About Ron and late wife, Connie Winter
Ron was raised on a cattle ranch, in a Lutheran home in Colorado. When he was 18, while attending a secular college, a friend witnessed to him and encouraged him to memorize scripture. In 1976, after having memorized about 60 Bible verses, the Lord spoke to his heart in a Lutheran church service, through the verses that he had memorized. He trusted the Lord to save him, and the Lord soon led him to an independent Baptist church, that preached salvation by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone! Before long he knew the Lord was leading him to full-time Christian service, so he attended Baptist Bible College in Springfield, MO, graduating in 1982.
Connie was saved at the age of 7 and raised in a preacher’s home in Missouri, for most of her life, so was involved in many areas of ministry. She attended Baptist Bible College in Springfield MO, graduated in 1980, and married Ron the day after. She home-schooled their four children and was a help-meet to her husband in their ministry.
After college, Ron worked with the Bible Baptist Church in Fulton MO for 4 1/2 years as co-pastor, as well as music, youth, school and etc…. In 1975 they took their first mission trip to Mexico and God started speaking to them about going to the mission field.
Upon surrendering to the call of God to be missionaries, they joined the First Baptist Church of Milford OH in 1987. They were sent to work in the Bearing Precious Seed ministry with Carlos Demarest in El Paso, taking groups of Americans on mission trips into Mexico. The entire year of 1993, they attended the LAMTI missionary language school in Aguascalientes Mexico, and upon graduation, returned to the BPS ministry in El Paso, TX / Chihuahua, Mexico, and also had the opportunity to work with Missionary Rex Cobb, who was starting a church just across the border in Juarez.
In the fall of 1997, the Winter family moved into Mexico to start churches. They planted the Iglesia Bautista Semilla Preciosa (Precious Seed Baptist Church) in Anáhuac, Chihuahua, a town of around 16,000. The church purchased their own property, and was able to build their building. From the beginning, they prayed that the Lord would send the right man to pastor the church. On April 5, 2009, the Precious Seed Baptist Church and their new auditorium, was turned over to a Mexican national pastor.
Then during their furlough in 2009-2010, Connie was diagnosed with leukemia and underwent chemo treatments in Joplin, MO and Omaha, NE. Although the cancer was not in remission, it was inactive and they were able to go back to Mexico. In Feb. 2012, to get back to working in Mexico, Ron & Connie went to Los Mochis, Sinaloa, to help a church that another missionary had turned over to a Mexican pastor.
In July 2012, they moved to Camargo, Chihuahua, a city of around 55,000 souls and started Bible Studies in 10 homes. They brought the Bible studies together for the first service of the Iglesia Bíblica Bautista (Bible Baptist Church), on Oct. 20, 2013.
After four years in Camargo, Connie went home to be with her Lord and Saviour on September 6th, 2016 in Tulsa, OK. When she learned she was dying, because of the blessed hope she had since she trusted Christ at 7 years of age, she kept saying, “God is sooo good!” (Read the Obituary for Connie Jo Winter)
Their children had always been a big part of their ministry. As each one left home, they returned to the U.S. and attended Heartland Baptist Bible College in Oklahoma City, OK. All four are married and are raising Ron’s 13 grandchildren in good Bible preaching churches!