Randy & Ronda’s Newsletter

Summer North American Mission Board

2008 Where we have been...
Special points of June was a busy month and the final training for of the buffet line. After talking with two catering em-
interest: NC Disaster Relief was held in Robbinsville, NC. ployees that were serving the group, he asked their
 Bryson City, NC Over 20 friends from Biltmore Baptist came to train permission to ask a spiritual question. Crystal and
Family on Mis- and/or be recertified in feeding, recovery, child care, Charlie both gave permission and the door was
sion week or assessment. Randy was given the privilege to pre- opened. The question was, “If you were to die today
12 Salvations
sent evangelism on Friday night and Saturday morn- do you know for sure you would go to heaven?”.
 Fort Smith, AK ing to the participants and encourage them to be Their answers were, they did not know if they would
Campers on
Mission Na-
intentional in sharing their faith as they serve. It is a go to heaven and had no clue what they would say
tional Rally 3 blessing to hear stories of how God is using Disaster to God if He ask, “Why should I let you into my
Salvations Relief Volunteers to reach family members, friends Heaven”. The Gospel was presented and they both
 Terra Haute, IN
and everyday people for Christ. prayed to receive Christ as their personal Savior.
Serving on Inci- Randy had the opportunity to spend some time with
dent Command On Saturday at the conclusion of Disaster Relief
both of them by helping on the serving line the next
Team training we headed to Bryson City to join the 135
day. Charlie was given a Bible and Crystal a
Families on Mission participants who had come from
 Des Moines, IA women’s book for new believers. Randy gives God
Serving on Inci- around the country to experience a fun filled week of
praise and glory for allowing him the privilege to be a
dent Command mission activities. On Sunday afternoon Ronda pre-
Team small part in their decision to follow Christ.
sented prayer walking and Randy taught evangelism
 Opal, WY and emphasized the need to give a cup of water in On June 22nd, we returned home from Arkansas
Building a place Jesus’ name and verbally share about Christ. The and Indiana expecting to be home, work on a new
of worship main thing is still the main thing and sharing Christ is project and prepare for a Wyoming mission trip. A
 Lyman, WY what it’s all about. During the first week of Families on few days later, Randy was called out to serve two
Adult evangel- Mission, 12 new believers came to faith in Christ. weeks on the Incident Command Team for Southern
ism and Teach-
ing Kids’ EE at Baptist Disaster Relief in Des Moines, Iowa. It was a
After completing our presentations in Bryson City,
VBS learning experience as the Operations Officer re-
1 salvation
we headed to Horse Shoe to literally take care of
sponsible for coordinating equipment and personnel
some “home work” and prepare for the trip to Fort
 Granger, WY from around the country in response to the flooding
Smith, Arkansas where the National Rally for Camp-
Share Your Faith in Iowa. Randy returned home on July 13th to get
Workshop and ers on Mission would be taking place. Randy would
caught up and prepare for the Wyoming Mission trip
teaching Kids’ EE be holding three Evangelism workshops and encour-
at VBS on July 21st. Ronda left on July 16th for the SC
aging the Campers on Mission volunteers who would
2 salvations Baptist State Convention to assist with training for a
be coming in their RV’s from across the country. As
 Little America, new data base program for Disaster Reliefs.
we started preparing for the trip a phone call came in
WY Sharing the
Gospel to people from our National Disaster Relief Director. Randy
from the nations thought for sure the call was for him and was sur-
prised when Terry explained that he needed Ronda to
 Flaming Gorge,
WY Giving a come to Terre Haute, Indiana and serve on the Inci-
bottle of water dent Command Team for Southern Baptist Disaster
and a tract to
“George” in Je-
Relief, in response to the recent flooding. After revis-
sus’ name ing our plans, Ronda drove North West to Indiana on
Friday while Randy drove South West to Arkansas on
 Fresno, CA
news to be deter- Saturday, each being flexible to go where God called.
mined
At a luncheon with the state Campers on Mission
presidents, Randy somehow found himself at the end
 Wyoming, 2008 …... The Rest of the Story
On July 21st we traveled to Wyoming with our friends Denise and Laura and met up with the remainder of
the 120 volunteers from Experiencing God through Missions that were converging on south west Wyoming.
The plan was to erect a 2,000 sq ft church from the foundation up, hold Vacation Bible School and evangel-
ism workshops at several churches, prayer walk 1,000 miles and do it all in two weeks. Wow, only God could
orchestrate a task this big!
The walls were up and construction well on the way by the time we arrived in Opal, Wyoming. Opal is a
small town, population 102, where most of the residents work in the gas fields and attend church in the pas-
tors home. Folks were quite surprised to find Christian volunteers traveling over 1800 miles to build a place
of worship for their community. On Thursday night, July 31st the church was complete and the church bell
rang as the dedication took place. You could imagine the excitement as the words “In Jesus’ name, we
press on” were sung as a reminder of the work that was completed and the work yet to be done in this small
western town. As the church dedication was taking place, an 18 wheeler truck drove by and then turned
around to see what was going on. Yes, we were standing on Holy Ground!

About 25 miles away was another small church located in Granger, Wyoming. Not sure of the population
of Granger, but this small Baptist church has a membership of 23. We fell in love with the 6 boys we taught
in Vacation Bible School. They were well mannered and very excited to have us there telling them Bible
stories, putting cars together and learning Kids’ EE on an oversized evange-cube. By the end of the week,
every one of them could show you how to use the cube as they told the story of Grace, Man, God, Christ
and Faith. What fun! Two of the youngsters prayed to receive Christ.

Bridger Valley Baptist Church was our evening Vacation Bible School where we taught approximately 40
children from different age groups. Randy taught an evangelism class to the adults on Tuesday and Thurs-
day nights. In our teen class, we had two beautiful sisters who listened eagerly to the Gospel using the sal-
vation bracelet. On Wednesday night we learned that they had used the bracelet to tell their mother about
Jesus. Their mom prayed to except Jesus as her personal Savior. This family has a back ground in Mormon-
ism as does many of the people living in Wyoming. We rejoiced over yet another coming into the family of
God.

On Saturday, July 26th Randy taught a Share Your Faith Workshop at Granger Baptist church with a full
house in attendance. It was a great day as two of the young boys from our VBS demonstrated the 5 points
in Sharing Your Faith. Laura, Denise and Ronda also assisted with demonstrating the Gospel presentation
to the class. On Sunday morning, there was another full house as Laura sang a solo for the people who had
come to worship the Lord.

Our mission in Wyoming was to sow down the Gospel at every opportunity. We shared with several em-
ployees where we were staying as well as flagmen named George, and an outfitter named Greg and a
power company employee named Billy. Laura had the opportunity to give out spiritual bracelets, stickers and
crayons to children at restaurants. We arranged to meet with a young man from Taiwan named Justin, after
he finished work at 10:30 pm. We talked for over an hour about his country, family and had the opportunity
to share the Gospel. Justin listened attentively and asked several questions about Christianity. His parents
are Buddhist and his aunt is a Monk. Justin remarked that it was his destiny to come to the USA and talk
with us. We gave Justin a bible and have since mailed him a copy of the Jesus film in Chinese. We have
stayed in touch with him through email and believe God is working in his life. Thank you Jesus for allowing
us the privilege of sowing down the Gospel in Wyoming; for we know that His word will not come back void.
In closing, we want to thank you for your prayers and financial support that make it possible for us to
serve as Mission Service Corps Missionaries with the North American Mission Board. We are blessed to
All the ends of the earth will
know you and to be able share with you what God is doing as we partner together. Please continue to pray
as we prepare to leave for California on Aug. 13th. We will be working on the Incident Command Team at remember and turn to the
the Baptist State Convention in Fresno. Southern Baptist volunteers will be assisting victims who have lost LORD, and all the families of
their homes during the recent fires. God is at work all around us and He is pursuing many who don’t know the nations will bow down be-
Him as their Lord and Savior. Our prayer is that many would come to know Him and that we would have the fore him. Psalm 22:27
privilege to share the “Good News”. We love you!
Randy and Ronda