Hello! We are the Greenwiches. Believing that God was calling us to work in Brazil we arrived here in 1984. It has been a wonderful experience for us and we feel that God has blessed our ministry. He has certainly blessed our lives. We raised our four children here, all of whom have since returned to the States to pursue their educational and career plans. Our work has been in the area of social ministries predominantly with the urban poor population.
In this space, we want to share some personal information about ourselves. We feel this is important as it demonstrates just how God calls and uses people from different backgrounds.
Ron’s Background:
In what seems to have become the “normal situation” in America today, I was raised in a broken, dysfunctional home setting characterized by divorce as well as by other problems related to an alcoholic step-parent. This led to conditions of poverty and, at times, life-threatening situations . To be brief, I was placed in the Arkansas Baptist Home for Children in Monticello at the age of 12 where I remained until high school graduation. It was there that I accepted Jesus as my Savior, and became a member of the First Baptist Church, where I was baptized. And it was there that I decided I wanted to be involved in some type of social work as a profession. With a children’s home stipend I attended Ouachita Baptist University, graduating with a double major in Sociology and Psychology. It was there that I met my wife, Alana, who has remained by my side since 1972. After college I attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary graduating with a Master’s degree in Religious Education with a Social Work emphasis. While there I had a one year internship through the Home Mission Board, working at the Tarrant Co. Juvenile Detention Center. Following graduation I worked at the Methodist Children’s Home in Waco, Texas for two years and then returned to the Arkansas Baptist Children’s Home for five years as a social worker. Afterwards, desiring more professional training, I entered the University of Houston Graduate School of Social Work earning the MSW degree. While studying, I worked for two years with the Christian Child Help Foundation as a resident counselor for delinquent teenaged boys and girls. Following graduate school and prior to coming to Brazil I worked for two years at the SE Arkansas Human Development Center as the program supervisor of two group homes for mildly retarded adults.
Alana’s Background:
I was very blessed to have grown up in a wonderful Christian family. As a child, I moved with my parents and younger brother to Brazil, where my parents served as missionaries for 35 years. We lived in the city of Rio de Janeiro, where my father, Bill Ichter, worked as the Director of the Music Department for the Brazilian Baptist Convention. We attended Itacuruçá Baptist Church for the first 5 years we lived in Rio. I was baptized there by my father. In 1962, we began attending the Copacabana Baptist Church. While there, I was blessed to have wonderful youth leaders – Dr. Jaime and Elide Carvalho and Waldemiro Tymchak. During the years spent at Copacabana church, I grew a lot in my Christian walk. In 1967 my family went to the States for furlough and I graduated from Minden High School in Louisiana. I graduated from Ouachita Baptist University with a major in sociology. I met Ron during my freshman year, and we began dating. We were married May 13, 1972, soon after my graduation. My previous work experience includes two years as a therapy assistant at the Methodist Home’s Child Guidance Center in Waco, TX. I was director of the preschool program for the Community Education Program in Monticello, AR for five years, and later returned as a teacher for two more years. I also worked as a resident counselor for the Christian Child Help Foundation in Houston, TX for two years while Ron completed his graduate studies. We were appointed as Missionaries with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1983 and arrived in Brazil in early 1984.
Our Children:
The Lord blessed us with four wonderful children: Jason, Jeremy, Jana and Joel.
Jason graduated from Ouachita Baptist University in 1997. He married Allyson Denton from Garland, TX that same year. They lived in Arkadelphia, AR and worked for Ouachita for three years, then moved to Ft. Worth, TX. While in Texas, Jason attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Allyson taught third grade and music at Meadowcreek Elementary School. They have three precious children: Jake, born in December 2002, Julia, born in October, 2006, and Joshua, born in April 2008. They have completed one term as missionaries Milan, Italy. You can find out more about their family and ministry at http://greenwichfamily.wordpress.com.
Jeremy graduated from Ouachita Baptist University in 2000. He married Ann Daniel from Russellville, AR a few weeks after graduation. Jeremy was a Spanish teacher and head soccer coach at Grand Prairie High School in Grand Prairie, TX for 7 years. Ann has been a dietician for Huguley Hospital in Ft. Worth. In July, 2007, they moved to Nairobi, Kenya, where Jeremy is teaching at Rosslyn Academy. They have two precious little boys: Gabe who was born in May, 2004 and Caleb, born in May, 2006 and a beautiful little girl, Madelyn Alana, born in September 2008.
Jana graduated from Ouachita Baptist University in 2004 with a major in sociology. She began working on her MSW degree at University of Arkansas at Little Rock and completed it as a Rotary Ambassador at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia in February, 2007. She is currently a social worker for Gladney Center for Adoption in Ft. Worth, TX. She married David Showalter on January 3rd, 2009 in Ft. Worth.
Joel graduated from Ouachita Baptist University in 2007, majoring in music. He loves classical guitar and has become interested in the mandolin as well. He has worked as a youth intern at Florence Baptist Church in Kentucky and Hot Springs Baptist Church in Hot Slprings, AR. He has worked for MFuge Summer camps for two summers: one summer in Mississippi and the other one in the international camps in Ecuador and Canada. He is currently attending Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California and is working towards a Master of Arts in Transcultural Studies.
