Cautiously entering the church, a naive 16-year-old girl and her 18-year-old drug dealing, rock and roll guitar playing, high school dropout boyfriend made their way to the balcony. Their reason for coming? To make fun of the evangelist. "Maybe if we make enough noise, they'll call the police," whispered Jeff. "They'll never ask us to come back again!" That girlfriend was me!

As we cranked up the noise, the older folks glanced up to the balcony, wondering who those roughly dressed, obnoxious teenagers were. Then the music started! It wasn't rock and roll, but at least it grabbed our interest. Next, the evangelist stepped to the pulpit. The subject that night? Spiritualism and the occult!

The evangelist explained clearly from the Bible. Jeff thought of his own experiences with spiritualism. We came back again—to listen this time, to one subject after another. Serious questions came to mind: "What happens after we die? Is there really a God in control of all this? Why am I here?" We sat on the edge of our seats night after night, hearing Bible truth and finding answers to our questions. The desire to share what we had learned began to grow in our hearts. Life would never be the same again! But cutting old ties with drug dealing, rock musician friends would not be easy.
Mentoring

Two years later, at the ages of 20 and 18, we married and moved 60 miles from our hometown out into the country, trying to get away from the bad influences of our friends. We believed God had a plan for our lives but we weren't sure what it was. I really took hold of the message in my limited understanding, but Jeff still hung on to many of his old habits, like smoking pot and using other drugs. It is easy to have a head knowledge, but a heart experience with the Truth
can be another matter.

 

Through a series of events, such as his father being killed in a freak accident, Jeff began thinking more seriously about his relationship with God and made a serious commitment to Christ. About that time, Jeff was set up with Willie Nelson's bass player by some friends. They never said who the fellow was, or anything, but that he was going to be in the area, and "just wanted to jam with Jeff." When they got together and started playing Jeff found out who this fellow was and that he wanted Jeff to come an audition for the next up coming tour! When Jeff told them, "No way!" they all thought he was crazy, but they did not understand that God helped him to see this was a trap back into his old way of life!

It is amazing how God places the right people in our lives at the right time! Jerry and Linda Wernick, founders of Tamarack Springs Academy in Polebridge, Montana, struck up a friendship with Jeff and me. They became our mentors.

The Wernicks were just beginning to build their self-sufficient dream home in the remote mountains of Montana. Linda taught me everything from baking bread to canning and buying food in bulk. She set an example of honoring her husband and working beside him. Jerry and Jeff worked together on their vehicles and planned how to make a home self-sufficient. Jerry taught Jeff how to build, do stone work and make lumber with a chainsaw mill. He also taught us how to budget and economize. But most importantly, he demonstrated trust in God.

"Do you believe that God wants you to have your own place in the country?" Jerry asked. "Yes," Jeff replied with some hesitation, as he was in debt with 12 pre-1940 vintage cars, and was too young to have thought much about buying land! Jerry encouraged us to trust God, step out in faith and buy our own wilderness property. "God said it. I believe it, and that settles it for me," I thought to myself.

 

A MOVE TO THE COUNTRY

We systematically liquidated all of our assets, including Jeff's antique cars. One by one the Lord brought buyers. The sale of these cars made us debt free and gave us some working capital. When his prized 1936 Plymouth coupe was taken away, he cried. All but one car sold—a 1937 Ford coupe.

Together with Jeff's brother and sister-in-law, Allen and Amy Reich, we sought the Lord's help to find a remote piece of property. Jeff and Allen took a long, exploratory trip through Montana and Idaho, looking for 10 acres of remote land with a southern exposure, a good stand of trees, and a creek, spring or lake on the property—all for $800 an acre! People everywhere said they were crazy.

After weeks of searching they were about to give up, but decided to look at one last property—and it was perfect. They bought it on the spot—right here in Northern Idaho. God tested our faith, and when we had done all that we could, He stepped in and did what we could not do. It was a lesson in trust. God is more interested in the process of developing our character than in giving us what we are looking for. This is an important point to remember.

We were city kids, only 22 and 24 years old, with an 18-month-old daughter, Carissa. We lived that first very wet spring in an old truck camper with no heat. We built a makeshift kitchen, complete with a picnic table and wood cook stove under a tarp lean-to. Money was often tight—really tight. We lived on $35 a week by cutting posts and poles from our own trees. To make things more challenging, I was pregnant with our second child.

We had brought with us a wheelbarrow, a treasured Alaska Chainsaw Mill, and a wooden keg of used nails from my grandfather's barn. Some of these nails were so old they were square!

And we still had one completely restored 1937 Ford Coupe safely stored under a tarp. Later, money from its sale would keep us afloat. To say the least, my parents thought we were crazy! The adventure was merely beginning!

 

A DREAM - A REALITY

The dream of owning and working our own land was becoming a hard reality. Mornings consisted of cutting down trees and milling them into lumber with the chainsaw mill. Afternoons were filled with building the house (yes, with green lumber!). The foundation trenches were dug by hand with a shovel; the cement for the foundation was mixed by hand in the wheelbarrow; rocks for the foundation were hand picked and hauled, a truckload at a time, from a local quarry. We were getting pretty handy!

Although the days were busy and full of hard work, we were still determined to keep our connection with God. Every morning and evening we committed to family worship. This quote from one of our favorite books encouraged us:

"It would be well for you to lay by your perplexing cares and find a retreat in the country, where there is not so strong an influence to corrupt the morals of the young. True, you would not be entirely free from annoyances and perplexing cares in the country; but you would there avoid many evils and close the door against a flood of temptations which threaten to overpower the minds of your children."—Counsels to Teachers, p. 141.

This was an important statement for us, especially when Trisha, our second daughter, became a part of our family that first winter.

 

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

Our original goal was to establish some type of "outpost ministry." It took three struggling years before that goal was realized. Alternating between full-time jobs and continuing to build on our country home, Jeff found time to begin a simple backyard newsletter—Laymen Ministry News. The first mailing in 1985 was to 22 people. In a matter of months the newsletter, dedicated to laymen and written in lay language, was being mailed to over 200 homes. The theme was simple: God has granted to each the work of ministry; the early Church began as a lay-movement, and the work would, to a large degree, finish as a lay-movement.

In those days many thought we were radical—that we were trying to overthrow church organization! In reality, our emphasis was simply the biblical concept of the priesthood of all believers—while still supporting church organization.

Jeff thought, "Maybe I should offer some literature as outreach tools for laymen." He found an old tract that was long out of print, cut the pages apart, and pasted them up for duplication on a high-speed copier. In a few days his first tract was ready. To his great surprise, a well-known pastor and public speaker ordered fifty! Wow! Imagine the possibilities! One tract led to another. Books were advertised in the newsletter. This led to the creation of a bookstore. All the time the mailing list was growing by word of mouth. Again, another book we were reading lent us encouragement:

"Self-supporting missionaries are often very successful. Beginning in a small, humble way, their work enlarges as they move forward under the guidance of the Spirit of God. Let two or more start out together in evangelistic work. They may not receive any particular encouragement from those at the head of the work that they will be given financial support; nevertheless let them go forward, praying, singing, teaching, living the truth . . . . Even the poverty of these devoted missionaries is a means of finding access to the people. As they pass on their way they are helped in many ways by those to whom they bring spiritual food. They bear the message God gives them, and their efforts are crowned with success. Many will be brought to a knowledge of the truth who, but for these humble teachers, would never have been won to Christ."—Testimonies to the Church, Vol. 7, p. 23.

Laymen Ministries began in just such a small, humble way, clinging to the promise, "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much."—Luke 16:10. We made a commitment to stay out of debt. While building our house, we lived without running water for four years, without indoor plumbing for six years and without power for nine! Each improvement brought great joy, as we appreciated the value of working hard for every gain.

 

A PUBLISHING WORK

Before long, Jeff put his mechanical talents to use in a new way. We purchased an ancient printing press and a gas generator and began printing tracts for outreach, thus establishing LMN Publishing. It was a trial and error venture—not to mention sharing my living room with boxes of paper, ink and a large paper cutter. More and more tracts and booklets were published, along with the regular newsletters. We even stored books under our bed and in the closets! The newsletter grew into a bi-monthly mini-magazine with a circulation of around 2000 people.

After two years we traded in the old press. The gentleman who delivered the new press declared, "You have been printing these booklets on that press? The quality is so good, but that press is totally junk! An angel must have kept this thing running!" We smiled, as we well knew it ran on prayer!

We needed a collator, and Jeff hesitantly picked up a demo to try out—knowing he did not have the money to purchase it. Driving home from the city with the equipment in the back seat, he stopped in town to check the mail. To his astonishment, he found a check for the exact amount of the collator, with a note saying, "We felt impressed that you needed this money!" This scenario happened over the years time and time again!

 

GOING INTERNATIONAL

Shortly after the fall of communism, a gentleman from New York called Jeff. "You need to train others to do what you have done," he said firmly. "You need to help those in these newly opened countries to set up simple printing facilities. It would be so practical, and take very little financing." They prayed about it on the phone.

The next thing we knew, a student named Victor Kuczek was on his way from Poland to learn desktop publishing and printing. He and Jeff worked together to develop a publishing work in Poland, which later became Springs of Life Institute. Victor left a deep impression on our family, as he not only joined in with chores and family worship, but also shared the difficulties of life under communism in Poland. Another student came from Romania. Our eyes were being opened to the possibilities in these former hard-line communist countries.

Jeff and co-worker Arnet Mathers took their first trip to Eastern Europe to learn firsthand how to be of more help. They planned to stay for about one month. There was one problem—after buying airplane tickets and Euro-rail passes, they only had $60 in cash for food and lodging for the whole month!

The Ministry ran on a shoestring budget, as the saying goes. Some call this crazy, others stupid, and still others say, "You had a lot of faith!"

The day before departure, an Express Mail envelope arrived. It contained $600 in cash with a note that read, "We were impressed that you needed this money right away."

That trip and others that followed resulted in printing facilities being established in Romania, Poland and Lithuania. Books and tracts were published in Albanian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Moldavian and Lithuanian. Thus LMN Publishing International, Inc. was formed. That name was too long to deal with, so today we are simply known as Laymen Ministries.

The Lord opened doors to contact high-ranking government officials in Romania. In that country alone we have printed over 500,000 books, 1,300,000 Bible lessons and tracts, and distributed thousands of Bibles. God opened doors to meet the vice president of Albania and then sending over 1.3 million tracts and Bible lessons to this little country. In Nepal we attend a private celebration with the former King and held the largest ever Christian Health Expo with medical professionals from many parts of the world! It was shown on national TV in Nepal. The work has expanded to various locations in India, Nepal, China, Lithuania, Bulgaria, and the Philippines. Millions of books, tracts, and Bible lessons have been printed and distributed in various languages around the world.

Schools for indigenous children were built in the Philippines; a training school for laymen established in India; workers sponsored in the Middle East and deep inside China; and prison ministries were formed—all by lay people encouraging lay people to be involved in ministry! Truly, anything is possible with God!

TV MINISTRY

Inspired by the late Jim Arrabito, Jeff bought a video camera and began practicing the art of videography. The vision for publishing had become a reality, and we trusted that God would work to realize a new dream—television production! Today Laymen Ministries owns and operates a TV production facility equipped with the latest in digital technology. Our programs take viewers right to the mission field to experience what the missionaries face day to day. Fast-paced and exciting, the programs have been used in public schools and for local TV broadcast.

God has an interesting way of preparing each of us for our unique work. When Jeff was seventeen, he worked for a television station in Montana. He learned about lighting, switching, cameras and many other skills necessary to manage a video studio. Even his past experience as a rock and roll musician was useful in understanding electronics and sound systems.

Laymen Ministries has been blessed and has grown amazingly. It produces programming for 3ABN, The Hope Channel, and for Tamil language satellite broadcasts from South India which reach 75 million people around Asia and the Pacific! The bookstore ships materials all over the world, and our mission magazine reaches over eleven thousand readers. With a small office staff, low overhead, and key leaders and numerous indigenous workers in the mission field, the influence for God has been incredible! All we can say is: "God has blessed!"

To learn more about Laymen Ministries' Studio, click here.

 

TODAY

Even with all these changes, we still appreciate the back woods of Northern Idaho. You will still find Jeff working in the forest with our son, Ben. I enjoy time in the kitchen with our daughters, Naselle, Carissa and Trisha. Family worship is still a high priority. You'll find our four children involved in some way alongside us in the Ministry. God's message to us is simple—ministry is a way of life, not something you do just through the institution of the church. The challenge we extend to you is this: if God can use us, with our limited education and drug-dealing, crazy background—God can certainly use you! We are no one extraordinary. "Be faithful today in your sphere of influence." Watch God open the doors of opportunity!

Want to get this complete story on DVD?

The above article is a brief overview of the history of Laymen Ministries. The expended version of this story called Spiritual Journey Series is available on DVD. Each program is 58 minutes in length.

All three parts of the Spiritual Journey Series are also available online in our Video Room.

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