Lerer, who is the wife of Butler County Health Commissioner and pediatrician Robert J. Lerer, serves on the board of two regional missionary organizations, Equipping Ministries International, based in Springdale, and Caring Partners International, based in Franklin.
Early in her career, she worked as a medical and surgical nurse for various doctor’s offices and hospitals in Butler County before being recruited to be the first director of medical services and health care coordinator for Transitional Living Inc., Butler County’s program for individuals with disabilities due to developmental delays and mental illness.
“Transitional Living was an early leader in deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill in Ohio and in the integration of such citizens into the mainstream of society,” said Robert Lerer. “She created the nursing division, serving as their first nurse. She held her position for over a decade, until her retirement into ministry.”
Through her two missionary organizations, she estimates to have made around 60 overseas trips since 1991, traveling to Nicaragua, Brazil, the Ukraine, Russia, China, India, Japan, Turkey, Mexico and Cuba.
Additionally, the Lerers have served as facilitators for the Third Option marriage counseling program and the Mending Hearts grief counseling program for children, both based in the John Engle Counseling Center at the First Methodist Church in Hamilton. “The Third Option aims at strengthening marriages and preventing separation and divorce,” Dr. Lerer said. “Hundreds of Butler County couples have been helped in the 15 years since the program started locally.”
Who’s in charge?
When the couple married in 1988, a second marriage for both, it was rocky from the start.
“The first six years were really awful,” she said. “We fought all the time and started taking counseling almost right away. Our counselor said ‘you two are like two cats with their tails tied together and thrown over a clothesline.’ ”
A lot of their issues had to do with power and control, she said. He was a prominent pediatrician and Butler County Health Commissioner. She was a nurse and social worker who had not only run the head of her department at Transitional Living Inc., but had been the head of her household for 12 years as she raised her two children.
“I was used to being in charge, too,” she said.
On a mission
In 1991, things began to turn around for them when a colleague approached Dr. Lerer at a Fairfield Rotary Club meeting about going on a missionary trip to deliver medical supplies to Nicaragua. He agreed, but with one stipulation: That Janis go, too.
“That was fine with me because it was medical and I could go and wear my nurse’s hat,” she said. “We thought it would be our great adventure, but it turned out to be a life-changing experience.”
The trip was made under the auspices of Caring Partners International, now based in Franklin, then in Middletown, and what affected the Lerers more than the conditions of poverty they witnessed there was the witnessing that came every morning as the members of the delegation made their devotions.
“There were some ladies on that trip who kept talking about a closer relationship with God, and we got curious about what that meant,” she said. “There wasn’t just one thing, but planting the seed for us to start searching. We were very fortunate in that we started on a parallel spiritual search together.”
After that trip, Lerer left her job at Transitional Living and went to work at Lifeway Christian Counseling, and there she discovered Lifeway’s sister organization, Equipping Ministries International, a Springdale-based ministry that teaches life and leadership skills from a faith-based perspective to people in 70 different countries.
Learning to listen
The couple started taking lessons in listening there in 1992.
“We were both trying to win our arguments and nobody was really listening,” she said. “We had to learn to keep our mouth shut and listen, and that if one person wins, the relationship suffers. But if you learn to listen, then it’s much easier to negotiate a win-win situation.”
And because they are both professionals in an industry based on caring, they wanted to use their skills and their ever-deepening relationship with each other and with Christ to help others.
She started teaching the courses at EMI, and they not only started making regular trips overseas for both organizations — and others — at the rate of two to four trips each year, but also volunteered to be facilitators for local marriage counseling program the Third Option, which they did for about 10 years.
A living example
“The Third Option was a real passion of ours because this was a second marriage for both of us,” she said. “We had to really learn a lot about being married to make it work. Just getting a different partner doesn’t make it work.”
“Janis has some pretty good communication and social skills that led her to our ministry,” said Roy Cline, director of Caring Partners International.
“When you give her a project, she is able to sell that concept and the idea to others so that she ends up with a lot of help,” he said. “I think people respect her opinion and her values.”
David Ping, director of Equipping Ministries International, calls Lerer “one of the most detailed, organized people I’ve ever met.”
“She is a person of influence behind the scenes a lot, but she’s out front in a number of ways,” Ping said. “She’s a living example of all the things we teach. She is not just a cheerleader, but rolls up her sleeves to get the job done.”
Lerer also serves on the board of both organizations and just finished a term as the chairwoman of the Equipping Ministries board.
“When something has impacted us big, our philosophy has been to give back, to do what we can to reach out to help others,” she said.
The couple especially value the work they have done in Cuba, where Dr. Lerer grew up, having made at least 20 trips there in the last 14 years to provide medical care and equipment.
“It’s a big deal because not many entities are allowed to work in Cuba,” Dr. Lerer said. “We’ve been welcomed by both the bishops and officials of the central government of Cuba.
“Janis is held in very high regard for her work there. On one of our trips, the minister of the Baptist Church of Cuba called her ‘the Mother of Cuban Ministry.’”
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.
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