Our Stories Unleashed

Poverty Didn't Keep Me From My Calling

“Throughout nine long years of pursuing my education, I experienced a lot of uncertainty and darkness – blindness, debilitating back pain, poverty and abandonment from my family. I was even stoned once by Hindu fanatics and locked in a room to keep me from preaching the Gospel. But looking back, I now know that God’s promises are true! I survived and became a Bible teacher and pastor. God’s promises always gave me strength and kept me on track.” &ndash...

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Finding Hope in the Valley

"I started to trust that He has a reason for my situation and a plan for it — that it wouldn’t be something I have to go through, but something I get to go through in order to show a different community what it means to trust Christ.” – Lance Parker Lance Parker received his third kidney transplant three weeks after his wife Lindsey gave birth to their first child. That was ten months ago. “I don’t recommend having two life events in one year,&rdquo...

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Giving from the heart

"There have been days and weeks when we looked at each other and thought, oh my goodness, how is this going to work? But the Lord was there and He was faithful to help us work through and navigate those waters.” – Karen Gilstrap Tommy and Karen Gilstrap met at University Baptist Church in 1990. Karen was attending seminary, while Tommy was working night shifts. They met one Sunday during Bible study, and within a year they were married. Together they spent the early years of...

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