Our Pastor

Walt Rice

 Pastor Walt Rice is a native of western Washington, having been raised in the south Seattle community of Rainier Valley and graduating from Franklin High School in 1968. Raised in the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, he attended Concordia Jr. College in Portland, Oregon and later graduated from Concordia Sr. College in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. There he met his future wife, Colleen Cox, who was attending the Lutheran School of Nursing in the same city. They were married in December of 1973 while Walt was attending Concordia Seminary in St. Louis.
That was a time of much upheaval within the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod and Walt was a part of the “walk-out” which, along with the great majority of the students and faculty, left the campus to begin Concordia Seminary-in-Exile (Seminex). He graduated from Seminex in 1977 with a Masters of Divinity.
Pastor Rice has served congregations in Beaverton, OR, Everett, WA, and Caldwell, ID before accepting the call as pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in November of 1998.
He and Colleen have two adult children, Nathan and Rachel. His interests include reading, sports (he claims there are only five true sports), travel, good discussions and Corvettes. He also takes great pleasure in his weekly tasks of preaching and teaching.

 

Secretary

Jill Bumgarner

 Jill was born on August 7, 1958 in Bristol, Wisconsin. She grew up on a farm originally owned by her Great Grandfather. She graduated from Salem Central High School in Paddock Lake. After working as a secretary for about a year, she joined the Army and spent basic training at Fort McClellan, Alabama. She finished her training at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana and was reassigned to Karlsruhe, Germany where she met her future husband, Chuck. In 1978, they were married in Karlsruhe. In 1979, they were reassigned to Fort Lewis in Washington state. In 1981, they moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin to be with her family and returned to Washington state in 1987 residing in Sedro-Woolley. They have two adult children, Joshua and Jacinda.

She has been a member of Bethlehem since 1995 and has been employed here part-time since 1997. She is also employed part-time as secretary at the Clear Lake Community Covenant Church and a Home Care Aide with Visiting Nurse Home Care of Mount Vernon. Her interests are genealogy and gardening.