North American missionary Dave Storey stands at the spot on the famous Miramichi River, where he baptized a number of new believers in Doaktown, New Brunswick.
Missionary Dave Storey felt a heaviness for his hometown of Doaktown, New Brunswick. So in 2006 he moved back and started Miramichi Valley Church. “Of the 160 people in church every Sunday, about 100 of them were nowhere near a church three years ago,” Storey notes.
Since the start of Miramichi Valley Church in Doaktown, New Brunswick, prayer has been a key ingredient for growth. Members gather each Wednesday night for prayer meeting.
Hughie Betts, a recovering addict who now attends Miramichi Valley Church in Doaktown, New Brunswick, reads from the Twelve Steps to wife Sharon Betts and missionary Dave Storey.
A new generation of young people in Doaktown are hearing the Gospel at Miramichi Valley Church. Left to Right: Kate Porter, Kayla Rhynard, Chris Storey and Darionne Beck play a game of table soccer prior to prayer meeting.
So why did this 44-year-old move to an obscure logging town of 1,000 people, in the heart of the Miramichi River Valley, known for little more than its great salmon fishing and the Atlantic Salmon Museum?
Storey’s connection with Doaktown goes a long way back. In 1825, Robert Doak, one of Storey’s forefathers on his mother’s side, purchased land in the region, constructed several mills and began farming. They eventually named the town after him. Just across the Miramichi River lies Storeytown, named after Storey’s father’s family.
Storey first left Doaktown in 1983, and he and his family – his children are now aged 17, 15, 12 and 10 – moved around between New Brunswick and Ontario for about a dozen years doing evangelism. In 2006, he felt called to return to his hometown. “Every time I came back here, I felt a heaviness for the area,” Storey says. “I saw a lot of drugs, broken marriages, sin, darkness. But we had seen God do awesome things in other places and knew He would here, too.”
Supported by the Cooperative Program and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering®, Storey moved to Doaktown and put together a core group. “Before moving here, I highlighted all the names in the phonebook that I recognized – about 70 – and started praying for them,” he says. Once in Doaktown, he and his team visited and shared the Gospel with people every day. “We got involved in their lives and invited them over for supper.”
In the meantime, they needed to find a building. “All along the east coast there are dozens of little ol’ white Baptist churches that are vacant,” Storey explains. “They’ve just closed up as the older generations have died off.” Someone offered Storey one such building, with 110 seats, for free. Miramichi Valley Church outgrew that venue and is now housed in a 14-year-old co-op building that Storey got for a song. “They were asking $324,000 (Cdn) and lowered the price to $280,000,” he says. “I offered them $50,000. They called me back five minutes later and sold it to us.”
The church started off with just five people in 2006. Within a year, 50 came to Christ and were baptized. Thirty more were baptized the following year, and another 22 the third year. On August 9, 2009, nine more were baptized.
“Of the 160 people in church every Sunday, about 100 of them were nowhere near a church three years ago,” Storey notes. “The church has had a positive effect in the community: Consider that 10 percent of the town has been saved in the past three years! That’s a big chunk in a small community where everyone probably knows someone in the church. And these new converts make the best witnesses because their testimonies are so obvious and believable.”
There have been challenges, however, particularly with drug dealers who are losing business as people are saved. Storey remembers a threatening phone call at 2 a.m. from someone asking hypothetical questions such as, “What if the church suddenly burned down?”
Another struggle is the local economy: Storey estimates the average annual income is below $25,000. “I think it’s more good than bad, though,” he says, “because when people get desperate and see their need, it gets them thinking and softens them toward the Gospel.
“God had this place ripe,” he says. “This third generation of some of our godly grandparents has drifted away from the Lord but there’s still this sense of ‘My grandfather was a strong Christian,’ which is like a seed in their hearts.”
For Storey, who is in the midst of planting a second church 25 miles down the river from Doaktown and hopes to see another five or six start up in as many years, this is what makes it all worthwhile. He looks forward to seeing a real revival in the area – even as far as to the neighboring province of Quebec. He acknowledges that it’s difficult to find good pastors to come in and do the work but says, “It’s a good time to let your light shine. While we’re here we need to be like the Apostle Paul and try to reach as many as possible. Anything that’s happened here is on account of the Lord. He’s the one who saves!”
Ann-Margret Hovsepian is a writer and editor (www.annhovsepian.com) in Montreal, Quebec, where she is also active at Temple Baptist Church.