WE WERE 2,525 MILES APART. THIS, HOWEVER, IS WHEN CONNECTIONS WITH OTHERS REALLY IMPACTED OUR LIVES. I was in Salem, Oregon, at Corban College and Gerald in Chattanooga, Tennessee, at Tennessee Temple University. I had an influential Missions Professor, Dr. Robert Wright, who had planted churches under communism in Romania. Meanwhile, Gerald was a fellow student of twenty Romanians who were on scholarship at the university. Separately, God put Romania on our hearts! The communist regime ended in a bloody revolution in December, 1989, and Romania was open shortly after that for the influx of the Gospel. We were married in 1992 and pursued our connection with Word of Life to serve in Romania. From 1993-1997 we served with Word of Life Romania. We were encouraged by the children and felt a strong connection with the young people in this former communist country. Unable to continue with Word of Life at that time, we were able to make a connection with TITUS International and continue to minister in Romania. God is great. He used Word of Life in our lives to challenge us to serve God full time. It wasn’t easy to change mission boards. My husband had been very connected with Word of Life growing up, and he had great experiences with Word of Life such as marathons, clubs, Teens Involved, the Bible Institute, and camps (New York, Florida and Romania) which equipped him in many ways to work with young people. The grace was granted to connect with a new team of people. We continued in youth ministry, and Gerald was given the opportunity to pastor a Romanian church and later be ordained by the pastors from the Romanian Baptist Union. We raised our four children in a community that
didn’t previously have a Christian family example.
gives them a solid foundation in God’s Word to launch forward toward further pursuits. Michael attended in 2014 and Corina in 2016. Zachary is a current student in the class 2020, and Brianna is anticipating the year 2022! Praise the Lord for our daughter, Corina’s, further connection with Word of Life South Africa! She is doing the Cross Cultural Internship program which involves a two-year commitment.
By God’s grace we grew a church from 3 to 136 members, discipled dozens of teens, and sent 21 young people to Word of Life Bible Institute (primarily in Hungary). As well as our mother church, there are four church plants in the southeast portion of Romania. With our past connection to camp ministry, we pursued that option, and God provided the funds and manpower to build a 130- bed camp facility in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. Our children are a vital part of our lives and ministry, and they are very involved in what we do. To connect them well with the Lord and His Word, we sent each one to the Bible Institute for their first year after high school. We really believe this
CONNECTIONS ARE IMPORTANT IN LIFE.
We are thankful for God’s sovereignty and His effort to connect long ago with us through His Son, Jesus, at Calvary. This is our favorite connection!
Gerald Ziemer ’89; B.S. Christian Ministries 1992/TTU Kristin (Kenyon) Ziemer’89; B.S. Intercultural Studies 1992/Corban College TITUS International Romania, 25 years Gerald, Zachary, Brianna, Kristin, Michael, and Corina Ziemer
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