I was saved in 1959 while attending Sunday school at an Independent Baptist Church in eastern Ohio. In 1969 three great events took place that would change my life forever.

 

One was that I married my wife Sandy who has been my life-long partner and friend.

 

Two was that God impressed upon me the call to minister the Word of God as a preacher of the Gospel.

 

Three was that I was chosen by the president of the United States to serve in the Army.  All three events worked together to prepare me for the work to which God has called me.

 

After serving in Vietnam I returned to take up where I left off with my wife ( we were together for a grand total of 34 days in our first year of marriage ) . As we established our home and began having children, I again was stirred to pursue the ministry. 

 

In 1977 I graduated from college and headed to my first church plant in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. There we spent 12 years grounding a people and ourselves to follow the Lord. I had a faithful friend in Pastor Robert Stevens, a missionary to Quebec, who helped me understand as a young pastor what it means to give yourself to the work of God. During this time I trained several men for the ministry. By God’s Grace we installed one of the men as pastor of the church in Ottawa.

 

In 1990 we left Canada coming back to the States and for a little over 2 years trained young men for the ministry through a local church in Michigan. But the desire to plant churches was still in my heart so we left Michigan and came to Ohio to establish yet another work. For the past 15 years God has impressed me yet again concerning the great need of Church Planting. 

 

Nearly 2 years ago while visiting in the Northwest (Idaho, Oregon, and Washington) my heart was moved by the need for Independent Baptist Churches to be established in that area.

 

It is with this burden that we are going to Vancouver, Washington to do yet again what God has enabled us to do in the past. Please pray for us as we seek the lost, the forgotten, and the needy souls of the Northwest.

 

The Stalnakers

 

Virl and Sandy