He Leads . . . We Follow

By Doug Hovda and Maureen Hovda

After writing our first two books (Never Too Old to Serve the Lord [ISBN 978-1-5434-4175-8] and Still Never Too Old to Serve the Lord [ISBN 978-1-5434-6437-5]), we thought that you would be interested in knowing how we prepared for our life as missionaries to people around the world. Within this book, you will read about the joy, sorrow, struggles, and blessings that we experienced through our preparation years prior to our first mission trip in 1993. We want to share these milestones that prepared us for desiring mission work the rest of our lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984528100

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

HE

LEADS …

WE

FOLLOW

Through

Joy, Sorrow,

Struggles, Blessings

Doug & Maureen Hovda

Copyright © 2018 by Doug & Maureen Hovda.

ISBN:                  Softcover                              978-1-9845-2811-7

                             eBook                                     978-1-9845-2810-0

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.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

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.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Rev. date: 05/10/2018

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

779082

CONTENTS

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Epilogue

DEDICATION

After writing two books containing our missionary stories, God laid on our hearts to write a journal about the years of preparation before going to South America and overseas. May our adventures, struggles and blessings be an encouragement to you as you read this book.

"Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord

and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever, Amen."

II Peter 3:18 KJV

Dedicated to each of you who seeks God’s direction for your life.

Never give up, regardless of the circumstances you experience.

A special thank you to our daughter, Karen,

who worked tirelessly as our editor once again.

Consider the trials, grief, struggles, and rejection Jesus went through while He was here on Earth. He knows what it is like to be hurt in many ways, emotionally, physically and spiritually. He will hold your hand and guide you one day at a time. Walk with Him, talk with Him, trust Him, praise Him, study His Word no matter what trials happen to you. He is there with you if you will let Him guide you. Rest in Him. He understands. God loves you. He always has, He always will.

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38,39 KJV

PROLOGUE

Minneapolis, Minnesota

1936-37

Doug, 1936

I was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on August 11, 1936. I am the oldest of five boys. We were all born within eight years, so you know my mom had her hands full. Being the oldest, I was responsible for my brothers and we got ourselves into lots of situations. When at school, I felt free to be myself without the responsibility of my brothers. My parents moved to Robbinsdale, Minnesota, when I was in the fourth grade.

Maureen, 1937

I was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 22, 1937. My dad was a chemist and my mother was studying to become a teacher. We lived in an apartment until I was two or three years old when the company my dad worked for transferred us to Toledo, Ohio. Mother had to give up her studies and grandma (Mother’s mother) moved with us. My sister was born in Toledo and we all lived there for a few years until dad was transferred back to Minneapolis. There, we lived in a house in Robbinsdale – a suburb of Minneapolis. I was in the sixth grade when we moved.

’I know the plans I have for you’, declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’

Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

CHAPTER ONE

Robbinsdale, Minnesota

Robbinsdale Junior High School

Spring 1949-51

Maureen

I had taken several years of piano lessons while in Ohio, so I was able to participate in a talent contest at the end of my sixth-grade year. The winner of the talent show was a boys’ acapella quartet. Wow! They were so good! They were in their senior year in high school and they really deserved receiving first place. I was looking forward to junior high school in the fall. I liked it there.

Doug

I just completed the seventh grade. I attended the spring talent contest because I wanted to see who was competing and what music was played or sung. I played cornet in the junior-high band, so I knew many of the participants in the talent contest and was eager to hear them all. After two participants, a sixth-grade girl walked out onto the stage. She wore a fluorescent pink sweater, black skirt, fluorescent pink socks and black shoes. I sat up tall to see what was taking place. She sat down to the piano and began to play the song Malagueña without using any music! I really enjoyed that. The senior boy’s quartet won the contest. I was glad that they did win because they sang so well! After all, this was their last year in high school. As I walked home from the talent show, I thought about the piano player. Who was she? I couldn’t figure out who that girl was who wore the pink sweater at the piano.

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will guide you with My eye."

Psalm 32:8 NKJV

Maureen

After sixth grade ended, I joined the junior high school band for the summer. I walked to school each weekday morning. The first day of band practice, the music teacher, Bob M., handed me a new tenor saxophone! Wow! What a wonderful opportunity for me! I had never played an instrument other than the piano! I carried the tenor sax back and forth to band practice each weekday for six weeks. We all had two hours of practice together learning our music and one hour of personal lessons on our instruments. I learned quickly, thanks to my former piano lessons. When school began in the fall, I played sax in the marching band and accompanied our director on the piano whenever he played clarinet solos around the area for many events. Once football season was over, I played oboe in concert band. Band became the passion of my life each day.

In eighth grade, one thing about junior high was girl meets boy, boy meets girl, and I was uncomfortable with this idea. However, one of my classmates, Harry, became friends with me. We saw each other at school. One morning, we met at my locker before school and he told me that he had accepted Jesus as his Savior the night before when he had attended a meeting at his church. I was so pleased and thankful that he was now a new believer in Jesus. You see, when I was seven years old, I accepted Jesus into my heart and life. I wanted to be used by God but wasn’t sure how to do that. I memorized Bible verses, went to youth group at church and attended summer camp. I loved reading God’s Word and talking with Him. I began to pray seriously asking God to bring a Christian boy into my life, so we could participate in activities together. Maybe Harry and I could do some