OUR TEAM: PASTOR & STAFF
Advent is blessed with a wonderful staff.
All of them work together as a team
and strive to support the members of our congregation in their daily ministry
through worship, faith formation, pastoral care, service, outreach, and fellowship.
We are here to help and support you.
Rev. Dr. Gabriele Schroeder Pastor
Pastor Gabi was born in Northern Germany and grew up in West Berlin. Her life and faith have been shaped by the context of post-WWII Europe. She studied theology in Berlin, Heidelberg, and Jerusalem, followed by doctoral studies in church history at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. She seeks to encourage intellectual curiosity and a thirst for learning in her sermons and adult ed classes.
Before joining Advent Lutheran Church, Pastor Gabi worked in non-profit fundraising and hospital chaplaincy, as pastor of two ELCA congregations in the San Francisco Bay Area, and as ELCA Global Mission staff, teaching at a Christian interfaith institute in Hyderabad, India.
Over the years, Pastor Gabi served the church beyond the congregational level – as part of the leadership team of (what was then) Lutherans Concerned Bay Area, as a member of the Sierra Pacific Synod Racial-Ethnic Ministries Discipling Team, as a member of the Sierra Pacific Synod Council, Finance Committee, and Executive Committee, and currently as Dean of the Capitol Valley Conference (Conference 3).
In addition, she also partnered with several Christian organizations in the Holy Land – helping to bring a Palestinian High School Dance group to the Bay Area, helping to organize the 2014 “Breaking Barriers to a Just Peace” conference in Sunnyvale, and providing graphic design services for several fundraising events.
Pastor Gabi is married Kumar Dasari with whom she has raised two delightful daughters, Naomi and Anna. Her family loves to do art and craft projects, card and board games, and passionately discuss history and politics. On her own, she tries to relax by watching British crime shows, snuggling with her two dogs, working in her backyard farm, exploring the world through a camera lens, or traveling to far-away places.
Pastor Gabi loves the image of pastor as “spiritual adventure guide.” Congregations gather, week after week, in the raft of worship, to build each other up in faith. Like a whitewater rafting guide, Pastor Gabi seeks to assist the Advent community in the raft as they together navigate rough waters and confront the challenges of the river of life. Mostly, though, our church community gathers because we know that we need the hope, guidance, and peace which only our ultimate river guide, Jesus Christ, can provide.
Jamal Karamatov Organist
Jamal inherited his passion for music from his father, who had been evacuated as a child during WWII from Saint Petersburg to Uzbekistan. Eventually, Jamal's father taught musicology at the university in Tashkent.
From an early age on, Jamal was taught violin at home, to which piano lessons got added later. Eventually, Jamal studied piano at universities in Tashkent and Samara, Russia.
After graduating from the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan, Jamal held a variety of jobs in the larger field of music. He taught music at the primary and secondary school levels, assisted a university professor in giving piano lessons, created a Jazz book, spent time abroad in New York and West Berlin, and performed at international music festivals in Western Europe and Asia.
In the early 2000s, Jamal and his family emigrated to the US. Since 2007, Jamal, his wife Nasiba, and their two daughters Betty and Nargis have been living in California. After working odds jobs for several years to make ends meet, Jamal was eventually able to return to being a music teacher and performing musician.
He also passed his passion for music and musical talent to his two daughters. Between Jamal and his daughters Betty and Nargis, the family is serving in music ministry at three different churches in the Sacramento area.
In 2022, Jamal and Nasiba were blessed with the birth of their first grandchild.
David Wammer Music Director
Born in Northern Minnesota, Dave moved to the Sacramento area in 1986 as part of his last assignment in a 24-year Air Force career. Once he and his wife Barbara discovered Advent, they joined the choir, and 2 years later Dave "temporarily" became its director. With Advent's growth, the choir director position eventually got expanded into that of Music Director.
Directing choirs has been an important expression of Dave’s faith. Ever since his college days at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, he has had the opportunity to direct choirs – first, while still a student, a men's chorus at St. Olaf and later throughout his Air Force travels. While the job of a Church Music Director has many facets, Dave believes that his mission is actually very simple and can be summed up as “facilitate the song of the Church.”
Dave and Barbara love to ski and have shared their love for snowy slopes with their three sons and six grandchildren.
