Kathie and I (Jim) thought we would give you a little background about what brought us to where we are today and also share our immediate and longterm goals as well.
Kathie and I spent 13 years working for two national ministries and one regional ministry in both leadership and management positions. We also spent 12-13 years working in church ministry both full and part time.
We have spent at least 12 more years doing secular work. {If you add up all those years, you’ll realize we’re not spring chickens anymore! But thank God, we still have plenty of gas left in the tank.}
Here’s why we feel called to Watford City ND.
Last summer I came to Watford City to drive payloader for a rancher pulling and loading scoria—a red rock used for oil pads and roads. I lived in a camper by a friend’s house and met others coming here to work who had left very difficult and or desperate situations back home. They were coming here hoping to get a new start. Many had lost homes and businesses during the recession and had not been able to recover. Others had been through divorce or other personal tragedy. Now they live out here and are lonely but still hopeful to get a new start.
I would walk the town in the evenings when I had a chance and pray for this city asking God what we could do to help.
The answer eventually came as God partnered us with the Dakotas Conference of the UMC to come here and start an outreach mission.
The first two projects that we are working on are putting together a mobile thrift/free store that we will take to the RV camps surrounding Watford City for many miles. Many of these people are struggling to provide basic needs for their families because of the cost of living here. We have the camper that will be used. It will be converted to carry clothes, pots, pans, dishes, toasters, coffee pots, blankets, bedding…basic living items.
The other project is to have a “Gathering Place” where men and families, if they wish, can come 2-3 evenings a week to have fellowship, a home-cooked meal from time to time and some time away from their little boxes (campers). We will also do some music and a bible study or worship service that will fit their schedule. Perhaps an evening service would work best.
Our long -term goal is to have a building that will house the thrift store, the “Gathering Place,” sleeping rooms and showers for people in transition, washers and dryers for use, a well equipped kitchen where people can cook things that they cannot in the small camper ovens. This building will be a refuge of hope and help for people that have nowhere else to turn. We want to be the hands and feet of Jesus as much as we are able.
It is a great challenge, but we feel God has put it on our hearts to do this. God is bigger than any challenge we face. We know that we must spend much time in prayer and are looking for people who will hold us up in prayer as we reach out to those who are lonely, hurting and disillusioned here in Watford City. We also need financial help. It is very expensive to live here {especially for housing} and it is also very expensive to either buy land or to buy the several buildings available here that are extremely high and costly.
We believe we can be victorious in this endeavor because we are not trying to do this on our own. We are working with the other churches in our community, working with social services and other community organizations as well as having the support of the Dakotas Conference of the UMC.
Most of all, God cares for these people and their needs even more than we do. We want to work hand in hand with what God wants to do here. Thank you for your prayers and any other help you feel led by the Lord to give. May God bless you all!
In Christ’s Service
Jim and Kathie Konsor