The Rev. Bob Berthold, pastor of Oakland and Moscow Lutheran churches for the past year, is a clergyman who is the author of six books, a linguist and has a background that includes work as a missionary and what he calls “learning trips” to destinations on four continents.

He works with the Rev. John Malm of Hayward and Trondhjem Lutheran churches to serve what has in the past been called a four-point parish. His main part of this arrangement is to do the youth services at the four churches, vacation Bible school and confirmation preparation. To help with the youth activities, he has a large van which can be used to transport the young people to various church sponsored events and other activities.

Oakland Church is on 850th Avenue (County Road 30) and the Moscow church is six miles to the east. He and his wife, Mary, live in the parsonage across the road from the Oakland church.

“I serve about 400 people between the two churches,” he said.

He grew up in Park Ridge, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, and graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He then attended Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul, graduating in 1979 with a master of divinity degree. He later attended the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago and graduated in 1985 with a doctor of ministry degree.

Berthold was ordained in 1979 and during the intervening 30 years has served congregations in several locations.

His first year was as an intern in the Eskimo community of Wales, Alaska.

One of the bits of humor during the presidential campaign was based on being able to see Russia from a home in south-central Alaska. Yet, Berthold was at the one place in the nation where this is actually possible. Wales is at the furthermost western part of North America. A little further west is the Bering Strait which is about 50 miles wide. Somewhat in the middle of the strait are two islands. Little Diomede Island is a part of Alaska. Two miles by water to the west is Big Diomede Island, which was then a part of the Soviet Union and now a part of Russia. Between the two islands is the International Date Line, which results in the difference of a day between these locations. And even further to the west is the Chukchi Peninsula, which is both a part of Asia and the Siberian part of Russia.

Berthold has a photo on his computer, taken on a clear day, that shows Little Diomede Island, Big Diomede Island, and way off in the distance the start of the Russian mainland.

During his year in Wales he also served as the chaplain at the Tin City U.S. Air Force Base, located about 11 miles to the southeast. In a really remote and roadless area, he traveled to the base by walking or by snowmobile, depending on the weather.

“It was an exciting year in Alaska. My wife and I really enjoyed being there,” he said.

Berthold then spent 11 years in North Dakota, serving at churches in Hannaford (north of Valley City), Jamestown and Carrington. This was followed with 14 years as pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Moorhead, which he said was the largest congregation in that city with 4,000 members. After three more years at Clara City, located between Montevideo and Willmar, he came to his present position as pastor of Oakland-Moscow Lutheran Parish.

He explained that the moves to Clara City and now to rural Hayward came about because “I was following my wife and daughter.”

He and his wife, Mary, have two daughters, Marissa and Melinda.

“My wife went to college with me, then went with Marissa to Ridgewater College in Willmar,” he said. The move to rural Hayward just before Thanksgiving 2007 came about in part because of Mary and Marissa being employed at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Melinda went to the University of Minnesota, lives in the Twin Cities area, and does blood research in Chaska.

During his years as a minister, Berthold has visited many parts of the world. These destinations include a tribe of former headhunters in the Philippines, Tanzania in Africa, Haiti, Turkey and Greece, the Holy Land and Israel, Peru, Nepal, Latvia and Russia.

He said these trips to foreign locations is “part of my continuing education. It helps to make the Gospel more interesting.”

“Those trips stress the importance of using other cultures to teach the Gospel,” he added.

This summer he plans to visit Colombia. To prepare for this, he’s learning Spanish with the help of a computer program.

“I want to learn a thousand words (of Spanish) by summer,” he said.

And when it comes to linguistics, Berthold has already become somewhat fluent in several languages based on his previous travels. Other than the high German he acquired from a grandmother, these include Eskimo, Greek, Hebrew, Nepalese and Swahili.

Berthold is also the author of six books He said this involved putting his notes in print. All these paperback books have been written over the years and are self published.

“I like to know people,” he said.