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Our Origin Story

After World War II, the United States government allowed settling of land on parts of the Kenai Peninsula under the Homestead Act. Veterans of the United States armed services were given a 90-day preference in selecting land and filing for property. Naptowne was founded by post war homesteaders who came to the confluence of the Moose and Kenai Rivers starting in 1947. The same year a forest fire burned nearly 500 square miles in the area, the Sterling Highway right-of-way was cleared of trees from Cooper Landing to Kenai and the location of present-day Soldotna was selected as the site for the highway bridge crossing the Kenai River. Downriver on Cook Inlet, the Village of Kenai was a port city and had served as a base for the company canneries and the seasonal fishing industry since the ‘20s. Kenai had the only real airport in the area which had been built in 1937. Nikiski was still wilderness. The construction of the Sterling Highway provided a link to the outside world and more homesteaders were attracted to the area.

 

During the early fifties Richfield Oil, predecessor to Atlantic Richfield Company or ARCO, used horses to haul seismic equipment all over the Kenai National Moose Range north of Naptowne since no motorized vehicles were allowed in the Range. They came in with promising results and wildcat drillers began to make plans for exploration wells.

 

It became obvious that the Central Kenai Peninsula was poised for growth. Not the normal kind of growth around any city, but pioneer growth with new people, new towns, new industry and new infrastructure. It was also obvious that the Territory of Alaska was headed for Statehood in the not too distant future and needed an economic base. The Southern Peninsula had been open for business for many years. Seldovia was a deep-water port and served both the fishing industry and the logging industry and was an important port of entry for the mining industry as well. Homer had been a busy coal-mining town and now served the fishing industry. North of Homer were mining claims and small fishing camps and villages. Oil would give Alaska the economic stability for Statehood.

 

The Naptowne area seemed likely to become the center of commerce for the central Peninsula and would need a Gospel witness. Milton Barkley answered the call and moved his family, (Dorothy, twin girls Patsy and Peggy, 6, David, 4, Becky, 6mo.) from Grand Rapids, Michigan. A young couple, Virgil and Nyladine Redmond, soon to be missionaries themselves, participated in the send-off service for the Barkley’s.

 

The Barkley’s arrived in Homer on May 1, 1953, and stayed with Baptist Mid-Missions Missionaries Dale and Bea Davis for two months. Dorothy Barkley helped Bea Davis with their Vacation Bible School in Homer. While the Barkley’s were in Homer, David, the four-year-old broke his arm and had to be taken to the big town of Seldovia and the only doctor in the neighborhood. Homer itself was a new town, although the area had been busy for many years. Coal had been discovered on the north shore of Kachemack Bay in the 1890’s. The Cook Inlet Coal Fields Company built a town, dock, coal mine, and a railroad on the spit of land jutting out into deep water. Coal mining in the area continued until World War II when the mines and railway shut down. The original town on the Homer Spit burned down when an exposed coal seam caught fire, and the town was rebuilt on the present town-site. Homer would not be incorporated as a city until 1964.

 

Milton and Dale made a survey trip into the Central Peninsula and were originally thinking that Soldotna would be a likely place for a mission work, but there was no housing available. So, they surveyed Naptowne and the Barkley’s moved to Naptowne in July 1953 with the intent of starting a Church among the people there. They found housing in a little cabin about three miles toward Soldotna from where the Church stands today. That summer, Milton helped a group of volunteers build the Naptowne Territorial School. The original log building still stands next to the Sterling Community Center across the street from the Church.

 

The first services in Naptowne were held in September 1953 in a tent provided by Walt and Laura Pederson. It soon grew too cold so the Pederson’s allowed use of one of their guest cabins until arrangements could be made to rent the school for services through the winter of ’53-’54. That cabin is still in use as Cabin #2 at Pederson’s Resort. Following the guidelines set up by the Homestead Act, Milton applied to the Federal government for property for a Church. Territorial Delegate Bartlett, who had served as the Delegate to Congress from Alaska since 1945 personally saw the request through to completion and President Eisenhower signed the bill authorizing the transfer soon after taking office.

 

Baptist Mid-Missions was granted 6.44 acres for a Church building and other such uses as pertained to the ministry on August 30, 1954. When Alaska gained Statehood in 1959 Bartlett became our first Senator. Clearing on the Church property started immediately. The ’47 burn and the clearing of the highway right of way had left lots of rubble and dead trees on the property. That same year a post office was built, and Walt Pederson submitted a petition for a name change to the Post Office Department. This petition resulted, on October 1, 1954, in the change of the community's name to Sterling in honor of Hawley Sterling the Alaska Road Commission’s supervising engineer on the Sterling Highway Project. Ground was broken for the Parsonage first on the Church property in the spring of ’55.

 

As soon as was practical the little congregation began using the unfinished Parsonage for services. The Church building itself was built in ’56. Both structures were built of locally milled wood killed by the ’47 burn and insulated with sawdust, which was a standard construction practice for the time and area. The Parsonage stood just about where the Main Entry to the Church is today, and the Church itself stood where the first entry to the parking lot comes off of Swanson River Road. The Church was called Northland Baptist Church. There was no electricity. There was no plumbing. The lights were kerosene or Coleman lanterns, and the heat was oil drum wood-stoves built by the Handley's who owned the garage just down the road. The water came from the spring across the highway from the Church and was stored in garbage cans in the kitchen. It was common, on very cold days, to have to break a light coat of ice in the garbage cans to get to the water in the morning. The outhouse was at the end of a short trail and served both the Parsonage and the Church and you can still see where that outhouse stood if you look closely at the yard by the nursery. Groceries and supplies that were not available locally were ordered by case-lot from the States.

 

In October 1956, Missionaries Paul and Esther Weimer relieved the Barkley’s, who went back to Grand Rapids, Michigan after 40 months in Alaska. The Weimer’s were here on a short-term basis until the next Missionaries were able to get to Alaska. The Weimer’s reported that neither the Parsonage nor the Church was finished, both were still heated with wood and there were 90 people total in Sterling. The Sterling Highway had been improved to a gravel road by then that was usually passable. In September of ‘57, Burt and Donna Schultz came to the work at Sterling and the Weimer's moved into Soldotna and started Soldotna Baptist Church. Burt would go on to start Solid Rock Bible Camp under BMM and the Kenai Peninsula Fellowship.

 

In 1957, oil was discovered in the Swanson River Drainage, and Swanson River Road was built to the field from Sterling. With that discovery of Alaska’s first commercially viable oil, the Cook Inlet Basin became the focal point for oil and gas exploration that is still ongoing today. The discovery brought new economic development and people to the area. The Swanson River discovery is often credited as one of the key factors in Alaska becoming the 49th State by showing that Alaska had the potential to support itself through resource development revenues instead of being a drain on the Federal government. Electricity came to the Sterling area in ’58.

 

By 1960, the homesteaders of Soldotna, being more politically minded than the folks in Sterling, had incorporated as a city with a population of 332 preparing the way to become the hub for goods and services for the Central Peninsula. Kenai was growing to become a town in its own right and the area became the focus for the early efforts of Baptist Mid-Missions in Alaska with Mission Churches in Sterling, Soldotna, Kenai, Nikiski, Anchor Point and Homer. Virgil and Nyladine Redmond, and their family, came to Alaska originally destined for Homer, but took over from the Schultz’s, who had been at Sterling for 37 months, on October 17, 1960. While Virgil was at Sterling, he joined forces with Bill Bursell, who took a turn at Soldotna while the Weimer’s furloughed, and they would load up a pump organ in a VW bus every Sunday afternoon and drive to Nikiski and hold a service there. Virgil and Nyladine went on to start a Church in Nikiski when they came back from their first furlough. They worked in several Churches around Alaska and retired in Sterling. Virgil was very active in a prison ministry and served as a Deacon at Sterling Baptist Church. Oil field work brought “man camps” and people to Sterling and Church attendance was averaging 60. Reading and Bates located their man camp across the street from where the Sterling Pentecostal Church is now, a property that would later become Resurrection Christian School under Pastor Joel Poe and then the Hostel that it is today.

 

The Swanson River field began production of oil in 1961. That same summer the Sterling natural gas field was discovered by Marathon Oil Company and an 85-mile natural gas pipeline was built into Anchorage. The Reading and Bates Man Camp moved out of Sterling in ’62 and a lot of people left the area. The United Pentecostal Church opened that year and Church attendance began to suffer but the little Church on the corner forged ahead and with Virgil Redmond’s leadership the original Church Constitution was written in 1962.

 

The congregation changed the Church’s name to Sterling Baptist Church. Missionaries Chuck and Rhea Reeves took over the work in August ’63 when the Redmond’s left for furlough after 33 months at Sterling. The Reeves had two small children, Mike (5), and Becky (3). Their third child, Joel was born in 1966. Little Mike accepted Jesus as his Savior after the very first service at Sterling! Mike, a Pastor now himself in Pennsylvania, regularly watches our Livestream Services. The Reeves reported that there were three members at Sterling when they arrived and only occasional visitors. In February 1964, after discussions that actually started before the Reeves came to Sterling, the Field Council of Missionaries under BMM consolidated the Congregation at Sterling with Soldotna Baptist Church and Sterling Baptist Church was closed for services. The Reeves worked with the Weimer’s, who were still at Soldotna Baptist Church and continued to live in the Parsonage at Sterling while the Church building became storage for furloughed BMM missionaries.

 

The Reeves took over the work in Soldotna in August ’64 and the Weimer’s moved to Anchorage after seven years in Soldotna to take the work at Grace Baptist Church which had been started by Dale and Bea Davis in a double-wide trailer. The Reeves continued to live in the Sterling Parsonage because the Territorial land grant required that the property be used for religious purposes for twenty-five years. In order to protect BMM’s investment there, and to keep a witness in Sterling, the Reeves held two Gold Nugget Bible Clubs each week with 15-20 children in each group, as well as other activities in conjunction with Soldotna Baptist Church. The Reeves took their first furlough, an abbreviated one, from June through December 1967 and then returned to Soldotna Baptist Church and continued to live at the Sterling Parsonage.

 

While they were gone, Bill Bursell again took the work in Soldotna and lived at the Parsonage as well. Much of the Sterling area was evacuated the summer of ’69 because of the threat of the Swanson River Forest Fire burning through the community. The Reeves, and five students from Western Baptist Bible College, (Corban College), who were helping with their two-week Vacation Bible School evacuated on Wednesday evening to Soldotna Baptist Church along with one Church family. They had to cancel the rest of that week’s VBS but were able to return and hold the second week as planned. Chuck Reeves often substituted as a teacher at Sterling Elementary School as well as the Central High School in Kenai and the Elementary and Junior High Schools in Soldotna. Darrell Kincaid can remember having Pastor Reeves as a teacher in fifth grade and he often spent Sunday afternoons playing with Mike and Becky at the Parsonage.

 

The Reeves left in July 1972 for their second furlough and Missionaries George and Arlene Blood took the Church in Soldotna, after a term in Kodiak, and lived in the Sterling Parsonage with their four children until Soldotna purchased a Parsonage on Lancashire Drive outside of Soldotna. One summer, while the Bloods were at Soldotna, a College Boy from one of their supporting Churches came to help them with VBS, and Ron Kier entered the history of Sterling Baptist Church at that point! Arlene Blood continued to hold after school Bible Clubs at the Sterling Parsonage to honor the Land Grant requirements with the help of other ladies like Jody Kincaid. The Field Council allowed Dave and Jan Harvey, who had recently moved from one of Blood’s supporting Churches in New York, to live in the Parsonage at Sterling, rather than leave it unoccupied, while he built their house on McCall Street behind the School.

 

The Church in Soldotna went self-supporting and called Roscoe Smith as Pastor so Missionaries Dick and Barbara Norman re-opened Sterling Baptist Church on June 27, 1976, and one year later, on June 12, 1977, ground was broken for a new building behind the Parsonage. Bill and Sandy Hiler were part of the congregation then and the basement and auditorium of the present structure are that building. In August of 1977, some of the families of Soldotna Baptist Church began coming to Sterling Baptist and joined the ministry here. Darrell Kincaid first attended when he was home from College that Christmas and has been attending here ever since. Missionary Dick Norman left Sterling Baptist Church, and Veteran Missionaries Villes and Vivian Emmels were sent by BMM to take over the Church in May ‘78. Villes initially described the Congregation as depressed and struggling with a history of non-denominationalism. They needed a lot of love and encouragement, which he and his wife provided. Villes reported that the Church immediately began to grow. That Fall the original Church building was dismantled and moved to the back of the property to be used as a storage building for BMM missionaries on furlough. You can still see the pilings growing in the parking lot! The building would later be moved to Higher Ground Baptist Bible Camp where it is used as the game room. Under the leadership of Villes Emmels the Church members began to take responsibility for themselves and on January 31, 1980, voted by a margin of 14-3 to go self-supporting. BMM and the Field-Council relinquished control of most of the property to Sterling Baptist Church retaining a small portion at the rear of the lot for the storage building for furloughed Missionaries. Health issues eventually forced Villes and his wife to leave the full-time Pastorate. He is remembered as a healer and were supported until his death by Sterling Baptist Church. They kept in touch with Sterling by letters, which were always upbeat, and hosted some of the Members at their home when they happened to travel through Montana.

 

Pastor Orville and Vivian Terry were called and came to Sterling from Iowa on August 15, 1980, with three children, Kathy (16), John (12), and Joel (10). Pastor Terry purchased property on McCall Street behind the School and moved the Parsonage from the Church property to that location. When he left Sterling Baptist Church, David and Tracey Bunts bought the property. They built a home of their own with the vestiges of the Parsonage incorporated into their house. Pastor Terry was a busy man and spent much time building his house and adjacent buildings, starting a counseling business in Soldotna, teaching College classes at Resurrection Christian School, and Pastoring a growing Church. Under Orville’s leadership, the Church incorporated on July 9, 1981. During the Terry Administration, Sterling Baptist Church decided to hire an Assistant Pastor, a young missionary couple, Ron and Carol Kier. They had two small boys, Donnie and Ronnie, and soon added twin girls, Katie and Courtney to the crew. The Kiers have served in just about every capacity possible. Darrell Kincaid had the good sense to marry Wanda on October 4, 1984, and she has been an active member at Serling Baptist ever since. The Terry’s left Sterling Baptist Church in 1986 after six years.

 

While Sterling Baptist was between Pastors’ the congregation undertook a remodeling project and moved the Church Office and Pastor's Study, which were where the infant Nursery and Coat Room are now, to their present location. The governing idea was to create a space for any Pastor to study, counsel and hold small group sessions if he so desired and the ministry required. The same goal was set for the Church Office and included space for a full-time secretary and workspace for teachers as well as storage and filing space. At the other end of the building, the nursery was doubled in size to meet the growing population of babies! The coatroom was added to facilitate movement in and out of the building keeping in mind the needs of parents and little children as well as the needs of the growing numbers of older members.

 

The congregation also started an AWANA club between Pastors. The Club employed the services of many of the members and grew to 70 plus kids from the Sterling area and several of the neighboring Churches. Pastor Ernie and Gen Schmidt arrived in June 1987. He came from Northland Baptist Bible College and left three years later to take a position on the faculty of Pillsbury Baptist Bible College. While they were at Sterling, the Church rented a home on Panoramic Drive from the Robinsons as a Parsonage.

 

This time SBC was without a Pastor for two years. Ron Kier took most of the Pulpit duties with other visiting preachers coming in as they could schedule them. The congregation did not call an Interim Pastor. Renting a Parsonage had been frustrating enough that a housing committee was empaneled and tasked with finding a suitable Parsonage to purchase. Their mandate was to find a home fairly close that would serve the needs of any Pastor’s family that the Congregation happened to call to Sterling in the future and any out of State guests that they hosted. One of the houses the Committee looked at is the house the Wagers are living in now!

 

The Church voted to purchase the house on Higher Ground Street near Higher Ground Baptist Bible Camp on January 27, 1992. Pastor Robert and Mabel Flatt came to Sterling Baptist in January 1992. They elected to drive up the Alaska Highway from Maine in the dead of winter and Phil Seward was volunteered to go out and help them. His young son, Philip, went with him and, by all accounts, the trip was a memorable one. Lousy weather and breakdowns made the trip longer than planned and they had to offload one U-Haul truck into another on the side of the highway in Canada! Over the course of his six years at Sterling the Church grew numerically and spiritually and some of the leadership of Sterling Baptist Church today came of age, so to speak, under Pastor Flatt. He was a good teacher and administrator. The last three years of his tenure at Sterling were filled with his fight with cancer and recovery. Pastor Flatt left the ministry at Sterling in the spring of 1998 and eventually went back to the Church in Maine that he had left to come to Sterling.

 

The Deacons of Sterling Baptist Church felt a need for some professional help after Pastor Flatt’s leaving and before any new Pastor was called and contacted an outfit called Interpas, which was a group of retired Pastors who had dedicated their retirement years and been trained to assist Churches as Interim Pastors.

 

Pastor Cliff and Pat Owens came for the summer months of 1998. They impressed the Church by having visitors from the community in the very first service that they were at Sterling...and new visitors for each of the next three weeks! He was a great comfort and help to the Deacons and helped the Church decide who they were and which direction to take. Under his leadership, the Church decided to stop the AWANA program because it was stretching them too thin. He assured the people that they’d be all right and gave them a sense of excitement about their Church that they wanted to share with the community. He also suggested that they ought to consider a young Pastor without a lot of experience, and Pastor and Church learn and grow together. He felt that the Church’s experience and position were strong enough to handle the challenges and a young Pastor could benefit from them. He also felt that the Church would enjoy “growing up” a Pastor and benefit from that experience as well. Pastor Owens has made a point to check up on the Church since their time at Sterling and has been helpful to the Deacons and Pastors on a number of occasions. They’ve been back to visit...and fish! He is said to have remarked to his wife that he wished that he were twenty years younger...he’d take the Pastorate at Sterling! While Sterling Baptist was between Pastors this time, they decided to remodel the Auditorium and that project was completed in late 2000.

 

Pastor Lex and Edy DeLong candidated in June of 2000 with three children, Jessica (12), Daniel (10), and Faith (4). After they drove through the mountains and onto the Sterling Flats, Edy was overheard asking Lex, “Where are all the people?” They were called to the ministry at Sterling Baptist from a youth-pastorate in Ohio and arrived that August. The Church held an Ordination Council for Lex DeLong and ordained him to the Gospel Ministry. The DeLong years saw some tough circumstances for Sterling Baptist Church. The Church decided to leave the Alaska Baptist Association and the ministry at Higher Ground Baptist Bible Camp. This was a hard decision because so many of the Members had grown up in the ABA and were heavily involved at the Camp. Sterling Baptist Church got involved in the world famous Zipmart fuel spill and the congregation got to go where most Churches fear to tread in legal issues, litigation issues and lawyers! The over-riding concern in the legal issues was to benefit the neighboring property owners and not themselves specifically, which brought an interesting dynamic to the proceedings. In the winter of ‘05, the basement flooded a couple of times due to a broken well line and they were forced to remodel the basement and kitchen. That remodel was actually long overdue and was completed in mid-2006.

 

The DeLong’s left in June 2007 to take a Church in Glassboro, New Jersey after seven years at Sterling Baptist Church. Tim Weekley was called as Pastor and relocated to Sterling in the Spring of 2008 from Texas. Tim had lived in Sterling and attended Sterling Baptist Church as a young boy until his family moved out of State, so this was somewhat of a homecoming for him! Many of the people still at the Church taught him in Sunday School and AWANA, and helped his mom and dad and brothers through the health issues of his dad so this was somewhat humbling and exciting for the Church as well. SBC held an ordination council for Tim. He and his wife, Julie, were a real asset to Sterling Baptist Church and the ministry grew with new families attending, people getting saved and baptized, discipleship programs, and the AWANA Club was restarted. Tim became very involved with CES as a Chaplain and eventually left the Pastorate to take a full-time position with CES in 2016 after eight years as our Pastor. They have continued to keep in touch with us as they deal with the health issues of their young son and Tim has been back to preach several times.

 

While Sterling Baptist was without a pastor, a young preacher from Ninilchik filled the pulpit on a number of occasions in September, October, November and December of 2016. Andrew Miller credits a dinner that his family had with Stan and Nikki Welles as pivotal to his thinking about Sterling Baptist Church as well as a conversation with Pastor Cliff Owens. The church asked him to officially candidate during the month of January, and then because of a procedural issue, he went ahead and preached for the month of February as well!

 

On February 21st, 2017, at the Annual Meeting, the Congregation voted to call Andrew Miller as Pastor and he, along with his wife Kristy and their three boys relocated to Sterling. They have since added two daughters and another son.

 

Early in 2020, the uncertainty surrounding Covid-19 and the mandates and suggestions for social distancing, forced the church to take a hard look at their programs and schedules. Some long-needed changes were implemented, some new ideas were tried, and the online presence was increased. For most of the summer the church building was closed for services. In the fall the church elected to hold the AWANA program and in-person services pretty much as usual with no junior church and two Sunday School classes, kids and teen/adults. The Church continues to strive to be responsive to the ongoing Covid issues and Community and make changes to the programs and schedules as needed.

 

Our heart is to continue providing an alternative to the culture by preaching Christ, solving problems, and meeting needs. We want the size of our impact to be bigger than the size of our church. Through feast and famine, good times and bad, from the pioneer days to the present, God has consistently kept Sterling Baptist Church on the map so that the World may know there is a God in Sterling.

 

In Sterling as it is in heaven. —Pastor Andrew & Darrell Kincaid 

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