C.O.P.S. Ministry

BRANSON, MISSOURI TRIP
(I Call It: A Modern Day Bible Story)

On July 8, 2001 I woke and around 7:00am. When I did I heard in my heart, “Branson, Missouri!” That’s all I heard and that’s all that was said, nothing else. I thought that was very weird. I asked God what did he mean by that but He said nothing else. My brother-n-law, Don and my sister, Tracy, were in WV because Don had to preach in Morgantown. Later that evening my wife, Lisa and I were at Don & Tracy’s house with our kids. Don came down the steps and told me that while he was in WV that God told him that he and I were "...taking a trip.” He said, “I don’t know where we are going but I know that you and I are going somewhere.” I started laughing and said, “I know where.” I told him what had happened to me that morning. We sat down outside on the patio and began to talk and try to figure out what God was trying to tell us. Don said that he felt that there was a person that we needed to minister to. As we talked we felt the presence of God around us and we knew that we were not to tell anyone about our trip. Don said, “I feel that we are to leave, for where ever we are going, on September 28th and return the 30th”. And I said, “I think that the trip we’re supposed to take is on a weekend. It will be interesting to see what the dates you said are on.” We immediately got up and went inside his place and looked at a calendar. Wouldn’t you know it, September 28, 29 and 30th were on a weekend. I said, “Well the only thing that will settle it for me now and convince me that God is trying to tell us something, is if I am scheduled off that weekend.” (As a Police Officer I work shift work.) Again looking at the calendar I figured out my schedule and to our amazement I was scheduled off for that weekend. God confirmed that He really was talking to us and we were to go to Branson, Missouri. I began to laugh and Don and I both became very excited. I told Don, I know now that we are to go to Branson, Missouri. But there was a problem. Neither one of us knew anyone in Branson.

One night in late July or early August I was at Don’s house and again we were talking about the trip. During our talk Don again said that he felt that we were going to minister to one person. Right then (remember this) God showed me a vision of a man in a dark corner with a white shirt and blue jeans on and he had dark hair. The man was very discouraged and very torn within him self. I felt hopelessness in my heart. It was like the man in the vision was ready to give up and quit. This was so vivid that I told Don that we needed to write it down so he wrote it on his computer. Another thing we said was that we were not to buy the plane tickets until the first week in September.
As the weeks passed we remained in prayer about the trip. Soon it was time to get the plane tickets. We knew we shouldn’t pay more than $100 to $150 a ticket. I felt $100 and Don felt no more than $150. We also felt that we were to leave in the morning and arrive back home in the evening. I called the airlines directly to price the plane tickets. All tickets were priced from $250 to $1,040 a ticket. We thought about going through Priceline.com but the problem with that is you can’t choose your times of flights. You have to take what they give you and you can’t change it once they do give it to you. So now we are on “trust” street.

After we prayed about it there was nothing else for us to do except trust God. We knew God was leading us so we had to trust God to get us the right times we needed. So I ordered our tickets through priceline.com trusting Jesus to help! We got our plane tickets for $100. By the time we paid fees for this and that our tickets were close to $150 each. And the times of the flights… The flight out was scheduled in the morning and the return flight was scheduled in the evening. WHAT A MIGHTY GOD WE SERVE!!!!

Lisa and Tracy were asking Don and I about the trip. They were wondering what in the world we were up to because they knew we were planning something. We told them that God was leading us to Missouri. We were going to Missouri and no one knew we were coming because we didn’t know anyone to meet. We had never been there before. We had no hotel reservations, no car rental and we had a little amount of money. The only thing I knew was that I was to take my singing tapes and some books called, "A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS" by Loran W. Helm. My wife said, “You mean to tell me that you are going to Branson, MO and you don’t know anyone there, you don’t know who you are going to see, no one knows you're coming, you have no hotel room to stay in, you have no car rental and you have little to no money?” I said, “Yeah, that’s what I’m telling you.” They thought we were crazy.

Then the terrorist attacks in New York occurred on September 11, 2001. We had already bought our tickets and now we could not get our money back. We had to take the trip. Again, Lisa and Tracy thought we were nuts.

The week we were to leave on our flight I felt that we needed to leave even earlier than our 10:45am scheduled flight. I didn’t know how to do this because priceline.com could not change our flight times and now with the new security at the airports I didn’t think they would let us do it any way. Even after prayer, that felling would not leave me. So, on the morning of our flight Don and I got up at 4:00am because there was an early flight at 6:20am. I thought that maybe we could go and be put on a standby list. When we got to the airport, Lisa dropped Don and I off and left because she couldn’t go in the gates because of the new security. After we got up to the counter the lady told us that she couldn’t change our flights. She couldn’t even put us on standby. This meant that now we had to wait until 10:45 for our flight. Then she said that she would change this one time but that our flight out of St. Louis could not be changed. She asked us to put our luggage on the table so they could be searched. When she opened my luggage she saw my Bible and said, “That’s a good book to have.” She finished searching my case and then went to Don’s. He had a Bible and few of Rev Helm’s books. She said, “What is this, a church trip?” I said, “No Mam, this is a God trip. We feel that God has lead us to go to Missouri.” She didn’t say another word. She finished searching the luggage and went back to the counter. Not only did she put us on the next flight out of Knoxville but she also had us on the next flight out of St. Louis. Praise the Lord!
We landed in Springfield, MO and we got a rental car and drove to Branson. While we were en route to Branson Don said, "When we can, we need to find a phone book and look through it." When we arrived in Branson we pulled off the exit and we noticed this big Baptist Church and something about it touched our hearts. We didn’t know what it was. So we first drove through town and began looking for a hotel or motel to stay in. There were three hotels that caught our eye. Don stopped into the first one but when he did I knew that wasn’t the one we were to get. So we drove around more. Don saw a hotel and he said he felt impressed to stop in. When we stopped in we asked the clerk about there room rate. It was too much for us. Before we left she began to talk about “Lower Branson” and she pointed to it on a local map with her finger. When she was talking, it was like bombs going off in my heart. It was like my heart was doing flips. As we walked out of the door I told Don my heart was going crazy. I never felt it like that before. I said, “Don, we have to go to Lower Branson…”

We drove on to the lower part of Branson. When we were there we could sense God’s presents strongly but we couldn’t get to what He was trying to tell us. We drove around but we couldn’t locate anything. It was like a blockage or something so we went back up the hill to where the hotels were. After prayer we felt that God lead us to a hotel. Later that evening when we were inside our room, Don got a phone book and began looking through it. Without saying anything he put it down. I then picked up the phone book and began looking through it. There were ten yellow pages of churches and between 1,400 to 1,600 names on those pages. When I got to a certain pastors name it was like it jumped off the page at me. The name was Rev. Jim Cariker. I told Don and he said he saw the name too but was just tired and put the book down.

I told Don that I was going to call the number. He said, “What are you going to say to them?” I said, “I don’t know.” Somehow, God gave me strength to call the phone number. A female answered the phone. I asked to speak to Pastor Cariker. She said he wasn’t home but could she take a message. I said, “Well, you don’t know me but my name is Randy Myers and my brother-n-law, Don Payne and I are here in Branson because we felt that Jesus sent us here on a mission. She was kind and began to talk to me. During the talk I said, “Mam, has your husband been discouraged? She said, “He sure has!” And she began to talk as though she knew who I was. Then I found out that he is a Pastor of a Nazarene Church.

(I was raised in a Nazarene Church as a child.) And then she invited us to her church on Sunday and said, “…and maybe you can sing for us.” Now, how did she know I sang and brought my tapes? I said, “Well, you won’t believe this but I do sing and I did bring a few tapes.” About that time her husband walks into the house. He gets on the phone and I requested to meet him on Saturday morning. He agreed to meet us and began to tell us where his church was. Guess where. LOWER BRANSON!! We had drove right passed the street earlier in the day that took us there. By this time Don and I are pumped. We were so excited and yet scared. What were we going to say to this man? We didn’t even know him! We were so excited that we had to go see where the church was located. So we drove back down to lower Branson at night and found the church. It was located in a dark corner! I saw only one street light around.

The next morning Don and I got up and we prayed before we left. In my prayer God gave me another vision. I saw a Shepherd standing in the field with a staff but there were very few sheep standing around him. During this vision God said, “Read 2nd Chronicles 7:12.” God was telling me to tell this man he hears his prayers.

Well, we left and went to meet this man at his church, Branson Nazarene Church. On our way there Don said, “Now if this man has dark hair I am going to go nuts! If he doesn’t, I’m leaving!” When we got there the church door was open so we went on in. When the Pastor came out of his office, Don said, “O my!!” The pastor has dark hair. Not only did he have dark hair but also he was wearing a white shirt and blue jeans!! We introduced ourselves and the pastor invited us to sit down and he began by telling us that he only had ten minutes to give us. Don said, “That’s fine we are only here to encourage you and because Jesus told us to come here.” We shared this story with him. We even told him about my vision with him in jeans and a white shirt. He laughed and said that he had, “pastored the church for nineteen years and never wares jeans to the office.” He then began to pour his heart out to us. He told us that he was in a place just a few weeks ago and that he was almost “…ready to throw in the towel.” If you could’ve heard this man’s story you would have been amazed to see how God helped him to hang on and not quit. He told us of how he was loosing all of his people to other things. Key people in his church were leaving him to go do their ministry in other places. A Shepherd was loosing his sheep. He said that a man of God had told him three years ago that, "God was going to prune his church". As he shared you could see the tears in Pastor Cariker's eyes. He smiled and said, “But I didn’t think he meant the whole church.” He said, "September 11th was probably the hardest day..." for him not only because of the terrorist attacks but because that was the day that one of his deacons came and told him that he was leaving the church. This man had been with him for a long time.

After about an hour or so we left. It wasn’t because we over stayed, it was because this man poured his heart out and all we did was listen. As he shared God reminded me of 2nd Chronicles 7:12. With as much love as I could show I told the pastor that God showed me in prayer what he was going through and that God has said, "He has heard your prayers". Needless to say, by the time we left, this pastor was encouraged.

What an awesome meeting!!! Hallelujah!!! God is amazing!!! It is amazing how God can use two willing servants if we would just be willing. You could just feel the love that Pastor Jim had in his heart.
On Sunday morning we arrived at the church. As we arrived there was also a bus full of people who were from Spokane, WA. Pastor Jim had such a light on his face. He introduced us to his church and told them the story of what had happened and then he asked Don to share and he asked me to sing. After that he said, “I have already thanked these two men for there obedience but I want to tell them again publicly and before this church and that I accept their encouragement because it was truly of God.”

Then Pastor Cariker began to preach in Genesis 12:1. It says, “The Lord said unto Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s house and go to the land I will show you.’” Verse 4 says, “So Abram left as the Lord told him…” Pastor Cariker continued that God promised Abram nothing. He only told him to leave. And Abraham was obedient to God and it cost him to be obedient. He began to share what it really cost to obey Christ. It cost money and time, time away from your family. Some times there’s misunderstandings and misinterpretations. People may think you’re crazy. (That sounded familiar.) Don and I just looked at each other and laughed. Pastor Cariker also continued that in the insurance business there are stress rating systems. And in our lives there are things that are life changing events and how much that takes a toll on our body. He said that Abram did what God told him to do. But it came with a price. Don and I were in awe of the message. We were two men who just lived the very message that he was preaching. It was a confirmation to us that we were well in God’s plan and His timing.

After church service there was a lady who came up to Don and she told him that before church service she had made up here mind that this service would be the last church service that she would ever attend because she was so discouraged of “Christians”. But she said because of the story she heard today and because of the obedience of two men, her faith was renewed! Praise The Lord!

God is so good and I love Him so much! Praise The Lord!

This story is true and is the testimony of Pastor Don Payne and Rev. Randy Myers.

Pastor Don Payne                                           Rev. Randy A. Myers
105 Fellowship Lane                                       106 Settlers Drive
Powell, TN 37849                                           Clinton, TN 37716
865-945-5539                                       865-686-5538 or 865-405-0521

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Here is an e-mail that Pastor Cariker sent on October 1, 2001, to Pastor Don in response to our trip.

"Pastor Don:
It was a real joy to get acquainted with you and Randy this weekend. I believe your visit was indeed ordered of the Lord! Not only were Gloria and I encouraged, but also our congregation was encouraged. Thank you for sharing your words of encouragement with our church Sunday morning and for Randy's song. I appreciated your words of encouragement, hope & faith in Jesus as well as your sense of time constraints, and your humble spirit. I had several people asking about the details of our visit after church Sunday morning and again Sunday evening. All I can say is that the presence of the Lord around those two men was stronger than I had ever felt before. My son and daughter were also touched by this. My son remarked that he still can't believe that God would send 2 men that we've never met all the way here to tell us that God loves us. If more of us could live by faith and obedience that which you & Randy have displayed this would definitely be a different place to live.
Thank you for being obedient to the Holy Spirit. I pray that your ministries will also be blessed of the Lord. Don, I feel that the Lord has a wonderful church ministry waiting for you somewhere, and with your faith displayed here that ministry will truly be blessed.
In Christ,
Pastor Jim Cariker"