Sharlyn DeHaven Gates has been pastor of The First Presbyterian Church for 2 years.  She graduated from The University of Dubuque Theological Seminary in May of 1996 and was ordained in June of the same year. 

 Pastor Sharlyn has pastored churches in Iowa and Minnesota.  She has served as a hospital chaplain for one year and was the International Director of Chrysalis, a youth movement which is a copyright program of The Upper Room ministries in Nashville, Tennessee. 

 Sharlyn and her husband, Fred Gates, have been married for 21 years.  He too, is a Presbyterian pastor, serving a church in Oswego, Kansas.  They have 5 grown children, all of whom are married, and 9 grandchildren. 

 “I have never known a time when I did not have a sense of God’s deep love for me.  But I am amazed constantly at the unlimited grace He continues to pour out over me.  That is something I am overjoyed to pass on to others.”