President: Troy Wiedemann

Vice President: Mark Shepherd

Secretary: Lacey Eckert

Treasurer: Alexis Antkowiak

Barbara Donnelly

Amy Kroll

Josh Kaminski

Donna Putman is a long-time member of Greenvine Emmanuel Lutheran that lives in Burton, TX. Her position as Church Secretary is part-time. Not only does she do the job as secretary, but helps wherever needed in the church, such as mowing and assisting in worship.

Welcome Pastor Jody!

About Pastor Jody…

I was born in Lubbock, Texas in 1960 to a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod family while my parents were working on college degrees at Texas Tech. I am the oldest of six children and have four brothers but only one sister. After my parent's graduation my family moved to the Rio Grande Valley to work at a family business. A short while later, I attended a Lutheran school from first grade through Junior High in Mercedes. I then graduated from Mercedes High School in 1978 and I continued my education at Texas A & M University at College Station and received a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering in 1982 and completed all work for a Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering in 1983. After moving  to Houston  and working at NASA JSC, I founded a consulting firm focused on cutting-edge technology. After COVID-19 decimated the energy industries, I began bringing similar research to start up companies around the country. Currently, I am the head architect for a Houston company that uses technique that make well drilling safer for the environment as well as the people drilling the well.

I married my High School sweetheart, Martha ManCillas in 1982. We have nine children ranging from 42 to 26. I attended Luther Seminary from Summer of 2000 to Spring 2006 with dedication to rural ministry. My time at Luther was longer than normal because I had a very sick child. My internship site was at Triumphant Lutheran Church in Garden Ridge, Texas. My interest in technology led me to do research on the limits of reason and revelation while at Luther Seminary.

I have been fortunate enough to have people with deep faith walk beside me on this journey called life. This includes individuals such as a great-grandmother, a spiritual director, and a mentor. A quite unexpected commonality that they all share is they remained followers of Jesus despite unimaginable tragedies in their own life. I have tried to bring a small aspect of their deep faith to my life as a corrective to my love of learning.

My wife and I moved to Burton in 2020 to escape some of the problems of COVID-19. Her health is fragile and we wanted to give her a lifestyle she always wanted. I joined St. Paul Luther Rehburg. Here I helped with VBS, Sunday School, and church council. Rev. Dr. Alvin Luedke, who had also taught at Luther Seminary, suggested that I help as needed in local churches, so here we are.

For more information about Pastor Jody, please refer to our September newsletter,