Word: ronie
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...what made the Bowers so eager to work there. In this "spiritually dark corner of the world," as Jim Bowers described it in a recruitment video, many people have never seen a church. "They go through life with no knowledge of the living God who created them." Asked Roni: "Can you imagine never having the chance to listen to a Bible story as a child?" Says Sherry Boykin, who worked upriver from Roni until last year: "You have no idea what a wonderful thing it is to do. The people, literally, physically tugged at us. Every ear held on every...
...between the humanitarian handouts, the Bowers spent most of their time trying to win converts. Jim, 37, ran Bible schools and played hymns on his guitar. Roni, 35, focused on the women and children. In her first year, she struggled with Spanish. But soon Roni was creating coloring books in the different local dialects and laminating them against the humidity. Warmth radiated from Roni, those who knew her say. She didn't need the spotlight. She preferred to please people with an encouraging word or a home-cooked meal. "She was a very down-to-earth person," says Boykin, "which...
...Roni also had a problem that Peruvian villagers, who often lose children to illness, could relate to. She miscarried 10 weeks into her only pregnancy in 1997. As she later wrote in a candid essay to her church, "I felt like I had fallen from a huge cliff, without a parachute, and hit bottom with an incredible thud." Eventually, with prayer and Prozac, Roni recovered. And she used the experience in her mission work, advising other grieving women to put their relationship with God before their personal desires...
...Roni's devotion to her faith dated back to age 12, when she watched her military father get on his knees to invite Jesus Christ into his life. Then he rose and poured out all the alcohol in the house. Her family had never been very religious before. But Roni embraced her dad's conversion as her own. At age 17, she entered the tiny Piedmont Baptist College in Winston-Salem, N.C., where she vowed to date only boys who wanted, like her, to be missionaries. As she wrote in the essay: "Seriously! Whenever I was asked out, even...
...Peru, Roni and Jim Bowers were two of about 6,800 Christian missionaries, most of whom were Roman Catholic. They worried about snakebites and thievery but rarely thought about drug smuggling, Boykin says. Peru is not among the A.B.W.E.'s list of most dangerous countries. Sometimes, they would see cigar boats racing down the river or hear stories about military planes buzzing a missionary plane. But the A.B.W.E. says none of its planes had ever been shot at before...