When Calvary Baptist Church put out the call for a new pastor, the church received one application with which it wasn’t sure what to do.

After all, how could the small Albert Lea church bring the applicant in from Venezuela for a job interview?

But this is the information age, and the church was willing to be flexible about his application, said the Rev. Robert Weniger.

“At first we had contact via e-mails, and then they asked for a sermon via the Internet,” Weniger recalled. After that, there were Internet telephone conversations via computer-to-computer Web cams first with the search committee, then with the church board and eventually with the whole congregation. He was officially installed as pastor on July 13.

Weniger said he found it exciting that the congregation was willing to operate “outside the box.”

Weniger grew up in Sioux Falls, S.D., but has lived elsewhere since college. “Family-wise, it seemed like a good time to get back to the States, and there’s something about the Midwest — a wholesomeness.”

He became a Christian at age 14 and shortly after, said he had a sense God was calling him to some kind of service. He didn’t know if he’d be a college professor or pastor.

Age: 53

Address:Albert Lea

Livelihood: pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Albert Lea

Family: wife Daniela; daughter Maddie, who is entering 11th grade at Albert Lea High School; son Chris, who is entering ninth grade at ALHS.

Interesting fact: Former President Jimmy Carter actually played a role in Robert and Daniela Weniger being able to marry. In 1987, the couple needed permission from the Romanian government to wed, and Carter wrote a letter to intervene on their behalf. The couple actually got to thank Carter in person in 2004.

“As time went on, things became more focused,” Weniger said.

While attending the University of Sioux Falls, he became interested in cross-cultural ministry and took a year off to spend with a missionary family in Bolivia and Venezuela. The experience shaped his life, he said.

After taking a couple years off, Weniger enrolled at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.

While in seminary, in 1984, he took a three-week cross-cultural trip to work with youth groups in Romania, which was still a Communist country at the time.

It was there that he met his future wife, Daniela, who was working as a translator. “We carried on a long-distance relationship, and the following summer, I spent several months there,” Weniger said.

In his last year of seminary, he flew to Romania on spring break unannounced and proposed, he said.

It took 14 months to get permission to marry from the Romanian government, and they were able to marry in May of 1987, when Weniger was working as a youth pastor in Wichita, Kan.

“We got married there, but she didn’t get her passport to leave the country until five months later. She joined me in late 1987,” he recalled.

The couple spent a few years in Wichita, then starting in 1996, went to Moscow, where Weniger taught at the Moscow Theological Seminary.

After that, the family went to serve international churches in Bolivia and Venezuela. Weniger explained that the churches are designed to serve English-speaking people — often military personnel and diplomats — in capital cities.

“These churches provide a place where people can nuture a relationship with God while they’re there,” the pastor said. “The people come from all different backgrounds.”

Daniela Weniger was able to teach fourth grade at the international schools there, and their two children, Maddie and Chris, have been educated there.

Now that the family is back in the Midwest, Weniger said he is looking forward to serving as pastor to the Calvary congregation with its varying needs.

“I’m hoping as a congregation we can grow in love for one another and reach out to the community in dynamic ways,” he said.

“My hope is that we can demonstrate the love of God to the rest of the community in practical ways,” he added.