EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is an expanded article based on the 2020 Cooperative Program Prayer Guide for Oklahoma Baptists. For more information, please visit www.oklahomabaptists.org/cp.

About 450 people live in rural Collins, Iowa. Tim Kimberley led 17 people from Oklahoma City, Frontline to start Sacred Mission Church here in 2019.

Here in his childhood hometown, Kimberley led the first church to be started in Collins in at least 100 years. Sacred Mission Church baptized four people in its first 10 months, and 10 more have made professions of faith in Jesus.

“I think we just have, in a loving way, asked as many people, as we have opportunity to, if they would want to follow Jesus,” Kimberley said. “It’s been neat to see so many say yes.

“I’ve had more two- and three-hour conversations here than I’ve had in any other ministry context,” said Kimberley, who previously planted churches in Portland, Ore., and in Oklahoma City. “Jesus is on the move here as much as He is somewhere else, (and) when you see Jesus is on the move, there is nowhere else you want to be.”

Kimberley said Sacred Mission Church puts a lot of effort on “reaching a lot of kids, an unreached people group” in Collins. The church’s children’s ministries director “is the only one fulltime in 10 towns around us,” Kimberley said. The church meets in the town’s only school: Collins-Maxwell Elementary.

“My wife and I and those of us on our core team are having the time of our lives,” Kimberley said.

Iowa has about 490 towns where fewer than 500 people live, and where no churches have been started in 50 years or longer. “I just would love to see about 10,000 more church plants in Iowa,” Kimberley said.

“I’ve never felt so alive in ministry as I do right now,” the planter continued. “For me, I can’t believe Jesus has allowed us to plant a church here. It’s been utterly rewarding.”

Because of the generous giving of Oklahoma Baptists through the Cooperative Program, an amazing array of ministries are supported. This unified giving encourages fellowship with other believers all over the world. Collectively, Oklahoma Baptists are advancing the Gospel together. Learn more at www.oklahomabaptists.org/CP