Pastor Ruesch was born and raised in Iron Mountain, Michigan, the oldest of three boys. He attended Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in nearby Kingsford, where his grandfather, Rev. Paul Buenger, served as pastor. Pastor Ruesch was baptized, confirmed, married, and ordained at Our Redeemer and the congregation there was always very supportive of him as he pursued his seminary education.
As a boy, Pastor enjoyed reading and playing sports. He graduated from Kingsford High School in 1996, where he played football, ran track, and wrote for the school newspaper, "The Flivver Flash." He did his undergraduate study at Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon, where he also played football, as well as serving as a member of the art guild, working in the campus art gallery, and hosting a radio program on the school's station, WCUW. He graduated from CUW in December 2000 with a major in Graphic Design and a minor in Mass Communications. Prior to graduation, he also worked as a web design intern for M&I Mortgage Corporation in Cedarburg, WI.
After graduating from college, Pastor married Heather Boehmfeldt, who he had met as his home church back in Kingsford. After marrying, they moved to St. Louis, where he began his studies of Biblical languages and started working towards being ordained and serving in parish ministry. During his seminary studies, he served at Trinity Lutheran Church in Orchard Farm, MO as a resident field worker where he first got his feet wet with the duties of preaching, leading worship, and leading Bible study. From August of 2003 until July of 2004, he served as Vicar (pastoral intern) at Bethany Lutheran Church in Kaukauna, Wisconsin, under the supervision of Rev. Walter Steinbach. There Pastor and his family met many wonderful people and grew in their experience of life as a family serving in the parish.
Heather currently works at Family of Christ Lutheran School in Baxter as a daycare teacher. She loves cooking, music, and being with people. She's very outgoing and loves meeting people and getting to know them. Pastor and Heather have three children, Isabella (8), Paul (5), and Sofia (1). Isabella loves roller skating, ice skating, listening to music, singing, and cooking with Mom. She's also been gaining experience as an actress by performing in "Kids Act Productions: Kids Skits." Paul loves sports and art. He plays hockey and T-ball and is always creating things." He loves books and wants to be a science teacher when he grows up. His favorite thingsto do are playing computer games with Dad and telling "knock-knock" jokes. The newest addition to the family is Sofia who was born in May of 2007. Sofie is the social one in the family, never afraid to cozy up to someone new. She's also rather fearless and goes headfirst into everything she does!.
Today Pastor enjoys spending time doing new things with his family, reading, golfing, and blogging. Both he and his family are thrilled to be here in Garrison and to be serving the Lord in the place which He has chosen for them!