Pastor Nelson grew up in Red Wing, Minnesota with a population of about 15,000 people and some big cities not too far from him. “I grew up with a faithful family which was always a part of who I was & I sometimes would lead worship from a young age,” Nelson explained when asked about if he’s always wanted to be a chaplain. He then followed up saying that in his high school and college days he went back & forth when telling himself that being a chaplain is the career path he wanted to go down. We asked Nelson what steered his decisions when it came to not wanting to be a chaplain and he responded “A lot of it was just ways that ministry tended to look at the time. For me this was also the time that 9/11 was happening, so there was a lot going on, so I started to question how I was going to live out having faith and trying to spread it to others. Honestly, I still have some of those questions today, but I think I’ve found the answers for the time being.” Andy is a man who believes that faith is one of the most important things for him to have in his like as he explained to us that he believes its shaped his views on the world and plays a huge role in the person that he’s become today. “Something where I can see what I’ve added to the world,” is how pastor Nelson answered to question of what career path he would go down if he had not been a pastor. He feels that at times being a pastor doesn’t come with immediate results when it comes to seeing that what you’re doing for people is making a difference but it’s rather like planting some sort of seed and not being able to see result for weeks, months, maybe years. Taking advantage of time to step away from ministry and experiencing more is something Nelson would have liked to have done before becoming a pastor. Being able to take a break and branch would have been more ideal for Nelson as he jumped right in to being a pastor post-college. “Dietrich Bonheoffer probably had one of the biggest influences on me as an author coming up. He was a pastor and a pacifist who was a part of a resistance group to the rise of Nazism is America. I really like his theology of caring. There are plenty others I followed as well, like Lois McMaster Bujold.” Pastor Nelson loves what he does but still hopes to branch out and get a new experience with his career field one day.