America For Him

Our mission, starting in High Springs, FL, is to ultimately plant a local independent Baptist church made up of born-again, baptized believers won to Christ through personal soul-winning.

This church is to be a place where the Gospel will be preached and people will be challenged from the Bible to develop a heart for God. It is a place where we plan to enlist and train people for the ministry so that they can impact their surrounding counties and the regions beyond with the Gospel of Christ!

I accepted Christ as my Savior on March 4, 1993 at Winkler Rd. Baptist Church in Fort Myers, FL. This is the same church my wife, Kami grew up in and where she was saved at the age of 5. I served in the Air Force from 1993-1997 and attended college for 2 years while training to be a doctor. I surrendered my life to preach the Gospel in 1996 and left the Air Force in 1997 to enter full-time ministry. After I left the military, I trained and worked for Dr. Jim Brown who pastored in Carthage, Missouri. Dr. Brown started the Crossroads Baptist Bible Institute which I attended for 4 years while training under him. Here I taught Sunday school, directed and preached in Junior Church, preached in a nursing home, and was a bus captain and driver. God moved my family in 2002 to work in a full-time staff position for Pastor Jerry George in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. I was the bus director, bus ministry youth director, Junior Church director, Christian school teacher, and sports coach. God then moved our family to Ft. Myers, Florida, to work for Pastor Don Strange. It was here that I was a bus captain and driver, teen director, juvenile detention preacher, SS teacher, and Junior Church worker. After much prayer, God led my family to surrender in February 2006 to the mission field of the West Indies to start on the island of St. Barthelemy. We were accepted as missionaries with Macedonia World Baptist Missions in April 2006 and started full-time deputation on July 20, 2006. After almost 3 years on the foreign field, my wife became severely ill and we were ordered by the doctors on our island to return to the U.S. Kami was diagnosed with Latent TB and Lyme disease. After a 1-year medical furlough which included 13 months of antibiotic treatments, we realized that we could not return to the foreign field at this time. It was recommended by our Pastor and Mission Board that we begin praying about being church planters right here in the U.S. and continuing with Macedonia World Baptist Missions. After much prayer and counsel, we recognized that God was indeed calling us to plant a church in High Springs, FL while we continue my wife's antibiotic treatments for her health condition which is still affecting her today. We are currently in the process of relocating our family and will begin the church plant in January 2015.

After being recommended to begin praying about church planting in the U.S. by our Pastor & the leadership of Macedonia World Baptist Missions, we began to pray state-by-state and city-by-city about what God would have us to do. It was at High Springs, FL that God opened our eyes to a great need with no independent, fundamental, Gospel witness.

In a 10-mile radius of High Springs, there is a population of 28,000 people and no independent Baptist churches. In fact, there are no independent, fundamental Baptist churches in the adjoining Gilchrist county, northern part of Levy county, nor Dixie county to the west.

Although we have not ruled out one day returning to the West Indies, it is here in High Springs that we have determined that God has called our family to plant a church and win souls. This will also allow us to continue Kami’s care with her doctor who is now, only 1 1/2 hours away!

Some years ago I started praying for our young people that God would call some to preach, some to be missionaries and all to be witnesses for Christ. The couple that I would like to introduce to you is one answer of that prayer. Patrick and Kami Gimenez have surrendered to be missionaries in the West Indies but due to health reasons, have now been called as church planting missionaries here in the U.S. Kami was raised in our church and was led to the Lord at an early age by my secretary. The family that she was raised in still comes to this church. Patrick came to know the Lord while still in high school, having been led to the Lord by our Youth Pastor, Brother Shawn Smith.

Patrick has done a tour of duty in the Air Force, where he studied dentistry before surrendering to preach. He has served on church staff in Missouri, Mississippi, and here at WRBC.Patrick and his wife are really a team and work together extremely well. They also involve their six precious children: Joshua, Elisabeth, Brenna, Silas, Callie and Micah. When you have them in your church you will want to hear Kami and the children sing. Patrick is a very good preacher and will be a blessing to your people.Patrick has been our Youth Pastor, taught the young people's Sunday school class and worked a bus route as well. God has used this couple in our church and they will be missed. If you can have this family in your church, your church family will be blessed and they would make an excellent addition to your mission family.May the Lord continue to bless your ministry. If I can be of further assistance, please feel free to call me at (239)481-2848 or my cell (239)872-7423.

Yours For Missions,

Pastor Don Strange