Trinity-St. John Faculty and Staff
Mrs. Dawn Mueller
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Dawn grew up in Michigan. She and Pastor met at Concordia University, Ann Arbor, MI, and were married there. They moved to New Minden, where Pastor Mueller serves at St. John’s Lutheran Church. She enjoyed life as a stay-at-home mom with four sons filling the parsonage. Jacob, Paul, Daniel, and Lukas were blessed to attend T-SJ. When the boys were in school, Dawn taught preschool at Trinity, Hoyleton. Later she served in a ministry which provided funding and training for Lutheran schools in 20 countries around the world. She has also been able to edit and write children’s Bible story books which are used internationally. Dawn loves teaching language arts to improve the reading and writing skills of the fourth graders. Her delight with her own grand-treasures, (Sophia, Hannah, Xavier, Zachariah, Gabriel, and Abigail) has made the role of PreK teacher even more exciting. Seeing the little ones grow in their faith is a special blessing.
Dawn’s favorite Bible verse is Psalm 23:6, “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” |
Mrs. Janice Lange
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Janice grew up in Bunker Hill, IL. She attended St. Paul’s College in Concordia, MO and then Concordia University in Chicago. She has worked at T-SJ for 35 years teaching second grade, pre-school, and kindergarten. She also teaches music to pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and coaches the scholar bowl team. She and her husband Steve have been blessed with three sons, a daughter-in-law, and four grandchildren. She enjoys sports, sewing, reading, playing guitar, and singing. She especially enjoys spending time with her grandchildren.
Jan’s favorite Bible verse is Romans 8:38, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” |
Miss Alexa Zacheis
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Information Coming Soon!
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Mrs. Katherine Lange
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Information Coming Soon!
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Mrs. Karen Stein
3rd Grade |
Information Coming Soon!
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Mrs. Andrea Harre
4th Grade |
Andrea is originally from Addieville, where she grew up with her parents and her sister, Mallory. After graduating from Okawville High School, she attended Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and received a Bachelors in Elementary Education. She began teaching at Immanuel Lutheran School in Okawville, where she taught middle school math and language arts for 6 years. Most recently, she was a 7th grade math teacher at Franklin Park Middle School in Salem, IL, where she taught for 7 years. Andrea is excited for the opportunity to teach at a new grade level this year!
Andrea is a member of Trinity Lutheran Church in Nashville. She has been married to her husband, Nick for 5 years. They live in Nashville with their two boys, Declan (4) and Lane (1). Andrea's favorite Bible verse is Isaiah 41:10 "Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you andmI will help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." |
Mrs. Tabatha Wesseln
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Tabatha (Frederking) Wesseln is the fifth and sixth grade homeroom teacher at T-SJ. She was born and grew up in Nashville attending Trinity Church and Trinity-St. John school. After marrying her husband, John, in 1998, she moved to Pinckneyville and currently resides there with her family. She has a daughter, Mackenna, and a son, Dayton. Tabatha’s education to become a teacher began right here at T-SJ. After graduating from T-SJ in 1989, she continued her education at Nashville Community High School. She moved on to Kaskaskia College and received her BS in Elementary Education from SIU-C. She also received endorsements to teach middle school classes at that time. In August 1998, she began her teaching career at T-SJ. She is currently the fifth and sixth grade homeroom teacher, and teaches grades four through eight science as well as algebra and fifth and sixth grade computers and health. The 2022-2023 school year marks the beginning of the twenty-fifth year of her teaching career and the twenty-fifth year at T-SJ. During her free time she loves spending time with her family. Their favorite activities to do together are camping and hiking. She also enjoys repurposing old items and loves making things out of old wood.
Tabatha's favorite Bible verse comes from Matthew 19:14 where Jesus says, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” It reminds her daily of what the Lord has called her to do at T-SJ. |
Mrs. Justine Harre
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Information Coming Soon!
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Mrs. Melanie Cooper
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Entering her 8th year of teaching Melanie Cooper will be the 8th grade homeroom teacher as well as the Athletic Director for our T-SJ teams. Melanie graduated from T-SJ in 2007 with a class full of great student athletes. After graduating from NCHS she went on to Rend Lake college to continue her education and play volleyball and basketball. She finished her education at Webster University-St. Louis in 2015 with a BA in Education. Living and teaching in St. Louis equipped her with many different teaching strategies for diverse learners as well as a very diverse palette for all of the great food and restaurants the city has to offer! Science has been her primary subject to teach in previous years, but she is excited for the new curriculum and opportunities ahead. Middle schoolers are her favorite age group to teach!
Melanie is a member of St. John's New Minden and now living in her hometown of Nashville with her husband Hunter and their dog Gerty. She enjoys spending time with her family and can't wait for her niece and nephew to join the T-SJ family. Cooking and baking are her favorite hobbies and she loves to try new things in the kitchen. Melanie's confirmation Bible verse is Psalm 27:1 "The Lord is my light and my salvation-whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life-of whom shall I be afraid?" |
Miss Cheryl Zapp
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Cheryl has lived in Nashville and been a member of Trinity all her life. She grew up in a family of 3 sisters and one brother. She has one son and daughter-in-law, Kenny and Taryn Zapp, and two grandchildren, Eli and Iylie Harris. She earned an Associate Degree from Kaskaskia College and all of her work experience has been in clerical environments. She is a member of Trinity's Handbell choir. Some of her favorite pastimes are reading and being a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals. She truly loves watching and cheering on her grandchildren in their academic and sporting events, along with the local sport teams- Nashville Hornet and Hornettes, T-SJ Warriors, Raiders and Titans as well as watching the NCAA Basketball Tournament.
Miss Cheryl’s favorite hymn is “Just as I Am” and her favorite Bible verse is Matthew 11:28, “Come unto Me all you who are weak and heavy-ladened and I will give you rest.” |
Mrs. Deitt Schneider
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Information Coming Soon!
Information Coming Soon!
Pastor Benning was born in a suburb outside of Chicago, IL the youngest of three brothers. In the late 1980’s his father took a call to teach at a Lutheran School in Springfield, IL. This is where he grew up going to the grade school where his dad taught and Lutheran High for high school. From there, he went on to Blackburn College where he met his wife before going off to study at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO. His family loves to camp and they take their 3 kids and sometimes the goldfish camping in their travel trailer exploring all that God has created.
Jesus claimed Pastor Benning as a baby when he was baptized at just 1 month old. He continued to shape him as child of God through the commitment of his parents and the blessings of Lutheran education. But it wasn’t until he went off to study abroad in Wales during college that God would call him to be a pastor. While he was in Wales God put him into daily conversations with people about the faith He has given him. This has led him to continue those conversations with anyone who will listen so that he might have the opportunity to share Jesus with them. In 2010 he graduated from Concordia Seminary and took his first call to Immanuel in Brookfield, WI. Eventually the Lord called him in 2014 to serve at St. John’s Lutheran Church in New Berlin, IL. While it was a blessing to come back so close to home the opportunity God gave him to pastor His people in a changing community was what brought us to Central Illinois. With their children growing older the Lord once again saw fit to change their lives by bringing them to Trinity Nashville where we pray they be able to continue His work in this new Family of Faith. As we encourage others to have conversations with the people in their life that lead to conversations about Jesus. Always being prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks us to give the reason for the hope that we have. But doing so with gentleness and respect. (Paraphrase 1Peter 3:15 NIV) |
Pastor Tim Mueller
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Timothy Paul Mueller was born in Hankinson, North Dakota, near Lidgerwood, where his father served as pastor. He is number six out of seven children. When he was two years old his father took a call to Bay City, Michigan, where Tim attended grade school and high school. He graduated from Concordia College (now University), Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1983 with a major in Biblical Languages (Greek and Hebrew). On his first day on campus as a freshman he met Dawn Miehlke, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and they were married in Concordia’s Chapel of the Holy Trinity on May 6, 1983, the day before they both graduated.
They moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where Tim enrolled at Concordia Seminary. His vicarage (internship) was served in Le Mars, Iowa. He received his Master of Divinity in May, 1987, and continued on for two more terms with courses in Biblical studies toward another master’s degree. In January, 1988, he was ordained into the holy ministry and installed as pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church, New Minden, and St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, Covington. As the pastor of St. John’s, he has been blessed to be involved at TSJ ever since. He and Dawn have been blessed with four sons: Pastor Jacob and his wife Julia, serving at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Emma, MO, with their children Hannah, Zachariah, and Abigail; Paul and his wife Jessie, who with their children Sophia, Xavier, and Gabriel live in Kings, IL, near Rochelle, where Jessie works as a lab tech for Rochelle Municipal Utilities and Paul teaches part-time at St. Paul Lutheran school; Daniel, a computer engineer in Madison Heights, MI and Lukas, who lives in Denver, CO, and works in sales. In his spare time Pastor Tim enjoys reading, yard work, woodworking, and especially doing things with his grandkids. |
Stacy Vogt
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Sharon Kirgan
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Jean Kuhlengel
Librarian |