Never Too Old to Serve the Lord: Mission Field Stories

By Doug Hovda and Maureen Hovda

Living life on the edge, having incredible experiences, meeting new friends, learning a new language and culture, spending time in many different countries around the world, coming alongside missionaries on the front lines for Christ, digging ditches, painting walls, teaching children, loving them all for Jesusthese stories give you a glimpse of how anyone, at any age, can help others in many ways to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world. Its about letting people know that God loves them. He always has; he always will.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543441765

Doug Hovda

Doug and Maureen were high school sweethearts at Robbinsdale High School in Robbinsdale, Minnesota. God called them while they were at Bible camp and fifteen years old. They began teaching children in Sunday School about Jesus and sharing the gospel at the downtown mission and through child evangelism. During college, they were married on August 24, 1957. They spent forty years sharing Jesus, teaching Bible study groups, and spending time at missions around the world. God then called them to Bolivia for three years. They are eighty-three and eighty-four years old and still are encouraging others through Hovda Ministries and Operation Harvest. Loving God, loving each other, and the stories never end. Enjoy their journal they wrote while in Bolivia. A wonderful read! Doug and Maureen live in Avon, Indiana

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by DOUG & MAUREEN HOVDA.

ISBN:       Softcover       978-1-5434-4175-8

                 eBook             978-1-5434-4176-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Some names have been changed for security reasons.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®). Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Rev. date: 08/01/2017

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

1993-2003

1. ALASKA

2. ARGENTINA

3. RETURN TO ARGENTINA

4. VENEZUELA

5. ECUADOR

6. MEXICO

7. RETURN TO ECUADOR

8. REVISIT ECUADOR

9. HAITI

10. REVISIT ARGENTINA

11. BRAZIL

12. RETURN TO VENEZUELA

13. REVISIT VENEZUELA

14. RETURN TO BRAZIL

15. REVISIT BRAZIL

EPILOGUE

INTERLUDE

2004-2007

BOLIVIA – ADVENTURE

PROLOGUE

SNIPPETS FROM THE CLASSROOM

FRESH WATER MINISTRIES

EASTER WEEK

VISITORS FROM THE STATES

DOUG OF ALL TRADES

INTERLUDE

SNIPPETS FROM THE CLASSROOM

WORSHIP WORKSHOP

VISITORS FROM THE STATES

DOUG OF ALL TRADES

INTERLUDE

SNIPPETS FROM THE CLASSROOM

CHRISTMAS MIRACLES

VISITORS FROM THE STATES

DOUG OF ALL TRADES

EPILOGUE

FRIENDS FOREVER

DEDICATION

We dedicate this book to our heavenly Father, who created us, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who died for us that we can live for Him, and the Holy Spirit who dwells within us to guide us.

We also dedicated this book to our children Karen and Paul, their spouses, Michael and Jody, and our God-given grandchildren, Megan, Tim, Ben, Catherine and Donovan.

Thank you to our sister-in-law,

Ruby Hovda, for editing our first book.

It is a pleasure to work with you.

Thank you to our daughter, Karen, for helping us with the many files needed for our first book.

Always be who you are; precious in His sight.

INTRODUCTION

To be used of God to sing, to speak, to pray.

To be used of God to show someone the way.

I long so much to feel the touch

of His consuming fire;

To be used of God, is my desire.

Doris Akers, 1965

We were looking forward with great anticipation of being used of God in mission work for our remaining years here on earth. Little did we know how exhilarating, rewarding, and incredible these years were going to be. Be encouraged as you read some snippets from our experiences over the last 25 years.

"A man’s heart plans his way,

But the LORD directs his steps."

Proverbs 16:9 NKJV

PROLOGUE

Doug and Maureen met at Robbinsdale High School in Minnesota. Doug was the president of Hi-C club and Maureen was the pianist. Our first date was January 23, 1953. We walked to a Bible Study at a small church close to where Maureen lived. That night was the beginning of our relationship. During the summer, we attended a Bible Camp in Wisconsin where we both surrendered our lives to go and serve on mission fields wherever God would lead us. After finishing college and getting married, we settled down in Crystal, MN, or so we thought. Maureen taught school, Doug worked as an electrical engineer. We participated in church planting and teaching Sunday school. We had four children during that time; however, two of our babies died and are now with Jesus in heaven.

Doug’s work moved us to Ohio, for 2 years; then Wisconsin, for 6 years, and finally to Santa Barbara, California, for 20 years where we raised our children. Each time we were moved, we kept asking God what was going on. We were state-side missionaries, doing God’s will.

One evening, shortly after we had moved to the west coast, we were praying and seeking God’s direction and He reminded us of Moses in the Old Testament. He told us, It took Me 40 years to prepare Moses, so why not you? As we looked back where we had been living, we realized that each city where we lived was a different culture. God was teaching us how to reach out and learn to understand different cultures. So, we continued to be state-side missionaries, serving our Lord, and waiting for His timing and direction.

In 1992, we retired from our secular jobs, and His direction started to come to fruition. We were invited to be part of a group going to Alaska on a mission trip. Wow! This invitation came from Dave, a former high school friend, who had served the Lord in Ecuador and was now back in the States! He was heading up this team! Yes, yes, yes, we said! He sent us information to study, which we did. We got prepared and on May 9, 1993, we headed out on our first full-blown team ministry trip. Notice the date. This was one-month short of 40 years, from when we were first called by God at the Bible Camp in Wisconsin.

"Those who leave everything in God’s hands,

will eventually see God’s hands in everything."

Anonymous

CHAPTER ONE

JUNEAU, ALASKA MAY 9-23, 1993

Who: 20 from United States and Canada

Ages: 19-75

Where: Echo Ranch Bible Camp, 40 miles north of Juneau.

Why: to prepare the camp for the upcoming camp schedule so more children and youth can have an encounter with Jesus Christ and see their lives changed by Him. We re-roofed the horse barn, repaired machinery, completed the finishing work of the lower floor of the Staff house, poured the foundation for a new cabin, and cleaned all the kitchen cupboards. What a thrill it was for us to be a small part of this team ministry, which was led by Dave.

We arrived at the camp late at night having ridden around the bay on a hay-less wagon pulled by a tractor. It was low tide then, so there was a path on which we could travel. At high tide, 7 feet deeper, the path would be under water. Arriving at the camp, we opened the door to our cabin and realized that the power to the camp had been shut down at 10 pm, prior to our arrival. We could not find our flashlight. It was cold and we had no firewood. Therefore, we emptied our suitcases onto the bed, used our clothes for covers and snuggled down to get some sleep before dawn. In the morning, we located some firewood, matches and our flashlight. Now we were set. We began to wonder if we were too old to come here to work. After all, most of the team were college students and we were 56 years old. Well, God had a plan!

As we all met for breakfast that first morning, we received our assignments for the next couple of weeks. Doug was to help plaster the walls on the lower level of the staff house. I was assigned the kitchen-not just to work there but to be in charge! Yikes! At home, the kitchen and I barely knew each other! OK. Where’s the menu? What, no menu? I had 200 elementary school day campers to feed for lunch and my helpers were college students. That was helpful, as I knew college students would eat anything. I soon learned that a truck was coming each morning at low tide, from the mainland, bringing food from grocery stores. They donated these food items to the camp.

Remember, I was to make a meal out of whatever was brought to us. Right? Right. So, every day when the truck arrived, we would put everything on the