To Bolivia and beyond...

Hello dear friends,

Well the next leg of our adventure begins one week from today. We leave for La Paz from Chicago O’Hare on September 2nd and arrive early the next morning. We are very busy with the final details of getting our VISA’s approved, packing and a host of other last minute things.

First, the VISA’s; we found out last week that we would not be able to stay for a year if we entered the country with a tourist VISA. We thought we could apply for all the paperwork we needed once we got to La Paz but this is not the case. You see, once you enter the country with one type of VISA (i.e. Tourist) it cannot be changed to another kind of VISA (i.e. work, student, specific purpose, etc). So we had to send our Passports and other important documents to Miami to get the Specific Purpose Visa. It took some time to get the stuff back and it made us nervous to send our passports, money orders, invitation letters, shot records etc in the mail. But when we got the paperwork returned we found that we had been denied. This was very discouraging. We called the other Consulate in Washington DC and they spoke much better English so we were able to understand what was needed. So, on Monday this week we sent our paperwork again but this time to DC. Please pray it is returned promptly AND that it is approved. We leave TN on Friday. If we do not have the paperwork back by then we will have to drive to DC before going to Chicago. This would be time consuming AND expensive.

The packing has been very difficult. We each can only bring two bags of 50lbs each. We are not able to bring extra bags and pay a fee, 2 is all we get. It is very difficult to pack a whole years worth of living in 2 suitcases. We have clothes, school books and ministry materials to take. It seems that we are constantly picking away at what we have to reduce it.

It has been getting harder emotionally as we say good-bye to loved ones. I know that we will be back in a year but still, it is hard. One highlight is that we were invited to the home of the Mathis’s. They are the family who now have Cocoa. It was such a blessing to see how happy and healthy and loved she is. They are such a wonderful family and it gives me great joy to see Cocoa become part of their family. Figaro is still with Ma in Chicago so we will be able to say good-bye to him too.
The house has not sold yet but we are trusting in our God. We have prayed and determined that nothing will stand in the way of the calling that God has placed in our hearts and minds. “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith”. We have signed over Power of Attorney to a dear friend who will be able to negotiate and sign papers on our behalf.

We have been in contact with our friends in Bolivia and are already planning a trip to the Altiplano to minister to the Aymara. God is truly putting things in position for our travel, our arrival and His ministry to the Aymara.

We love you all and will continue to be in prayer for you. Please pray in agreement with us for open doors to share the freedom in Christ to the people of Bolivia. We will try to update the blog once a week to share with you what God is doing and how He is blessing us.

Please pray for these needs;
3- 1 Year Visa’s $1,050 each year for 2-3years
Truck/Van/Jeep to reach the villages $4,000-$6,000
Transport and house engineer to dig well $300-$500 per trip from Santa Cruz
Supplies to dig well $200 per well
Housing for Haynes family $250 per month
AT&T Prepaid minutes for Bolivian Cell Phone $30 per calling card
Food, gasoline, insurance, licenses, taxes etc Currently unknown
Village gifts, gas, transportation $100-$200 per village
Partners $25 per month

Thank you
“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now” Phil 1:3-4

Missionaries:
Mark & Bev Chandler
Elaine Wilburn
Brian & Mary Chamberlin

Churches:
Light for the Nations Church of God
Living Word Church
Centerpoint Baptist Church
Flint Springs Cumberland Presbyterian
Abundant Life Church
Shiloh Baptist Church
The Rock Church
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church
Straightway Baptist Church
Steelville 1st Assembly of God
Tennessee Valley Community Church
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Celebration Baptist Church
Immanuel Lutheran Church

The Oregon Trail

Dear Friends,

We just flew in from Portland Oregon and "boy are our arms tired"...hahahaha.

We had a great time with Ryan, Brad, Chase and the whole gang! We flew out to Oregon on Thursday. Friday was a day of rest and then Saturday was Ryan's graduation. What a great day! We were so proud to see her graduate. She and the other chemistry grads spelled out Chemistry on the top of their hats using the periodic table of elements. It was so cool!

You may be wondering why Chase is singing Indiana Jones...he has the game for his DS and it is his favorite. Chase is ALWAYS humming. I am telling you, he has perfect pitch. He should be in the Vienna Boys Choir! We really enjoyed hearing him hum, listening to him read and watching him play. :::Sigh::: he is growing so fast.

After the graduation we had a party at Ryan and Brad's new house. We loved the house. It is so comfortable and beautiful! On Sunday we went to church and then to downtown Portland. In Portland we went to Powell’s the biggest used bookstore in the state. It was so big you had to have a map to get around. WE LOVED IT!

At Powell’s, I got this great book by Steve Saint called “The Great Omission.” Really, a great book. I already finished it. Steve Saint is the son of Missionary Nate Saint who was martyred in Ecuador in 1956 along with 4 other men (Jim Elliott and others). It is a great book about missions and empowering indigenous people by providing them with opportunity to spread the Gospel to their own people group. Also Saint has started a company that gives access to modern technology to indigenous people groups. He has built a small "electric parachute" that can be flown very simply. This allows the native people to travel around the rain forest of the Amazon to reach others, to take in supplies, to fly people out to medical doctors and clinics. They have also engineered a portable dentist drill and chair that is small enough to wear as a back pack and weighs only 60lbs. Check out his website at http://www.itecusa.org/projects.html The programs that ITEC has are teaching the native people to minister and serve their own people. It is really amazing! In fact that is the whole idea of this business is to put modern technology in a usable way in the hands of native people. This technology has not been thrust upon them, rather they have asked "how can we learn these skills so that we can fix our own teeth? We want to learn to fly so we can easily get to our other tribes to minister to the sick and share the story of God.” This technology allows the native people to keep their autonomy and dignity by being self sufficient and not having to depend on missionaries or the "white-man".

Monday was Ron's birthday. Thank you all for your phone calls and Facebook notes. It really meant a lot that you remembered Ron on this day. This was another great day! :) Ron and Brad laid some trim for the wood floor Brad had put in. It really put the finishing touches on the house. It looks so good! Ryan made a really yummy lasagna for dinner. We all ate too much and laughed a lot.

Tuesday was a sad day...we had to leave. It was such a blessing to be able to travel to Oregon to be with Ryan and her family. Thank you all for your prayers, the trip was well worth it.

Sam was not able to go so he held down the fort in St. Louis finishing his school work for the year and taking care of Cocoa.

We are now in preparation mode. We are preparing to hit the open road for New Mexico. There is a lot of packing, praying and planning to be done.

Please continue to pray for the sale of our house. Please pray that God will use us to share His love everyday...right now, right here.

We will be sending out one more newsletter before we leave for Bolivia. If you would like to receive the newsletter by email, send us an email at info@lovelyfeet.org and type SUBSCRIBE in the subject line.

God bless you all!
Ron, Rhonda and Sam

Dog Gone...

Dear friends...

Sorry we haven’t written for a while, we have not had much access to Internet.

It is a sad day. We have been struggling about what to do with our dog Figaro. At first we thought of course he would come to Bolivia with us...he is part of the family. But as we began our travels we found that he was having a hard time with it. He is a stay-at-home kind of dog. He likes to relax and sit on the couch. He likes lots of hugs and lots of petting and even some kisses. He was a not a very happy dog on the road. Also, he picked up this habit of barking that really was becoming a problem. Everywhere we traveled it seemed that he was in the way of our hosts. So after much prayer and buckets of tears, we took Figaro to Chicago to live with Ron’s mom. As you can see from the picture, Ma and Figaro are pretty happy about this new arrangement. However, we cried all the way back to St. Louis. We know this is best for Figaro, and good for Ma too, she needs the company.

Many of you have commented how hard it must be to give up our house, our stuff, our jobs...nope, not hard. Giving up our doggy...HARD. So please pray for us and for our little Figaro. He is a little depressed and not eating too well but he'll snap out of it. He really loves Ma!

This whole situation has made me consider the words of Jesus ""If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." When I have thought about this verse in the past I wasn’t really seeing the "deny himself" as active, as an action. The writer of Hebrews says that we must "throw off everything that hinders". I love Figaro, but he was becoming an obstacle to the work God has called us too. I want to follow Jesus, I do not always want to deny myself, and it is not pleasant sometimes throwing off things in our lives to walk the Jesus Way. But, this is what we are called to; this is what I am called to do. Figaro is a good little doggy. We will miss him so much. But we know that we have done the right thing, we know that God will bless him and Ma and us too.

Recently we had an awesome opportunity to visit with some college friends that I (Rhonda) haven’t seen in 23 years. It was such a great time catching up and seeing what everyone was doing now…how we have changed and how we haven’t. We had such a great time. I hope it doesn’t take 23 years for me to see them all again. We laughed and joked and ate. It was so fun. I thank God for the opportunity to see them all and share the afternoon.

We spent a great week in Nebraska with Nathan. We visited with him, we relaxed, we prayed, we studied Spanish and we played our guitars. WOW, it was a much needed break for all the rush rush rush. We have been so blessed by our pop-up camper. Ron Moore and the Moore family...YOU ROCK! Thanks for the blessing.

Our next stop is Oregon. Our daughter Ryan is graduating from College so we will be spending about 4 or 5 days with her, Brad and our grandson Chase. YIPEEE! We are so excited! After we return from Oregon we will be traveling to Gallup New Mexico to work with some missionary friends Mark & Bev Chandler.

PLEASE PRAY!!!
>The house needs to be sold!
>God's provision
>Safety as we travel
>for our faith to increase
>the enemy IS defeated in all his attacks against us

Please know we are praying for all of you as well. We miss you and we love you!

Ron, Rhonda and Sam

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Well it has been a week of warfare for the Lovely Feet team! Sorry for the delay in posting.

Rhonda had great fun playing trumpet with her brother Rich at Brass Ensemble at Immanuel Lutheran church in St. Charles MO. (Picture 1)

While here in St Louis we were blessed to be a part of a small group Bible Study that was a great encouragement to us. This is sweet group of brothers and sisters from Southwest Christian Church (http://www.swccmo.org/ ) (Picture 2)

The week started off with an amazing MIRACLE! We have been praying for the son of some friends of ours. He had a grand mal seizure. He has had many many tests trying to determine the cause. We have all been waiting for the results of these tests for some weeks. The prognosis was extremely grim. However, the family stood in faith praying against this prognosis and believing that God would heal. Our friend called us on the boys birthday with the news that the tests came back completely NORMAL…there was no sign of the two dark spots on his brain that has showed up on prior tests. We praise God our healer for this great miracle!

Then the enemy showed up! The enemy has been working overtime to discourage and depress us. We have different ways that we confront this battle. Ron has determined to rush the gates of the enemy by smacking him over the head with Youtube and Tangle videos. He has posted three of them. One is a take off on the new movie Twilight that all the kids are talking about. Another is Ron turning his face into a puppet and the last is Ron preaching the defeat of Satan in every book of the New Testament.

Rhonda has been spending a lot of time reading her Bible, praying and listening to praise and worship music with a little guitar practice on the side. (and helping Ron get his videos ready for posting).

We have been fasting and praying for direction and next steps. We have contacted over 100 ministries for open doors to minister…but doors have not opened. We were not sure why? We thought we had a plan. We thought that we were doing what God wanted. We thought…we…we? Could it be that “we” were being distracted by plans we had made or tried to make instead of hearing from God? We were becoming discouraged and frustrated until we realized that this discouragement and frustration were obstacles to the next steps that God had for us. We were allowing the enemy to distract us with the “why’s” of “the plan” not working. The Lord opened our eyes and we confessed to Him our short-sightedness. We confessed that these frustrations were not going to be a vehicle to share the Gospel with the Aymara or with anyone else and we laid all those emotions and frustrations down at the feet of Jesus. Whew! What a relief! How freeing!

Later that very night we had the opportunity to talk with some missionaries in New Mexico. Mark & Bev Chandler minister to the Navajo Nation. They contacted us some months ago by email (Lance & Michelle shared with a friend about us who shared with Mark and Bev). We had emailed back and forth a couple of times and finally got on the phone together. They shared their calling with us and guess what…? It was so very similar to ours. Isn’t God cool? We shared on the phone for over and hour. At the end of the conversation we prayed together but not before Mark and Bev invited us to New Mexico to share in the work of the Lord with the Navajo. WOW! How amazing is our God? What a glorious wonderful opportunity.

The Navajo are First Nations people just like the Aymara. I (Rhonda) just finished an AMAZING book that I highly recommend to all. It is by Richard Twiss a brother from the Lakota/Sioux. It is called One Church, Many Tribes. (http://store.fastcommerce.com/WiconiResources/prod-ff808081175e96dc01176560dfb87a2a.html) God has given us such a burden for the First Nations people. While there are many differences from the Navajo to the Lakota/Sioux to the Aymara there are many similarities amongst these First Nations people (“a term denoting original habitation by sovereign people or nations”). We hope and pray that God will continue to lift the veil from our eyes about worshiping Him in Spirit and truth and not following after the traditions of man. It seems that “Form” and “Substance” are reoccurring themes that keep coming up regarding our Worship of our Father God. Anyway, read this book! So it is amazing that here I was reading this book and then “coincidently” we talk with Mark and Bev who invite to come and minister with them to the Navajo.

We are greatly encouraged and excited about this opportunity. Please partner with us in prayer about this.

This weekend we will be spending time with family at Rhonda’s cousin’s daughter’s High School graduation on Friday. Saturday is a time for old High School friends. On Sunday we will be attending the Baptism of Chriss and Tony’s son Will. Later on Sunday we go to Rich’s (Rhonda’s Brother) for a BBQ with Lynda. (Rhonda’s step-mom).

We love you all and pray for you...

“And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ …that [we] may proclaim it clearly, as [we] should.” Col 4:3,4

Diosampiki,
Ron, Rhonda and Sam

Ron and Sam's videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PS2igMFL3k Twilight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttthQKJ360k Ron's puppet face

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd0ZjETb8cw Satan's defeat part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JIPBOZ5b1E Satan's defeat part 2

Greetings Brothers and Sisters,

And so begins another week on the great adventure God has called us to!

We had a great week! We spent most of the week catching up on rest, reading, studying and spending time with Lord and our friends. Tony and Chriss are such a blessing to us!

Wednesday night we went to an awesome Bible Study. Frankly I (Rhonda) was not having a good day. I needed to get into the Word...I needed me some Jesus, some Word and some fellowship with believers! I was like junkie I needed it so bad! As usual, the Lord blessed beyond measure. My nephew Jake invited us to the adult Bible Study of Southwest Christian Church. Sam and Jake went to youth and Ron and showed up at Pastor Loren's house. Pastor Loren and Julie Copp welcomed us in like they had known us for a hundred years. Brother Eric lead the Bible Study and we just had the best time learning and sharing about the Lord. Brother Eric asked first where/when we remembered experiencing God's presence in a real and tangible way. It was a really interesting opening. Everyone had a different story to share and only one actually shared an experience that happened in Church.

So what about you? Where have you experienced God in your life where you KNOW that you know that you know He was there with you, touching you? Respond to this Blog with your answer. I will compile them anonymously and post them. We need to look for God everyone. God says to us “I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.” Let’s encourage one another with our word of testimony!

So, we had a GREAT time with the brothers at Southwest Christian Church (http://www.swccmo.org ). We plan to return this Wednesday night and Lord willing, attend this Sunday.

Sam had a tremendous opportunity this past weekend. He was able to attend a youth rally called FM419. This name is based on Matthew 4:19 Jesus said, "Come and Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19. ”Youth [have]…a weekend of high-energy music and life-changing training. [Youth] Get down to the basics of what [they] believe, find power to live what [they] say, and learn how to share [their] faith with others” ( http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1137883230?bctid=18737868001 ) The band “The Afters” were there. They sing “Never going back to Okay”. Sam and his two cousins went and they had a great time. Ron took some video footage after the event asking Kids who Jesus was to them. Look forward to a short U-Tube of this footage. It is pretty cool! Sam was blessed by the event and I believe it gave him a better comfort level in sharing his faith. Of course the enemy has been at him a little. He is a little blue…missing his friends…his life is so different. PLEASE pray for Sam. Call him, email him…encourage him. (sam@lovelyfeet.org)

Saturday afternoon we got a call that someone was interested in seeing the house. We were so happy. I told the girl on the phone that of course they could come and look at the house and that they should invite all their friends to come too. (she thought I was a little crazy…huh…imagine). You may have heard that the sale of the home fell through. We were disappointed but we know God is sovereign and that He has something else in mind. We know that He has a better house suited for the Johnson’s and a buyer who is looking for exactly what our house has to offer. Please partner in prayer with us about this. God will bring the buyer in His time.

Yesterday we had a GREAT day. Of course it was Mothers Day and that was great. Sam got me the most beautiful pair of earrings. They are silver doves. I LOVE THEM! I heard from all of the other 5 kids as well and basically felt like I must be the best Mom ever. Thanks kids! I love you all so much!!! (especially you…you are my favorite…you know who you are…)

The pictures posted above are from Immanuel Lutheran Church in St. Charles MO. My brother Rich was able to work with his Pastor in giving us the opportunity to share about God’s work in Bolivia. We were given 5 minutes to share (you all know Ron…this was HARD…but he was able to say what God had him to say in 6 ½ minutes…a new record for Mr. Haynes!). We had so many people stop at the table and ask questions. Someone wanted to know when they could come to Bolivia and help in God’s work there. We were so blessed! To see the interest and compassion in these dear brothers and sisters was so amazing!!!

For dinner Chriss spear-headed the kids efforts and we had a great time visiting, eating, visiting, eating and visiting.

We leave you with this blessing…

“The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.”
We love you all!

Diosampiki,

Ron, Rhonda and Sam

Meet me in St. Louis...

Dear Brothers,

Greetings from St. Louis MO! (and surrounding areas)

We arrived in St. Louis late Friday night (May Day). We brought with us the blessing given us by Brother Ron Moore, a pop-up camper. Bullet (our truck) had no problem pulling the pop-up. In fact we got much much better gas mileage! We are very thankful to God for this blessing. You would be surprised how much it holds. We were thinking we would have to leave a lot of our things behind in Chicago but were so grateful to find that almost everything fit! We had to leave two things behind...Rhonda's Bike and Ron's bass guitar. However, one other blessing is that Ron's brother Buddy let him borrow his bass guitar which is much smaller and lighter. Therefore Ron does have a bass, just not "his" bass. So we are thankful. Also we were able to bring Ron and Sam's bikes so if Rhonda wants a bike to ride she does have access.

We had a great day on Saturday. We went to Rhonda's brother's praise band practice; Rhonda even got to sing a long. It was a great time of worship and fun. Rich introduced Rhonda to everyone adding that she was going on a "mission trip" to Bolivia. Rhonda had to point out that her dear brother was still in a little bit of denial about the whole thing. Rhonda pointed out that we are MOVING to South America not taking a short term mission trip. Rich grinned and we all had a bit of a laugh at his expense. It is hard for a big brother.

Sunday we were so blessed to minister in two churches in Steelville MO. Steelville is about an hour and a half from St. Louis. We left early Sunday morning for Center Point Baptist Church. The Pastor, Matt Cook, is married to Rhonda's cousin Sharon. The congregation was so welcoming! They treated us just like family. Well I guess we kind of are...Rhonda's aunt and uncle have been members of this church for about 300 years so, we felt right at home. Ron preached an anointed message and we praised and thanked the Lord. We talked afterward with several people. Rhonda shared with some really cool teens who were very interested to hear more about the mission. One girl Hannah Banana is home-schooled and seemed especially interested. We thank God that He is moving in the hearts of our youth and preparing them for their calling.

After church we had a great lunch and visit with Rhonda's family. We all shared stories of times past. Later Uncle Terry took us over to the Meramac Baptist Assoc Camp Grounds and showed us around. We are hoping to take the pop-up down there and park for a week or so to rest and spend sometime together as a family and with the Lord.

Sunday evening we were invited to Straightway Baptist also in Steelville. How awesome to be invited by Christian brothers and sisters we haven’t even met! God is good all the time! Pastor Mike and the whole congregation invited us in with open arms. We had the best time singing some old time favorites and then Pastor Mike turned the pulpit over to Ron. WOW, Ron was on FIRE! He preached from Mark 2 and shared about the Aymara. The Lord really moved. The congregation was so generous in every respect. One brother spoke up and made a motion to for the church to make a donation to the mission to the Aymara and it was quickly seconded and past. Another brother was ready to sign up to come and minister and work on a short time mission trip. This brother (Brad) wanted to plan a trip and bring his 13 year old daughter. We hope to spend more time with Pastor Mike and his wife as well as Rhonda’s family while there camping.

It was such an encouragement to see these two bodies of believers so on fire for the Gospel! We were greatly blessed! We pray that they were blessed by our sharing as well.

Today we wait to hear if the deal will go through on our home sale. There have been a few hic-ups but we know that God is sovereign and faithful and that He will sell our home at the right time to the right people and the He will greatly bless us and the buyers in the process. We are so thankful for our new friend and Real Estate agent Karen Miller. She and Jessica Smith have worked so hard for us. We feel more like they are friends than agents. We are thankful to God for them and for our new friendship.

Please be in prayer for the final steps of selling our home. Also please continue to pray that God will open doors for us to minister. We are overwhelmed by the church’s desire to hear more about the Aymara. It is amazing how the people want to know more and help more to spread the Gospel. We trust God to open doors that no man can shut and to direct our paths.

Thank you, thank you for all your prayers for us. We feel them and God answers them!

Diosampiki!
Ron, Rhonda and Sam

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