To the members of Driftless Ministries,

Allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Sandy Conrad, pastor of the Driftless Ministry churches - Liberty Pole, New Hope, and Retreat Methodist Churches. 

I am a retired Pediatrician from Illinois.  Back in 2020, as I was ready to retire to a cushy life of leisure, I sensed God’s strong calling to go to Seminary.  I have been a Scripture geek all my life and have developed a passion for learning the Biblical languages of Hebrew and Greek.  I wound up relocating to Waco, Texas to attend Truett Seminary on Baylor’s campus.  Baylor is a Baptist school, but Truett has both Baptist and Methodist branches.  I loved every minute of my Seminary experience and graduated a few weeks ago with an MDiv (the Very Long Theology degree that includes the biblical languages!).  During my seminary time, I discovered that I not only love teaching about the word of God, but I also enjoyed preaching about it as well.  I have been looking for a congregation of 50 people of all ages in a rural setting who are anxious to hear about Scripture.  When I heard about Driftless, God had multiplied my wishes by Three! 

I was born a Methodist and spent forty years in the Methodist church of northern Illinois.  We were Evangelicals for a while and were Baptist before moving to Wisconsin.  I was ordained by First Baptist Waco before I arrived in Wisconsin to serve the Driftless Ministries.  I particularly love the open communion table of the Methodist church and the Methodist hymnal is the best!  I enjoy a good hymn but am not bound to a hymnal, though.  Any form of music that honors God is fine for me.  I play the piano and have sung in church choirs in the past.

My husband, Ron, is my best friend and enthusiastic supporter.  He has been a music teacher for thirty-eight years and has recently retired so we can move to Wisconsin.  He is wonderful with kids and is a lot of fun.  We will bring with us a set of choir chimes (they look like big tuning forks) which we may use for special music occasionally.  We met playing handbells in our church.

We both grew up around Chicago, so Midwest winters are known to us.  And as is common for folks from northern Illinois, we have vacationed all through Wisconsin.  We love hiking and golf and, at one time, had planned to retire to Wisconsin   I was licensed to be a substitute teacher in Wisconsin for a while!  We are Packers fans, just to let you know.

I hope you can read between the lines of this brief introduction to understand how excited we are to be in ministry with you.  Both Ron and I felt that the Holy Spirit had been leading us in this direction for months.  I want to hear your stories, to share in your work for Jesus, and to partner with you to open the Bible and learn more about how to follow the Lord. 

Yours in Christ,

Sandy and Ron Conrad