A Life of Service: From FPU to the Missions Field

Throughout his 96 years, Vernon has exemplified his own advice time and time again.

Vernon was raised in a Mennonite Brethren church in Orland, CA, where a heart for missions was instilled in him from an early age.

“I remember as a child sitting on those wooden benches and watching black and white slides of Africa,” Vernon recalled. “I said, ‘Someday I’ll serve overseas in missions.’ I grew up with that feeling and that desire, so I went to PBI [Pacific Bible Institute, now Fresno Pacific University] with that interest.”

At the time, PBI was just a few years old with a student enrollment of 178. But that didn’t stop it from having an outsized influence on the young man from Orland.

“My years at PBI were very important in the shaping of my life and ministry,” he said.

Serving Where Needed

His coursework centered on missions, but it was the practical experiences that had the greatest influence. One of those experiences was building relationships with a community of migrant workers.

“I spent time with the boys, in a tent, and had meetings with them, just learning to share the gospel. I don’t remember such great success there or anything,” he said, laughing a bit, “but it was an opportunity to share.”

One year, a couple from the Navajo Gospel Mission in Arizona came to speak about their work. They shared a need for help, so Vernon volunteered. To get there, he hitchhiked his way from Fresno down to Winslow, Arizona, a distance of some 650 miles.

That experience piqued his interest in Native American culture, so, during his last year at PBI, he and a friend drove to South Dakota to spend the summer with the Sioux people.

Then there were the visits to the local rescue mission, the prayer group specifically centered on missionaries, and the mentors who poured into Vernon and affirmed his calling. “All of that served to prepare my heart more and more for cross-cultural work.”

In addition to the way that PBI shaped Vernon’s future ministry, it had another major influence on his life: it was there, during his final year, that he met the woman who would become his wife.

“I fell in love with her right away,” he said of JoElla. “I heard about her coming and heard about what kind of lady she was and she just really impressed me.”

Answering the Call

Vernon and JoElla were wed three years later, just before Vernon’s final year at Dallas Theological Seminary. The following year, they were sent to Colombia, which was embroiled in a civil war that had begun eight years earlier and had claimed the lives of thousands.

“The [mission] office said, ‘You need to go soon because your visa is valid and you need to go to Colombia,’” Vernon recalled. “The doctor said, ‘No, don’t go now because you’re expecting a baby!’ So we wrote the office and said, ‘This is what the doctor said.’”

Given the immediate need and the timeframe of their visas, the office still urged them to go.

“He was between a rock and a hard place,” Vernon said. “And so it was decided that we would go.”

Less than 24 hours after the Reimers landed in Cali, Colombia, their daughter was born.

Vernon and JoElla spent four years in the jungle of Chocó with the Wounaan people, then another fifteen in Cali. They answered a call to a pastorate in California for several years, then led a Bible school in Uruguay for nearly a decade before landing in Bakersfield, where they were involved in both the English and Spanish-speaking congregations at Heritage Bible Church. In 2012, they moved to Palm Village, the Mennonite Brethren retirement community in Reedley. At every step along the way, they shared the gospel and ministered to those around them because, as Vernon put it, they “liked to be actively involved.”

A Full-Circle Journey

The Reimers’ connection to Fresno Pacific came full circle in recent months. They had participated in the annual Mennonite Central Committee Relief Sale on FPU’s campus for several years, but this past year, Vernon heard about a need for volunteers in the alumni coffee booth. And so, the Reimers found themselves serving coffee and sharing about their time at PBI all those years ago.

As Vernon reflected on his life’s story and his time at PBI, his words embody his own encouragement to be available.

“If it can serve to encourage anybody else,” he said, the smile evident in his voice, “that would be a blessing.”