Our Call To Missions

For several months I had been praying and asking the Lord to show me exactly what he wanted me to do in the ministry. I knew He was getting ready to do something, but I did not know what it would be. I had talked with my Pastor, Bro. Eric Brown and we were praying for God’s direction and leadership in this matter. Then on Thursday, January 28, 2021, in a morning revival service, Bro. Brown quoted Matthew 14:22 “And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away.” God spoke to my heart that I was to go to the “other side” of my country.

We began to pray and seek guidance from the Lord regarding where on the other side of our country He would have us go. He quickly led our hearts to the state of Idaho. As we began researching the state, we realized Idaho desperately needs Christ. Idaho is over 83,000 square miles with almost 2,000,000 people and only has about 25 fundamental, independent, soul-winning Baptist Churches. That means that each church needs to reach roughly 80,000 people! 

With that knowledge, we began to pray about where God would have us to start our first church in Idaho. We saw much of southern Idaho in the spring of 2021. Then, in June of 2022, we were in north Idaho and went to the town of Ponderay for a fair at the Bonner County Fair Grounds. As we spent the day there and saw the people, walked and sat among them, and drove into town for food, God begin to work in both my heart and my wife’s. As we left that night, I had Ezekiel 3:15 on my heart. There the Bible says, “Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel-abib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.” When we returned to our camper, I took my Bible out and began reading through Ezekiel 3. When I came to Ezekiel 3:17, “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.” God spoke to my heart, “I have made thee a watchman unto the town of Ponderay: give them warning from me.” Ponderay, Sandpoint, and the surrounding area are known to the locals as “Little San Francisco” because of the prevalence of lesbianism and sodomy, and they desperately need a preacher to tell them of Christ, Romans 10:14, “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?”

Since God put Ponderay on in our hearts, we have met many people from churches in other towns in the Idaho panhandle that have been praying specifically for that area. We have even had a number of people in the Southeast and Midwest come to us after church services and tell us of people they used to work with or family members that have moved to the area that are lost and tell us that they have been praying for them, that God would send a preacher to start a church there. They have obeyed Luke 10:2 “Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.” and God has called our family into the harvest of Ponderay and the surrounding area.