Ron Riemar – A Passion for Christ

BY JACLYN ROSE –

Ron Riemar grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and met his wife, Vickie, while attending the Glorietta Baptist Conference Center in Glorietta, New Mexico, where they were both sponsors for youth camp.  The couple married in 1982 and lived in Vickie’s home state of Texas. “Vickie and I don’t consider our marriage a commitment, but a covenant.  I can make a commitment and then break it tomorrow but a covenant is a life-long commitment, and how the Bible describes marriage.  We choose daily to stay together, though life has a lot of ups and down, the covenant is what keeps us together for life.  And God is a part of it, and has been the central focus in our marriage from the very beginning.  There have been times when we don’t like each other, or love each other like we should, but we work through it because of the covenant, and we have found that working through those difficult times is what makes us stronger,” explained Riemar.

The Riemars have two children, Lauren and Stephen, both college graduates in their twenties.  “The greatest satisfaction I have in being a dad is seeing both my kids serving God.  They are both highly involved in their churches and in missions, they are both involved in teaching youth also,” said Riemar.

When Riemar was in high school he began to work with his local church and this continued after graduation.  With some of his buddies, he began working with different outreaches, which lead to Riemar sensing a calling on his life for the ministry.  Riemar married his wife in December of 1982 and accepted his first church position in Nacogdoches, Texas in March of that same year.  “God moved us around quite a bit the first 10-12 years of our marriage, before we had kids, and I attended college wherever I was, several years later I had 141 college hours and no degree, so I stopped for a while.  Six years ago, I completed my degree from Excelsior College.  My major is Wild Life Biology and I minored in Religion and Music,” Riemar explained.

For 17 years, Riemer served at a church in Hope, Arkansas as Youth and Music Minister and then the Youth and Education Association Pastor.  He read of an opening in Mena at Dallas Avenue Baptist Church and sent in his resume, and in September of 2011 accepted a position as the Worship and Media Pastor.  “About 20 years ago, The Christian Motorcyclist Association put on a PETRA concert and I brought up a group from Hope.  A buddy and I were talking and he said, this is the neatest town, I would give anything to live here and I agreed.  Some time later I killed a black bear near here and took it to Potter to have it processed and I thought, I really like this town, but I never thought I would get the opportunity to live here,” Riemar explained.

An avid outdoorsman, Riemar greatly enjoys hunting, fishing, hiking and riding his motorcycle up the mountain.  He also serves as the Ouachita Baptist Association Camp Committee Chairman and has helped build up an Adventure Camp that ties in the outdoors with biblical lessons for teenagers. “I love the outdoors here; it is one of my passions in life.  I love to spend time in God’s creation. I also love to teach and feel I teach in a way that brings the hard things of the gospel and makes them easy to understand.  It also blesses my socks off to be able to lead worship with such a talented group of people every Sunday.  Through time our group has really gelled and the harmony and unity is just wonderful.  I love the people in Polk County; they are genuine and are really open and real folks.  You have difficulties anywhere you go, but the folks here are down to earth and genuine folk,” Riemar said.

About Author

Jeri Pearson

Jeri is the News Director for Pulse Multi-Media and Editor of The Polk County Pulse. She has 10 years of experience in community focused journalism and has won multiple press association awards.

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