It Happened in Crawford County: Planted in Ohio with Iowa roots

Scott Tinnermeier, a son of Wayne and Catherine Tinnermeier, was raised on a farm in Newton, Iowa, just 35 miles east of Des Moines. He has an older sister, Deb Chance; and brother Steven, who was killed in a farming accident at age 3. Scott entered school at Berg Elementary and became active in theater in middle school. He was very active in 4-H for 12 years, showing hogs, horses and other projects, even being part of the county council. He also began attending the Methodist church and getting involved in small group Bible studies, confirmation class, youth group meetings, VBS and their camps.

Scott also worked at the local Y in town as a locker room monitor. They asked him to become certified as a lifeguard, which he did, and began teaching swim lessons to children — babies with parents up to 9-10 years. He witnessed the kids responding well to him, and he could connect with them, too. Perhaps this was something he could do in the field of education? When Scott was younger, he already had his own classroom where he played teacher with his stuffed animals, assigned them homework and then graded them. One could see the handwriting on the wall; he was headed into teaching.

During high school, Scott was involved in theater every year with many plays and musicals, choir, student council, class representative for four years, and French Club. He was so involved in school, plus held down three jobs — kindergarten class, summer camp at the Y and Burger King. Scott graduated from Newton High School in 1991 and began college at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.

Besides his education in college, Scott was getting the skills he needed to grow in his Christian faith. He became involved there in the Baptist Student Union as the prayer coordinator, bible studies, mission trips to New Orleans and the children’s orphanage in Tennessee. He also went to missionary conference where he felt God leading him to do mission work.

“God, send me wherever you want me to go,” Scott said.

This led to a summer mission’s trip to Australia as part of Carpenter Tools International, a Christian singing group that performed for school-aged children. While flying to Australia, there was a bomb scare on the plane. This ended up being one of the Unabomber’s plots that lead to his capture. Meanwhile, the University of Northern Iowa started offering international teaching. One of the professors asked “why not connect students with these schools and get them a cultural experience as they do their student teaching?"

This opportunity for Scott to do student teaching led him to Cairo, Egypt, where 95% of students were Arab descent. One highlight was riding alone on horseback among the pyramids in the Sahara Desert north of Africa. The staff also took a trip up Mount Sinai on camels to see the sun rise at the first light of day. Cairo had crazy drivers, but the experience was rewarding.

After Scott got back home, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in elementary education and a minor in disabilities in the fall of 1995. Scott went back to his home town to substitute teach and ended up getting a position as a freshman tennis coach that spring at Newton High School. He also led a Bible study that he used to be part of at his church.

The question came up “have you ever thought about youth ministry?” After a return weekend trip to his university, he felt led to do youth ministry in the church. That drove him to a summer training in Minneapolis with Tent Makers Youth Ministry. He was planning to go back to his home church in Newton. However, God had other plans, which led Scott to an interview at Peace Lutheran Church in Galion. He was hired as the sixth through 12th grade youth director, so he packed up and moved to Ohio. He also did substitute teaching in local schools to supplement his income.

Scott worked at Peace Lutheran from 1996 until 1999 and then he felt led to go into full-time teaching. At this point he had an inter-generational Bible study for ages 15 to 60. During this time, he met his future wife Julie Tracht and her mother, Gloria Schwarer Tracht. Scott’s wife was a teacher at Bucyrus Middle School at the time. Scott asked her to help with a junior high retreat at Faith Ranch. While there, he heard an audible voice — “one day you are going to marry that girl.” He thought, wow, I don’t even know her that well! Over the next four years they got acquainted and became great friends.

Look for the second part of Scott's story next week.

Go online for more of Mary Fox’s stories and photos on bucyrustelegraphforum.com. If you are interested in sharing a story, write Mary Fox, 931 Marion Road, Bucyrus, OH 44820 or email littlefoxfactory@columbus.rr.com.

This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Scott Tinnermeier's faith leads him from Iowa to Ohio