About Us
A Call To Salvation
Adam grew up in a typical suburban home in western Washington. God was believed on, but never talked about in his family. Upon graduating high school, he immediately went into the US Army for three years, where he lived a very provocative and riotous life doing anything that filled the void and emptiness that results from a lack of true salvation. During his service in the military, terrorists attacked American soil in what is now referred to as the 9/11 attack. As a result, he was sent overseas to Afghanistan.
While in the desert mountains of Afghanistan, Adam’s unit was sent to replace a company that had just been shot at and badly wounded. Seeing all of the physical and emotional damage on the soldiers he was about to replace, eternal thoughts hit Adam right where it needed to… his heart. For the first time ever, he knew that he was most likely going to die in battle the next day, and the only thing he could do that night was pray and ask for God’s mercy and to please not send him to Hell, even though he knew that’s what he deserved. In that instant, the Lord had completely changed Adam’s course of life, from the path he wanted his life to go, into a path that leads toward salvation. The mission that would have most likely killed everyone in their unit had been delayed and the whole unit was spared.
After being honorably discharged from the Army, Adam reluctantly returned back to his home in Washington. Within a year he met Sarah, who invited him to attend church with her at Faith Baptist Church in Chehalis, Washington. After many protests, he finally agreed to go, but only to appease her many persistent invitations. It was there, for the first time in his life, that Adam heard the plain truth of salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Shortly afterwards, he accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior, and received forgiveness of his sins.
Sarah’s Testimony
Sarah grew up in a small naval town on Whidbey Island, Washington, where her dad and step mom began attending a local Baptist church. After a few months of attending on a regular basis, she heard a message preached on salvation, and she knew that if she died that night, she deserved to go to hell for all of her sins. At the altar call at the end of the service, she walked down that long aisle, knelt before the Lord God Almighty, begged for forgiveness of her sins, and accepted Jesus Christ as her personal savior. Within a few months, she followed in baptism.
A few years later, during their annual tent revival, the Lord dealt with Sarah on a whole new level. The last preacher of the week-long meeting challenged the youth directly to ask the Lord what He would have them do with their lives. He said that even if they may be too young to fulfill their calling at their current age, they could at least start preparing their lives for their future service to the Lord. All week long, the Lord had been working on Sarah’s heart about her future husband, and what kind of wife He wanted her to be. When she asked about a specific calling for her life on that last night of the conference, the Lord clearly spoke to Sarah and told her that she was to be a missionary’s wife. She was 11 years old, and the Lord had called her to be a missionary wife!
Through many different circumstances taking place, Sarah soon moved out of the protection and shelter of her father’s house and into her mother’s custody, where she was enticed by the temptations and seductions of this world and all it has to offer. Throughout her teenage years and even into young adulthood, she lived a “normal” life living in sin like the rest of the world. When tragedy hit her life, it left her searching once again for the Lord’s presence. She started attending Faith Baptist Church in Chehalis, WA, where she soon realized how much she had missed out on during those years that she had strayed. She met Adam, the then obnoxious neighbor who is now her loving husband, and invited him to church with her. After just a short time of going to church together, Adam got saved, and within a year, they were married. They started attending church on a regular basis and began to help out in various ministries, eventually taking on leadership roles within the church ministries.
A Call To The Mission Field
About 5 years after getting saved and finally growing in the Lord, Adam and Sarah both received a call from the Lord to be missionaries to Mexico. The call came during a mission’s conference at their home church in early 2010. Adam tried to dismiss the call, saying that it was really just the hype of the missions conference, that it was his own ideas, not the Lord’s, even though he knew he had no desire to ever go to Mexico in his entire life. For two years, he tried to hide from the calling, and tried to convince himself that his career is where the Lord wanted him; although in those two years, the Lord taught him a very important lesson on faith and obedience.
By the summer of 2012, Adam had fully submitted to the Lord and the call of Mexico. For the next three years he faithfully trained at his home church with his pastor, Bill Bailey. While studying the King James Bible with his pastor, he also ministered in the Master’s Club program, led the middle school teen group at church, led a door knocking ministry in his home town and helped in any evangelical outreach that his church scheduled. In January 2014, Adam’s family had the chance to visit Mexico for a survey trip. They stayed with the Raymond Jones’ family outside of Guadalajara, Mexico for three weeks where the Lord had confirmed in their hearts the call to Mexico.
The Burden For Mexico
Like many missionaries, the Lord has put a heavy burden on our hearts for the people of Mexico. When we first arrive, we plan to minister under the Raymond Jones family while we learn the language and Hispanic culture of Mexico. After this term with the Jones, we will move to the coast of Mexico in a town called Lo De Marcos, where there is an already established church that needs a pastor. The Lord has given Adam the desire to plant churches along the coast, train national pastors and help establish them to be strong leaders in the Lord. It is our plan to win souls, train nationals, plant churches, and keep them edified. Please join us in prayer as we diligently labor for the Lord in Mexico.
Arriving On The Field
Upon arriving on the field of Mexico in August of 2017, the Russells spent their first year serving under the Raymond Jones family learning all they could about the language and culture. One year later to the day, the Lord moved the Russells to the town of Lo de Marcos, Nayarit where the Lord had called them to serve. They served in the small town for 14 months continuing to work on their language skills and reaching every door in that small town with a tract and gospel witness.
Establishing A Local Church
After those 14 months in Lo de Marcos, the Lord directed Adam to move the small group to the main city of Guayabitos ten minutes away to start and establish Word of Life Baptist Church on November 1st, 2019. Over the next two years the Russells labored through preaching, evangelism, discipleships, and many other ways as the Lord gave the increase. The Lord added to the church and filled up the building they were renting in those two short years!
Purchasing Property
As the church started filling up, the Russells started praying about what to do. Through much prayer and fasting, the Lord led them to a 2 ½ acre piece of property to purchase. On the two-year anniversary the church moved onto the piece of property and set up an outside area under a roof to hold services. The property is being developed with a well, septic, and protective wall; then a church building will be built in the Lord’s timing. The Russells continue to labor for souls to be saved, discipled, and trained for the Lord’s service!
