Testimonies

My name is Dane Matthew Vogelpohl. I was born in Toledo, Ohio on February 12, 1982. My parents raised me in a United Church of Christ. In the summer after my "confirmation" in 1995, a friend of mine who had only been saved for a week began to tell me about his conversion and invited me to his neighbor's church. They were having a revival and I heard the gospel for the first time. I was skeptical about the Bible and believed that God was a concept that could not be explained and therefore anyone's sincere religious beliefs would be sufficient for eternal happiness. Upon hearing the gospel I remember feeling stupid because of 'the simplicity that is in Christ' and the conviction of sin wrought by the Holy Spirit. I then realized I was bound for hell. I repented silently in the pew while the preacher led the congregation in a prayer for salvation, but by the time it was over I knew something unexplainable had changed me - I had simply "let Jesus come into my heart". I heard the preacher say something about coming forward so I got up and went. My friends started laughing and to my surprise I was the only one going forward in a crowd of hundreds. I went anyway - receiving many strange looks on my way to the altar. When the others came forward five minutes later I realized why people laughed at me - the preacher had said "when you hear the music begin to play..."!  Lesson #1 - 'We are fools for Christ's sake,...'(1 Cor. 4:10) !
God in his mercy opened my eyes to the truth of infallibility in the Authorised Bible in the Fall of 1998.  I began to grow in the Lord. God burdened me for the lost and I started to witness in my public high school and on the streets. I attended Hope Baptist Church in Toledo for about six months.  On August 28, 2000, with a sobbing face over the text, "...and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS" (Jer. 23:6), in my bedroom at 1 o'clock in the morning, God called me to preach.  I left in the winter of 2000 to begin classes at Pensacola Bible Institute in Florida. But before I left, God crossed my path with a friend from years past. It was my High School buddy's big sister, and the Lord had been working in her life the same way He had been in mine. I asked her to marry me, left for school, came back after a semester, tied the knot, and swept her off her feet to the Bible boot camp! We've had a wonderful time together.
After graduating Bible College, we had a desire to follow the Lord's direction and this led us to rural Medford, in northern Wisconsin where my wife's grandmother was suffering from Alzheimer's while living alone in her home. We stayed in the upstairs apartment of her house and my wife took care of her as I held Bible studies at the public library. Door to door visitation was my means of winning souls and finding disciples. After nine months grandma was admitted to the nursing home (and those who were coming to the Bible study had quit during the winter), so we left a week later.  During our time in Wisconsin we attended Lighthouse Baptist Church pastored by Anthony Sari. The services were held in his own home at that time, but they have since grown out of it.
We returned to Ohio and became members of Hope Baptist Church. Pastor Sowell gave us the opportunity to teach children's Sunday School. We have learned many lessons that will be invaluable to us in Scotland. The Lord has also allowed me to be busy with preaching at the county jails and at an assisted living facility. I was unsure about the Lord's specific will for me in the ministry during those years of preparation until our Missions conference in 2007. God had burdened me for the people of Scotland for over three years. The Lord used the messages of the conference and Matthew 28 ( "...All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations..." verses 17,18 ) during my Bible reading that week to reveal to me His specific Command: Scotland.



My name is Angelyn Eileen Vogelpohl (Stevens). I was born in Toledo, OH and raised in Genoa, OH. I grew up in a Christian home and attended Non-denominational churches growing up.  My mother and father, Val and Marilyn Stevens, instilled in my three brothers, my sister, and I, a belief in Jesus, and his death on the cross for forgiveness of our sins. However, it wasn't until 1998 when I was 21 years old that I made a personal decision to ask the Lord Jesus Christ to be my Savior.
I attended The University of Toledo from 1995-2001 and for the first few years fully embraced a college, party lifestyle. I spent many nights in tears and wishing that I could find some hope in this life while trying to escape the reality that there is no hope in the things of this world.
In 1998 I attended a Bible study in Toledo, OH with my brother Tim Stevens (now Pastor of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Sioux City, IA) and there realized my state of being a sinner, on my way to hell. I remember looking around the room at all of those people who actually had a relationship with Jesus and I asked myself, "Do I really have what they have?"  The Holy Spirit convicted me in my heart that the answer was no!  As the Bible study ended, a friend, and great Christian brother, Brian Beam, started to talk to me and I immediately started to cry. He asked me if I wanted to ask Jesus to save me and I said, "Yes!  Tim, Brian, and I walked outside and on September 23, 1998 I bowed my head and asked Jesus Christ to save my soul from hell!
The Lord gave me a burden right away to study his precious word, start telling people about Jesus, carrying my Bible everywhere that I went, and passing out gospel tracts. He also led me to the knowledge of the King James Version of the Bible being God's preserved word.
I wish I could say from that day forward I lived fully for Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, it took me a while to get out of the lifestyle that I had developed. I also didn't know what church was the right church to attend. I went through a year and a half of attending different churches, getting discouraged and back-slidden, and then trying to get right again.  Looking back now, I know that the Holy Spirit was convicting, directing, and teaching me with each decision that I made. I had the opportunity to confront Bible rejecting professors at UT and also Bible correcting teachers in the many different churches I attended.
Then, in the summer of 2000 I was given the opportunity to bicycle coast to coast for a second time. By the end of that trip I knew that I needed to attend a Baptist church. The Sunday after I returned home I joined Northwest Baptist Church in Toledo pastored by Andrew Edwards. I got involved in everything that I could and also started going out with Tim when he went street preaching.
One day in August I decided to meet Tim downtown Toledo to pass out tracts while he was street preaching.  When I got out of my car I heard Amazing Grace being played on the bagpipes. As I walked closer I saw that it was one of my younger brother Danny's best friends, Dane Vogelpohl. I hadn't seen Dane in about a year, but the closer I got, a still small voice inside of me said, "You're going to marry him."  Three months later we were engaged!
Dane and I were married June 29, 2001 and left the next day for Pensacola Bible Institute, where we spent three of the best years of our lives and gained a wealth of Bible knowledge, along with a tolerance for very large cockroaches.  During our second year of school we had our first son, John. We both graduated May 28, 2004 and soon after, left Pensacola to live in Medford, WI with my grandmother who needed some extra help while her health was deteriorating.
While I was caring for my grandma, Dane was doing his best to cover the town with gospel tracts and knocking on doors.  He started a Bible study in the local library and we started to attend Lighthouse Baptist Church in Spencer, WI with Pastor Anthony Sari and his family, who were such a blessing and encouragement to us in some very strenuous times. When my grandmother got to a point that I could no longer take care of her, we sadly had to say good-bye to her in a nursing home and we decided to go back home near Toledo.
Dane had attended Hope Baptist Church, Pastor Rick Sowell, before we were married, and when we arrived back home we knew that was the place for us. We have been members at Hope for three years and have grown tremendously under the preaching of Pastor Sowell and the numerous preachers we have been blessed to hear. I thank the Lord Jesus for men who are willing to stand on the truth with boldness. Not only has our family grown spiritually, but we have had three more boys, Luke, Benaiah, and Abraham since we've been in Ohio.
Through Bible school, our experience in Wisconsin, and our time at Hope, we believe the Lord has been preparing our family to serve him full time.  My soul was thrilled when Dane told me that the Lord was calling us to Scotland! It is unbelievable to think that the Lord could use a sinner like me! My prayer is to stay in the fight, and to glorify my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Goals

Mission Goals

Evangelize the Sinner:

• Through preaching of the gospel in the local church setting.
• Through personal evangelism.
• Through distribution of literature.
• Through preaching at homeless shelters and jails.
• Through street preaching and open-air preaching services.
• Through radio broadcasts.

Edify the Saint:

• By planting churches that believe the King James Bible is God's preserved word.
• Through the ministries within the local church.
• Through children’s ministries.
• By teaching and discipling at homeless shelters and jails.
• By taking opportunities as they arise to hold Bible studies at public schools or libraries.
• Through starting a Bible Institute for men called into the ministry.

Glorify the Savior:

• By ministering His words to the spiritual needs of saved Scots and the desperate need of lost Scots.
• By being an example of righteousness and brotherly love before the ungodly.
• By training children to be His disciples and a testimony to the world.
• By faithfully continuing in His will until His Glorious Return.

Are you saved?  If not, why not?