Tim Hiller is embarking on a ministry mission to Trinidad and Bronco fans can follow along on www.wmubroncos.com.  Tim will be supplying diary entries throughout his trip and passing along photos of his trip.  A full video of his time in Trinidad will be available through Bronco Insider upon his return home.  Click on the graphic shown below, which will be on the home page and the front football page.

Western Michigan quarterback Tim Hiller, along with a group of 22 others, will travel to the island nation of Trinidad for a ministry mission, beginning today (April 30).  Hiller's devotion to community service and his faith has known no boundaries during his time in the Brown & Gold and now he expands his efforts across the boundaries of the United States to continue his efforts.

Hiller, along with former Bronco student-athletes Michelle DeNooyer, Dan Krasinski and Danielle Hockstra will join his pastor, Dan Teerman (Third Reformed Church in Kalamazoo) and a larger group of WMU and Kalamazoo Valley Community College students on this mission lasting through May 8.

He said that Pastor Teerman has been involved for years with missions and Trinidad & Tobago Urban Ministries (TTUM) in particular.  He and his wife started a program, Hearts for Missions, that prepares people like Tim to go on these missions, teaching them about their purpose and helping them to understand the culture they are about enter.

“I wanted to go last summer but the schedule conflicted with football but my pastor has been going for a number of years and has taken over 20 ministry teams to Trinidad,” said Hiller.

This trip is not an all-expense paid vacation for any involved.  It costs approximately $1,200 per individual to go and during these extremely difficult economic times Hiller said he was blessed that people answered his letters, numbering 40-50, asking for funds for this mission.

The group will arrive late in the evening on April 30 and get to work with their purpose for being in the impoverished nation.  “When people think of Trinidad, they think of Trinidad & Tobago.  Tobago is the tourist area and more affluent.  Trinidad is where a high percentage of the population lives and is the most impoverished,” added Hiller.

During the first full day of the mission the group will visit schools, help paint and refurbish buildings and visit “squatter” neighborhoods to spread their message.  Hiller said the group will set up tents in yards and that will be their headquarters.  Families will drop children off in the morning and then go about their day.  The hope is to get entire families involved in the effort to start a church.

Approximately 90 percent of the Trinidad population follows the Hindu religion with the other 10 percent following Christianity.  Even though there are little to know language barriers, the national language is English, there are cultural barriers that this group needed to be aware of prior to embarking on their trip.

“English is the primary language but there is a very strong Caribbean dialect.  Culturally we took a class on understanding and respecting their culture in terms of how you dress (no camouflage) things you say and the way you say them.

“There is an understanding Christianity is the minority, there is not persecution, there is an openness. We are in no way looking to disrespect their current beliefs and lifestyles.  The purpose is to show love and respect to them.  How you treat people is the most important,” commented Hiller.

Hiller added that even though there will be a work aspect to this mission, it is primarily a ministry mission, and one area where the group will travel and may have the most impact is the youth prison in Trinidad.  The correctional system in the country is reversed from what people in this country understand.  When a person is accused of a crime he/she will spend time in prison awaiting trial.  If the person is found innocent, he/she is released but has lost that time in their lives.  If he/she is found guilty, the sentence does not incorporate time already served.

“These kids could spend up to three years in prison waiting to get a trial so there is no hope among them.  That is what they are looking for and that is what we hope to give them.”

The visit to youth prisons and AIDS orphanages will take place on May 2, the second full day of the mission.  The rest of the time will be filled with vacation bible school visits, orphanage visits and the like.  “Our primary reason for this trip is spreading faith and the message of the Gospel.  There will be no cell phones, no school, no distractions.  This is what we are there to do and I feel blessed to have this opportunity.”

According to the Orrville, Ohio, native, this mission has parallels to his and the Western Michigan football team's community service efforts locally.  There are vast differences in the opportunities for kids in Southwest Michigan and Trinidad, as well as what is seen as having success but to Hiller to boils down to one simple truth.

“It is all in the way you handle yourself and treat people, it doesn't change much.  Yes, there are differences between the things we have here versus Trinidad.  Kids in Trinidad may not go past eighth grade.  There are many parallels and it comes back to how you treat people throughout your life,” said Hiller.

The drive towards community service is something that was instilled in Hiller from an early age.  His family conducted efforts has a family (his parents Tom, Amy and his brother Matthew) growing up, working with the Salvation Army as one example, and he recalls his father being very involved in the Boys and Girls Club.  When Tim moved onto high school he entered the National Honor Society.  The organization is built on four “pillars” ? scholarship, leadership, service and character.  Tim took to all of these, including the service aspect of the NHS.  As vice president of his chapter during his senior year at Orrville High School he was very active in community service and that has not changed.

“We are mandated to do community service as a part of being members of the WMU football team and I enjoy it.  I love helping out with area kids and going to schools or churches to speak.”

Hiller gave faith-based speeches at 20 different locations during this past year as well as going to an area high school (Portage Central) to tutor students.  He begins every January and continues through the remainder of their school year.  “I have come to know Kathy Brennan at Portage Central and it is a way I can help her and her students.”

Tim Hiller knows he has much to be thankful for in his life and that includes his role as Western Michigan's quarterback.  It does not take him long to relive memories of his childhood or more recent memories of his first years on campus to know who are the people in his life that has brought him to where he is today.

Hiller's grandfather, Dan Sabino, was a member of Illinois' 1952 Rose Bowl team.  He and Tim always talk about football and would watch reel-to-reel films of Sabino's playing days with the Illini.  “He is a great man.  He had a chance to play in the pros but decided to serve in Korea.  We talk all the time about football and he is on the web site a lot.  He knows what's going on before I do some time.  He enjoys living through this since he went through it.

“He was thrilled with the win over Illinois.  It was about the only game of the year he missed because he was in Florida but he listened to the entire game.  He was rooting for the Broncos all the way.”

The other person that has made an impact on Tim's playing career is former WMU standout quarterback Tim Lester.  Lester coached Hiller during his freshman campaign in 2005 and was on staff during the 2006 season that found Hiller on the sideline rehabilitating torn knee ligaments.

It goes almost unnoticed by Hiller, and he may be the only one, that he is on the verge of overtaking his mentor in many statistical categories in the WMU record book.  Hiller does not know where he stands in many of those areas, except for maybe one, but he also does not feel that will be his staying legacy when he leaves this program.  He also doesn't put these records ahead of the bigger goals for the team.

“My only goal is to win as many games as possible, go out on top as a senior, get a MAC Championship, make a lot of memories and stay healthy.  Records are made to be broken, if I don't someone will come along and do it.  It would be a great honor to be in the same company as Tim Lester.  He was my coach, he is my friend now.  He is a mentor and someone for whom I have a lot of respect.  He, and so many like him, have paved the way for a lot of quarterbacks here at Western Michigan.

“I am aware of the touchdown passes record because Lester talked, jokingly, with me about it.  That's really the only one I really have an idea of the numbers, I don't think yards a measurement of efficiency.  It's more about touchdown-interception ratio and completion percentage.

“Those are things [records] you don't think about, you go out and play and if they happen, great.  It's nice, I am honored but it is not something I am focusing on.”

It may not be something the humble signal caller is focused on but the numbers do not lie.  He is 13 touchdown passes from a new WMU career record and 25 from a new Mid-American Conference career record.  As for touchdown-interception ratio and completion percentage, Hiller has a 76:28 ratio compared to his mentor's 87:38.  Heading into his final season, Hiller is completing 64.4 percent of his passes and has the second, third and fifth highest single-season completion percentages in Bronco football history.

When it is all said and done, Hiller knows it is not how many touchdowns he throws or yards he amasses that people will remember.  It will be the type of person he was when the helmet and pads came off and he was among his fellow Western Michigan University brethren.

“I would like to think I made a difference in peoples' lives, left WMU better than when I got here.  People only remember how you played for so long.  They will remember how you treated people, how you made them feel and impacted them, helped them out.  They will remember that much longer.”