Recently, Tim said that his eye has been improving and he thinks that he will be ready to get a new prescription for
glasses next month. That will certainly be a celebration day!
Vicki´s assistant has become more excited about her relationship to the LORD. Recently, her husband´s father
passed away and shortly after the funeral, he, Erisvaldo, asked to meet with Tim. He had many questions about the
things his wife has been sharing with him. He says that his parents´ strong ties to Catholic Church doctrine make it
extremely difficult to change churches, but he is interested and has a lot more questions. Please pray for his
understanding of Scripture.
Do pray for a friend of Vicki´s, Maria, who is studying Scripture on her own. She has experienced the loss of several
loved ones in the past several years and has become increasingly tender to spiritual conversation. Several of her
children are believers and long to see their mom faithfully serving the LORD.
Thank you for your continued prayers for our parents and their health. Vicki´s dad continues to ask God for a miracle
of complete healing.
glasses next month. That will certainly be a celebration day!
Vicki´s assistant has become more excited about her relationship to the LORD. Recently, her husband´s father
passed away and shortly after the funeral, he, Erisvaldo, asked to meet with Tim. He had many questions about the
things his wife has been sharing with him. He says that his parents´ strong ties to Catholic Church doctrine make it
extremely difficult to change churches, but he is interested and has a lot more questions. Please pray for his
understanding of Scripture.
Do pray for a friend of Vicki´s, Maria, who is studying Scripture on her own. She has experienced the loss of several
loved ones in the past several years and has become increasingly tender to spiritual conversation. Several of her
children are believers and long to see their mom faithfully serving the LORD.
Thank you for your continued prayers for our parents and their health. Vicki´s dad continues to ask God for a miracle
of complete healing.
| Tim & Vicki Reiner in a Far Place |
| Baptist Mid-Missions do Brasil |
| Our Most Recent News |
| November 2009 |
| SUPERMAN, CHAMELEONS AND MISSIONARIES |
My Dad has been a missionary in Brazil for 60 years, my brother and his
wife, over 20, Vicki and I, over 30 years ministering in this needy emerging
country. Missionaries, who leave the U.S. to developing countries for long
term ministry, are always learning to adjust in two very different changing
worlds. Each time we return to the States where we were reared,
educated, and cultured, it’s not quite the same any more. Government
control and ethics have shifted some more to the left as we approach a
post-American world. Most of our friends and family look a little older and
are a little heavier.
Life adjustments need to be made with each return to developing
countries. This managing goes deeper than just dealing with climate,
language, culture, and bugs. A heart slit between the country where we’ve
ministered, reared our children, and the country oceans away where our
relatives are and now our children have gone to live. As one of our retired
long term coworkers, Russ and Judy Gordon, put it recently in a letter, “We
never feel like we fit completely into our home country and a piece of us is
always in our ‘second home’ which most of us adopted.”
Like Superman, we missionaries hear the calls for help and the sounds of
evil from the distant land. In a single bound, we believe we must leap to
assist and save those in distress. In the minds of some, we are heroes,
men of steel, lacking only the red cape and yellow “S” on our chests.
Though we are now adults and haven’t dressed that way since we were 5,
the idea does feed our egos and alters our self-perception. Though there
seems to be no connection, in the 1930’s Superman writer Jerry Siegel
and artist Joe Shuster developed this American icon in Cleveland, Ohio,
not far from Baptist Mid-Missions, our mission’s home office.
After a term on the field “saving” our part of the planet, we return to the
United States. Like many missionaries teaching and preaching in this hot,
dry, dusty, part of the world, we’re returning having just finished a
construction project, welding steel trusses, or doing a boat engine
overhaul. We guys can look pretty rough. Our hands are calloused, we
seem to have some permanent grease under our fingernails, our hair is
still stiff, and we itch, but we’re not sure from what. In this condition, we
may travel hours to get over to Mission Headquarters on Webster Road,
where the gentlemen are dressed in sharp suits with ties, and the ladies
look and smell nice. Exiting off Interstate 71 onto Pearl Avenue, dressed
quite casually, we realize that we need an outfit change before going into
the “Daily Planet”. Like Superman in reverse, we look for a “phone booth”
to change clothes so, in a mild-mannered way; we can look something like
the people in the office. The “phone booth” can be a challenge, usually
the Sunoco Service Station’s tiny restroom in which we must dance on one
foot constantly while switching out clothing that has accidently dropped to
the wet floor… several times.
Long term foreign missionaries, in particular, may feel a need to change
appearance after arriving in the States on furlough. The iguanas and
occasional chameleons in our backyard do this. Sometimes they change
color rapidly, depending on their mood, and sometimes they change slowly
depending on food, age, and temperature. Missionaries often don’t act
quite the same during their furlough months either. On the field was a
weekly routine of living and ministering. We’ve left our house, pets, and
plants. With reluctance, we have left our projects and congregations of
believers behind praying that they will grow and mature on their own.
We’ve forgotten that the church is not ours and we wonder who will still be
in attendance when we return.
Now, traveling thousands of miles on smooth American asphalt highways
with clean secure hotels, uncontaminated restaurants, and Wal-Mart, we
speak to a different supporting church each week. It may become obvious,
especially at the beginning of our furloughs that we’ve been on the foreign
field a long time. Now, out of our natural environment, we feel once again
a need to change our color. We greet hundreds of church people every
weekend, often with a silly grin saying religious stuff like, “Thank you,
brother.” And, “God bless”.
At conferences, missionaries are often told how significant it is that they
sacrifice so much. In most church services, they speak from front-center.
After a furlough of being looked at as some sort of superhero by Sunday
School children across the country, it becomes easier to live behind the
“S” than to share reality.
I like the power of the cape. But it is not real life, and I sometimes trip on it.
Neither the “S” nor the cape has ever helped when I’ve fallen short,
especially from buildings made tall by religion.
May God give to us missionaries supporting churches where we have the
freedom to hang up our capes and see no need for the camouflage.
As always, Grace Precedes Peace,
Tim Reiner
wife, over 20, Vicki and I, over 30 years ministering in this needy emerging
country. Missionaries, who leave the U.S. to developing countries for long
term ministry, are always learning to adjust in two very different changing
worlds. Each time we return to the States where we were reared,
educated, and cultured, it’s not quite the same any more. Government
control and ethics have shifted some more to the left as we approach a
post-American world. Most of our friends and family look a little older and
are a little heavier.
Life adjustments need to be made with each return to developing
countries. This managing goes deeper than just dealing with climate,
language, culture, and bugs. A heart slit between the country where we’ve
ministered, reared our children, and the country oceans away where our
relatives are and now our children have gone to live. As one of our retired
long term coworkers, Russ and Judy Gordon, put it recently in a letter, “We
never feel like we fit completely into our home country and a piece of us is
always in our ‘second home’ which most of us adopted.”
Like Superman, we missionaries hear the calls for help and the sounds of
evil from the distant land. In a single bound, we believe we must leap to
assist and save those in distress. In the minds of some, we are heroes,
men of steel, lacking only the red cape and yellow “S” on our chests.
Though we are now adults and haven’t dressed that way since we were 5,
the idea does feed our egos and alters our self-perception. Though there
seems to be no connection, in the 1930’s Superman writer Jerry Siegel
and artist Joe Shuster developed this American icon in Cleveland, Ohio,
not far from Baptist Mid-Missions, our mission’s home office.
After a term on the field “saving” our part of the planet, we return to the
United States. Like many missionaries teaching and preaching in this hot,
dry, dusty, part of the world, we’re returning having just finished a
construction project, welding steel trusses, or doing a boat engine
overhaul. We guys can look pretty rough. Our hands are calloused, we
seem to have some permanent grease under our fingernails, our hair is
still stiff, and we itch, but we’re not sure from what. In this condition, we
may travel hours to get over to Mission Headquarters on Webster Road,
where the gentlemen are dressed in sharp suits with ties, and the ladies
look and smell nice. Exiting off Interstate 71 onto Pearl Avenue, dressed
quite casually, we realize that we need an outfit change before going into
the “Daily Planet”. Like Superman in reverse, we look for a “phone booth”
to change clothes so, in a mild-mannered way; we can look something like
the people in the office. The “phone booth” can be a challenge, usually
the Sunoco Service Station’s tiny restroom in which we must dance on one
foot constantly while switching out clothing that has accidently dropped to
the wet floor… several times.
Long term foreign missionaries, in particular, may feel a need to change
appearance after arriving in the States on furlough. The iguanas and
occasional chameleons in our backyard do this. Sometimes they change
color rapidly, depending on their mood, and sometimes they change slowly
depending on food, age, and temperature. Missionaries often don’t act
quite the same during their furlough months either. On the field was a
weekly routine of living and ministering. We’ve left our house, pets, and
plants. With reluctance, we have left our projects and congregations of
believers behind praying that they will grow and mature on their own.
We’ve forgotten that the church is not ours and we wonder who will still be
in attendance when we return.
Now, traveling thousands of miles on smooth American asphalt highways
with clean secure hotels, uncontaminated restaurants, and Wal-Mart, we
speak to a different supporting church each week. It may become obvious,
especially at the beginning of our furloughs that we’ve been on the foreign
field a long time. Now, out of our natural environment, we feel once again
a need to change our color. We greet hundreds of church people every
weekend, often with a silly grin saying religious stuff like, “Thank you,
brother.” And, “God bless”.
At conferences, missionaries are often told how significant it is that they
sacrifice so much. In most church services, they speak from front-center.
After a furlough of being looked at as some sort of superhero by Sunday
School children across the country, it becomes easier to live behind the
“S” than to share reality.
I like the power of the cape. But it is not real life, and I sometimes trip on it.
Neither the “S” nor the cape has ever helped when I’ve fallen short,
especially from buildings made tall by religion.
May God give to us missionaries supporting churches where we have the
freedom to hang up our capes and see no need for the camouflage.
As always, Grace Precedes Peace,
Tim Reiner
| "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." II Corinthians 4:7 |
To Contact Us:
Surface Mail: Tim & Vicki Reiner
C.P.111
56.300-000 Petrolina, PE
Brazil
Email: timandvicki@inafarplace.com
Website: www.inafarplace.com
Surface Mail: Tim & Vicki Reiner
C.P.111
56.300-000 Petrolina, PE
Brazil
Email: timandvicki@inafarplace.com
Website: www.inafarplace.com
| P.O. Box 308011 Cleveland, OH 44130-8011 USA (440)826-3930 Baptist Mid-Missions of Canada 187 McLaughlin Drive ٠ Moncton, NB ٠ E1A4P4 (506)386-6601 |
| Getting Acquainted with our church |
Carina Elida Luna Ligo
"After my grandfather died, my family
and I began to attend church. After a
few years, my parents were both
converted; and then, at 12 years old,
I was baptized shortly after."
Her favorite verse is Philippians
4:13, which says, "I can do all things
through Christ which strengtheneth
me."
Carina serves faithfully and joyfully
alongside her husband, our Pastor
Valdir. They have two adorable
children, Calebe and Hadassah.
"After my grandfather died, my family
and I began to attend church. After a
few years, my parents were both
converted; and then, at 12 years old,
I was baptized shortly after."
Her favorite verse is Philippians
4:13, which says, "I can do all things
through Christ which strengtheneth
me."
Carina serves faithfully and joyfully
alongside her husband, our Pastor
Valdir. They have two adorable
children, Calebe and Hadassah.
| Thank You For Your Prayers |
Project Fresh Start is a ministry of the Regular Baptist Press of Brazil.
| We greet hundreds of church people every weekend, often with a silly grin saying religious stuff…. |
| Tim oversees the addition to the Church Parsonage in Villa Eduarda |
| Pastor Valdir (red shirt), pastor of the deaf, carries buckets of heavy mixed cement for the ceiling of his house. |
| A living room, master bedroom, and two small bathrooms are a welcome addition for the comfort of our faithful co-workers. |