Maybe you've seen Sonya Lundy under "The Red Tent" in the Event Center at SGC. She and her husband, Ron, enjoy welcoming people there and offering encouragement and smiling faces to newcomers.
Sonya and Ron were themselves newcomers to SGC less than a year ago. After moving to the area from Atlanta, Georgia, they visited different churches, but did not feel the assurance they were seeking from God until they visited SGC in June of last year. "Everything clicked into place for us on our very first visit to Sugar Grove," she remembers. "We both knew that we had found our church home. We have been blessed so much since joining the Sugar Grove body of believers."
What brought the couple from Georgia to Indiana? "It's a God thing," Sonya states. Working in the big city of Atlanta for eleven years took its toll on them. "We felt like gerbils on a spinning wheel," she says, referring to working long hours, traffic, and the fast pace of a bigger city. Ron is from Bristol, but had not lived in this area since joining the Naval submarine service after his high school graduation. Right when Ron and Sonya felt that God wanted them to move on from Georgia, Ron's mother's health began to decline. So, in May 2011, Ron was able to transfer his Financial Services business here, God provided renters for their home in Georgia, and they found a place to live here . . . all in less than a month!
Sonya remembers spending many years of her childhood and youth traveling around the southeastern United States. Her dad was a member of several southern gospel groups over the years, and every weekend, the musicians and their families would pile on the group's bus and hit the road. She was eight years old when, at a little country church in North Carolina, Sonya trusted Christ as her personal Savior. "As an eight-year-old, I did not fully understand everything that was happening in my heart, but I knew that the Holy Spirit had found a new home inside my heart."
Loving to learn new things, Sonya finds that the more she learns, the more her appetite for learning increases. "Learning new things keeps me aware of what is going on outside of my personal space. It opens my eyes to new sights, sounds, smells, textures, and emotions, and hopefully it makes me a better person." An avid reader, Sonya sometimes reads 3 or 4 books at a time. She loves how reading teaches her details about other places, or new ways of looking at a circumstance that she hadn't considered before. The Bible is her favorite source encouragement, correction, hope and the assurance of God's eternal love and devotion.
She also loves to learn by traveling. Flying was once her favorite mode of transportation, but now she gravitates toward driving when possible. She and Ron enjoy seeking out the "Main Street Diners" on their traveling routes. "We have met some of the nicest and most interesting people in the non-chain restaurants," she says.
Another favorite way of learning for Sonya is by listening to beloved senior citizens. She has had many family members live into their nineties and has been blessed to listen to their childhood stories, the joyful and traumatic times in their lives, the ways they lived their daily lives, and their personal view on life.
When asked what God has been teaching her lately, Sonya responds, "God is constantly showing me that I need to depend on Him and trust Him completely." She is well aware of the many times God has proven Himself faithful to her. She finds it freeing to know that the Creator of the universe knows her past, knows what she is going through at any given moment, and knows what is around the next corner for her. "I do not need to take on the responsibility of worrying about what tomorrow brings; He is already there and preparing the path for me," she shares.
About her husband, Ron, Sonya declares, "He is my husband and best friend." Ron retired from the submarine service after almost twenty-one years, in 1999. He has worked in the Financial Services field since retiring from the military. In 1992, while he was still in the military, he was stationed at Kings Bay Naval Submarine base in Saint Marys, Georgia. "I was a single mom and worked for a government subcontractor," she recalls. "Our two best friends at that time decided we were a perfect match and planned for us to meet over a blind date. We stayed up all night talking, and, as they say, the rest is history." In August of this year, the couple will celebrate twenty years together.
"When Ron and I married, we became a blended (sometimes, not so blended) family. He had two children, a girl and a boy, and I had a girl," Sonya explains. Now, the oldest daughter is 27 and lives in Goshen, the son is 26 and lives lives with his wife in North Carolina, and the youngest daughter is 25 and lives with her husband in Atlanta, Georgia.
Ron and Sonya have enjoyed being a part of a Life Group, where they can get to know a few people even better. "We study the Scriptures together, eat together, fellowship together, and pray together." Sonya is in one of the weekly ladies Bible study groups and also sings in the choir and does other volunteer activities at church.
Some of her loves include playing games, solving crossword puzzles, and, in the summer, fishing, tubing and just enjoying God's creation. "I have recently started taking knitting lessons. Please pray for my patient teacher." :)
One of Sonya's favorite verses is Jeremiah 29:11, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" "What a loving Savior we have," she reminds us.
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