Several years ago, I (Pastor Cletis) started having a pull on my heart while working with three Royal Ranger boys from the Assembly of God Church and  my horses. They were the three Amigos. My wife Diana and I were the Children Pastors  there and had the opportunity to work with the boys from early on. I saw then that horses would be a large part of our ministry. I did not know how or when, but I knew. I was asked by the Oklahoma District Commander to bring my horses to a district pow-wow and it was a huge success. I took them to a district Frontier Camping Fellowship event and it was an overwhelming success. After taking several trail rides with the parents and kids they all seem to want to know “when is the next one”. We had a wagon race at the local roundup club arena through the children’s ministry. What we found was that it was supported by the cowboy/farm/country folks, more so that the local churches. After spending some time with the roundup club, most of these folks did not go to church on a regular basis. The pull on my heart became much stronger and the vision became more clear. I was to start a Cowboy Church. It was confirmed when an evangelist came and spoke on “Joshua’s Hour” August 14, 2011. Diana and I resigned as Children Pastors and started traveling to different cowboy churches to see how they operated, taking something good from each one we visited. You see, we knew without a shadow of doubt that we were in God’s will. Years ago, a spirit filled sister, from our local church, spoke over us and said we were the Joshua and Caleb for God. This matched with the evangelist said and was confirmation.

 

     We were able to use the old Assembly of God building in down town Oologah. We had our first service on November 13, 2011 with 164 folks in attendance. We came upon some challenges the next two years. To stay there, we would have to pull the tables and replace them with chairs. This would give room for more people to sit but, it would take away the “Kitchen Table Experience”, where we fellowshipped. I felt that would of taken away from the relaxed atmosphere and we would be just become another church, “that was not my vision”. As our logo says “Where families gather on common ground” and to do that, we needed to keep the “Kitchen Table Experience”. If we would have moved the tables out to set more people, we still had another issue to deal with “the parking”. We were short on parking spaces even if we were able to pull the tables out & go to two services. We needed to have room to be able to bring our horse trailers and a place to put our animals during church for after church activities.

 

     I received a phone call from a grandson of a local rancher and was asked about the Oil & Gas Leases that was on his grandpa’s land. Years ago, I had leased part of local rancher’s property for oil & gas, but had sold them after he passed away. The grandson was looking for information after his mother had passed away and through our conversation, I told him that we would be interested in buying some land if it became available. I did not give it much thought at the time, but did notice that he talked to me like he knew me for a long time.

 

     The grandson called me again several months later while I was at a friend’s house. He told me that he was about to inherit 217 acres on the highway. He wanted to know what I thought the value of the land was. I told him that I thought it was worth about $4,000.00 per acre. We had a land proposal on the table. The land is located 8 miles north of Oologah, outside Talala city limits on highway 169, between road 330 and 320, on West side of highway.

 

     I found out through that conversation why he talked like he has known me

for a long time when he said wagon cowboy. That was what his grandpa called

me through a course of events that took place when I was 4 or 5 years old after

being bucked off. His grandfather had told him of all the stories from when his

family and my family farmed together. I remember when I was young, the two

families were always at our place or we were at theirs. Through our conversation,

he called and asked what I would give for the land. We came up with $2000

 an acre for 217 acres.

 

     I was able to purchase the land in October 2013. On June 1, 2014 we moved

the church to a pole barn 80’ X 100’. With the move, came many challenges. We

had to run over 700’ of water and electric lines. Build a stage, bathrooms, septic

system and the list goes on. We had a 1,600 sq. ft. building donated and a second

one we purchase for children’s church. WATCH THE VIDEO, for there have been a lot of

accomplishments over the past years as the adventure continues building God’s kingdom.