Yup! That's God!: God’s Timing Is Perfect

By Maureen Hovda and Doug Hovda

This book shares stories of our life experiences. The Fruit of the Spirit within us as Christ followers, show how God uses the Fruit of the Spirit through all our walks of life. In each experience that we encounter, we see God at work in it and we just can’t help but say, “YUP! THAT’S GOD!” His timing is always perfect.
We share these experiences of our life in hopes that you see the importance of following the Holy Spirit of God in all the walks of your life. We pray that God will bless you as you read this book.
“Little is much when God is in it.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 10, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796058697

Maureen 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

YUP!

THAT’S GOD!

GOD’S TIMING IS PERFECT

DOUG &

MAUREEN HOVDA

Copyright © 2019 by Doug & Maureen Hovda.

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.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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.

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.

Rev. date: 09/10/2019

Xlibris

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CONTENTS

Dedication

Introduction

Love

First Grade Class

Sixth Grade Class

Seventh Grade Class

My Jesus, I Love Thee

Joy

Junior High School

Joy In Serving Jesus

Peace

Wonderful Peace

Patience

Now Thank We All Our God

Kindness

My Precious Bible

Fairest Lord Jesus

Goodness

Jesus Loves Me

Faithfulness

The Lord’s My Shepherd

Gentleness

All The Way My Savior Leads Me

Self-Control

When We All Get To Heaven

Epilogue

Remember:

The Fruit Of The Spirit

His Eye Is On The Sparrow

Finale

I Love To Tell The Story

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 dedicate 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 once again to our daughter, Karen Malone, who worked tirelessly editing this book.

Thank you to our grandson, Benjamin Hovda,

for painting the eye of God which is shown on

the cover of this book.

Always be who you are, precious in His sight.

INTRODUCTION

When we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit gives us the Fruit of the Spirit of God. We are to live our lives to glorify Father God and His Son, Jesus, by using the gifts of the Spirit in ways that magnify the image of God; and continually use the Spiritual fruit we have been given by the Holy Spirit. We are to grow in grace and be like Jesus as we walk with Him each day in His presence on this earth. As His children, we are delighted, joyful, committed laborers for God as we serve Him wisely day by day.

This book has nine chapters, each one sharing stories using God’s Fruit of the Spirit for His glory. The names of people used are not necessarily their real names, but the stories are actual events from our lives. There is no timeline, just stories which God brought back to our minds as we were writing this book. Maureen has taught school in different grades K-12 during the years Doug’s job kept moving us to live and work in 5 different states. Our stories took place throughout thirty to fifty years, plus more.

Beloved, we are ambassadors for Christ. Let us do the work that brings others to our Lord Jesus. Use the Fruit of the Spirit wherever you are, and you will know the joy of the Lord within your heart and soul. Time is running out. Jesus will be back before long.

"The Fruit of the Spirit is:

love, joy, peace,

patience, kindness,

goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness, self-control."

Galatians 5:22,23 ESV

LOVE

We love Him because He first loved us.

I John 4:19 KJV

Kindergarten

Her name was Heather. She was a little people. Fully developed, five years old, adorable, spunky and loveable. She was not quite three foot tall. At a glance, one would think she was an 18-month-old child. People would be surprised when she would talk. Yes, God’s little girl was smart. Her mom made her an 8x12 inch backpack to carry her papers, pencils, etc. Everyone in class loved her except one student, Billy. He was twice her size in height and strength. He looked more like a third-grader. We talked about shapes and sizes, tall and short, blond hair and red hair, etc. I made it clear that each person was made in God’s image. We all have differences.

Whenever Heather needed a drink of water from the bubbler, she would move