Church of the Brethren Sudan Initiative

The Assessment Team is made up of Phil and Louise Rieman, former Sudan staff, and Enten Eller, Bethany professor and IT person. Read on to learn more about them!

Phil and Louise (Louie) Baldwin Rieman

Phil was born in Chicago, raised in North Manchester, Indiana, son of Timothy Wayne and Gwen Radebach Rieman, an ordained minister/Religion and Philosophy professor and homemaker/librarian. After high school he worked a year and served two years in Brethren Volunteer Service in inner city, Baltimore, working with disadvantaged youth and children and helping to restore poor housing with his carpentry and handyman skills. Then he attended Manchester College, majoring in Sociology and Secondary Education. That’s where he met Louie.

Louise, known as Louie, was born in Nigeria, Africa to missionary parents Elmer and Ferne Strohm Baldwin, he, a minister with many other skills and she, an educator, ending up as a professor of sociology at Manchester College. Louie attended a mission boarding school and came to the United States for her last two years of high school, then entered Manchester College where she majored in Sociology and Psychology. That’s where she met Phil.

Shortly after graduation from college Phil and Louie went to the Democratic Republic of the Congo where they served as missionary houseparents to youth going to school away from home. When they returned to the States Phil worked as a social worker and teacher before Louie felt the call to go to seminary. By then they were a family of five. Louie got her Master of Divinity degree, was ordained in the Church of the Brethren and served as a pastor in South Bend while Phil, who had decided later to get his Master of Divinity, finished his degree. After pastoring there five years, the Riemans moved to Iowa where Phil and Louie tried team ministry in a rural setting. After serving there seven years, with their children in college, they felt called to go to the Sudan where they lived in a war zone, trying, through the New Sudan Council of Churches, to help the Sudanese with their struggle to live in their dire situation. While helping the Sudanese learn more about Jesus’ teachings of peace, they were also inspired by the faith and tenacity of the Sudanese and learned from them as well.

The Riemans served the Sudanese for 4 years, then returned to pastoral ministry, first in Wabash, In., and now in Indianapolis where they serve in team ministry at the Northview Church of the Brethren.

The Riemans have been a part of and led Christian workcamps in this country and in Nigeria and Sudan, helped for two months in preparation for a major peace conference in South Sudan, and have taken other groups of Brethren to learn more about the Sudanese in faith advocacy trips . They have also helped in soup kitchens and with hospitality to homeless people in Indiana.

They believe Christians are "to continue the work of Jesus" – "for the glory of God and our neighbor’s good."

Enten Eller

Enten Eller was born and raised in La Verne, California, son of Vernard and Phyllis Eller. After high school in La Verne, Enten attended Bridgewater College (Virginia), graduating summa cum laude with a B.A. in the double major of Physics and Mathematics. Before his senior year, however, he was convicted in a federal trial for not registering for the draft as he followed the peace teachings of the Church of the Brethren, and so after graduation he served several years of court-ordered alternative service.

After his service, Enten pursued ministry studies while at the same time beginning his own computer business. During this period he served three terms on the board of On Earth Peace Assembly. He completed his Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree in 1991 from Bethany Theological Seminary, Oak Brook, Illinois, and began serving as a bi-vocational Team Pastor (pastoring as well as continuing his business as a computer consultant) at churches first in rural Minnesota, then Indiana. While serving in Minnesota, Enten spent time in Africa twice, assisting with technology and training first the New Sudan Council of Churches, then a year later the All Africa Conference of Churches (Nairobi, Kenya). While in Indiana, Enten became tri-vocational, serving as pastor, computer consultant, and also Executive Director of the local mediation services, utilizing his training as a mediator and conflict resolution trainer. During this period Enten also served with the Church of the Brethren Ministry of Reconciliation.

While in Indiana Enten became ill with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and as a result of his complete disability left all three of his positions. He eventually relocated back to La Verne, where he helped start a small international community in his home. But after nearly seven years of disability, a miraculous healing allowed him to first volunteer for Hurricane Katrina relief with the Red Cross and with the Church of the Brethren’s Disaster Child Care, followed shortly by a call to join the faculty of Bethany Theological Seminary (now in Richmond, IN) as their Director of Distributed Education and Electronic Communication, where he now serves.

Enten enjoys bicycling and gardening, and carries as his personal motto “Continuing the work of Jesus... peacefully, simply, together.”