| All Things Become NEW! What did I need God for? Sure, I grew up in the church, but during high school, church wasn’t anything relevant to me. Now, everything was supposedly going my way. I looked successful from the outside. I was a deacon in our church. I was actively involved in our community through my work with service clubs. My business was successful. But there was a void in my life. I didn’t know what real life was all about. I was self-sufficient. I had the traits that most men have, like putting all my belief in the soulish realm. My early desire was to become a professional baseball player. However, a car wreck dashed my dreams through a back injury. So I started working in my family business that my father started in 1930. I was the only son. All my working efforts really became my “god” in my life. Then I met my wife Bonnie in college. After we got married we started attending a church. During the first few years of marriage there were problems just like every couple experiences. But then a chain of events started where God started moving in our lives. Bonnie was invited to a group prayer meeting. I had a head knowledge of who Jesus was. I knew about Jesus. But the difference between your head knowledge and heart knowledge is also the difference between life and death. I read scripture and people shared with me. I was able to ask the Lord to come into my life. I became born again. My life totally changed. Faith in God is what completes a person and gives them a desire to live. Our homebuilder invited us to a FGBMFI Convention in Southern Illinois. I realized that Jesus was not just an historical figure, but He was alive in men and women. My wife Bonnie and I wanted to know more of Jesus. I wanted to know what life was all about; and what my purpose was. This meeting really started me to search for the Holy Spirit. Then at two o’clock in the morning in my house, after Ireceived Christ into my heart, I asked Him to fill me with the Holy Spirit; and I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. I spoke in tongues. The Holy Spirit has given me peace, and a desire and a power to serve Him. The scripture tells us if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. “All things become new” as it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17. That is exactly what happened in my life. My life took on a whole different meaning and direction. My marriage became so much better. My business became so much better and prosperous; when my life was right with the Lord. My whole family became better. If you know the Lord then you want to share and witness. It is something too good to keep to yourself. I started giving out VOICE magazines in my office. Of course only the Holy Spirit opens the doors. I am able to minister. One person was just dropped off in front of the business. He needed to go to the doctor. I knew what to do and prayed with him. We have things like that happen all of the time. God just brings people to us. My father started our business in 1930. Now, my son Adam is the third generation to operate Nations Bros. Auto Electric Starter and Alternator Service in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. We have a place in the auto shop where we can pray with people. Our motto in business is, “Do You Really want to Start Something?” (automobile starters, etc.) But having Christ in our life is most important – do we really want to start something…that will continue throughout eternity?! We represent Jesus Christ and His eternal values. The opportunity came available to go on an FGBMFI Airlift. God does extraordinary things with those opportunities. It was really a step up to be used by Him. Sometimes we hear of opportunities, but if we don’t take that course of action in our heart, we miss out. The first airlift that we took was after a convention in Dallas in 1984. We went to the Philippines and China. In 1986, I went to Brazil. As a family, we were able to go on an extended airlift to Paraguay and we lived there for six months. Once you go on an airlift, you can’t stop going. There is nothing the world has to offer than can compare to the feeling about serving the Lord. It is something that is so rewarding and to know that it is not yourself doing it, but you are totally yielded to Jesus. You can see people’s lives change that God brings you in contact with, whether it be a taxicab driver on the way to the airport that you are able to share with, or where God opens up a door to share with a large group of people, and many lives can be changed in your realm of influence. Bob Nations poses with his friends he ministered to in theSolomon Islands My wife and I were at the FGBMFI World Convention in Miami in 1996. We were in a meeting where the men were praying that God would give us a nation where we could pray for them and help finance efforts of evangelism and airlifts; or we could go ourselves and start a FGBMFI Chapter. I desired so much to be used, “Lord, give me a nation. Give me a place where I can go.” All of a sudden, in my All Things Become NEW! Bob Nations poses with his friends that he has ministered to in Solomon Islands. vision I saw an old picture show theatre, like the Fox in St. Louis; just elegant and beautiful, from the past. As my eyes focused on this beautiful architectural building, I saw the billboard and the bright lights rotating around, the blues, the greens, the yellows. It was just a beautiful sight in my spirit. But the marquee was blank. All of a sudden, as I was watching this blank marquee, letters started to form...S-O-L-OM- O-N Islands! I said to Bonnie, “We’ve got a nation.” She said, “Solomon Islands.” God is so good. We didn’t even know where the Solomon Islands were. So we went home and I read all about Solomon Islands, located in the South Pacific Ocean. You see, Guadalcanal (in the Solomon Islands) was the turning point for the Allies in World War Two. There was a meeting in Australia. So we went ahead and called our travel agent and got our tickets for the Solomon Islands. I had no contacts at all in the Solomon Islands. No one had ever been there. It was definitely the Lord; and it was definitely a step of faith. In 1979, Demos Shakarian asked Joash Waihura of Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, to set up an FGBMFI Chapter there. But I didn’t know that at the time. As I ministered in Australia, a man came up to me and gave me a card and put it into my pocket. He said, “Bob, I have been to the Solomon Islands a few times. There is a fellow there by the name of Joash Waihura. He is a spiritual man. He is doing evangelistic work. He is the man to see. He probably doesn’t have Bob Nations with his son Adam, the third generation to operate Nations Bros. Auto Electric Starter and Alternator Service. a house or a phone, but this is all I can give you. After we arrived in the Solomon Islands, Holly, my daughter, and I went out that morning to get our bearings in the downtown area. I asked an assistant of a small shop if she knew this man. Out of 40,000 people we could have asked, she just “happened” to live next door to Joash. We quickly visited his home and were greeted in such a beautiful way. Over 200 people came and we ministered to them. The first FGBMFI Chapter was formed. One of the things that Joash told me, as he closed our first meeting, “This is the time to start a Chapter here. It was about 20 years ago to this date, I was in New Zealand when Demos was there. Demos asked to start a chapter here, but I didn’t. Now here you are. This is the time!” With the energy that these men have, they can evangelize 500,000 people in those islands. A lot of them have never heard the name of Jesus. The “The Happiest People on Earth” book greatly influenced me. It gives an ordinary man an opportunity to be part of a worldwide group of men that were in the vision whose goal is to see people’s lives change. Bob Nations is an FGBMFI International Director, business owner and team captain of Sports World Ministries. Bob and his wife Bonnie have four children: Adam, Holly, Seth, and Dondee. All Things Become NEW! Bob and Bonnie Nations Contact Information: bobnations@excite.com cell phone- (573) 450-5902 Company web site: nationsautoelectric.om |
