened in the past (and wouldn’t mind taking it up again), and enjoys taking country bike rides. Both enjoy long walks, occasional tent camping, and God’s gift of music, especially when used in worship, and words of faith and trust.