DistadMinistry

 In May of 1987 The American Missionary Fellowship flew Linda and myself to the home office in Villanova, PA. to attend orientation. Several other couples joined us for the few days we were there. While we were there Claire Harstad called us into his office for a chat. He informed us that we finally had enough support to go to the field and start our ministry as Area Missionaries. Clair later told us that after we heard the news, we floated down the stairs in joy!   The end of July that year, we packed up our belongings into a rental truck and along with Linda's brother and his wife, (Rick and Kayleen) we headed to the great state of Wisconsin. On one of our previous trips to Wisconsin we found a house in Trego, to buy. Eric came with us to Trego, but Kevin stayed behind to help at Camp Fort Faith in Morley, Michigan. We later picked him up as he took the ferry across Lake Michigan.. Rick and Kayleen helped us unpack and did a few house updates.    We took the first couple of month

    Around 1986 Scottville Bible Church closed and we were without a job, a place to live and we had no idea what to do next!!! Now What??? Ray and Sue Scholtens let us rent a small apartment on the top floor of their house and Ray also put me to work at the resort he had purchased and was remodeling. Linda found work cleaning houses and later a small restaurant in downtown Scottville. I helped her clean the restaurant a few times. But we still had no idea what the future held for us as far as ministry. We were burnt out on being a pastor - for now. We remembered what Howard Peterson (Regional Director for American Missionary Fellowship) had told us when he visited Luther Chapel a few years before. He told us that there were churches and ministries in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin that we would fit into. Howard passed away just a few years before, so I looked up Fern, his wife, who lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She gave me all kinds of brochures and information to look at and inform

   Part  of the job description of being a pastor is the necessity of conducting  funerals. During the 11 years that we were at Luther Chapel 2 funerals stand out in our memory.  Funeral #1 : Sometime in 1972 or 1973 we got word that one of our neighbors had passed away suddenly. I decided to call on the family to see if I could console them as they grieved. The next day they called to see if I would conduct the funeral for this man, which I agreed to do. I don't remember the man's name or even what I said at his funeral. What I do remember is that I was nervous and even scared. This was my first official funeral and I had only been in a funeral home a couple of times before. Also I was only 22 or 23 years of age and green as grass. The fact that I was nervous turned out to be a blessing. The widow was more concerned about me and kept her eye on me to see if I would make it through the funeral or not. We made it through by God's grace.  Funeral #2 : During the summer of 198

    After being in the ministry for a while, I realized that there was still one thing I needed to do and that was get ordained. On October 28th of 1984 an ordination council came to Scottville Bible Church to spend a day asking questions and evaluating if I should be ordained. The process actually began months, maybe even a year, before with a lot of prayer and study of God's Word. I knew that they would be asking questions about the 9 basic doctrines, from the Doctrines of God, Christ, Holy Spirit, the Church, End Times, Man, Sin and much more... Just when I thought that I was ready I took a trip to Grand Rapids and visited Paul Deal, director of Independent Bible Mission to see if he would help me prepare. After talking with him and him asking me doctrinal questions, I realized that my studying had just begun! It took me several more months more to study each doctrine, writing my personal testimony and a doctrinal statement of each the 9 doctrines. I also called on a few pastors

     In 1982 the Lord led us to minister at Scottville Bible Church. While we were at Luther Chapel a couple from Ludington, Michigan came for a visit. They said they were on vacation in the Morley area and thought it would be good to stop in at our church for a visit. Turns out they were from Scottville Bible Church and wanted to check us out as possible candidates for their church. Long story short - we accepted the call and started to minister at this church shortly there after.     If you remember from the last blog, I had "told God" things that I would do. This time I "told the Lord" that I would stay at this church as long as He wanted us there, even if that was several years. Again, God has a sense of humor and will do things His way!!! Little did we know that God would use this church as a "stepping stone" to a new adventure with the American Missionary Fellowship.     We really enjoyed the ministry in Scottville and got to know the people one on o

    Linda and I were all of 21 when we started at Luther Bible Chapel and we were GREEN and inexperienced. Luther Chapel was a great training ground for us. I was especially green in preaching the Word and even preparing for messages. GRSBM taught us basics, but the real classroom came in the nitty gritty of ministry. A friend of ours, Phil Platz and his wife Linda came for a visit one Easter after we had been there a short while. Phil and I went over to the church to get ready for Easter Services and a message from God's Word. I was having a hard time getting my thoughts around the message and knowing how to present it. Phil sat down with me and in just a few minutes taught me more about preparing a message than I ever learned in school. Phil just recently went Home to be with Jesus in Heaven. I will miss him.    In that first year I "told God" 2 things:    #1: The church was started by the American Sunday School Union in the late 1930's and still conducted business