When Miracles Happen
“Thank You Jesus for the New Van”
Around 1980, before my husband Ron and I started to travel full-time sharing Jesus through puppets, we were driving our old Dodge Van. We felt that God was encouraging us to pray as a family for a motorhome for our travels. We began, absolutely bursting with faith. We went to our local RV dealer and as a family we laid our hands on a “Transvan” and prayed that it would become ours. (This was essentially an elongated van, with room for beds, but no bathroom.) Each evening during our family devotions, Renee (10) and Matthew (7) would pray, “Thank you Jesus, for the new van.”
We continued on in faith for some weeks, when we felt the Lord impressing on our hearts that we would receive our new Transvan after we gave away our old Dodge van. Our first thought was to look up and ask, “Is there anyone else up there?” We started praying about to whom to give the van, and we felt led to give it to a Rescue Mission. (We found out they’d been praying for a van for two years. I guess we were late.)
After we delivered the van to the Rescue Mission, we knew that within hours, or perhaps days, we would receive our new motor home. But that next weekend we had a ministry trip and only had our little Subaru which meant we had to choose between the kids or the puppets! We borrowed our friend’s truck. We borrowed it again the weekend after. And the weekend after that. We thought, “we can’t keep borrowing their truck. Let’s make payments on it until we get the new van.” (This was a blessing to our friends who were able to keep their kids in a Christian school because of our truck payments.)
This truck only had one seat in the cab, so Ron took the back window out and put a “boot” in so that the cab and the canopy were connected. He put in two Volkswagen seats for the kids to sit. It was winter, so we cranked the heat up in the cab. We were dying of the heat, but the kids were still wrapped in blankets.
Our faith was waning. Although the kids faithfully prayed, “Thank you Jesus, for the new van” every night, “Oh ye of little faith,” applied to us. There was a bit of whining and complaining (called murmuring among the Israelites). Yes, we had left Egypt (our old van), we had not yet reached the promised land (our new van) and were now wandering in the desert (the truck).
Several months passed before our attitudes took an “about face.” We agreed, “Hey, it’s a privilege to serve the Lord! It doesn’t matter if we drive this truck for years! We are honored to be able to work for the Lord in this ministry!” We’re pretty sure we could hear God speak from above, “FINALLY!”
Meanwhile, we received an invitation to travel to Alberta, Canada to participate in a weekend of ministry. Since we had to provide the travel funds, we knew we couldn’t drive the truck and stay in motels along the way. A certain Saturday was the day we would have to let the church know if we were coming.
That certain Saturday arrived. And so did a couple we know. They were close to retirement and they felt the Lord telling them that they were to close out their retirement account and give us $10,000. Our mouths dropped open. We were awe-struck. We were speechless. We cried. We praised the Lord. We ran out to the nearest RV dealer. But a small motorhome (we decided we needed a bathroom) was $14,000 and he wouldn’t come down in price.
Obviously, God was going to provide the other $4,000. That week, some acquaintances invited us to come over after the Wednesday evening service. They had never invited us to their palatial home before. We were positive that the doors on their garage cost more money than our house! We sat around and chatted. We thought, “Okay, we know you two are rich and that you’re going to give us that $4,000 we need. Let’s get on with it.”
After a visit, they invited us to go out to their garage. We passed the barn which had a forced air furnace in it for the horses. In the garage stood a 28 foot Class A motorhome, worth about $27,000 (this was in the 70’s). As our eyes opened wide they said, “We feel the Lord wants us to give you this motorhome.” We gasped. They continued, “But we have a problem. We still owe $10,000 on it. If you can pay that off, it’s yours.” We were astounded at what God did. We didn’t have the imagination or the faith to pray for a custom motorhome! God loves to bless His kids!
Bio:Bonnie Hiller and her husband Ron are the founders of Puppets and Praise Ministries. For 45 years they traveled extensively with “muppet” sized puppets sharing Jesus throughout the United States, Canada and overseas, ministering in over 34 different denominational and independent groups. Widowed in 2021, Bonnie continues with the ministry on a part time basis. She is active in her local church and her mobile home park where she teaches a Bible study. Bonnie and Ron were married 54 years, have a daughter who lives in Canada with her family, and a son (who died in a car accident in 2016). There are 17 grandchildren—a dozen are local and include Native American foster kids.
