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Alumni of Saint Paul are scattered across the country and throughout the world. Where they go after graduation is as diverse as the alumni themselves. All follow a path that is guided by the Lord and serve Him wherever He has led them. The path usually takes them away from their hometowns and the familiar surroundings of the area in which they grew up.
Such was the case for Jaki (Oetting) Ahlemeyer. A Concordia native, she now lives with her husband, Rev. Mike Ahlemeyer, and their three children — Payton, 5, Tatum, 2, and Brodie, 6 months — in Green Bay, where he serves as pastor of Faith Lutheran Church.
Jaki graduated from Saint Paul in 1997. She spent two years at Truman State University in Kirksville. From there she went to Purdue University in Fort Wayne and studied secondary education.
She has found her calling for this time of her life at home. Jaki said, “I stay home with my kids, but I may try teaching when they are older.”
Jaki and her three children are ready to enter Lambeau Field for a
Packer game
Memories about her high school days of 10 years ago are, as with many people, nostalgic. Jaki remembers playing on the Lady Saints basketball team and the instructors at Saint Paul who helped shape her goals. “Mr. Gasau and Mr. Beerman helped influence me toward going into education,” Jaki said. “I liked their teaching styles. Mr. Gasau’s history classes left me wanting to learn more. Mr. Beerman got me thinking about coaching.”
Her graduating class had its 10-year reunion at the June auction/benefit dinner. She said she loves following the Saints sports teams. Her younger brothers, Kendall and Cameron Holsten, graduated from Saint Paul in 2006. Kendall played baseball and is enrolled at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg. Cameron is in the Marines, presently stationed in Iraq. Her older brother Tim Oetting, who graduated from Saint Paul in 1995, is a plant engineer at a natural gas power plant in Spencer, Iowa, and has applied at the St. Louis seminary to study for the ministry.
When her younger brothers were in the Singing Saints, the Ahlemeyers arranged for the choir to perform at their congregation. Families from the local Lutheran high school, Northeast Wisconsin Lutheran High School, which covers the Fox River valley area, housed the choir. “It was good for them to see a traveling choir like the Singing Saints and hear their choice of music,” Mike said.
The Ahlemeyers met in 1999 on a blind date while Jaki was attending
Purdue and he was a seminary student at Concordia Seminary in Fort Wayne. They were married in the Seminary chapel in 2000. Mike’s first call was to Holy Trinity in Terryville, near Hartford, Conn. They served there for about two and a half years before taking the call to Green Bay.
Mike, who grew up in Wisconsin, has his own memories of a former SPC professor, the late Rev. Robert Carlton. “I was at Concordia (University) Ann Arbor, (Mich.) and Rev. Carlton was one of the deans,” Mike said. “He taught some of the Greek I and II classes and told lots of stories about SPC.”
She became a “Packer Backer.” “I married into it; I had no choice.”
Now that Jaki has been a resident of “Title Town U.S.A.” for three years, and married a Green Bay Packer fan, she has become a “Packer Backer.” “I married into it; I had no choice. But even growing up (in Concordia) with the (Kansas City) Chiefs, there was still something unique about the Packers,” Jaki said. “The year I graduated was when they won the Super Bowl.”
With over 2,300 alumni scattered across the U.S.A., until recently Jaki was the only graduate living in the Home of the Packers. The Ahlemeyers said they enjoy their life in Packer land and find their ministry there fulfilling and rewarding.
Written by Cindy Roerig Ebers (SPC ‘73)
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