Someone You Should Know: Tim Widmer

In our Someone You Should Know series, we interview Faith members to help us get to know them, see how God is working in their lives, and make new connections within our community. In this episode we get to know Tim Widmer.

Meet today's podcast guest: Tim Widmer

• Automated Transcription

• Seth Weber 0:00
  Today on faith matters, we're back at it with someone you should know joining us, Tim Weber,
  
  Seth Weber 0:11
  I'm Seth Weber, and you're listening to faith matters, a podcast designed to help you think biblically in matters of the Christian faith and update you on matters of faith, Bible, church,
  
  Seth Weber 0:39
  today with me, I've got Tim Weber, Tim, it's a pleasure to have you here. Great
  
  Tim Widmer 0:42
  to be here. Seth, tell
  
  Seth Weber 0:50
  us a little bit about where you grew up, your hometown, your childhood. Yep,
  
  Tim Widmer 0:55
  I grew up in the Spokane Valley. Student of University High School. Okay, I'll tell you the year I graduated, but it was long time ago. And come from a large family. Have four siblings and very musical family. We love to sing and yeah, so yeah, that's kind of my background where I grew up. Do
  
  Seth Weber 1:15
  you have any fun memories from your childhood? You know, it
  
  Tim Widmer 1:19
  snowed this morning. I can remember my my dad had an old tractor that he would pull us around the neighborhood on the street, okay, in the middle of the night, well, probably eight, nine o'clock when it's dark, and pull us around on toboggan or a sled behind this old tractor on the streets. Now, you probably be arrested today through that, or get thrown in jail, fine, or whatever, but I remember that specifically. It was a childhood memory. But, yeah, I have a lot of childhood memories that are pleasurable and good, nice, nice.
  
  Seth Weber 1:50
  So what did you do education after high school?
  
  Tim Widmer 1:55
  After high school, boy, I did a couple of things right after high school. I worked for a little bit, and then I went and I was also going to school, to Inland Empire School of the Bible, which met at fourth Memorial, could throw out some old names that maybe the older folks would remember. But anyway, went there for a couple years. And then after that, a friend of mine and I that I grew up with at fourth Memorial, we went to Cape and Ray Bible School in New Zealand and Australia, and we were gone for a year. So that was a great experience. We had lots of, lots of, of great times there with the people and our professors in New Zealand and Australia and and then after that, I went to St Paul Bible school. Now it's called crown college, it's in Minnesota. And went there for two years. And after that, I came home and finished up my education degree at Eastern Washington University. Okay, so to become a teacher, you got educated all over the place. I did get educated all over the place. So I squeezed four years of college into about seven years.
  
  Seth Weber 3:02
  So tell us what you did after college. Then after college,
  
  Tim Widmer 3:06
  after college, I met my beautiful wife, Leslie, and we were married in 1979 we got married in August and September. I got my first teaching job out at Sprague High School. Okay, if you've gone to Seattle on Interstate 90, you've seen that little, cute little town 37 miles west of Spokane, and I taught there at the high school. So I taught and coached several sports, and we spent six years there, wow. And then after that, the Lord took us other places.
  
  Seth Weber 3:40
  So tell us you said you met Leslie, and tell us about your family a little bit.
  
  Tim Widmer 3:45
  We were married in 79 and a couple years after we got married, we had our first son, and he was born in 1981 His name is Sean. He's married to his wife, Anna. They live in Lexington, Kentucky, and they have three kids. And then a couple years later, we had our daughter, and she is married to Reed Carroll, and he's a Spokane police officer, lives a mile down the road from us, and they have three kids, nice. And then 13 years later, we had our little guy. That was a surprise, but the Lord blessed us with Travis, and he and his wife Naomi, live over in Everett, and they both teach school in the muckle teal School District, and have two children. So we have eight grandkids total, three of them here in Spokane, and the rest of them live elsewhere. So yeah, that's
  
  Seth Weber 4:34
  great. Yeah, eight grandchildren for the price of of only three kids. That's not bad. That's not bad, right?
  
  Tim Widmer 4:39
  You know, possibly one more, but maybe eight is gonna be the number, right? That's
  
  Seth Weber 4:46
  that's really cool. Tell us how you came to know Jesus.
  
  Tim Widmer 4:49
  My folks were very involved at fourth Memorial Church. That's the church I grew up in, and so from childhood, I remember Sunday school classes at Sunday School T. Teachers, and that poured into my life. As a kid, I spent every summer a week and a week in the winter at River bible camp. So a lot of people poured into my life, and probably when I was I would say seven, eight years old, one Sunday night, our pastor gave a sermon, and it was a challenging sermon on the gospel and the new need for Christ. And that night, I went home in the quietness of my own bedroom, received Christ as my Lord and Savior. So that was my salvation experience. And from there, it's just a progressive growth process, you know, becoming more like Christ. So but I can look back and know for sure, that's when I turn my life over to Him.
  
  Seth Weber 5:44
  That's good. That's cool to hear. So how did you guys end up at Faith Bible Church?
  
  Tim Widmer 5:49
  When I finished my six years at Sprague High School, we sensed the Lord's direction and nudging towards missions. We'd both grown up in families that were very missions, conscience and and we had missionaries in her home, less had missionaries in her home. Her uncle was a superintendent of schools in in the Philippines, and so we were very influenced by missionaries that were on the field and came home. Okay, talk about missions. So from our beginning married life, we had talked about maybe the Lord would use us in our gifts and talent, talents that he's given to us on the mission field someplace. And so after six years at Sprague high school, I met with, surprisingly, Dave belch, who was an administrator at Christian Academy in Venezuela, okay? And he said, Hey, I'm gonna be home on a short furlough. Would you like to have lunch? And I said I would love to so we met at zips out at Cheney, and I remember him sharing the need for missionary kids, teachers, and so we prayed about it. And at the time, we were attending fourth Memorial Church, and fourth sent us. And at that time, you know, Faith became kind of an offshoot of fourth Memorial Church. Okay, put it mildly, and so we kind of had to, I don't know if the word is choose, but we had to, kind of, like, decide who was going to be our sending church. And I don't know, the Lord just really impressed upon both our hearts that we would choose a faith, and we still have very, very fond connections and memories of fourth Memorial Church. So they were originally our sending church, and faith became then our City Church. So that's how it turned out.
  
  Seth Weber 7:35
  Okay, so you're on the mission field. How long were you on the mission field? We Well, we were
  
  Tim Widmer 7:39
  a team for 13 years. One year was at language school in Costa Rica, and then 10 years at the missionary kids school teaching. I taught everything from life science to a Bible class to PE to Spanish, beginning Spanish, so just a lot of different subjects. Do you have any fun memories from oh my goodness, are you serious? Well, we could go on and on. It was the perfect environment to raise our two older children. They grew up there, and our son graduated from there. I would say a highlight. Just one highlight was the Christmas Eve and the New Year's Eve, specifically, New Year's Eve celebrations in our town, okay, it was loud. It went on all night long. Fireworks. They would set up. They called Old Men of the year. They'd make these guys out of, you know, stuff them full of fireworks and shirts and pants and head and and their mortars in there, and sparklers and things that flew out. And then at midnight, they dumped some kerosene over it, lit it on fire. And you would stand there like 10 feet away, and the thing would just blow up like a bomb, and things would fly out of it, and people would run and and the town was filled with smoke and and people were laughing, and it was just amazing. And when we came back to Spokane, our first New Year's Eve, our kids looked at us said, this is the most boring New Year's Eve we have ever experienced our whole life. It was cold, it was dark, you couldn't go outside. So those are great memories. I mean, there's just a different culture, but just a lot of fun. Oh, my goodness. And then, you know, you had half of the day was light at 75 degrees, and half of it was dark at about 70 degrees. Wow, yeah, wow. That
  
  Seth Weber 9:35
  sounds like a great place to go run around outside. Okay, so you're there for 10 years we were what brings you back to Spokane? God, okay, right.
  
  Tim Widmer 9:45
  So we left in 1987 had a couple of home assignments, and we returned to live here at 2000 our older son graduated in 2000 and between. Kind of the uncertainty. Where the school was heading, and our son, being 18 years old, heading back to the states, kind of not knowing what he would be doing. We just sensed that we probably should be here just helping with that transition. So the Lord brought us back. And when we came back, my wife is a dreamer. I'm pretty concrete, sequential and not a dreamer. And she asked me one day, what do you think you'd like to do when we go back to the States? Well, I have my teaching degree. And I said, Well, I probably will go and teach school someplace. She said, What would you like to teach? And I said, I'd love to teach Spanish. Well, I don't have a degree in Spanish from Eastern but I was grandfathered in to teach anything. So I qualified, and with my background and my education in Costa Rica, that gave me good qualifications. And she said, Where would you like to teach? And I said, Oh, I'd love to teach out in the mead district. Well, wouldn't you know it? There was a lady that was just retiring Spanish teacher, so I got a part time sub position when I got back and she retired tired halfway through the year, and it turned out to be a 1.0 continuing contract. It was a miles McCann High School, and I spent 20 years there, wow. And they were wonderful. God's perfect timing. God perfect timing, and the amount of relationships I built with students there and was able to build for the gospel. Was just mind blowing. It was God. God ordained. That's
  
  Seth Weber 11:27
  so cool. Yeah, so when you, when you guys came back from the mission field, how, how did you get involved at Faith, Bible Church, and how have you been involved over the years?
  
  Tim Widmer 11:36
  I think we stepped in a little bit with fear and trembling, like, where's our spot? You know, because people move on, and we move on and and so things, things aren't the same. They're just, they can't be right. And so it was difficult for us to kind of to find our spot. No Fault on faith, Bible, church at all. It was just, it was just a difficult our kids were in a different place. Our son was, our older son was in a different place. Our daughter was a junior in high school. We had to find a place for her. We thought it would be great, great to be at Mount Spokane because I was teaching there, and we've we found a house to rent. It was in Mount Spokane district. Oh, God, or God, worked out the whole all the details. So that's and then So, little by little, we just got involved at Faith, Bible Church, and now we lead a small group meets at the Swanson house, and we meet in Sunday evenings. So that's been a good use of our giftedness, and then just, you know, getting involved in in young men and young women's lives who are beginning their marriages. And so we've been able to kind of walk through life together with certain individuals and discipleship and mentoring. And so that's kind of where, where we're involved. And Les has been involved in women's ministries. And so, yeah, great,
  
  Seth Weber 13:01
  great, making disciples. That's what it's all about. Absolutely.
  
  Tim Widmer 13:04
  Another ministry that I have been involved in here for the for several years is the global outreach team under Nathan Thiry supervision. So we meet probably once a month, and it's just five or six men that love missions, that love the Lord, that love to see his word proclaimed globally. And so it's just been a just fits my, my giftedness, to be on this, this team, and to give any sort of input I might have as we see missionaries be launched from faith, Bible Church. So that's been a great, a great ministry to be involved in. I thank the Lord for it. So
  
  Seth Weber 13:40
  does that team like is that, are you guys kind of like giving recommendations to the elders about, like, who should we send, or like, how to support the missionaries? Yes.
  
  Tim Widmer 13:48
  I mean, we'll give our input, and then Nathan Brian will, Brian Right bull will take it to the elder team. And so we kind of work in conjunction with with the elders. So, yeah,
  
  Seth Weber 14:03
  wonderful. What has God been teaching you lately?
  
  Tim Widmer 14:07
  I just finished up the book of first and second. The books of first and second, Thessalonians and I love the verse in Second, Thessalonian three five, where it says, May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ. And I never really had seen that verse before. I mean, I don't recall the last time I've read Second Thessalonians, and it just jumped out at me. And I thought, What a great verse that God would continue to direct my heart to his love, which is unlimited, and to the steadfastness of Christ. And I look throughout my life and see there are times of maybe some wandering up and down, difficulties in relationships. But through it all, Christ has been steadfast, and he has held on to me so. Uh, not, not because I deserve it, or I have it all together because I don't, because he has it all together, and it's because of His perfect love. So that's kind of what he's taught me through the study of Thessalonians. That's
  
  Seth Weber 15:13
  really good. How can we as a church be praying for Tim Widmer right now, for
  
  Tim Widmer 15:19
  the past couple of years. So No, actually, three years I was a police chaplain, and I did that with fear and trembling completely outside of my comfort zone and but just since, after three years, I would really like to get involved in some kind of ministry where you build relationships and being a chaplain, you do for a couple hours, but then you know, you pray and you move on. And so the Lord's directed me to World Relief, and I have a family with some other people here from faith, kind of formed a neighborhood team. And the family we work with is from Afghanistan. They've been here a year, and it's just challenging. You don't speak the language. Their daughters, we got them enrolled in chin in the Cheney School District. Okay, so the girls are learning English, and the man has had health issues, and it's just very, it's very difficult, because not knowing the language, it's it's hard. And so I would just pray that I would have steadfastness, that I would the Lord would give me compassion, that he would help me look outside of myself, because sometimes it's inconvenient. You know, you need to get called like, what am I supposed to do? And and I didn't plan on this being in my schedule, so that the Lord would just help me to see that these people need Christ, and there's a bigger there's something bigger going on than my little world and then just leading the growth group, praying for and leading the guys, the men, especially that are in our growth group, that I'd be faithful and and be available to them and serve them well as Christ served the church.
  
  Seth Weber 17:00
  Very good. Are you ready for the speed round? Am I ready bring it?
  
  Seth Weber 17:12
  Cats or dogs? Neither.
  
  Seth Weber 17:15
  Pineapple on pizza? Yes. Pets. Favorite book, besides the Bible,
  
  Tim Widmer 17:21
  I'm gonna say, because I just read it recently, islands of the world.
  
  Seth Weber 17:25
  Favorite band, Chicago. Chicago. Nice, nice. Favorite movie or TV show, Hoosiers. Okay, all right, nice. I haven't seen that one, but I've heard of it like it's classic. It is a classy what would you do with the extra time? If you didn't have to sleep? I'd
  
  Tim Widmer 17:43
  play pickleball just all night, all night long. If my legs would hold up and I, you know, quit pulling muscles, I would play it all night long. Favorite
  
  Seth Weber 17:51
  place to eat out in Spokane, we like twigs, all right, that's the end. That's it. Yeah, wow. Tim Weber is one of these people at Faith, Bible Church that you need to know so Thanks for joining
  
  Tim Widmer 18:02
  us. Thank you. Seth, been pleasure. You

Seth Weber

Seth is the Communications Director at Faith Bible Church and loves anything to do with design, video, audio and tech. He and his wife Kaitlyn have four children.

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