THE JOURNEY SUMMER 2025 by High Country 365

Journey

Featured Story: FaithFest

“Revival Fires are Burning”

Also Featured in this issue: Ben Cox, Phil Ginn, Paula Willison, Nathan Brown, Kelly Broman-Fulks, Andy Harkins

REBUILDING AFTER HURRICANE HELENE

✓Click above to view the Journey online.

Graphic

Accounts

Cover photo by Caroline McCrorey

This magazine is intended to present people’s stories about their personal relationships with God from their point of view. We endeavor to have a diversity of perspectives in the testimonies we share from people who identify themselves as followers of Christ. Furthermore, we carefully and prayerfully consider the content of the stories we tell, as well as the character of those who tell them. People who share their testimonies with us have experienced God’s love in real ways, and our encouragement for you, is that you also can experience His love wherever your journey takes you.

Written by Ben Cox

Written by Phil Ginn & Caroline McCrorey

Written by Paula Willison

Written by Kelly Broman-Fulks

Written by Andy Harkins and Ben Cox

Written by Ben Cox with Craig Church

FAITHFEST 2025 REVIVAL FIRES ARE BURNING

And the harvest is ripe

Written by Ben Cox

It’s Wednesday Jun 11, 2025 and here I am again struggling under the weight of a deadline that I am determined to make. It’s going to take a miracle, but I believe in miracles, so here goes!

Today marks day 258 since Hurricane Helene rocked our worlds on September 27, 2024 here in the High Country. The week before the storm hit us I had the great privilege of attending a Christian worship celebration called Faithfest 24.

This annual event in Wilkesboro, NC features some of the best contemporary music and gifted speakers you will ever have the privilege to hear. The huge, beautiful venue for Faithfest resembles a football field, only much larger, anchored by an incredibly tall, massive cross that can be seen from Highway 421! Whenever I am driving back to Boone on that highway, it’s thrilling to see that cross for what it means to Christians personally, but also as a testimony to the great thing God has done in bringing an annual event of this caliber to our region.

life-changing difference that faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior can make.

So, at Faithfest 2024 with an All- Access Media Pass in hand, I got to see for myself this phenomenon in Wilkes County.

This yearly event and all the prayer and planning that it takes to do something of this magnitude, is a demonstration of God’s love in action. It is truly a celebration of and proclamation of the

Little did I or anyone else know, on the beautiful weekend of September 2122 that a STORM OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS was about to rock Western North Carolina to the core. So, the Faithfest cover story I had planned to hit High Country news stands on November 26, 2024 was scuttled and we did a “Stories From the Storm” edition which we weren’t able to publish until mid-January of 2025.

So now we’re determined to make our July edition of “The Journey Magazine and website” actually come out in July!

The first Faithfest event was located at Wilkes Community College at the same venue that Merlefest has been held for years. That was in the hot summer of 2017.

It was Merlefest that inspired Craig Church and other believers in Wilkes County to launch a Christian music festival. The history of that will come later in the magazine but for now I want to share the spiritual impact of my first in person visit to this iconic celebration. I also want to share a vision the Lord shared

with me this very day about how Faithfest is like the epicenter of revival fires that are already burning in these mountains.

On the heels of Hurricane Helene, where Christians crossed denominational lines to work with other churches, we also worked with those who would not darken the doors of a church, to literally rescue the perishing. I believe it’s God’s will to now stoke the revival fires that started burning then to make deep changes in those of us who need to return to our first love.

I heard about Faithfest since its inception and intended to attend for years but on the beautiful weekend of September 20-21 I found myself, not only covering the event, but fully immersed in worship, praise and my own personal revival that seems to be intensifying in my life on a daily basis!!!

That personal renewal has given me a sense of divine purpose in writing about what faithfest has meant to our region and how the Lord is going to use the model of what’s happening here in wilkes county to spark fires of revival and spiritual awakening that the church in america desperately needs to see. Therefore, what follows is what God the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart this morning as a part of my daily Bible study and journaling time.

I believe that Faithfest serves as a powerful example to the Church in America of what can happen when God’s Church comes together in a spirit of unity and purpose. In order for you to know why I feel so strongly about this, you need to know a little of my personal background and history.

I moved to Boone, NC 48 years ago with a fire in my heart and a call on my life to serve as a Pastor in the Body of Christ. It’s what I went to Mars Hill College to begin studying for. But, sadly I backslid badly, taking a four year detour off the straight and narrow path I knew God wanted me to follow. So, in a wonderful encounter with the Holy Spirit while I was reading John 15 Jesus let me know in a personal way what John 15:5 emphasized “Without Me you can do nothing.” So I dropped my Bible to my lap, raised my hands in full surrender and repented on the spot.

That same week my wife had a similar encounter with Jesus and everything changed for the better in our marriage and in the trajectory that our lives would take!! In that same time frame the Holy Spirit directed us in many different ways to “go to Boone and wait.”

So it was here in Boone where God’s call for me to pastor was realised when I was ordained as an associ-

ate pastor at a church that was planted in Watauga County in the Fall of 1977 called Watauga Christian Center. WCC was a church plant of a mega-church in Anchorage Alaska. I started attending soon after arriving in Boone at the same time as the team from Anchorage got here to plant the church.

The history of the church in Anchorage was rooted in the Jesus Movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s counter-culture. That’s when many hippies were saved, discipled and then sent out to the United States and abroad to plant churches from their church in Anchorage.

So here Connie and I were as 2 newlyweds, looking like hippies ourselves ready to join this church where we stuck out like sore thumbs because they all wore suits, ties and dresses. I was 22 years old at the time and 2 years later elders of Watauga Christian Center ordained me as an associate, bi-vocational pastor.

The church was growing fast with many people getting saved and discipled. It was an exciting thing to be a part of. Then, in 1982 the church was able to afford to bring me on staff full time.

Because we outgrew that church that was located on Hwy 421, we relocated from there to where it is currently located beside the only Bowling Alley in Boone. We sold the building that we first occupied and bought the Old Mann Drug Store which had been out of business for a while and was in bad shape. So, we had to completely renovate that abandoned building to make it into an auditorium and classrooms that could fit our needs.

The building that we sold was used for other purposes for a while, but I am now happy to say that another church meets there called New Life Fellowship. I met their founding pastor and did a cover story on him and his miraculous recovery from cancer in the Winter 2020 edition of this magazine. And now I have gotten the chance to know and pray with the current pastor at New Life Fellowship in our Watauga County Christian Pastors Prayer Fellowship. Together we pray with other pastors for God’s Kingdom to come and His will to be done among us in this High Country region.

Shortly after moving our location into Boone City limits in 1984 I was set in as the senior pastor because our founding pastor took a team of 50 people to plant a church in Boca Raton, Florida. Not too long after that transition had taken place, we felt led to change the name of the church from Watauga Christian Center to Living Water Christian Fellowship.

Part of the reason we did that is because people thought the Christian Center was a bookstore and we wanted a name that made it clear we were a church. But the other reason we did it is because we wanted people to know that we believed that the power of the Holy Spirit that was poured out at Pentecost is still needed today to help us advance the Kingdom of God in a world that desperately needs to know the healing, saving power that only Jesus can bring. So, after much prayer about what to call the church, we felt led to the name Living Water Christian Fellowship based on this passage of Scripture in John 7:37-38: “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.”

From those days until now, I have heard many followers of Jesus up here proclaim that God’s Spirit is going to fall on the High Country and flow down to the valleys. However, after my time at Faithfest I believe that the revival has already begun in Wilkes County and it’s flowing up to us and about to catch fire.

I believe that Faithfest can serve as a model to other regions in our nation where followers of Jesus can join together in large numbers once a year, to produce an event where believers can come together to worship, praise and celebrate the joy we have in knowing Jesus!! Furthermore, in this context, gifted and Spirit filled teachers can proclaim from the Holy Bible about who Jesus is and the magnitude of what He came to do for Planet Earth and we humans who inhabit it.

By making a safe space for the Church to come together in celebration and proclamation of the love and justice and mercy we have found in Jesus to those who don’t know Him yet, we will be taking part in what He commanded us to do! It’s the last thing His disciples heard Him say as He was ascending to the Father!!

He had been preparing them for 3 years and forty days for His departure. But He and the prophets of old along with John the Baptist also spoke about Jesus’ intention to not only save our souls, but to also “baptize us with His Holy Spirit and with fire!!” Luke 3:16b

So, in the safe place called Faithfest, where gifted musicians and church leaders have been properly vetted and Prayer, Prayer and more prayer has accompanied lots of hard work, we the redeemed people of His

Church are doing what Jesus left us here to do.

For over 2000 years, in spite of all its problems, the Church has been proclaiming Jesus as the God who lived among humanity for 33 years. He was perfectly submitted to God the Father who sent Him, while also being connected to and filled with the Holy Spirit who directed Him in His 33 year pilgrimage on Planet Earth.

With His Father’s watchful eye upon Him and all of heaven’s cooperation, even the angels got involved in announcing His birth and protecting Joseph and Mary’s holy baby from harm. Thus, when Jesus officially began His earthly ministry at the age of 30, He first demonstrated His power over Satan before He demonstrated His power over all the sin and misery and darkness that exists in our fallen, broken world.

He told His disciples that He and the Father were One and that when they saw Him they saw exactly what their Heavenly Father was like by healing all the sick people who came to Him for help. The blind, the lame, the deaf and dumb, the lepers and the demon possessed He set free and He even raised people from the dead.

In addition to this, Jesus taught His disciples and the multitudes with great authority explaining the Holy Scriptures to them in a way that their own teachers of the Law could not. He revealed to them God’s plan before He even created our planet! God knew then that He would demonstrate, through His chosen people, how His ways are higher than ours. He is perfect in all His ways, while they were far from perfect. Even His chosen people were self-willed, stubborn and in desperate need of a Savior.

It was His plan then and it still is to send a Messiah who would ultimately conquer death and hell and sin and triumph over the evil forces that have dominated

Ben Cox with FaithFest board members

“THE STORY HAS NOT CHANGED SINCE JESUS ASCENDED ON HIGH AND IT’S A MESSAGE THAT IS CLEARLY PROCLAIMED AT FAITHFEST.”

many of us humans and which have also existed in the world since the beginning of time as we know it.

Yet, even though their own Scriptures prophesied a first and second coming of the Messiah, Jesus was rejected by His own people who persuaded their Roman conquerors to crucify Him. But let me hasten to say that, though many of the religious leaders rejected Jesus as the Messiah there were many who received Him along with thousands of other Jews. These first believers were and still are the foundation upon which His Church, consisting of Jews, Gentiles and every tribe and nation under heaven was built.

The people who rejected Jesus then, and those who reject Him now, are identified by Jesus’s own teaching with these powerful words found in

John 3:16-21:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

In that and other Bible passages people need to understand that from before the earth was created God’s HEAVENLY PURPOSE AND PLAN HAS BEEN TO DEFEAT SATAN, HIS DEMONS AND ALL HUMAN CO-CONSPIRATORS WHO LOVE THE DARKNESS OF HUMAN REBELLION MORE THAN THE LIGHT AND THE ETERNAL FREEDOM, LIGHT AND TRUTH THAT ONLY COMES THROUGH GOD!!

We also need to realize that human co-conspirators with Satan have always been resisting God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit so they can erect homages to themselves as God instead of to our perfect King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The story has not changed since Jesus ascended on high and it’s a message that is clearly proclaimed at Faithfest and one that needs to be celebrated and proclaimed with power in our weekly celebrations of worship and the breaking of the bread of His word together. It’s only fitting to end this article here with a recap of the message we must proclaim in order to see revival come to the church and spiritual awakening come to those who are not yet believers.

• Jesus Christ was crucified by sinners for the healing and salvation of sinners

• He rose from the dead on the third day

• After He rose from the dead, He stayed on Earth for a 40 day period where He kept popping in and out among His disciples to explain to them again how their Holy Scriptures explained all this.

• Then at the great feast of Pentecost that took place once a year with many Jews from every nation coming to Jerusalem to commemorate the giving of the Ten Commandments to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, God sent his Holy Spirit.

• It was at this time God chose to pour out His Spirit to begin a New Covenant with His people where they would learn how to walk in the new way of the Spirit. On that very day,10 days after Jesus’s ascension, He poured out His Spirit in a mighty way and thousands of people came to faith in Jesus as their Messiah. Those outpourings and those in-gatherings of thousands of people at a time kept happening in those days, in spite of great persecution and resistance from hard-hearted, prideful humans.

So now as we continue to await for Jesus to return 2000 years later, let us be reminded again that those of us who know the Lord must get serious about our Heavenly Father’s business. That means we must repent of playing church and business as usual of lukewarmness and divisiveness or whatever other sins we’re hindered by. Then we can be the Kingdom advancing force that God has redeemed us to be.

May the revival fires that are being stoked in Wilkes County consume us, so “whosoever will” can receive the abundant and eternal life that only Jesus can bring.

FROM PLOWING FIELDS TO ARGUING CASES, TO LEADING A SEMINARY

Written by Phil Ginn and Caroline McCrorey with Ben Cox

The Beginnings of My Faith Journey

My faith journey began as a young boy. At a revival meeting in April 1959, just shy of six years old, I knew there was something that I needed that was more than myself. At five years old, I am not sure one can know much else. But honestly, I don’t know if any of us come to the Lord knowing much more than that.

I remember that day vividly for being so young then. I was wearing a hand-me-down coat from one of my friends and I went forward at the end of the revival meeting. My dad didn’t allow me to make the decision publicly and said we would discuss it more. Over the next couple of weeks, we talked about it intermittently until he became confident that I was professing salvation knowingly. So, at five years old I joined the church—almost 66 years ago now.

Boone Becoming Home

We moved to Boone in 1967. It was daunting. I walked into Watauga High School for the first day of my freshman year not knowing a single soul. Little did I know, Boone would become more than just a place we moved when I was young. Eventually it became where I met my future wife, Lynn, raised kids, and have lived a lot of life.

Phil with Family

I had one of the best childhoods imaginable. My dad, a Baptist preacher, kept us busy; he would tell people us kids needed to work. I found myself on farms doing a variety of work from plowing with mules to picking cotton. Through these experiences I learned the value of hard work.

I stayed in Boone through college. After undergrad, I ventured to law school at UNC Chapel Hill, only to return afterwards and practice law. When Lynn and I decided we wanted to create our family, we wanted to move away from Boone and establish ourselves. So, we did… only to return about three years later.

Fully Processing My Faith

At some point after coming to the Lord, everyone must ask themselves, “does the Lord have an influence on my life or is the world continuing to have an influence on my life?” I would love to say that I have always listened to the Lord, but I don’t think it was until later in my life that I took the fullness of my salvation to heart.

Growing up I knew the vocabulary, the right words to say, and how to act the act. There were spurts of growth for sure, for a long time it came in ebbs and flows. In early adulthood I struggled with ultimately turning everything over to Him. There were things I wanted to hold onto, not necessarily bad things, but they stood in the way of being fully committed. It is all or nothing. In my 40s is when I really, fully processed my faith. I started to question my faith. Not so much as to

“I HAD A

SIMILAR EXPERIENCE TO THE LATE BILLY GRAHAM, WHEN HE SAID HE JUST SPREAD THE BIBLE OUT AT ONE POINT AND TOLD THE LORD, “I’M GOING TO BELIEVE IT. NOW YOU HAVE TO HELP ME KNOW WHY I BELIEVE IT.”

Phil with seminary graduate

whether I was saved, but more the direction I wanted my faith to go. I had questions about the things I had always believed. For instance, I asked myself, “is the Bible truly inspired, truly infallible, and truly inerrant?”

To dig deeper I decided that I would go to seminary and take one course. I am a common sense; logical type of person and I wanted to understand the logical points of Christianity. My mind needed to get wrapped around what my heart really wanted to believe. I had a similar experience to the late Billy Graham, when he said he just spread the Bible out at one point and told the Lord, “I’m going to believe it. Now you have to help me know why I believe it.”

I was fortunate enough to walk into South Evangelical Seminary (SES) and walk past Dr. Norman Geisler. I don’t know where he was going, but he stopped and took me back into his office. By the time I walked out of his office, I had signed up for the Doctor of Ministry program. He became a dear friend and great mentor to me.

He poured into my life and SES poured into my life. I began to wrap my mind around these issues that I needed to deal with, and my Christianity began to become clear and make sense to me. Therefore, I began to live out my Christianity in a more all-encompassing way.

The scripture tells us that we are to love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind. So, once my mind came in line with what my heart was wanting to believe, it all clicked. I have certainly not lived a sinless life since then, but my walk with the Lord has been far more important to me since. I had discovered that Christianity was not a leap into darkness but instead a step into light. I jokingly tell my non-believing friends “you’ve got more faith than I do.”

Serving on the Bench

I was a judge here in Boone for twenty some years. I ended up leaving the bench earlier than I would have predicted. I wanted to leave while I was still at the top of my game, not in a prideful way, but I wanted to leave while I could still make sound decisions—before I started to go downhill and became jaundiced and/or mean spirited. Being in the courtroom constantly weighs on you. Being a judge, I could only do so much; I could deal with the earthly issues but many of the issues were much more deep-seated. They were issues of spiritual matter.

One of the biggest things I learned in the courtroom is that people who don’t understand there is something bigger than themselves have a lot of difficulty doing the right things. If you are the center of your universe, you are going to have a very difficult time getting over that addiction, or whatever it might be. I used to always tell folks, “I’m giving you enough rope to pull yourself out of the mud or hang yourself, you make your decision.”

Ultimately, I felt the Lord calling me away from the bench and I just knew it was time even though I had

“ONE

OF THE GIFTS OF OLD AGE IS BEING ABLE TO LOOK BACK AND SEE HOW GOD IS WORKING. EVEN WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW HE’S WORKING, AND SOMETIMES WHEN YOU DON’T WANT HIM TO, HE IS.”

four years left in my term. And, I had no idea what God was leading me to and am totally surprised by where I am now.

My Life Resembles a Puzzle

Looking back, my life resembles a puzzle, each piece finding its place through God’s guidance. It’s not about having all the answers but trusting in the One who does. One of the gifts of old age is being able to look back and see how God is working. Even when you don’t know He’s working, and sometimes when you don’t want Him to, He is. I can see now that God was preparing me for what I am doing now.

Before getting where I am today, surprisingly I found myself running a horizontal pump company in Oklahoma for three years despite the fact I didn’t know anything about manufacturing pumps. Long story short: the guy who had hired me ended up passing away and I bought the business. Even though I didn’t know much about the industry, I believed it was a good product. I knew some about business from a legal standpoint by being a lawyer, you had to. Overall, it was a lesson in faith and business. Dave Ramsey probably would’ve scoffed at my strategies; I think I did all the things he advises you not to do, but it worked out.

“PARTICULARLY I HAVE A BURDEN FOR MEN IN AMERICA, I THINK MEN HAVE DROPPED THE BALL. BUT, I THINK SOCIETY HAS ENCOURAGED THIS AND HAS EMACIATED MALES.”

biggest or best, but the Lord has blessed us. As president I am driven by a burden to educate.

A Calling Because of Burden

Coming Back to SES

A few months after selling the business to someone who wanted to invest a lot more time into it than me, SES called me and said that they really needed a president. They asked me if I would consider the role. We went back and forth on the decision for about a month, I guess. I kept trying to say no, but eventually they talked me into it and I have been here for almost three years now.

The Lord is working here! We have the highest student count we have had in over 15 years. Exciting things are happening. We aren’t expecting to be the

I am burdened for our nation, specifically the young people of this nation who are being sold a bill of goods and are ignorant. I don’t mean that they’re dumb, but they are ignorant to the Word of God. Particularly I have a burden for men in America, I think men have dropped the ball. But, I think society has encouraged this and has emaciated males. I am certainly not trying to argue a male dominant society, but what I am saying is that we have a role, and we have failed at fulfilling that role. In Ephesians it says a woman is to submit to her husband, but in turn her husband has the more difficult job of being someone worthy of submission. I want to help show young men what this means in a biblical context.

George Barna’s study shows that less than 6% of Christians in America have a biblical worldview. That is frightening to me! It is an indictment of the church in America. So, we have started this program working with churches, families, and individuals to provide them materials to see there is an absolute truth and logical explanation of who God is. From the courtroom to now being a seminary president, I’ve seen firsthand how understanding something greater than ourselves transforms lives. It’s about believing in absolute truth

Phil at Perkinsville Baptist Church where he was ordained as a pastor.

and helping others see that belief isn’t blind but is rooted in reason.

As I continue this journey, I’m grateful for the opportunities and challenges that have shaped me. Each step—plowing fields, arguing cases, leading a seminary—has been part of God’s plan. I’m humbled to play a role, however small, in His larger narrative for our world.

Response to Hurricane Helene

The first thing that has stood out to me post hurricane Helene, which I am so pleased about, is that neighbors have really taken on the role to help other neighbors. It’s very much like the parable of the Good Samaritan, where Jesus drove home the idea that whoever is in need is your neighbor.

Secondly, I have been encouraged by the way the local church has responded. It has not been a competition of seeing who can outdo the other, but rather really one another working together. It has been seeing each other’s strengths and seeing where to implement them to compliment what somebody else is doing. When I walk into my home church, folks are constantly on the phones with people from other churches, like minded churches, who are out there working just as hard as they can. We are all working for the good of the community.

The third thing I have realized, which I think we sometimes overlook, is that Jesus can come walking to us in the storm. I think he has really done that here in the High Country. You know, the disciples were the ones out in the boat on the lake in the storm and they were fearful for their lives. Jesus came walking to them on the water and they almost missed him because he came in a way that they didn’t expect. Sometimes you must look for Jesus in the storm, but he is there. If you go back in scripture, when Jesus calmed the storm around the disciples, they had already called him master and teacher but for the first time they called him Lord. The reason for that is he saved them and preserved them.

I’ve seen a lot of strength in our faith that has come up to the surface that probably would not have done so had it not been for the storm. There has been a presence of the Holy Spirit in this whole thing. Our church has been housing volunteers and they have had a calmness to what they are doing. There was certainly an intensity to what they were doing; they were not doing easy work. But there has been this calmness that has been amazing to look upon.

I’VE SEEN FIRSTHAND HOW UNDERSTANDING SOMETHING GREATER THAN OURSELVES TRANSFORMS LIVES. IT’S ABOUT BELIEVING IN ABSOLUTE TRUTH AND HELPING OTHERS SEE THAT BELIEF ISN’T BLIND BUT IS ROOTED IN REASON.

Phil at conference.

Phil with family.

3470 US Hwy 221 North Crumpler, NC 28617

email@ashelawn.com

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Phone: 336-982-2121

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I STILL BELIEVE IN THE AMERICAN DREAM

Written by Paula Willison

I vaguely remember the day we moved from Colombia to the United States. I remember the dress I was wearing, yellow with white detailing and some flowers throughout. I know for certain my younger sister and I were wearing the same dress and that my mom and I had an ongoing bet on who would run into my dad’s arms first. You see, my dad had been in the United States since November 1999, and my mom was caring for the four of us kids with the help of my grandparents, my Mama Alicia and Papa Nelson, before our move seven months later. Four kids under six. We were wild and chaotic and we were ready to see our dad.

I remember, very vividly, landing at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and being the one to win the race into my dad’s arms. I was now in a foreign country, but I was home in those arms. Home in the country my mom had called the “land of milk and honey,” the land of opportunity, the land of the American Dream.

Some would tell you the American Dream is dead. I would challenge those individuals and tell them that it is very much alive and well as I look back at my 25 years in this country.

I’m an immigrant. A proud one at that too! I’m a professional Spanglish speaker, avid reader and blogger, the oldest child of Mitzy and Edgar, and Gabe’s college sweetheart.

And for as long as I can remember, only three things were on my American Dream list: I wanted to pursue higher education at a college of my choice, I wanted to work somewhere I could make a difference, and I wanted to start a life with a man who not only loved Christ deeply but who could challenge and encourage me to live out all of my dreams.

Growing up in Georgia, you either went to the University of Georgia or Georgia Tech.

When the time came, I toured the University of Georgia, applied the second I could, and waited. Waited for the doors to swing wide open with my acceptance

“I

was now in a foreign country, but I was home in those arms. Home in the country my mom had called the “land of milk and honey,”

Paula and family in Colombia on the day of the move to the United States in 2000

letter. But they never did. Though I was student body president, enrolled in honors courses, and in as many extra-curricular activities as you can list, it still wasn’t enough to get me into my dream college because of my immigration status at the time.

“For a long time, I was ashamed of the fact that I didn’t have a status that would allow me to drive like other teenagers, to go to whatever college I wanted, or to work.”

For a long time, I was ashamed of the fact that I didn’t have a status that would allow me to drive like other teenagers, to go to whatever college I wanted, or to work. I was doing everything right, excelling in as many ways as I could in school, to compensate for what I didn’t have.

I don’t blame my parents for this. In fact, I’m proud of them for following the calling the Lord placed on their life to bring our family to America. But the topic of immigration is a multi-faceted one that will only show you one thing: our nation’s immigration system is broken. It is hanging by a thread, and people who really want to be here, who want to contribute to the economy with all they have and all they are, are the ones most affected by its brokenness.

Though my parents attempted to get our processes underway the second they could afford to, a series of events led to a years-long process that I eventually aged out of. But thanks to the DACA program (Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), I was given a chance to attend college. Though it wasn’t the University of Georgia, a small school in Wilmore, Kentucky took a chance on me. ME, an immigrant, with little funds and a lot of big dreams. I’ll spare you the details of the application process and the multiple interviews I did for scholarships to tell you this, my senior year of high

school I saw God breaking barrier after barrier to show me that He had bigger plans in mind for me than the University of Georgia could ever offer. Scholarships, financial aid, higher education. He was leading the way and opening the doors wider than I could have ever imagined.

Having grown up in the Atlanta area, I visited CNN’s headquarters multiple times. I was set on being a journalist, focusing my college studies on journalism and public relations. But in 2014, an opportunity came up to be an intern with Samaritan’s Purse in Bolivia, South America. During the conversation with the recruiter, I shared some of my story, mentioning how God kept closing doors and offering me more than I expected through my second options.

“Sometimes our second options are the ones that will change our lives.”

Paula with her parents, Mitzy and Edgar during her high school graduation in 2012

That’s all it took from the recruiter for me to pack up my dreams with CNN to intern with Samaritan’s Purse internationally and then domestically, ultimately turning my second internship into a full-time role as a social media manager. I traveled the world and much of the United States in my 9 years with Samaritan’s Purse, working from sunup to sundown sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with millions of followers online, and I was proud of it! I couldn’t believe the work that God had called me to do. It was also during my time with Samaritan’s Purse that I became an American citizen. After years, and I truly mean years, of studying for the test, I was finally able – before God and an agent from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services – to swear

“My senior year of high school I saw God breaking barrier after barrier to show me that He had bigger plans in mind for me than the University of Georgia could ever offer.”

an oath and become who I had dreamt of for so long, an American.

But in 2023, I felt a shift in my life. Turning 30 will do that to you. Maybe it’s something that happens with every new decade in life. I was working without reprieve, my health was starting to take a toll, and I was itching for something different. That’s where my husband comes in.

Gabe and I met our first week at Asbury University. As I said goodbye to my mom on move-in day in 2012 she said (and this is a verbatim quote), “You are here to get an education, not to fall in love.” A week later I met Gabe and we’ve been together ever since. He was one of the first people to truly know me for me. Not the overachieving high school girl who was working overtime to keep up so no one would know her legal status, but the part of me that had a broken identity. He loved me for who I was and what I could bring to the table, not for what I didn’t have.

Fast-forward to 2023, Gabe was the one person who could see what my career was doing to my life. He encouraged me to consider taking some time off to figure out who I was outside of my 9 to 5. Since then, I’ve worked directly with clients supporting their social media and writing needs through our company, Rad Dog Media, and he’s been my biggest fan as I walked back into the nonprofit world earlier this year to work at Wine To Water as their volunteer coordinator. He has always believed in me and all I could bring to the table. And now, as we become foster parents, there is no one else I would rather have by my side.

Paula during her time at Samaritan’s Purse in 2018.

Paula and Gabe on their wedding day in May 2016.

So, here I am. Nearly 32 years into the life that God has called me to. Proud of the immigrant I am and the American citizenship that I hold. Proud to be a daughter of the Highest who called me out of the places I thought I belonged and placed me into spots I never considered.

There’s that phrase you hear now and then, “Don’t tell God your plans.” Well, maybe you should, so you can give Him the chance to show you something much greater than you could ever, ever imagine. A life so unimaginable that you’d never be able to think it up yourself.

My name is Paula Willison and this is my American Dream.

“He (Gabe) was one of the first people to truly know me for me. Not the over-achieving high school girl who was working overtime to keep up so no one would know her legal status, but the part of me that had a broken identity.”

Paula and Gabe with their family during their graduation weekend at Asbury University in 2016.

Paula on the day she became a citizen of the United States in 2020.

Paula and Gabe during the summer of 2024

LORD WILLING AND THE CREEK DON’T RISE

By Nathan Brown

‘Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.’ Grandparents at High Country Caregivers often tell their grandchildren this when they plan an activity with the agency. On Sept. 26, the creeks, rivers, and streams did indeed rise; the wind gusts reached up to 90 mph for 12 hours. Homes floated away, entire roads, bridges, and communities were wiped off the map and best-laid plans changed forever. Hurricane Helene had arrived in the mountains.

For Jacob Willis, Executive Director of High Country Caregivers, a nonprofit agency that supports and advocates for children being raised by grandparents and other family members, the aftermath of Hurricane Helene was a time of fear. “The phones were down,” he said. “Nobody had cell service, roads were washed away, and we had no clue how our 280 families were doing.”

one on staff got involved, including members of the HCC board, like former Head Coach of Appalachian State University, Jerry Moore, 85, headed out on broken roads covered in debris, trees, power lines and more in a borrowed truck to try to deliver some much needed goods to families.

“I had seen poverty and destruction growing up in Texas,” Moore said. “But I had never seen anything like this.”

At one house, Willis and Moore came across one of the grandmothers they support digging through mud caked clothing to try and salvage something for her granddaughter to wear. She was crying and told Moore she just did not know what to do. He asked to pray with her, and she agreed.

When he found out his staff was okay, Willis had them start calling every family in the program. “We got ahold of 90 percent of our families, but there were 25 families who we just couldn’t reach by phone or email, so we went out looking for them,” Willis said. “We found them all within 10 days of the hurricane.”

This wasn’t an easy task for this agency, and every-

“Lord, I know this is bad. But I also know that you’ve done this to help her get a better place to live…,” Moore prayed. The scripture says that the lord’s eyes are upon the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. Indeed, the answers to their prayers for deliverance began almost immediately for HCC and the families who were suffering. Two days later, money began to be donated to purchase new homes for her and four other families who lost their homes and all their belongings during the storm. As of April, three

AT ONE HOUSE, WILLIS AND MOORE CAME ACROSS ONE OF THE GRANDMOTHERS THEY SUPPORT DIGGING THROUGH MUD CAKED CLOTHING TO TRY AND SALVAGE SOMETHING FOR HER GRANDDAUGHTER TO WEAR. SHE WAS CRYING AND TOLD MOORE SHE JUST DID NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO. HE ASKED TO PRAY WITH HER, AND SHE AGREED.

Former App State Head Coach Jerry Moore delivering gas.

houses have been purchased or donated, and HCC is trying to raise money to purchase a fourth house.

“It was just an incredible sight to see how the community and this country have rallied together to help us,” Willis said. “I’ve never seen such generosity from friends and strangers as we have received.”

Other churches, individuals, and aid agencies also provided HCC with clothing, food, more than eighty generators, hundreds of heaters, and survival gear to pass out. Still other churches, like South River Baptist Church and Pastor Scott Townsell heard about HCC from one of their volunteers in Statesville and reached out to provide donations of food, clothing, and other goods initially.

construction prior to being called to the ministry, but the reason HCC’s community outreach has been so meaningful to him is he is a kinship caregiver himself.

Some of the church volunteers who worked for weeks unpacking and distributing donations.

“We got to know Jacob and learned a little bit about the mission,” said Townsell. “We told him to reach out if he ever needed help and a few weeks later, he did.”

High Country Caregivers purchased two mobile homes and needed help renovating them for a couple of their families.

“I did vet those guys,” said Townsell. “The first time I went on (HCC’s) website, I thought ‘What is this?’ I wanted to make sure they fit well with our mission.”

Townsell said he quickly realized that HCC is fulfilling the mission God calls all his followers to undertake. “Psalm 68 verse five says ‘God is a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.’ The folks at High Country Caregivers represent the pure mission of what our religion calls us to do. They are protecting and serving widows and orphans.”

For the past 16 weeks, Townsell and his team of volunteers have renovated two singlewide trailers, underpinned and built decks for three new mobile homes. He and his crew donated their labor and expertise to the projects. Townsell earned a degree in building technology. He worked for many years in

“My heart is in helping with my hands. I can build, so I minister to people through the talents God gave me,” Townsell said. “But my wife and I also adopted a relative. I can’t imagine being a grandparent and bringing in my grandchild to provide them with love and protect them and then lose the only possession I have to provide that protection: my home.”

Paul and Marie Russo, owners of Bocca Bistro in Boone, were other unsung heroes and supporters of HCC’s mission. They reached out to HCC after the storm and have continued to provide fresh and frozen meats to all HCC kinship families for the past 6 months. Thus far, they have donated more than 8,000 pounds of chicken, turkey, and ground beef to families in six counties.

Paul Russo visited the most affected areas of the High Country to help give out meat and came back changed from what he saw in Mitchell and Yancey Counties.

“He was moved by what he saw,” said Maria Russo. “He took videos and sent them back to our staff to see. There’s a lot of damage here in Boone, but he said to me, “I just can’t believe what I’m seeing here.’”

After Paul Russo’s visit to the most affected areas of the High Country, he collaborated with his vendors and food industry partners to consistently provide 1,000 pounds of food per week to the families of High Country Caregivers. Willis said that each family receives at least twenty pounds of chicken and ten pounds of beef or precooked meat.

“We worked with our food vendors (Sysco of Charlotte) and Harris Teeter to donate the food,” Marie Russo said. “We’ve done things with (High Country Caregivers) before and the partnership just fit. We’ve given

“WE GOT TO KNOW JACOB AND LEARNED A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE MISSION,” SAID TOWNSELL. “WE TOLD HIM TO REACH OUT IF HE EVER NEEDED HELP AND A FEW WEEKS LATER, HE DID.”

them turkeys for thanksgiving, made dinners and supported other events.”

The Lord is indeed good in all things, even when the creeks rise. High Country Caregivers volunteers and staff did not allow the tragedy of Hurricane Helene and its aftermath to define their mission. Coach Moore often says. “Always do more than what is expected.” This often quoted phrase has been put into action countless times as staff have driven into the countryside to replace homes, deliver food, furniture, kerosene, and clothing to their families who were in desperate need. And they will continue to go far beyond what their job titles require to help kinship families in the High Country come through this tragedy.

High Country Caregivers is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advocacy and support for kinship families and their children. For more information about their services, visit www.highcountrycaregivers.org or call (828)832-6366.

PAUL RUSSO VISITED THE MOST AFFECTED AREAS OF THE HIGH COUNTRY TO HELP GIVE OUT MEAT AND CAME BACK CHANGED FROM WHAT HE SAW IN MITCHELL AND YANCEY COUNTIES.

Former App State Head Coach Jerry Moore bringing supplies to one of HCC’s caregivers.

HCC Executive Director Jacob Willis delivering heaters and fuel to one of their families.

Bocca Bistro owner Paul Russo delivering fresh meat to HCC’s families.

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A LIFE RESTORED THROUGH UNLIKELY FRIENDSHIP

by Kelly Broman-Fulks

Can church really change your life? In the case of Vietnam veteran and Boone-area native Neil Hartley, yes. Through friendship found in church pews, Neil experienced healing he never expected.

Neil served with the Air Force in central Vietnam, beginning in September 1967, loading aircraft with bombs, artillery, and other cargo. After returning to the United States in September 1968, Neil quietly carried the burdens of his combat experiences for more than three decades,

“I guess I returned with a mild form of PTSD,” said Neil. “I was concerned about what happened to the civilians, the women, and even more so the little children who had nothing to do with what was going on. I would go fishing. Sometimes, I didn’t even throw a line in the water.”

Friday, May 7, Emma turned one year-old, surrounded by her loving new community and three older sisters. Just two days later, Cay woke up on Mother’s Day and dressed little Emma for her first time at Boone UMC, where she would be baptized during the church’s very first Sunday in their freshly constructed building at 471 New Market Blvd., following a move from the church’s previous downtown home on King Street.

For Neil, Emma, and the people of Boone UMC, May 9, 2000, became a day of notable firsts, memorable celebration, and — most importantly — divine transformation.

The first week of May 2000 was a life-changing time for Emma in her new American home. Andy and Cay Harkins of Boone had just returned from northern Vietnam, their daughter Emma’s place of birth, as they finalized their adoption journey. A few days later, on

“The first Sunday that Emma was at church, the day she was baptized, I asked Cay if I could hold her,” Neil recalled. “She said, ‘You can if she will come to you. She’s been clingy since we left Vietnam.’ I held out my hands and the little child leaned toward me. I cradled her in my arm and just walked around. She looked up at me and gave me one of those baby smiles. She didn’t seem to be concerned at all that I was the one carrying

Andy and Cay Harkins, left, with daughter Emma Harkins Hopkins and Neil Hartley, May 7, 2025

her around. When I left church that day, a huge weight had lifted. I don’t know where all those thoughts ended up going, but I haven’t looked for them, and they haven’t come back.”

During the next several years, Neil and his wife Audrey kept up with Emma occasionally through dance recitals and around town. Then, when Emma was an older teenager, she and her father served communion to Neil during a church service at Boone UMC.

“I found myself in line where Andy and Emma were serving,” said Neil. “When I held out my hands to receive the bread, I whispered to Andy, ‘She has no idea what this means to me.’ I dipped the bread in the juice that Emma held, and I went on.”

Later, Andy encouraged Neil to share the story with Emma.

“I told Andy I didn’t want to. She had no reason to dislike me, and I didn’t know how she might feel,” Neil said. But Andy was confident. Then, one Sunday Andy prompted Neil to share the story with Emma firsthand.

Emma, who is now a young married adult, reflects, “To be told I gave someone healing — that the Lord chose me for something that powerful — it is overwhelming. So much had to happen for me to be there for Neil on that morning 25 years ago. I feel I’m just living out part of God’s plan. Sharing both our difficult and happy experiences helps me be more empathetic to my elders and encourages me to be a support system for younger generations.”

As Boone UMC celebrates its 25th anniversary at 471 New Market Blvd. this month, stories like Neil and Emma’s remind us of God’s faithfulness and the power of community.

“There have been so many God moments here,” said Andy. “There is power in being together in church, giving space for those God moments to happen. But it requires us being present so that God can work.”

Neil echoes Andy’s praise for how God has made possible his friendship with Emma.

“I still wasn’t sure about it,” Neil admitted. “But I told her the story, and she got tears in her eyes and just hugged me. And since that time, she tells people I’m her best friend.”

“I have always felt like it was a God thing,” said Neil. “Maybe the Holy Spirit gave that little child a nudge. He said, ‘Go see him for a minute. He needs you.’ It was a big indicator to me that we do serve a God of grace. And I was extended a lot of grace.”

“TO BE TOLD I GAVE SOMEONE HEALING — THAT THE LORD CHOSE ME FOR SOMETHING THAT POWERFUL — IT IS OVERWHELMING. SO MUCH HAD TO HAPPEN FOR ME TO BE THERE FOR NEIL ON THAT MORNING 25 YEARS AGO. I FEEL I’M JUST LIVING OUT PART OF GOD’S PLAN. SHARING BOTH OUR DIFFICULT AND HAPPY EXPERIENCES HELPS ME BE MORE EMPATHETIC TO MY ELDERS AND ENCOURAGES ME TO BE A SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR YOUNGER GENERATIONS.”

Andy and Cay Harkins on the day of their youngest daughter Emma’s baptism, surrounded by their three older daughters, May 9, 2000

NOW WATCH THIS

By Ben Cox & Andy Harkins

I am the proud father of four wonderful daughters. The stork brought the first three and a 747 brought the last one. My youngest daughter Emma was as much of a gift of God to us as the other three and I know this because of how we came to adopt her.

One morning my wife Cay and I saw a news report about the plight of baby girls in China. The nation of China, for the most part, has a one child policy. Since boys are preferred because they are expected to take care of the mom and dad in old age, baby girls are largely unwanted and often aborted, abandoned or given up for adoption. When we told our three daughters about this, it seemed like the whole family was burdened and felt like we should do something about this, even if we adopted just one girl.

She kind of side-stepped the question, so I reluctantly went into the room and agreed to let my wife show me the pictures of the children they wanted me to see. There were five pictures of children from five different nations: China, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Russia and Guatemala.

My wife and I began to attend seminars about adopting children overseas and were somewhat discouraged by the red-tape and expense involved, but we continued to think about adoption over a four year period. Every time we’d begin to lose heart or feel like the trail to adoption was growing cold, we’d encounter a family with an Asian child and become inspired again.

In 1998 my wife found a website for a group called “Precious in His Sight.” They would show pictures of kids from foreign lands who were in desperate need of adoptive homes. It tore my heart out to see the desperate need and, therefore, I told my wife and kids not to show me these pictures anymore.

One day, December 27, 1999 to be exact, my daughter Lindsay, who was thirteen at the time, asked me to go look at the computer. I said, “It’s not that site is it?”

When I saw the baby from Vietnam I made what I thought was a flip comment: “That one looks like an Asian version of a Harkins baby.” As I was leaving the room I noticed my wife had tears in her eyes. When I asked her what was going on, she said that earlier, when she and the girls were looking at these pictures, every one of them said exactly the same thing. After the fact, Cay told me that every time she was tempted to bring up the subject of adoption to me, she felt as if God was asking her to be still and patient. When she and the girls saw that picture and they invited me in, Cay felt as if God said “Now watch this.” Immediately, I called my three daughters into the room and said we need to pray right here, right now to ask God for guidance. I also asked everyone to keep this in their prayers for the next three days and then we’d come back to discuss it.

Three days later, we unanimously felt this was the direction we should take and from that point on it was amazing how quickly things fell into place for us to adopt this baby girl. The red tape was cut, an amazing amount of money was miraculously provided and on April 28, 2000, Emma Harkins was officially welcomed into our home, as much of a Harkins’s daughter as all the rest.

A MINISTRY OF FAITH AND REVIVAL

CRAIG CHURCH TESTIMONY AND FAITHFEST HISTORY

By Ben Cox

“Lord, if there’s anything in this old boy you can use, here I am! - Craig Church

Before I sat down today to write this last story for our July Edition of The Journey, the passages of Scripture came to my mind and I felt led to start my writing by simply posting these Words from God for you to read. It is my firm belief that when you get into the meat of Craig Church’s story you will be able to connect the dots between his calling and these verses.

You will see not only the foundation that this ministry is built upon, but you will also see where the strength comes from. That same strength will enable any of us to be strong and do exploits for the Lord and His glory to be revealed in the Earth in the critical times in which we live.

Luke 6:46-49

His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength.

“Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”

Isaiah 40:28-31

Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

Daniel 11:32b

“but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.”

Since 2007, when I first got into publishing a magazine on my own, the context of my life in Boone has always influenced the stories of those we choose to feature. And, of course, it influences what I write and how I interpret the times we’re living in.

Therefore, on this nice Summer day in June 2025, my heart is filled with gratitude for the life my Lord has

Craig Church and family.

given me here in Boone, but also in the bigger context of my 70th year of living in the USA. I feel blessed to live in a nation that our Creator God has blessed, in spite of our nation’s many transgressions.

In much the same way as God chose to bless Israel when He led them out of slavery in Egypt, he has done the same for the relatively young nation we live in.

As it relates to our nation in my lifetime, I have personally experienced many seasons of blessing and refreshing from the Lord! And there have been national times of revival and spiritual awakening too. The Jesus movement that swept the nation in the late 1960s and early 1970s comes to mind here. I won’t elaborate on that since I wrote about that in detail in the other article I did on Faithfest in this same edition.

realize they are under the control of the doctrines of demons. It particularly grieves me to see Christian people I know and love being pulled down into the mire of putting our hope in mere humans to save us when we know that the only hope for mankind is in Jesus!

But, it’s not just the ministry of mercy by reaching out to people in Jesus’ name that’s needed. We also need to let them know what Jesus told us when He was here. That is, we can have stability in the winds and storms of life if we will build our lives on the stability of knowing and obeying His teachings!!

Worshipping the Lord:

However, I have also observed times when it seems clear to me, from my biblical mindset, that God’s judgements are being poured out on our nation. Many of the plagues and judgements that we’re experiencing resemble the ones we read about in the Bible when God was disciplining His people of ancient times.

We see in those Biblical accounts that every time God enacted His judgments upon them, it was because they kept plunging headlong into hedonistic, self-absorbed behaviors and lawlessness while rejecting God and the Messengers / Prophets He sent to warn them. Yet every time they repented and returned to their senses and to Him He was willing to forgive and restore and bless them again. That is always GOD’S REDEMPTIVE PURPOSE couched within His judgements.

Though I lament the turmoil and seemingly steady descent we find ourselves in, I realize that the descent is being fueled by hedonistic thinkers who do not even

(See Luke 7:2427 above & also Matt. 7:24-27)

In the midst of all the upheaval we are witnessing in our nation and our world, it’s healthy for us to remember the importance of Scriptural warnings like this that we read about in passages like this one found in Hebrews 12:25-29:

“See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth (meaning Jesus), how much less will we, if we turn away from Him who warns us from heaven? (meaning God the Father at Mount Sinai when He gave His people the 10 commandments) At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removal of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.”

That is why it was crucial in biblical times for God’s anointed Messengers to call that nation back to God. And that is why in New Testament times God still rais-

Photo by David Childers

es up messengers in the form of evangelists like Craig Church who, with the help of others, has raised up Faithfest for such a time as this.

As we’ll soon discover from Craig’s own testimony, Faithfest is not the Craig Church show, it’s God’s Church working together to find our place of connection with Jesus. From that place of connectivity with Him in His body, we can be HIS HANDS AND FEET THAT REACH OUT TO THE SUFFERING!

After my exhilarating personal revival experience at Faithfest 2024 and the exhaustion I felt from the strain of Hurricane Helene, it was with deep gratitude that we were able to get Craig and I to sit still long enough to do this interview. I was eager to hear Craig tell his testimony of how and when he became a follower of Christ. I was also intrigued to know about God’s call on his life to become an evangelist and how that led to Faithfest.

What follows are excerpts from that interview and other sources that will give you an understanding of Faithfest’s history, but you’ll also learn about Faithfest’s vision for the future!!

BEN

Just by way of introduction, I recently learned as I have been getting to know more about you that you have been in ministry since 1999. So Craig, can you give us a little background about first of all, your journey when you became a follower of Christ. And also how that led up to how FaithFest was birthed, and how your transformation led you to create the festival in the first place.

CRAIG

Well Ben before I get started with anything, I just want to praise the Lord because he has been so good to us. And what he’s doing in and through the ministry in the venue is, as Ephesians, chapter three, verse 20 says: “God can do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the power that works in us!” I’m thrilled to say, we feel like we’re getting to walk that out with what’s happening with Faithfest.

My personal testimony begins when I was saved at 15 years old. The Lord started dealing with my heart, when I had heard the gospel preached one Sunday at a church service I attended. It reached my heart in such a way, I knew I needed to respond, but I didn’t.

It wasn’t until that night when I was laying in bed that the convicting power of the Holy Spirit just overwhelmed me. And I knew I was a sinner, I knew I was in need of a Savior, and I knew that the gospel was true!!! Though I had heard the message before I now had faith to believe that Christ died for our sins, according to the scripture and that after having been buried for three days, He rose again just like the Bible says!!

Prayer Ministry at FaithFest: Photo by Noel Henderson

Craig Church praying with his team: Photo by David Childers

FaithFest is a family affair: Photo by David Childers

So I got up out of the bed and went to tell my daddy what happened. Upon hearing the news, daddy immediately brought me to my granddaddy’s house at about 10:30 or 11 that night. He was a pastor whose name was Clyde Church.

He came out with his bedroom slippers and pajamas on. When we told my grandaddy what had happened to me he said, “Boy I’ve been waiting for you a long time.” And right there on the floor of my granddaddy’s study he called on Jesus with me to save me. That’s what started my journey.

BEN

So having been saved at 15 years of age in Wilkes County says to me that you must have been born and raised here in Wilkes County. Is that right?

CRAIG

Yes, I graduated from high school in Wilkes County and went on to college to become a teacher and a coach at West Wilkes High School. I coached Varsity baseball there for about seven or eight years out of college,

in an ungodly world. And though I was a follower of Christ, I wasn’t sold out at that time.

So that night the Lord just started dealing with my heart and on the floor of the Charlotte coliseum Larry Jackson said, “I’m going to do something a little bit different. We’re going to have an open invitation so when the Holy Spirit of God speaks to your heart, you come.”

The Holy Spirit had been dealing with me for a long time. That night, I surrendered on the floor of the Charlotte Coliseum, saying to the Lord: “Lord, if there’s anything in this old boy you can use, here I am! I surrender my career, I surrender my family, my home. If there’s anything you can use. Here I am!!”

I was doing that when the Lord started dealing with my heart about a calling. I knew something was missing even though our team was successful. We went deep into the state playoffs, and I couldn’t ask for more out of my career. But inside, I was miserable.

It was 1999 when the Lord really started dealing with my heart. It was at a Promise Keepers meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the old Charlotte Coliseum where the Lord just broke me. A man named Larry Jackson got up and preached on being a godly man

It took about four months to clean this old boy up! On December 12, 1999 at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church here in Wilkesboro I thought I was going to do something that’s not supposed to be done. I thought I was going to have to stop the preacher because the Lord stamped it into my heart that day that He was calling me to preach the Gospel.

Though I didn’t know then how everything was going to work out, I just had faith that God was going to “do exceedingly abundantly above all that I could ask or think.”

So I started in ministry as a Pastor. I pastored for about seven years at Mount Pleasant Church as the youth pastor. Then I went to Miller’s Creek Baptist, where I was an associate pastor and then the interim pastor, until the Lord called me to the ministry that I’m in right now as an evangelist.

Guest speaker Franklin Graham: Photos by David Childers

It was about halfway through my time at Miller’s Creek that the Lord’s burning in my heart to be in full time evangelism increased dramatically. I just got a passion to see people saved but I didn’t know how it was going to work out.

Evangelism is so different from pastoring a church. Years ago, those who were known to have the ministry of an evangelist would go preach revivals at churches every weekend. In that time period, you didn’t have to go to another nation to be a missionary. You could preach 3540 times a year and all the churches would support it. But now the spiritual climate has changed and our culture has changed and it is not like it once was back in the day. Since churches are declining not many are doing revival services anymore.

So how does an evangelist survive today? Or how do they answer the call to be an evangelist? Because I have pondered that and worked through that, I now believe the Lord’s called me to write a book to help others learn from the things I learned the hard way.

So it was about 18 years ago in 2007 the Lord spoke to us. He called us to get out of the boat, and we took a step of faith into full time missionary evangelism. The avenues, venues and the platforms are different today, but that’s what I’m called to do. I’m called to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, because I’m ful-

ly convinced that that’s what the world needs. That is the main thing that we can do to see people saved! It’s what the Apostle Paul referred to as “the foolishness of preaching” in 1 Corinthians 1:21-25:

“For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

So when we started I would just go wherever God opened the door. I was going to churches. I was also going around to different nearby states. Then it got to be national and international. The Lord’s blessing was on the ministry and it was in 2015 when I was coming back from a mission to Haiti the Lord communicated to my heart to do something like we did in Haiti at home.

That’s when I started paying attention to Merlefest, which is a local Americana festival that brought in 30 to 50,000 people on the last weekend in April. As I was thinking about that it was like the Lord spoke in my spirit: “Why can’t you do that for me?”

Children love FaithFest: Photo by David Childers

I shared what I was feeling with one or two other people, and then we just started praying. It wasn’t until the latter part of 2016 that God opened the door for me to get in front of the people at Merle fest. So I got in front of the committee at Merle Fest and told them what God had laid on my heart. And surprisingly to me, they embraced it, and they said we’ve been looking for another festival. And so that started the inroad to Faithfest.

One dear friend of mine named Randy Brooks, who co-owns Gardner Glass had me minister to the employees when I was in town like their company chaplain. So I came back from that meeting with the Merlefest Committee and Randy asked “Well, how did it go?” I told him that they embraced the idea and that we would probably start in 2018. That would give us over a year to prepare and to get everything together. That’s when he looked at me, and he challenged me to the core that day. He said, Craig, what are you waiting on? And I said, I don’t know. And he looked at me, and he said, Let’s do it.

about, it’s this: We are an event producing Evangelistic ministry. Our whole goal and purpose is to gather people in the presence of the Lord and present the gospel through word and worship and give the Holy Spirit of God an opportunity to change lives.

That’s all we’re about. We recruit the musicians and the main speaker for the Word of God to be preached. But all those things are done to gather people together so they can hear the Gospel, and either come to know Jesus in a personal way for the first time or to grow closer to Him.

Because the Bible says “faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God” that’s our job, to gather hearts and then proclaim the Word through preaching, testimonies and and through the songs and the ministry that takes place from the stage, it prepares the way for the Holy Spirit of God to do what only He can do.

So it was that day, after I talked to the committee and talked to Randy, that we took a leap of faith not knowing what in the world, or how in the world, we could do it. We just knew that God was calling us to do something here. And so anyway, that’s how it was birthed in Wilkes County. We did our first faith Fest in 2017.

I want everybody to understand something Ben. Faithfest is not a concert. Faithfest is so much more than an event. It’s an experience!!

We do Faithfest for one reason. If you ever want to know what Faithfest Evangelistic Ministries is all

And so that’s what Faithfest is all about. That’s what we’re all about. I’ve given the rest of my life to seek and to save, and so that gives you a little bit of background and a birth of FaithFest in Wilkesboro, North Carolina.

BEN’S FINAL COMMENTS

When I set up this interview with Craig Church. I asked him to provide me with more material that fills in the blanks of what Craig just told me in this interview. Plus I wanted to hear the vision God has given him and his team for the future. What follows is the rest of the story that we the church need to know so that we can pray and sow into what God is doing in Wilkesboro while following their example in the counties where we live to pray and plan for the harvest that he wants to bring on the mountaintops of Western NC!!

Clayton King preaches the gospel: Photo by David Childers

The History of FaithFest: A Testament to God’s Faithfulness

FaithFest is more than just a music festival—it is a movement of God, birthed in prayer and driven by a passion for evangelism, revival, and family restoration. Founded by full-time missionary evangelist Craig Church, FaithFest has grown from a vision placed on his heart in 2015 into one of the most impactful Christian events in the region.

The Vision: A Call to Minister at Home

Craig Church, having been in ministry since 1999-2000 and in fulltime missionary evangelism since 2007, has traveled extensively, preaching the gospel both locally and internationally. In 2015, after a mission trip to Haiti, the Lord placed a burden on his heart—not just for the nations, but for his own community. While seeking God’s direction, Craig felt led to create an event that would bring people together in the presence of the Lord, where the gospel could be preached and lives could be transformed.

powerful preaching, and testimonies of God’s faithfulness. The following year, in 2018, FaithFest saw exponential growth, welcoming Casting Crowns as a headlining act and drawing an even larger crowd. Each year, the festival continued to expand, becoming a highly anticipated event in the Christian community.

Overcoming Challenges:

A New Home for FaithFest (2021-2022)

By 2021, FaithFest had outgrown its original venue. Wilkes Community College informed the team that the festival had become too large to host on campus. This led to a season of uncertainty. Craig and his team sought the Lord’s guidance—was this the end of FaithFest, or was God leading them to something greater?

For nearly a year and a half, Craig prayed for clarity. He didn’t know what the event would look like, but he knew God was calling him to do something in Wilkes County, North Carolina. As the vision became clearer, FaithFest was born—a gathering designed not only to reach the lost but also to revive the church and restore biblical family values.

The Early Years: FaithFest Begins (2017-2019)

In 2017, the first FaithFest took place on the Watson Stage at Wilkes Community College, inspired by the town’s long-standing music festival, MerleFest. The organizers of MerleFest welcomed the vision, providing valuable insights on organizing a large-scale festival.

The inaugural FaithFest drew around 4,000 to 5,000 attendees, featuring contemporary Christian artists,

After an extensive search for a new location in Wilkes County, God provided a miraculous answer in 2022. Through a divinely orchestrated meeting at a local restaurant, Craig connected with a key landowner who offered 38 acres of land in Wilkesboro. This land would become the FaithFest Venue, a permanent home for the event.

FaithFest Venue: A Monument for the Gospel (2023-Present)

The new venue was more than just land—it was an opportunity to create a place where God’s presence would be hosted year-round. In the center of the venue stands a 110-foot cross, a visible reminder of the hope and salvation found in Jesus Christ alone. This cross serves as both a landmark and a declaration of FaithFest’s mission: to gather people, proclaim the gospel, and give the Holy Spirit the opportunity to change lives.

Guest musician: Photo by David Childers

“The new venue was more than just land—it was an opportunity to create a place where God’s presence would be hosted year-round. In the center of the venue stands a 110foot cross, a visible reminder of the hope and salvation found in Jesus Christ alone.”

year, FaithFest witnessed 350 decisions for Christ and 108 baptisms, a powerful testimony of lives transformed by the gospel.

Expanding the Vision: FaithFest’s Future

Looking ahead, FaithFest continues to grow, with plans to:

• Build a permanent stage for worship events

• Develop an indoor event center to host conferences and ministry gatherings year-round

• Launch a sports ministry, using athletics as a platform for evangelism

Each step is taken in faith, trusting God’s provision and guidance. The festival remains committed to its mission of gathering people, proclaiming the gospel, and allowing the Holy Spirit to work.

A Ministry of Faith and Revival

FaithFest is more than just an event; FaithFest Evangelistic Ministries is a year round ministry with a focus on revival. it is a movement of revival. Every year, it brings together thousands of people—from believers seeking renewal to those encountering Christ for the first time. It provides a space for families to grow in faith, for churches to be strengthened, and for individuals to step into their calling.

As Craig Church often says, “All we want is what the Lord wants.” FaithFest stands as a living testimony of what God can do when His people seek His face and step out in obedience.

To God be all the glory, honor, and praise!

Food trucks at FaithFest: Photo by Waugh to Waugh

FaithFest baptismal: Photo by Waugh to Waugh

FaithFest speaker.

FaithFest speakers.

“FaithFest is more than just an event; FaithFest Evangelistic Ministries is a year round ministry with a focus on revival. it is a movement of revival.“

Photo by Daniel Oquelli

Photo by Noel Henderson

Photo by Daniel Oquelli

In 2023, FaithFest celebrated its largest crowd yet, marking a new chapter in its history. By 2024, the festival expanded to a two-day event, featuring renowned evangelist Franklin Graham and Clayton King. That year, FaithFest witnessed 350 decisions for Christ and 108 baptisms, a powerful testimony of lives transformed by the gospel.

Photo by David Childers

Photos by David Childers

Photo by David Childers

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1 Corinthians 13:13 and so faith, hope, love abide... of these three; but the greatest of these is

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