NTS recently interviewed alumni Brian and Rosslyn Weigelt, currently serving in Japan where they live with their daughter, Eliza.
When did you gradate?
We both graduated in 1999. Rosslyn completed the MA in history and theology while Brian completed the Master of Divinity.
How did your call to vocational ministry come about?
Rosslyn sensed a call to ministry as a young adult. She returned to faith in Jesus after experiencing a number of traumatic events. As she grew in her renewed faith she sensed God calling her to cross-cultural ministry. Brian had a call to ministry as a child, though he didn’t publicly own that calling until he was in high school.
Where have you served throughout your ministry? Where do you currently serve?
After graduating from NTS in 1999, we served as co-pastors at the Coquille (OR) Church of the Nazarene for a little over four years. Brian became an active-duty Navy Chaplain and was assigned to 1st Marine Division in Southern California in late 2003. While there, Rosslyn served as the Director of Religious Education at an Episcopal Church. Brian then served on ships in Norfolk, VA for three years and Rosslyn served in an associate position at the Tidewater Church of the Nazarene in Virginia Beach. We then moved to Annapolis, MD where Brian served at the Naval Academy and Rosslyn was an associate pastor at a Presbyterian Church. Brian then went to Djibouti for one year where he was the command chaplain for the only US military base on the continent of Africa. When he returned, he was assigned to the Joint Staff at the Pentagon and Rosslyn served as an administrator for a Lutheran Church. Brian then spent a year as a student at the Naval War College (Newport, RI) before the whole family moved to Okinawa, Japan in July 2017. Brian is currently the 3rd Marine Logistics Group Chaplain and Rosslyn is an associate pastor at Keystone Church of the Nazarene.
What makes your current assignment unique?
Our current ministry assignments are unique primarily because we are serving overseas. We have come to really appreciate Japanese culture and enjoy the opportunities to travel in Asia. Brian is in a supervisory role with a team of fifteen personnel and enjoys the opportunity to support the development of ministry skills in others as they serve the 5000+ Marines and Sailors within the command. Rosslyn’s ministry at Keystone includes serving people from a number of cultures, primarily American, Filipino and Japanese.
What are some of the unique blessings/challenges in your context?
The unique blessing is serving in a different culture. The unique challenge is serving in a different culture. Rosslyn has been serving in a cross-cultural context ever since she left Australia. Little did she know that the cross-cultural ministry God was calling her to would be in America, the military, different denominations and Japan.
Are there ways in which your time at NTS especially helped prepare you for faithful and effective ministry?
Our time at NTS was essential preparation for all the contexts to which God has led us in ministry. Serving in diverse settings and with colleagues who come from a variety of theological perspectives, we are so thankful for our identity as Wesleyans, for the deep connection we have with Nazarenes around the world, and the approach to the work of ministry we developed at NTS. We know that no other seminary would have given us that kind of preparation for a ministry we would have never imagined while students.
