On the road in Chicago!

Dear Brothers,

Here we are in Chicago. What an adventure!

After days and hours and hours and days of work on the house (Nate & Kelly’s house now) we departed Chattanooga on Friday at 9pm. That’s right 9 PM! We were pulling a 28’ Camper and it was late and we were running on faith, coffee and excitement! We made it over Mounteagle with MUCH prayer (Rhonda white-knuckled hanging onto the door)! We then made it down Mounteagle with more prayer. We were praising and thanking the Lord for His provision and protection! We were determined to drive further.

At about 2:30 in the morning somewhere in the middle of Kentucky, Sam noticed something flapping on the roof of the camper. We got out to take a look at the roof to see what was flapping and found the "what" was the shredded pieces of the roof that had come off was what was flapping. We drove a little further to Paducah Kentucky and parked in Wal-Mart for the night…or at least for the rest of the night.

By morning (a few hours later) we prayerfully determined that we needed to leave the camper behind and head on to Chicago. Ron was due to preach at Abundant Life Church in Wilmington IL that next morning. We knew that the enemy was trying to keep us from getting there so we were more determined than ever to GET THERE! The devils a liar! We called brother Rob (owner of the camper) and he agreed it was best for us to go on and he graciously agreed to come and pick up the camper in Paducah.

We had to unload all of our personal items from the camper and on to a U-Haul tag-a-long. Finally we were ready to leave Paducah at about 4 in the afternoon. We had to get rid of some of the food we had packed and we had and noticed a couple of homeless kids (16 or 17yrs) near the Interstate. We walked over and offered them the food. Their names are Creeper and Sassy. They are a young couple on their way to Mt Sterling IL. We asked if we could pray for them. Creeper’s only prayer request was for the Sassy and the baby in her tummy. Creeper doesn’t know the Lord but he did allow us to lay hands on him and pray for him, Sassy and the baby. We didn’t have room to offer them a ride and fortunately they had a place to stay for the night. Please join us as we continue to pray for them, their salvation and safety.

We arrived late to Chicago on Saturday night and made it to Abundant Life without too much ado. We had a wonderful time of worship! This body of believers was so sweet and welcoming to us. Ron preached a great message (he is my favorite preacher) and many were moved by the Spirit. One sad thing…we missed the Lord in one area. A woman spoke up asking for prayer for depression. I was greatly moved by her request. I felt the nudge of the Holy Spirit to go and lay hands on her right then and pray for her. I found out later that both Ron and I felt this urging at that moment. Sadly, we did not respond to this prompting. We prayed for her when we got home and with great sorrow repented to God for not responding to His voice. Please pray that we are not only sensitive to the voice of God but also RESPONSIVE!

After the service we had lunch with Pastor Greg when a brother (also named Ron) called to say that he had a pop-up camper that we would be welcome to use and we could come over right then to take a look at it. We drove the short distance to Coal City and found the camper to be really nice and perfect for our needs…in some ways even better than the travel trailer. The pop-up weighs less and will be much better on gas mileage. We thanked Ron and told him we wanted to go home and ask the Lord about it.

We called the members of our board and asked them to pray about it as well. We are so thankful to God that He has provided for us. We all prayed and felt the Lord urging us to accept Brother Ron’s generous offer. Today Ron is working with Brother Ron on the finishing touches to get the camper road-ready. I cannot express our joy. We are so humbled by the love we have been shown and by all the prayers you have all offered up on our behalf.

Today we received an email from a brother Mike and a sister Peggy in Steelville MO sharing that they had been praying for us in Sunday School past. As you can tell, their prayers were heard! WOW, people we do not even know are praying for us. They have invited us to come and share about the Lord’s work in Bolivia next Sunday night. We are so blessed! We of course responded with thanks for the prayers and excitement over the opportunity to share.

For those of you who may doubt how much the enemy hates us and how much our Father loves us…let me tell you this last thing. Today I (Rhonda) went up to Starbucks to check email and update this Blog. When I went to boot up the computer the entire monitor was white with stripes of colors…like a rainbow. I heard Windows boot up but could not see anything on the monitor. I began to pray against this attack of the enemy pleading for God to intervene in this situation. You all know we can do without a laptop but it really is a blessing to have for so many reasons. I laid my hands on the computer as I prayed and I rebooted. After the reboot there was no change. I still saw a white screen with rainbow stripes. As I continued to pray slowly stripe by stripe I began to see fade away and my Windows desktop appear until all was restored. For you computer experts you may tell me something about heat or cold or electrical connections but I know that the enemy was defeated once again in an attempt to steal our peace and rob us of gifts given by our Father. All I can say is “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” and Amen…so say we all!

Love to all,
Ron, Rhonda and Sam