About Pastor John McEachran John was born in Springfield, South Dakota, and lived in Chamberlain, South Dakota, from age three through high school. His dad was a school principal and his mother was a homemaker. He is the middle of three children. His older sister, Ruby, who is now a widow, was married to a pastor, and his younger brother, Jim, is also a pastor. During childhood, John attended a small Assembly of God church and went to church Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening. After high school, John was enrolled at North Central Bible College in Minneapolis. He met his wife, Judy, there and they were married at the age of 19 after their first year of college. Judy is an accomplished musician. They represented the school as members of the college chorale and traveled with the chorale to Israel. They were also members of the South Metro Chorale, where Judy was the accompanist and assistant director and John sang tenor. They toured Europe with that group. John and Judy have two married sons. Matt lives in Tea, South Dakota, is married to Charity, and has three children, Sean, 14, Ethan, 10, and Emily, 9. Tom lives in Plymouth and has two children, Ian, 8, and Ava, who is in kindergarten. Pastor John expects that we at Newport UMC will probably meet his grandchildren at some time. Judy is the pastor of Heritage United Methodist Church in New Prague, and we hope that there will be some time for us to get to know her too! Pastor John’s first five years in ministry were spent as an associate pastor working mostly with youth and music. He then served in Assemblies of God Churches in Aitkin, MN, from 1976 to 1980, in St. Peter from 1980 to 1988, and in Aberdeen, South Dakota. John and Judy’s sons graduated from high school when they lived in Aberdeen. John has been the pastor at Mount Bethel UMC in Inver Grove Heights since 1999. John is an avid reader. He tries to read at least twelve books a year and reads the Bible through every year. He enjoys reading about history, especially about the Civil War years. He also enjoys cars and car shows. He recently sold his 1974 Lincoln Continental and still has a 1992 Cadillac El Dorado which he will probably drive to church. In his younger years, John was a high school sports official for football and basketball. Pastor John says he is looking forward to his time at Newport Church and has enjoyed meeting the people he has already seen here. It won’t be long before he gets to know all of us, and he says that includes knowing everyone’s name in a very short time. We are happy to welcome Pastor John to Newport UMC, and we know his time with us will be one of many blessings and joys. -- Marilyn Campbell