The Way Home

 

So, after a long hiatus, here’s a new entry . . .

Where are Eric and Janet Thimell now and what are they doing?  Obviously too busy to be running a blog.  But seriously, to make a long story short, we completed seven years of co-laboring with the Buris at the En Gedi Hospitality House and ministering at Mountain Home Air Force Base in August 2019.  Our vice president for field ministries at Cadence International asked us to consider limited term ministry at Victory Ranch Retreat Center in South Carolina.  That limited term became 3-1/2 years directing a very fruitful military ministry in the South Carolina Midlands. 

We began by running retreats for the AIT students from Ft Jackson and the Navy’s trainees with Task Force Marshall at Camp McCrady. Then COVID came and the military retreats dried up.  But we continued to tap into one day events for individual chapel groups and various church groups in the area.  Soon we were also leading men’s and women’s ministries at Shaw Air Force Base. In April 2023, in anticipation of new directors coming, we moved off the Victory Ranch campus to a new home in Eastover just 5-1/2 miles away.

In 2024 Trevor and Jen Claypool, newly retired from the Marine Corps, came and took the helm freeing us to dig in more deeply at Shaw.  Eric began doing pulpit fill at Shaw Palmetto Chapel as well as filling in at a weekly on base Bible Study.  And Eric and Janet continued to work on projects at Victory Ranch—Janet helping Jen and Eric helping Trevor.

In 2025, Eric and Janet had accumulated 42 years of service with Cadence International and were formally appointed as Cadence Ambassadors.  This role allows them greater independence in their ministry as they get older. Their ministry at Shaw preaching and teaching continues strongly.