Introducing Rick & Connie Bohner
I am so excited to introduce you to Rick & Connie Bohner.
They have an incredible marriage spanning over four decades, four children, seven grandchildren and twenty-four moves all around the world. They are currently reading the Bible together this year.
Their youngest daughter, Hannah, has been a missionary on the ground in Kandern, Germany for seven years. It is there that she met and married her husband, Caleb. He is also a missionary and is originally from the States. They are expecting their second son (the eighth grandchild) this summer.
Rick and Connie were planning to travel to Germany, do a little sight-seeing and help with the new baby. But God has a bigger plan.
Hannah and Caleb serve at Black Forest Academy and an affiliated church, Black Forest Christian Fellowship in Kandern. They have wide roles serving, mentoring and coaching students at the school as well as leading ministries at the church. Caleb has finished seminary and currently teaches Bible at the school. He serves as an elder at the church and also does some preaching. Hannah leads the women’s and children’s ministries at the church.
The leadership at Black Forest learned that Rick and Connie were coming and offered them the opportunity to extend their stay for ten weeks to serve during the summer, a time when many of the missionaries are on furlough. The church serves the students and faculty/staff of the school, other mission organizations in the area, as well as the local community. With less staff around, a void is created at a time when both new missionaries are checking in and much work needs to be done to prepare for the upcoming school year.
Rick retired from the military more than twenty years ago and God has continued to move them, prepare them, and provide lots of experiences. With more than 21 years in education and church ministry, they have been equipped for the assignment set before them—one they will love and that will have its hard and challenging moments.
“We will work with both ministries as well as being very intentional about serving and encouraging the full-time missionaries (beginning with Hannah and Caleb). This is a dream come true for us. Having retired last year, we have the time to do this!”
They will have the opportunity to speak into the lives of the church. As a seasoned couple, they routinely provide pre-marriage and marriage counseling, lead discipleship groups, and mentor men and women of all ages and in all seasons of life. They are dedicated to teaching the next generation, wherever they live.
“One of the toughest aspects of being a missionary is feeling alone and forgotten … a huge reason missionaries leave the mission field. We get to speak into that space with the missionaries in Kandern, who are on the front lines ministering and discipling students who come mainly from missionary families all over the world, but also from diplomatic and military families as well, preparing them for the demands of college and life beyond … to be Christian leaders. What a big ask! We want these missionaries who invest in these kids to know they are seen, valued, loved and known. We are going without any expectations from them whatsoever – we are living in our own quarters, eating our own food, and simply giving any and all we can to serve them right where they are … beginning with our own family of course.”
When I heard their story, I asked them if we, at Umbwella’s Stand, could come alongside them and support them, as this represents the epitome of caring for missionaries—especially when they are your children, grandchildren or dear friends. Nothing is sweeter to missionaries than the love and support of those close to them.
Rick and Connie go with no expectations, but a desire to serve and be a blessing to those they encounter. They will live in their own housing, provide their own food, and simply pour out each day giving and serving in any way that God leads them. And they get to start with their very own family! God is so good.
Their heart is to be generous and not to put any burden on the people they have come to love, serve and support. We have the privilege and the opportunity to support them as they go.
I invite you to prayerfully consider supporting Rick and Connie financially as they head overseas for the summer to love and care for missionaries in some of the most unglamorous ways. And to pray for them as the summer goes on, as they will have the opportunity to sit with missionaries, men and women in the community, and hear some really hard stories—trusting God to give them wisdom to speak into lives, marriages, families, and futures.
Rick and Connie, we are so excited as we know God will work in and through you.
