Pastor Philemon Ngare
I was born and raised in Kenya, East Africa, where I attended both Lutheran boarding High School and Theological College. I moved to the US in 2000 and settled in Minneapolis, MN. I became a US citizen in April 2016. I am married to Eva. Eva works as a Clinical Social Worker, and the Lord has blessed us with two teenage daughters – Rachel and Julia. We currently live in Vancouver, WA.
My previous ministry experience includes serving in ministry as a Youth Worker at the Spring of Life Lutheran Parish, Nairobi. I worked mostly with young people from a disadvantaged background in the city of Nairobi, Kenya. It is during this time that I sensed God’s calling upon my life to be a Pastor in the Lutheran Church. I responded to a call from Nairobi Parish to attend the Theological College to prepare for pastoral ministry. Thus, between 1993 and 1998, I attended and graduated from Matongo Lutheran Theological College, Kenya. Between the years 1996-2000, I served as a Pastor and Director of the Nairobi District Youth Department with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kenya.
In 2001-2004, I attended and graduated from the Free Lutheran Theological Seminary, Minneapolis, MN, with a Master’s in Divinity degree. In 2015, My family and I moved from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest to serve in ministry with Bethesda Lutheran Communities in Oregon and Washington. From September 2015-December,2019, I served as the Oregon and Washington State Ministry Consultant seeking to encourage, resource, and equip the Church to reach people of ALL abilities in their local community. It was also a great joy and privilege to provide pastoral care to people Bethesda support and be a resource and great encouragement to excellent Bethesda staff.
I am looking forward to sharing God’s love, grace, and mercy through the Gospel of Christ with all at Immanuel and the community!
St. Paul wrote to the Church in Ephesus:
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:14–21)
