The general fund is used in various ministry-related costs.
The shipping fund pays for container costs and transportation.
The Bible fund pays for the manufacturing of scriptures.
Help with general campaign costs.
I was raised in a Christian home, by Godly parents. My parents taught me the Word of God from a child. Although they did drop out of church due to discouragement during my teen years, they still lived by Christian morals and loved the Lord. Although my dad has gone home to be with the Lord, he left behind a legacy of character, integrity, and a love for God and his Word. The verse that comes to mind when I think about my parents is Psalm 16:6. I made a profession when I was 5, but around 25 years old, I struggled with doubts but made sure of my salvation at that time and now know for sure of a home in heaven. As a young boy, I had a heart for those in what was at that time the Soviet Union. I was going to college for engineering and felt the calling to preach, so I left to pursue that calling, and after reassurance of my salvation, I still felt God leading me into missions. The Lord had other things for me to do first. I married Erica on August 10, 2003, was ordained in 2006, and served as assistant pastor for 2 years. In 2012, God led Erica and I to Wyldewood Baptist Church. We were blessed to serve at Wyldewood in many different ministries including choir, children’s church, teen ministry, college ministry, and I had the honor of serving our deacon group. Because of our different backgrounds, we each brought unique perspectives to the ministry. I brought a strong foundation of faithfulness and sound doctrine. Erica brought compassion for the lost, being able to understand where they come from. Erica passed away in 2018 in a car accident, which God used to draw me, even in sorrow, closer to him. Through much prayer and fasting, God has taught me that I can trust Him in anything that may come my way.
I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and raised in farming community in south central Wisconsin. I faithfully attended the Lutheran church with my family until just prior to going into the Army.
I met my wife, Cheryl, on a helicopter pad in Vietnam. We worked together in a Mash Unit in the Operating Room for about 3 months. I was then reassigned and stationed in Germany where we met again and decided to get married in the Spring of 1971. After returning to the States, I pursued several areas of interest and we finally settled in Dallas, TX., where I went to School for Bell and Howell Electronics. While in Dallas, Cheryl got saved and I made a profession of salvation. We moved shortly thereafter back to Wisconsin and I attended Maranatha Baptist Bible College, in Watertown, WI. from 1976 -1979. During that time, I dropped out of school for one year and began to question my salvation as I had no joy, no peace, no consistency or fruit in my life. In August of 1980 at the age of 31 I trusted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior after a Sunday morning service. My life began to change immediately as I became a new person/creature, as the Bible says in II Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are becomenew.”
After going back to College for a year, and making a Missions trip to Mexico with the Wyldewood Baptist Church, we moved to Oshkosh to attend their Bible Institute and get involved with the Printing Ministry. I graduated with a Bachelors degree in Theology in June of 1984. I was ordained at Wyldewood on October 20. 1984. I then went to work in our Bearing Precious Seed print shop and started deputation. In the Summer of 1987 I was asked to join Couriers for Christ, and after much prayer and seeking counsel from Pastor Nelson and several men of God at church I became a Representative for the Baptist Couriers for Christ Ministry.
Raised on a dairy farm in a strong Lutheran family, I was saved in my middle teens through personal Bible study and hearing Billy Graham’s preaching on television. I left the Lutheran church at age 20 because of Biblical convictions, and was led of the Lord to a fundamental Baptist church (now Wyldewood Baptist) in Oshkosh, WI. In 1973 I married Tricia Schulz, then attended Baptist Bible College in Springfield, MO from 1975-1978 earning a Graduate of Theology in the Missions program. I returned to the Oshkosh area and worked a full time secular job, serving during this time as a college/adult age Sunday School teacher, and one year as Sunday School superintendent.
During this time we were diligently seeking the Lord’s direction for our future, and in 1984 we went on a mission trip to the Communist countries of Eastern Europe. While on that trip to Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, the Lord spoke to my heart and convicted me about my part in helping the oppressed and needy people of Eastern Europe. Through that opportunity I was burdened to work with the Iron Curtain ministry, Couriers For Christ, which was already a ministry of Wyldewood Baptist. On October 20, 1984 I was ordained by my church. I served as a part time representative from September 1984 to June of 1986 when I quit my full time job and went out full time in the ministry of Couriers For Christ.
I was raised in a very religious Lutheran home. We had to go to church every Sunday, even if the weather was bad, and could not stay home unless we were deathly sick. I learned many of the stories in the Bible and even developed a respect for the Bible. I guess I could say that I even loved the Bible and God, but I didn’t know God. When we were small, my dad even made us listen to Billy Graham when he was on TV. In fact, my dad used a Lutheran devotional book and many times would make the family sit down around the table and have devotions. As a child, I hated that. I would rather have been playing. But God used those times to plant seed in my heart.
In my teenage years I strayed far from the Bible and God until one night, when I was 19, and in a drunken stupor, I had a very close call with death. At that time this question really hit me, “What would have happened to me if I would have died?” For the next eight months, I was scared of dying and sought for peace of mind and soul. I tried reading the Bible and lived in anguish of soul for those months. Then on March 19, 1972, I was at the bottom of the barrel, loaded down with guilt and sin. I took my Bible, sat down with it, and just let the book open by itself. It opened to Romans the 12th chapter. As I began to read, many of the sinful things I had said and done in the past came to mind. With a broken heart I began to weep and told God something like this, “God, I’ve messed up the first 19 years of my life, I’m sorry, please forgive me! I want to give the rest of my life to you.” At that point something happened! The guilt was gone! The heavy heart was gone! I became a child of God!
Around that same time I had a visit from the youth pastor of the local Baptist church. I had visited that church a few times, then was Scripturally baptized in June of 1972, and have been active in that church ever since.
To God be the glory!
My parents (Don and Laura Stertz) were already actively involved in foreign missions work by the time I was born in 1977. I heard the Gospel many times throughout my early years but it was in June of 1982 at a Knights Inn motel that I received Christ as my Saviour during family devotions. I was baptized a year later, and then surrendered to full time Christian service in 1993 after my first missions trip to Eastern Europe (Hungary and Romania). Following my pastors direction, I began working in Junior Church at Wyldewood and continued to work in various ministries of the church for the next 27 years. After graduating from Wyldewood Christian School, I enrolled in the Wyldewood Baptist Bible Institute and graduated in May of 2000. I met Kelli Phillips at her church missions conference in the spring of 1998 and married her in August of 2000. God has blessed us with four children whom we consider our first ministry. I began serving as the Youth Leader in 2011 and was ordained by Wyldewood in the summer of 2013. The Lord blessed me with the training and skill to build houses, and I owned/operated a construction business with another man in our church for 16 years while working in the ministries of the church and throughout my youth pastorate. It costs financially to go on missions trips and I was proactive in setting aside money to take at least one trip per year. In 2017, on one such trip to Europe, God called Kelli and me to join the Couriers For Christ ministry. With the recommendation of my pastor and the confirming verse, II Corinthians 10:16a “To preach the gospel in the regions BEYOND…”, we were commissioned in November 2019 as representatives of Couriers For Christ, sent out of Wyldewood Baptist Church.
