As a child, Beth Roach wanted to be the world’s first singing-astronaut-turned-international missionary, she told the Vernon Baptist Association WMU gathered at First Baptist Church here recently.
LEESVILLE – As a child, Beth Roach wanted to be the world’s first singing-astronaut-turned-international missionary, she told the Vernon Baptist Association WMU gathered at First Baptist Church here recently.
Though the singing-astronaut gig fell by the wayside, Roach did become an international missionary with the IMB and served with her husband, Bruce, for almost seven years in Yemen, a small, Middle Eastern nation that is almost 100 percent Muslim, she said.
Now, however, the couple, along with their two sons, leads a quieter life in Minot, N.D.
“Wherever God sends you is exciting,” Roach told her audience. “God knows where we are now. He brought us to the Dakotas and knows what He has for us.”
The Roaches, both Louisiana natives, are entrenched not only in North Dakota life but also in the task of spreading the gospel in that state, Beth said. She is the adult missions consultant while her husband, a doctor, is also very active in their church, Cross Roads Baptist, as a deacon.
The Message incorrectly listed Roach’s husband’s name as David and called the Roaches “church planters” in the May 31 issue. Though the couple is very mission-minded, Beth said, they are not employed by the North American Mission Board.
Both also teach Sunday school and host a Bible study in their home every Tuesday night, said their pastor, Bruce Knight, who himself is a Louisiana native from Monroe.
Cross Roads has an average Sunday attendance of about 95, Knight said.
It’s one of the largest churches in the state, Roach added, indicating that many churches in the state struggle with memberships as low as 10.
The church is one of 14 churches and missions in the Prairie Partners Baptist Association, which itself is one of the few associations in the convention with a director of missions, Roach said.
“A lot of areas [in the Dakotas] have no evangelical work at all,” Roach added. “Our numbers are few. We don’t have the money or the personnel that Southern conventions have.”
But the Dakotas have the Roaches, Bruce Knight, and other Christians like them, who are striving to share the gospel in what seems to be a land barren of the Word.
“Bruce Knight has a great vision for the area,” said Blair Hamilton one of the lay-people involved with a Bible study that’s recently been kicked off in Stanley, N.D., about an hour’s drive from Minot.
“One of the reasons the Lord broke my heart for coming to the Dakotas and placed a burden on me to leave the Southern Bible Belt culture was the unbelievable disparity between population and churches [in the Dakotas],” Knight said, remembering how he’d compared the population/church ratios between the Dakotas and southern states.
“I remember thinking, ‘Well gosh, they need workers, Get up there!’” he said.
Knight came to Minot in September 2002 as a part time pastor at Cross Roads, which was a new church start only about five years old with an average attendance of about 45, he said. Since then, he’s become full-time, and the church has doubled in size.
“Our purpose statement is ‘Being unified in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are devoted to the Word, Fellowship, Worship, and Prayer, resulting in ministry and evangelism.’” Knight said.
The statement, derived from Acts 2:38-47, offers clear guidance to Knight and his church in the work they’re trying to accomplish for the Lord, he said.
“There are six functions we need to do, sort of like pieces of the puzzle,” he explained, referring to being ‘devoted to the Word, Fellowship, Worship, and Prayer.’ “If you do the first four, a natural outgrowth is ministry and evangelism. When you do those six things and do them well, you’re right on target.”
In addition to that purpose, the church strives to be an Acts 1:8 church and has taken the time to define their four regions, Knight said.
“We want to be physically involved, not just praying and giving. We want to be going to one of those four regions every year. Our Jerusalem is Minot and Minot Air Force Base. Our Judea is in Stanley, N.D. and Surrey, N.D. where we’re trying to get Bible studies going.
“Our Samaria is Lethbridge, a city in southern Alberta, Canada,” he said. There, Cross Roads has been working with a Southern Baptist church planter. This summer the Minot church has planned its third mission trip to Alberta.
In August, Cross Roads is sending two people with the Dakota Baptist Convention on a mission trip to Russia, fulfilling the last part of Christ’s command to reach the ends of the earth, Knight said.
In the meantime, Christian numbers in the Dakotas are slowly increasing and provide evidence of God’s work, Roach said.
“We’re seeing people, a few more, that are seeing a vision for [the area] and doing some things out of the ordinary,” she added. For example, the Sturgis Bike Rally in Sturgis, S.D. was begun last year, and now people are prayer walking in preparation for the rally next month. Make Sure of this date??
“We’ve got others who are seeing needs in sister churches,” she continued, explaining that though no church has plenty, they are sharing with one another nonetheless in areas like Vacation Bible School and building projects.
In addition, some of the other conventions are noticing the Dakota Baptist Convention and wanting to participate, which is very encouraging, she said. It wasn’t long ago that workers in the Dakotas felt a little on their own.
Knight, the Roaches, and several others, are also involved in the beginning stages of church planting: Bible studies in outlying areas, such as Stanley and Surrey.
Blair Hamilton, along with his wife Jennifer who is from Stanley, are both members at Cross Roads; Budg Reickeman, pastor at First Baptist Williston; and Harry and Sonya Braddock have just begun the Bible study in Stanley, Knight said. The Bible study in Surrey is still in the planning stages.
“Pastor Bruce is very mission-minded and looking for any opportunity to serve, whether in Minot or in towns within an hour or so driving distance,” Blair Hamilton said. “It so happens last summer we had a family [the Braddocks] drive in from Stanley … and begin faithfully coming to Cross Roads, which set off Pastor’s radar.”
Knight became interested in reaching the Stanley area, and the Hamiltons and the Braddocks jumped on board.
“We’ve been praying and praying and praying generally for works in North Dakota,” Hamilton said. “We started to feel like Stanley was where the Lord was leading us because the Braddock family started coming to Cross Roads. Here’s a family that is willing to host a new work in their home. They are the people of peace.”
“All the people involved thought it might be wise to at least start a Bible study,” Hamilton said. Meeting in the Braddocks basement now, the Bible study group is poised to grow as the participants continue to pray.
Reickeman, who lives about 115 miles away from Minot has also agreed to cooperate in the new work, which is situated about halfway between Minot and Williston, Hamilton said.
The needs in the Dakotas are for prayer, unused or not-very-used Sunday school and VBS materials; personnel to help with VBS and backyard camps; pastors; teachers; music leaders; and people to go door-to-door, Roach said.
“Pray for your missionaries, according to their birthdays,” Knight added. Most of the Dakota Baptist Convention staff and the directors of missions are NAMB appointed missionaries. In addition, giving to the Cooperative Program and the Annie Armstrong Easter offering helps fund the work in the Dakotas.
But most of all, Louisianans can go, Knight said.
“Contact the state convention office to see about where you can come to mission trips, start new works, and do various projects,” he said.