September, 2002

Greetings, Everyone!

Welcome to the first edition of The Craig Chronicles. It has been an eventful summer for us, and we have much to tell, but first, we would like to sincerely thank every one of you who have helped us in so many ways. We felt loved and appreciated everywhere we visited. (Except for the time my own mother locked us out of the house, forcing us to spend the night at Howard Johnson’s -- more about that later!) In all seriousness, you have been and continue to be a tremendous source of encouragement to Heidi, the kids, and to me. We cannot begin to thank you enough.

I suppose that if these chronicles of the Craig family are to be complete, I should give you an idea of how the Lord has led my family to this point— the story of my life. (Don’t panic— I’ll keep it short!) I realize that many of you will already be familiar with our history. Take heart! Subsequent letters will contain fresh material! For others, this first letter will serve as an introduction to the Craig family, and to the work to which the Lord has called us.

The Lord called me into “full-time” Christian service when I was fifteen years old, living in Brazil, Indiana. Although I do not recall the details of the sermon that pastor Garry Moore was preaching one evening, I do remember that he read James 4:14, “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” I remember looking at my hand and thinking that if my fingers represented the years of my life, and if I lived an average life span of seventy-five years, then one finger of my life was already past— twenty percent of my life! I realized that evening that the only thing in life that held any true value was service performed for the Lord. From that moment, I have never doubted that the Lord wanted me to serve Him vocationally.

In the fall of 1984, I enrolled at Baptist Bible College in Clarks Summit, PA. in their missions program. It was there that the Lord introduced me to my future wife, Heidi (. . . “a prudent wife is from the LORD.” Prov. 19:14). Heidi and I were married August 2, the following summer. I transferred to Indiana State University, and enrolled in their pre-med program. At that time, I was considering medical missions, and I will admit that, to some extent, I may have been pursuing $$$. Anyway, after two years, I transferred back to BBC in Clarks Summit, this time in their pastoral program. I was certain that the Lord wanted me in full-time service, but I still did not know in what capacity.

Our first son, Andrew, was born June 21, 1988; like all children, he arrived with a whole slew of bills. Heidi and I decided to sit out of school for a semester to pay off some of the debt. Eight years and two more children later, we still had not returned to school. By that time, we had moved back to the Midwest, and had accumulated all of the “stuff” that ties one down and prevents him from completing his education. Since I promised to keep this short, I will finish by saying that I realized that we had somehow become sidetracked. We sold the house, the van, the truck, and just about everything else that was not nailed down, and moved to Pensacola, FL to finish school.

I graduated from Pensacola Christian College in May, 1999 with a degree in pastoral ministries. At that time, we still had no definite leading from the Lord as to a specific area of ministry, consequently, we began to explore possibilities in both missions and the pastorate. For several months we prayed about a variety of different mission fields, but had no peace about any of them.
In early November of that year, I was contacted by First Baptist Church of Newfield, NJ. It soon became clear that the Lord was leading us that direction.

Shortly before we left for New Jersey, a missionary, Garland Cofield (or perhaps his son, I do not recall), presented his ministry to the church that we were attending in Pensacola, Pine Forest Estates Baptist. Brother Cofield’s ministry, Camp of the Woods, is a church planting ministry among the Native Indian people of Canada. Brother Cofield has used youth camping as a tool to build relationships with the people of remote villages in order to gain an opportunity to share the Gospel with them.

As Heidi and I drove home that afternoon after the service, we turned to one another and said, “That’s it!” We both knew that if the Lord ever moved us away from the pastorate into missions, it would be to a ministry similar to that of Brother Cofield.

More than two years passed. The ministry in New Jersey was going well, the church was growing, we were seeing signs of genuine revival, and neither Heidi nor I had given any further thought to missions. Then, on February 10, 2002, a young missionary headed to Mexico City named Jon Allinson presented his ministry to us. As he preached, the Lord began to speak to my heart. It occurred to me that there are many, many pastors who could replace me here at First Baptist, but that there are very few who are able and willing to go into more difficult areas. It occurred to me that even though the need truly is great in Newfield, NJ, the people here at least have the opportunity to hear the Gospel is they so choose. It occurred to me that there are many people in the world who live in places where the Gospel is never heard— people who have no chance at all.

I asked Heidi after the service if she felt that God was speaking to her about missions. Her answer surprised me, “Yes,” she said, “And you’ll probably think I’m crazy, but I think He wants us to go to Alaska.” Well, I did not think that she was crazy, but I will admit that I had never considered Alaska. We began to pray about it, and to research the field. We discovered that there is a desperate need for someone to preach the Gospel and plant churches in many remote areas of the state. As we began to pursue this new direction for our lives, a wonderful thing happened: the Lord began to confirm His leading in several ways. Again, for brevity’s sake, I will simply list some of the ways that the Lord has shown us that this is, indeed, His will.

1. After our meeting with the church to inform them of our new direction, several church members told me that they had believed for several months that the Lord was going to lead Heidi and me into missions.

2. The week after our announcement to the church, one of the missionaries that our church supported accepted a call to pastor the church that he had planted. That freed up a substantial sum every month in our missionary budget. (Guess where the church voted to reallocate those funds!)

3. As Heidi and I sought the Lord’s will concerning a mission agency, John Rogers, pre-field ministries director for Evangelical Baptist Missions, informed me that his board had recently gained approval to begin an ethnic ministry in Alaska— they were looking for someone to pioneer the work. Hmmm . . . .

4. It soon became obvious that it would be necessary for me to obtain a pilot’s license in order to reach the area that the Lord had laid upon our hearts. The flight instructor that I contacted, Dennis Renauro, had grown up in First Baptist Church of Newfield, before he moved out of the area. After my first lesson, he took me into his office and said, “Dave, I want to help you out all I can. You and the church pay for as much as you can, and if you run short, I’ll take care of it.”

5. The folks who own one of the airplanes at the flight school attend a fundamental Baptist church in a nearby town. When they found out about our ministry through my flight instructor, Dennis, they said that I could use their airplane two hours every week free of charge.

6. The Lord has opened the doors to a number of churches without my having to ask. Pastors have been contacting us, asking us to present our work in their churches!

7. While we were in Alaska this summer, we met a missionary who works in a radio ministry. He said that he has been broadcasting the Gospel into the area that we are targeting for a number of years. He said that his one big frustration is that until now, there has been no one to follow up his efforts, planting churches in the villages.

8. Another “coincidence” occurred in Alaska this summer. Heidi and I were in Fairbanks trying to decide which church to attend. We prayed that the Lord would direct us to a place where we could get some information and guidance concerning a number of matters. We finally decided on McGrath Road Baptist Church. After we arrived, we discovered that the pastor, Bob Harris, had grown up less than twenty miles from Heidi’s hometown. He knew most of Heidi’s family, and made us feel wonderfully welcome. Even more importantly, he was able to give us the direction that we needed.

I could list at least a dozen more ways that the Lord has already directed us and provided for us. I was told by a fellow pastor that in all of his years in the Lord’s work, he has never seen any clearer evidence of the Lord’s working. I certainly do not say that in a boastful way. This is all God’s doing. I truly believe that no work is more exciting or rewarding than the ministry.

I was going to chronicle our travels this summer, but I fear that most people are not interested in reading a prayer letter the size of War and Peace. I wanted to tell you about finding ourselves in Dysart, IA without our shoes, and I was going to tell you about the time that Mom locked us out of the house. I also wanted to tell of the families that have told us they believe that the Lord may be leading them to join us on the field, and about other individuals who have volunteered their time and help in getting us established on the field, but that, too, will have to wait until the next installment.

Many thanks, again, to all of you who have helped us get off to such an incredible start. We are praying for you all. Please keep us in your prayers as well. We still have much support to raise, and two really big items to acquire: property in Alaska and an airplane (a Cessna 206 would be ideal— Oh, Heidi said a yellow one would be nice)

One final note: we are working on putting together a web site; we will let you know when it is operational. Also, if you would rather receive The Craig Chronicles via email, just send a note to pastordcraig@newfieldbaptist.org and I will add you to our list.

Your Servants in the Lord,

David, Heidi, Andrew, Rachael and Stephen Craig