Tim Rickel
Tim was fascinated from an early age by the missionaries who presented at his dad’s church. In those days, most had at least one huge snakeskin that they would unroll on the front pew and a story to match it. Missionary biographies for children were also intriguing, and the missionaries who stayed in the Rickel parsonage made an impression as well. Ivan and Lil Schwenn were WGM missionaries who Tim first met when they stayed in his boyhood home and whom he would later serve alongside in Honduras.
WGM also had junior prayer bands. Tim’s mom was involved in that movement from college on, and she eventually served as the Michigan State Prayer Band President. Tim has an early memory of helping mail out the Ring the Bell sheets, with stories of the impact of prayers.
At twelve, while reading Isaiah 6:8 for the first time in his bedroom, Tim heard God gently say, “I want to send you.” That calling was to pastoral ministry, which was a struggle because Tim wanted to be a missionary. But after just a few minutes he said, “Yes!” and felt the joy of being called by God to a mission. It was a year later in the children’s tabernacle after the evening service at Camp Sychar that God spoke to Tim again. This time, Richard Morse was showing a movie about Tenwek Hospital, and Tim heard God say, “Okay, now you can go to the mission field.”
By 1983 Tim was pretty sure that call was actually to make a lot of money and support missions generously. He had a brand-new degree in Communications and Broadcasting and was happily looking for his dream job. Then a missionary spoke at his church, where Tim was an active member. Dale Dorothy spoke on following the will of God. His challenge was, “If you have a five-year plan for your future, is it a plan from God, or just your plan?” Tim went forward to give his plan to God and found that God didn’t want it. He gently said, “I called you to be a missionary.” The next day Tim filled out an application with WGM, and three months later was appointed to be a missionary with WGM.
The assignment was church planting. A small outpatient clinic had been built in a Garifuna village in Honduras on the Island of Roatán. Tim’s older sister, Karen, who was a nurse, and a national pastor, Linda Flores, were already there. When Tim arrived, he was asked teach the youth of the village, which turned out to be a great way to learn Spanish! With just three months of language learning, Tim dove in. The time of harvest was at hand, and that first year thirty young people gave their lives to Christ. During those first years in Honduras, it was normal for at least one person a week to come to Christ.
Tim met Laurie, a single missionary to Bolivia, when they were both on deputation (as it was called in 1990). They married and two weeks later headed to Honduras. That was a difficult term for two people who barely knew one another, and at the end they returned home two months early and took a six-month medical leave. They left WGM for a year, focusing on their new family away from the pressures of ministry, as Alisa had been born in 1992 in Honduras.
A year later, Tim was asked to join Men With Vision. Two years later, he was asked to direct the Media Department. Three years later, he was asked to join the Field Ministries department as an assistant VP. Two years after that, he was appointed as the Vice President of Communications. Two years later he was given the role of Chief Operating Officer. A year later he was asked to move back to VP status as the VP of Development. And a year or so after that he was asked to accept the role of VP of Communication Ministries. And four years later, in 2010, he was asked to accept the role of VP of International Ministries. One thing Tim can’t be accused of is never moving offices!
During his thirty-seven years of ministry at WGM, Tim’s approach has been a willingness to serve where needed most and to seek to follow God’s will, even when the move wasn’t up and to the right. He is most proud of taking WGM from the slide era to the video production era, building the first website for WGM using the volunteer technical expertise of Richard Bowen (Andy’s brother), leading the migration of WGM from KMS to RE when he first stepped in as a VP, introducing WGM to a transformational fundraising mindset through CMS workshops, introducing WGM to the Disciple Nations Alliance and wholistic transformational ministry teachings, seeing Member Health established as a full department of WGM, and helping WGM weather storms along the way, including shepherding WGM through the pandemic. None of these initiatives originated with Tim, and others did the frontline work in accomplishing them. But Tim used his influence and position to make these things happen, and WGM is better for them.
Tim and Laurie don’t know what is next for them in retirement. There are unknowns, such as metastatic breast cancer treatment. But they believe the same God who called them to missionary service many years ago is the same God who will lead them in the next pathway of following him. For the rest of this year, there will be green valleys and still waters to enjoy as they listen for the next assignment.