Reverend Rebecca Ajer Frantz grew up in Southern California and felt the call to ministry while attending Wittenberg University in Springfield, OH. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in music and religion, she began seminary at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. She completed a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education in Omaha, NE and spent a year interning at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Vancouver, WA before graduating with her Master of Divinity in 2013. In 2014, she was ordained in and began serving Shepherd of Life Lutheran Church in Lake Elsinore, CA. She felt the Spirit calling in a new direction and took a call to serve St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Littlestown, PA two years later, where she was a solo pastor for five years. After leaving St. John’s, she served as a co-interim pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in Westminster, MD and as a part-time interim pastor at Big Springs United Lutheran Church in Newville, PA. Pastor Becca has supervised seminary students from United Lutheran Seminary and has always gotten involved with local Lutheran Outdoor Ministry sites. She loves worship and faith formation, and has written for the ELCA resources “Bread for the Day” and “Sundays and Seasons”. In recent months, she began serving as a board member for Young Clergy Women International. She is married to Andrew, a park guide at Petersburg National Battlefield, and they have a two-year-old named Owen, who loves music, trucks, and animals.
Kayleigh Dumont, born and raised in the Midlothian area, is a long-established member of Lutheran Church of Our Saviour and began her position in early 2018. She received her AS degree in general studies from John Tyler Community College in 2014 and transferred to Virginia Commonwealth University that fall, where she graduated summa cum laude in May 2017 with a Bachelor of Arts in English, including two minors in creative writing and psychology. Her attachment to writing and editing has extended beyond her studies. In 2016 she served as a copyediting intern at Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts, and as an editorial intern at Virginia Living Magazine during the summer after graduation, where she oversaw the 2017 Made in Virginia Awards. Kayleigh also worked at both VCU Writing Center campus locations as a writing consultant, from her last semester into the end of 2017; during this time, she won the 2017 Undergraduate J. E. Whitesell Award for her critical essay on Virginia Woolf’s 1922 novel, Jacob’s Room. She returned to VCU in 2019 where she volunteered at Blackbird, interned at British Virginia, and won the 2021 Graduate J. E. Whitesell Award; she earned her Master of Arts in English in May 2023. Currently, she is continuing her professional development through online courses in digital marketing and copyediting while also working as the Communications Coordinator at Kehillah. She enjoys binge-watching baking shows and being at her three cats' beck-and-call.
Susan Kish became our music director in January 2018. She is perhaps best known in our community for her prior role as choral director at Manchester High School, where she taught for 33 years and grew the choral program from 60 students in her first year to its all-time high of over 400 students in 11 choirs. Growing up in a large Disciples of Christ congregation, she was playing the organ by the age of 15 and studied sacred music and hymnody as part of her major in organ and music education at Lynchburg College. A Lutheran for over 30 years, she loves sharing the great hymns and choral music of the church at LCOS while directing the voice and bell choirs and working with the Sunday School and preschool kids. Susan is married to Rick and has three daughters and sons-in-law, four stepsons, and six grandchildren five and under.
Kenneth Taggart grew up in Chesterfield, just a few miles from LCOS. He studied piano as a child and began playing the organ for his church in middle school. Kenny attended Eastern Mennonite University and VCU, where he studied organ and majored in music, with a minor in religious studies. After college, Kenny served as the music director for Main Street United Methodist Church in Bedford, Virginia for eight years. While there, he joined the volunteer fire department. He now works for Spotsylvania Fire, Rescue, and Emergency Management as a firefighter/medic.
Abbie Lambrecht began working at LCOS in June 2023. Abbie is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio and felt her call to ministry while she was in high school. She attended Olivet Nazarene University and received a Bachelors degree in children’s ministry. Following her graduation she married her husband, Tommy. The two of them moved to Greenville, South Carolina where Abbie served at her first church for two years. She is currently working on a masters degree in counseling. Abbie has been attending LCOS since October of 2022 and has loved being a part of the warm and welcoming congregation. She is passionate about serving youth and children, and hopes that each student can have a unique and personal faith of their own. You can probably find Abbie hanging out at Gelati Celesti, or spending time outside with Tommy and their dog, Neville!
Mary Dumont has served as the director of The Giving Tree Preschool since 2000. Mary was born and raised in Niagara Falls, NY, and graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1981 with a BA in mechanical engineering. She then worked for Penelec (Pennsylvania Electric, Co.) in Warren, PA for eight years before moving to Chesterfield in 1989 with her husband, Brian. They have been members of LCOS since 1997.
Ileana was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. She comes from a Honduran background and is fluent in Spanish. She graduated from Cosby High School and went straight into working in childcare. She is a member of the Evangelical Church, Jesus The Nazareth, and enjoys worshiping the Lord through music, which has always been a great passion of hers! During her free time, she enjoys going on Target runs with her sisters and practicing photography. She is excited to get to know all the families at LCOS and be a helping hand with the children!