EVANSTON, Wyo. – Aspen Church here was the recipient of some Missouri Baptist love by way of First Baptist Church, Kirksville. The Kirksville church took 13 members on a 2,600 mile misson trip to the ranching community in the Uinta Mountains of western Wyoming in late July.
The group went to Evanston with a desire to lead a kids’ day camp at a community center called The Roundhouse – a former railroad maintenance facility where the train tracks are still embedded in the wooden floor. The “FIT Camp” modeled physical and spiritual fitness for the kids. They also did some outreach into community, going into stores, handing out flyers and talking to people. Some of the area kids attended the church for the first time as a result of these invitations.
Evanston is a town of 13,000 people. Like many towns in the American West, its religious landscape consists mostly of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormonism). Aspen Church, planted in the 1990’s, is one of a few evangelical churches here.
Robert Douglas is the pastor at Summit Church. He formerly served two churches in Kirksville – First Baptist and later TimberRidge Community Church.
“To have the Kirksville church here opening doors, it just feels like we’re about the Father’s business,” he said. “It gives me a humbling sense of God’s plan. My heart is to see some of these (nearby) communities open up. Hopefully we can get some support behind what we are doing. We need some other church planters to come out here and plant their life here. The mission trip was a shot in the arm. Thirteen people, that’s double the number of people I have on my core leadership team. It was wonderful.”
One of the interesting projects the group undertook was to clean the town’s movie theater. It is an older building, and the staff is limited. The Kirksville youth and adults gave it a cleaning, painted some entryways, scrubbed floors, restrooms and gave it a shine. Not only was the movie theater owner astounded at this service project, but the community took note as well.
Other days were spent doing outreach in a nearby Utah town of Coalville. The group went door to door in this predominantly Mormon community doing a survey of religious preferences and collecting food for the Coalville food bank. The Summit Church leadership hopes to plant a church in this community 60 miles to their west.
“The church I serve is a mission trip itself. This church was built in the early 90s by churches in Texas and Missouri,” Douglas said. “When I moved here, I discovered one of the young couples in the church was previously in the college ministry at Kirksville. That was pretty amazing. Then to turn around and for three years I’ve been praying and meeting people. Every time I go through Coalville on my way to Salt Lake City, I pray for them.
“I’ve been praying for an opportunity to reach out to them. We tried to open some doors in the community of about 6,000. In Coalville there is no evangelical witness – several Mormon churches, nothing else. We gave out some free ice cream, did some face painting and we were able to meet a handful who seem to be interested. We are following up with some Bibles and will talk to some families who would be open to starting a church there.”
Charles Hunsaker, youth pastor at FBC Kirksville, said, “We met a lot of LDS people who said ‘We think it is great that you have a church here.’ One family said they were going to come to the Aspen Church. We tried to live in faith and serve a God who can do things we can’t. We leave the results to the God who can get it done.”
While the Kirksville group went through some very scenic areas, they also spent a few afternoons taking photos and hiking on short mountain trails.
“We were blown away by God’s design” Hunsaker said.
For those who would like to follow up with the Aspen Church or the Coalville church-start effort, Douglas invited them to visit the church’s website at www.aspenchurch.com.