Ron Smith grew up in the small logging and cowboy community of Elgin, Oregon. He spent eight years in the Philippines as a missionary and graduated from Calvary Bible Institute in Manila, Philippines. He is married with three children and five grandchildren. He currently lives in La Grande, Oregon, with Merlie, his Filipino wife. Ron is also a real estate agent, tennis player, scuba diver, and referees high school basketball and soccer. His short-term trips to the Philippines continues to this day...want to go?

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Hi, I'm Angel.

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Praise the God for you, Veron.

It's a great pleasure to connect with you.

What part of the world are you in today?

West Coast, USA, California, Oregon, Washington.

How did you come to meet Jesus?

Well, didn't grow up going to church or believing.

My family, we were not believers.

But all through junior high and high school, I did have a sense that there was a purpose, another purpose for my existence.

But the frustrating thing was is, you know, I didn't know what that was.

And anyway, fast forward after high school, I started to, you know, it was drinking and partying.

And for about three years, that was the scene that I lived in.

And after about three years of that and beginning to experiment with more and more dangerous things, I looked around in my circle of friends one day and I thought to myself, oh, my gosh, a lot of my friends look like they have death on their faces.

And I thought to myself, you know what, this has been fun for a while, but I think I'll quit because I want to grow old and enjoy life like my my 95 year old father who actually just died just a week ago.

I'm sorry about that.

Yeah, yeah.

He was a believer.

I was able to lead him to the Lord.

So but, you know, actually, I tried.

I thought, well, I'm going to quit.

So I thought, I'll just I'm just I'm going to quit.

I'm going to turn over a new leaf, sober, clean life here.

I come, you know, and I was trapped.

I dabbled too long.

I ended up, you know, becoming I was addicted to the things that I'd given myself to.

And I couldn't quit.

And I saw that, you know what, gosh, I gave up hope of getting clean and getting free.

And I thought to myself, you know, in five or 10 years, I'll probably die a horrible drug induced death.

And then I thought to myself, even if I do get free and live to be 100 years old and, you know, successful, I'm going to die anyway.

So I don't know.

I just came to the realization that someday, sooner or later, I'm going to die.

And then the curiosity got came to me.

It's like, OK, I can accept that now.

And I never thought about it.

But where do you go when you die?

So there was the great curiosity that came upon me.

And I started to search for the truth because there is there is either life after death or there isn't life after death.

There's no middle ground.

And so I started to search for the truth.

And basically, I didn't know at that time that somebody had already claimed to be the truth, the life and the way.

So I was searching for Jesus and I didn't even know it.

But I was on a college campus one afternoon, lost, frustrated, searching.

And a Gideon's Bible representative, if you're familiar with the Gideon's, was on campus that day, passing out those Old Testament Psalms, Proverbs.

And a guy ran up to me and walked up to me and handed me one of these little Bibles.

I never had one before.

Anyway, I took it home out of curiosity that night, started reading the Bible for the first time.

It was just like three or four days later that the Lord revealed himself to me and said, hey, my name is Jesus and I'm offering you eternal life.

Do you want it?

And I thought to myself, oh, my gosh, I know a good deal when I see one.

So, yeah, that's that's how I got saved.

I said the prayer out of the back of a little book.

And and that's that's how I got started.

How old were you?

Uh, 20, almost 21.

Wow.

Yeah, almost 21.

About three years after high school.

What happened next?

Well, it's interesting because when I was in high school, my senior year in high school.

Walking down the hallway all by myself as a small town is about 200 students in my high school.

But as in the hallway all by myself and this tangible presence, I'm just walking along, minding my own business, you know, realizing, knowing that I just sensing that there's another purpose for my existence, but not knowing what it is.

But all of a sudden, this tangible presence like someone or something walked right up to me.

I mean, this tangible presence like a person walks right up to me.

I couldn't see anything, but man, I felt this presence and then an overwhelming desire suddenly to go to the Philippines.

But that happened three times my senior year in high school, this presence and then an overwhelming desire to go to the Philippines.

And it would last maybe 10, 15 seconds each time it happened.

And it happened three times.

I mean, long story short, after I got saved, gave my life to the Lord at almost 21, I realized right away, I go, Oh my gosh, that was God speaking to me back in high school.

And I've got to get to the Philippines.

It was quite a process and it took several years, but that's what I was headed for.

Wow.

So you went to the Philippines, did you?

Yes, I did.

In January of 1989, I went over there with Youth with a Mission, a missionary sending organization, international program.

And I went over to the Philippines.

I did a three-month school and then a two-month outreach to the Philippines and had my ticket to come back after two months.

And the Lord started speaking to me about staying longer.

And I ended up staying there for about eight years in the Philippines.

I met a Filipino gal there, married her there.

And we had two of our children were born there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I love the Philippines.

So do you go back?

Yes.

Oregon, right?

Yes.

So she moved across Oregon with you?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

She came back to me with a family with two children.

We had another child when we came home here.

And but, well, you know, before COVID shut me down international travel, I got stirred up again.

Long story short, anyway, before COVID shut me down, I made eight trips back to the Philippines in five years.

About 10 years ago, I got stirred up again in my calling.

And but then for three years, I couldn't go to the Philippines because I didn't want to get the jab or the shot, you know, for COVID.

And so they were very one of the more locked down countries.

You couldn't get in without, you know, having the shot.

But I was just there earlier this year for five weeks in March and April.

I'm planning on going back again later this year, September, October, hopefully for four or five weeks.

Do you travel east to get to the Philippines?

Or do you go west?

Yes, it's no, it's west.

Yeah.

Usually out of Seattle, a big plane out of Seattle, Washington and head across the ocean going west.

You're right.

Now, Narita, Japan, Seoul, Korea is a another stop.

And then on to the Philippines.

How long is it?

Oh, well, you know, that flight, it can be 12, 13 hours in the air one flight, and usually a total of 17 to 22 hours total, something like that.

What's going on with that transition time in terms of your thoughts?

Is it different from the thoughts that you're having just doing life normally?

When I go to the Philippines, I come alive.

I it's just, you know, it's just the the life call of God on my life.

And I'm learning the language.

And I just love being in the Philippines.

I love the people.

I love the culture.

I love the islands over 7100 islands make up the Philippines.

Yeah, I have lots of lots of friends there now, pastor friends, etc.

And, but yeah.

Have you had other encounters similar to that presence you felt?

Yeah, tell me.

I did.

Right after I received the Lord for the first time, I said that sinner's prayer to the back of that Gideon's Bible.

You know, I saw that God was offering me eternal life.

And I prayed the prayer, but I didn't know if I had I didn't have assurance of my salvation, or assurance that I'd actually said the prayer right and received the eternal life.

And so after about three days of saying that prayer over and over, I, I came into my bedroom one night apartment there, and frustrated and possibly close to a kind of a psychological breakdown.

You know, because I just seen the greatest thing I'd ever seen, offered the greatest thing I'd ever been offered, and saw that it was available, and didn't know if I actually had it was trying.

So anyway, I came into my bedroom one night, my knees hit the floor, elbows hit the bed, and I planted my face in my hands, and I cried out to God from somewhere way inside.

It was, it was deep.

I cried out.

I said, Father in heaven, I said, Almighty God, like that.

And the presence of the Holy Spirit came in the room and touched me right between my shoulder blades below my neck.

And if, if that song, He touched me, and oh, you know, that song, the joy that filled my, I would have wrote that song.

If, if that song hadn't been written already, that was a powerful encounter.

And I had another time I was working and at work, and I had an angel choir singing with me.

Right after I started going to church, and the first song that I'd ever learned from church, I was singing it.

And because He lives, I can face tomorrow.

And I'm singing that song in the back room of a produce room at a grocery store, and working part-time for Fred Meyers and grocery store.

And this angel choir starts singing with me.

And then, and then I had another encounter where, so powerful.

It was like the Apostle Paul where the lights flashed around him and knocked him off his horse.

I'm sitting in the, on a couch with my older brother in Portland, Oregon, and we're watching television.

And all of a sudden the Holy Spirit grabs my chin and I'm, I'm in a stare down, locked down stare with Almighty God in the ceiling.

And He says, come outside.

I've got something to say to you, something to show you.

And so anyway, I had an incredible encounter with the presence of God.

And I went outside, it was a beautiful summer night.

I focused on one star for some reason, and then out from that star, or from within that star, or behind that star, shot this little light, starts circling around the star.

And I looked down, rubbed my eyes, looked back up, and this star, this light was coming down towards me.

And right at that time as well, a river of God's presence engulfed me from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet.

That river of living water just engulfed me.

And the Lord gave me an open vision.

Those little lights ended up right in front of me, about three feet in front of me.

I had an open vision of the face of Jesus, and then heaven's gates in color, which was the heaven's gates were open.

And so yeah, I've had several amazing encounters with, with God's presence.

Message in the bottle, five years from today, you're listening to this conversation.

What's a message you believe for future Ron Smith?

Uh, that there's something that God wants to do in the earth that makes your presence absolutely necessary.

And that makes, that makes you important and valuable.

In closing, is there anything else you'd like to share?

Well, Miles Monroe was instrumental in getting to where I'm at today.

And he said, vision is necessary to break the barrier of our limited thinking.

And October 13th, 1993, the Lord gave me a vision of, I saw nations coming to eat of his fruit nations, coming to drink of his rivers of living water.

That's flowing through our innermost being.

Amen.

Hey, my pleasure.

I treasure Ron.

Thank you for being on what is inspired by 12 minute convos.