Juanita Marie Moore

Juanita Marie Moore, 71, passed into the nearer presence of our Lord on Friday, August 18th, with her family around her. She was born October 18, 1951 to Clyde and Evelyn Kent in Anderson, Indiana. She grew up in East Jordan, Michigan, but graduated from high school in Largo, Florida. She met her husband, Bob, in Boston, where their courtship and wedding took place among the historic churches and coffeehouses of Boston. Dad loves to recall their youthful adventures: exploring just about every mountain range in the country, mom being the first person across the finish line in the national Thistle sailing championship. They lived in Rochester, New York for many years, where mom gave birth to what she would consider her greatest accomplishments: six sons and one daughter. When mom began to feel a strong call to missions, she encouraged Dad in his decision to leave a secure job in industry for volunteer engineering work designing radio stations to reach across the Iron Curtain with the gospel. That prompted their move to Goshen in order to work with HCJB World Radio. At the time they had two mortgages and didn’t know how they would feed their seven children. Living by faith for 30 years, mom kept a record of all the ways the Lord miraculously provided, including being able to sell the house in New York for twice its original price and pay off both mortgages at once. Later when dad began independent consulting work helping churches across the US put in radio stations, mom was right behind him, praying through each church and challenge he faced. After all her children left the nest, mom turned her attention to ministry in the community: she enjoyed teaching sewing classes at Faith Mission and mentoring the ladies there, fixing sewing machines and giving them away, volunteering with The Depot and Happy Day Club, and attending Revive Indiana and their outreaches. She also enjoyed sharing her hobbies of birdwatching, ham radio, rug hooking, and watching Walker Texas Ranger with family and friends. She brought her love for Jesus into everything she did: writing verses everywhere and living them out in her relationships with others. She kept a prayer request box on her front porch and often asked complete strangers for prayer requests, even as she fought her own battle with stage 4 cancer. She stayed cheerful and thankful from the first day the doctor gave her the surprise diagnosis, one year ago. “Doctor, I’ve had 70 good years. I’m so blessed,” was her response. When enduring the effects of chemo, she would say, “It could be worse; I could be doing all this in Ukraine.” Her constant love, compassion, joyfulness, and kindness never wavered even on her worst days. She had more peace and joy throughout her battle than the rest of us combined. She never missed an opportunity to provide emotional support or her famous hugs to her dear friends and beloved family. She is survived by her husband of 52 years, Bob, and their children: Enoch, Joshua (Monica), David (Sharon), Daniel, Peter (Kim), John, and Joy (Ryan) Yoder, her six sisters, and her greatest joys, her eight grandchildren. Her parents preceded her in death. In the words of her eldest son, “She was, by far, one of the greatest people I have ever had the privilege of knowing.” But her lessons and compassion will always guide us, as well as the example of a life truly surrendered to Jesus. As we grieve her, these verses from Psalm 23 bring some comfort: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me... Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." The family will be holding a private burial at Oakridge Cemetery. Friends of the family are invited to a public memorial service at 4 p.m. Saturday, September 9th at Pine Ridge Bible Church, 16769 Co Rd 20, Goshen. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating on her behalf to Time to Revive at "timetorevive.com/give"

Elkhart Cremation Services has been entrust with her care.

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