The End of a Season

I've begun this blog as part of our journey in ministry with InFaith as Missionaries as we seek out a new ministry and a new home.  My name is Chris Gentry and my wife's name is Aleisha.  We don't have any kids, we can't have them, but we want to adopt.  We do have two large dogs though.  For now, they're our kids.  I'm a pastor and chaplain and my wife works in the medical field as an MA and Assistant Office Manager.  I love to hunt and fish, read and play video games.  My wife loves to read, knit, bake, travel and shop.  To me she is the most beautiful woman on the face of the planet and she exemplifies the life of Jesus Christ, not just in our marriage but in how she interacts with others.  My hope though this blog is that you the reader will not only become one of our prayer warriors and maybe even one of our partners in this ministry but that God will lead you in your own, unique journey, a journey that He and He alone has laid out for you.  If at any time you have any questions or would like to talk, just drop me a line at pastorchrisgentry@gmail.com.

In Christ

Chris and Aleisha Gentry


This picture was taken during one of our many hunts last season.  For those that don't know I am a Church Missionary (Field Staff) and Chaplain, working with Wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airman and Marines with InFaith.  As a church missionary, I pastor rural churches.  Typically, these are churches that can't afford to hire pastors, have congregations ranging from 15-100 but desperately want to grow in Christ and have an impact on their communities.  As a Chaplain working with Wounded Soldiers, we use hunting and fishing to get outside, enjoying God's creation.  We provide everything from hunting clothes, licences, guns and ammo if necessary, and the places to hunt and fish.  However, we rarely come home with the amount of wild game we should.  You see, once we get a bunch of soldiers who have experienced many of the same things while serving our country something wild happens.  They open up and share things with one another that they have never told another soul.  There have been times when the guys on the hunt were laughing so hard at something or were so engrossed in the story being told that they either scared away the ducks and geese flying overhead or the guys just didn't care.  The last hunt of the 2014 season wound up being the most important hunt of the year.

You see in our blind was an Army Cop, an Army Medic, an Army Cook and a preacher (me), this actually sounds like the beginning of a bad joke.  But in all reality what happened is they completely opened up.  They shared the stories of combat, of losing friends, of having to wash the gore out of their Humvee's before getting back in the vehicles and riding back out into combat.  According to a Senior member of the Warrior Transition Unit it is this kind of sharing and camaraderie that these troops need if they are going to overcome their physical and/or emotional scars and truly heal.

The Other Side of the Coin

On the other side of the coin is my role as pastor to a small rural church.  Unlike big churches, with a full staff, in small churches like the ones I pastor/ will pastor I'm it.  I handle the janitorial, the worship and give the sermon.  I'm the church secretary and the Youth Pastor.  Although my wife usually handles the Children's ministry (Praise God!)  In fact, I'd say that on more then one occasion I've come up with my best sermons while cleaning the bathrooms!  But it's more then that.  In rural areas it so happens that a lot of people can't come to church on Sunday because they are farming, planting their crops, looking after the cattle or just fixing up the farm so they can stay in business and put food on the table.  So I go out to these individuals.  I meet them in the corn fields during harvest and ride along in the Combines, talking life, talking Jesus and praying.  I meet them in the cattle barns, standing in manure with my hand on a man's shoulder, praying over him as he cries, or I ride out in my beat up truck into a fallow wheat field and meet a man in a tractor as he's discing the earth and give him comfort after losing a close family member.  This is my other congregation.  At times I've been threatened (One man didn't like a preacher talking to his family), and at other times I've been welcomed into the home, usually over coffee, some pie and occasionally a meal where I have been able to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ within the context of relationship.

I'm the first to admit it's a hard ministry, especially juggling my pastorate with my ministry to Wounded Soldiers.  There's always a sermon to prepare, worship songs to find much less learn how to sing them since I can't hardly sing to save my life, but the church always likes them, and then there's the visitations, the inevitable crisis's that come up in the middle of the night and require a 20 mile drive just to get there.  There's also the taking to heart the things that are shared with me, either by a member of the church or community or a soldier.  Sometimes what is said makes my heart sore in thanksgiving and other times what is said breaks my heart.  But I don't question why God called me to this ministry, I give thanks.  I give thanks for the chance to love on people who desperately need it, I give thanks for the chance to share the Gospel and yes, I even give thanks for those late night calls.

A New Direction

Many years ago while serving as a missionary in Scotland I was nearly paralyzed.  15 years, a couple surgeries and a lot of procedures and tests later I am now disabled too.  I sometimes walk with a cane and I have a hard time feeling anything on the left side of my body, especially my left leg and I am in excruciating pain 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  But like the Wounded Soldiers I work with I have decided to fight my disability.  I push through the pain, ignore the sleepless nights and try to make myself stand up straight even when the muscles in my back are screaming at me to collapse into a quivering ball.  Strangely enough, despite my resolve, God has given us the opportunity for some relief.

We recently found out that by going to sea level that I am able to regain much of my functionality back.  After talking to my doctors, who struggled to explain the mechanics of why this worked, and my counselors and our families, we have decided that we need to move to sea level.  I was born and raised here along the Front Range Mountains of Colorado.  My wife has lived here most of her life.  Both our families are here.  To say this is an easy decision is an understatement.  Neither of us want to move but we realize that we have to if I'm going to be able to live a productive and full life and equally successful ministry.  So we have begun the journey of looking for a new home. Since my wife loves the ocean she said if we have to move to sea level then we have to live within 30 miles or so of the beach!  So we look.  Right now we are looking at New England and are in contact with some ministry leaders in the area.  But we are are also looking elsewhere.  We want to go where God leads.  It might be in the Bayou, it might be in the Northwest or it might be along the Southeast Coast.  If you hear of a need please let us know.

During this process I will post to this blog our progress on our search, on our support raising, on our current ministry as well as prayer requests, needs and praises as to what God is doing in us, through us and for us.  I encourage you to follow along, share your own stories of how God moved in your life, share your prayer requests as you pray for us.  At any time please feel free to contact us.  You can leave a message here on this blog or you can email me at pastorchrisgentry@gmail.com.  Thank you for choosing to be part of this ministry.

Blessings

Chris and Aleisha Gentry