Pastor Kristina Palacios
Originally from New Jersey, Pastor Kristina Palacios spent many years in North Carolina where she served three English-speaking congregations and one mission start in Spanish called Iglesia Luterana La Vela. She has also worked for many years as a hospital chaplain and an ESL and Spanish teacher.
Pastor Kristina earned a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from Wake Forest University, a Master of Divinity from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg and a Master in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) from Greensboro College.
As the granddaughter of immigrants on both sides of the family, Kristina has always felt a deep connection with her Lutheran heritage through reading the Bible in German, and she derived inspiration from the model faith of her German grandmother and from a great aunt, who (fun fact) once served as the Director of Women of the ELCA in Chicago in the 1990s (Dr. Charlotte Fiechter). Kristina was confirmed at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Red Bank, New Jersey, and chose Isaiah 40:29-31 as her favorite Bible verse:
God gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted, but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Pastor Kristina is the proud mother of two grown sons, Kip, a 7th grade math teacher, and Lane, an EMT tech in a hospital ER. She and her husband, Francisco Palacios-Escobedo, dream of owning a German Shepherd in the distant future, but they currently prefer the freedom to travel. They live in San Antonio near Lackland Air Force Base and are very happy to have found their way to the MPLC and San Pablo faith communities.