Our Story
When we felt God Calling us to US MAPS now called Church Mobilization
About Us
We told God.... IF this is really what you want us to do. Then you know Lord. We are gonna need 4 things.
#1 We are gonna need a different car because the one we have isn't road worthy to travel all over Kansas and Oklahoma to itinerate and raise a budget.
#2 We are going to need a home because we have lived in parsonages all our ministry life and we don't have the resources to buy one.
#3 Once we get our budget raised we are going to need a camper to travel in and stay long periods of time at church projects.
Then #4 We will need a truck to pull the camper with, because God you know our 30 yr old truck we have only pulls things going down hill.
By Faith, We resigned our church in Oct 2019 and told them we would be leaving in March of 2020 for missionary orientation. This gave us time to start raising our budget and the church to find a pastor. Shortly, after we resigned we had a person in the community call us up and say "Hey I heard you gonna need a camper for this new ministry, I have one in my backyard you need to come get it"
A few days later we had a friend call us from Tulsa (where we had planned to move to and be more centrally located and close to our grands) She asked " Did you find somewhere to live in Tulsa yet?" To which my response was No, everything is just to expensive "Well" she said "We have a house in Tulsa that needs some work done on it and if you guys can help us fix it up, we will pay for all the supplies and let you live in it for as long as you want for free".
Have you ever told God what and when He needed to do something?
We were thrilled with the blessings from the Lord, But confused that He gave us the camper first when we would clearly need a different vehicle to begin to travel in all over Kansas and Oklahoma in 2020 to raise our budget. November, December, January and February all came around and no, car, no truck came. We continued to trust God but was confused on what He was doing until March 2020 came around and His plan was clear as we sat sheltered in place in the camper, in our oldest son's driveway while we remodeled the house. Because there was no orientation, there was no churches open to attend. Because Covid-19 had invaded our country and shut so many things down.
4 months later once a bathroom was hooked up in the house, we pulled the camper to that driveway. One morning getting up and going into the house from the 25ft camper Alesa found 2 sets of camper wheel covers in our front yard still new in the box as if someone had just thrown them out of a moving car. She immediately knew they were from God and should be used. So she told Jeff "Baby we need to put these on the camper" Jeff tried only to find out they were to big for the camper tires so he threw them on a shelf and forgot about them.
For 6 more months we were in the camper, and just when churches started opening again for us to begin to visit. God gave us a different vehicle to travel in, literally as the old cars transmission went out and we sat on the side of the road, we received a call from one of our partners. saying "I am getting ready to buy myself a new car and I will give you my 2003 Honda Pilot with less than 200,000 miles on it for you to travel in.
About the same time in Fall of 2020 we were told by a missionary friend of ours, that the 25ft camper we was living in was just going to be to small to stay in when we were on the road doing projects and he said "I have a donor who will give us you a 34.5 ft 5th wheel. If you will get your budget to 75%.' This was a confirmation to what we already knew as the already well loved little camper was just wearing out with 4 adults (Jeff, Alesa and our 2 adult children Amy and Chad) living in it full-time
In March 2021 We 'Just happened" to be in Kansas City for some other ministry events when we realized we had hit 75% of our budget. We called the owner to make arrangements to pick up the 5th Wheel thinking we would have to go to the Springfield area as that is the last place that we knew it was. When the donor tells us "Well, its in the Kansas City area you will have to come get it" We couldn't wait we were so excited. But as we rolled up to the massive RV it was clear no matter how much faith we had the Honda was not going to pull it.
We begin to try to figure out how we could get it home, Alesa put the need on Facebook and Jeff begin to look into rentals. One of our Partners that lives in Kansas City area "Just Happened" to check Facebook and told us he "Just Happened" to be in a little town a few months earlier and saw a truck sitting beside the road for sale that he thought would be a great truck to pull his race car with. It "Just Happened" to pull 5th wheels exactly like ours across the country in it's previous life. Our Partner said "Come get it and take your 5th wheel home, just bring it back before racing season." So we did.
As we picked up the 5th wheel with the borrowed truck. We prayed for God to give us safety and we ended the prayer with "I thank you God for the truck you are going to give us to pull this camper with" Before we even got home with the 5th wheel. Alesa got a ding on her phone with this message "If you still need a pick-up to pull your 5th wheel, we have a F350 Dually-Quad Cab Diesel pick up truck with the 7.3 engine and 122,000 miles on it you can have, if you want it."
We are thankful for what God has done but if God has taught us anything in this season of life He has taught us that not only does He know what we need before we ask Him (Matt 6:8) But He as taught us that He knows what we have need of before HE ASK US to do something. So we don't know what God is telling you to do. But we can tell you that we are convinced if we had waited for God to give us all these things before we stepped out in faith to become missionaries. We would still be pastoring today. It was the step of faith we took by resigning our church and individuals listening to God, that brought forth the miracles we have described above.
Oh yeah! And those Wheel Covers we threw on the shelf that didn't fit the 25ft camper. Fit the new 34.5ft 5th wheel because nothing "Just Happens" when God is in it!
So don't wait. If God is telling you take cookies to your neighbor, or join one of our ministries in someway. Do it! You won't believe what He will Do! You could be the answer to some ones prayer. Don't wait for everything to make sense in your eyes. Just step out in faith and God will see you through and I promise blessings beyond what you can hope or imagine will happen!
God wants to take you places, you never dreamed of!~
