Chapter 14 from “Fully Equipped: Having What It Takes to Give Your All”
Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity. Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. – Philippians 4:15-16
Following the New Testament pattern
God had directed our family to serve as missionaries in Nepal! Now that we had a destination, we had a lot of work ahead of us and many decisions to make in preparation for the move. Our home church would be Bethel Baptist Church of Lake Placid (now Highlands Baptist Church) where I had previously pastored. I considered it to be consistent with the Biblical pattern as Paul and Barnabas were sent from Antioch, a church they both ministered in before going on their missionary journeys. Plus, we could be a help financially to them with our tithes and offerings.
Choosing a mission board
Our home church proved to be a great blessing to us by supporting us with faithful prayer, love, and meeting our financial needs. They even bought new tires for our family van before we moved out to Texas for advanced missionary training at Baptist Bible Translator’s Institute. Another big decision was which mission board we would partner with. I had learned about Word for the World Baptist Ministries and was impressed by their position on the local church. They specialize in aiding missionaries and assisting churches in handling finances. They don’t even require us to give the office a penny, as they also operate by faith and support of others. They have a good board of pastors and evangelists, and there are many Godly veteran missionaries available who were a help to us.
Missionary “pre-field” ministry
We began the process of ordering prayer cards, compiling footage to record our presentation DVD, and order our table materials for deputation. My wife Jamie designed all our literature and did a great job on our video. I began making phone calls and scheduling churches to present our work in. Since we had no house to go back to after we finished our schooling in Texas, there was great motivation to keep a full schedule.
At our graduation from Baptist Bible Translator’s Institute in May of 2012, we had a guest speaker from Waco, Texas. The pastor told me his son had wanted to be a missionary to the Tibetans in Nepal since he was a young teenager. We definitely had some common ground right off! (His son is currently working in Asia!)
We soon were packing up to hit the road. Our first meeting was in Ohio with our friends the Gee family. While sitting on the their front porch overlooking Main Street, I witnessed a hit and run. A car had hit the poor thing, killing it on impact as he was running across the road. Then a thought hit me, “That dead squirrel is fresh meat!” The skills acquired at BBTI during Jungle Week came in handy. Now, I got to try them out with this squirrel. I took a dull knife and sliced it down the belly and basically ripped the skin off its back. I took the four meaty legs and seasoned it before firing up the BBQ grill. That night, we ate roasted squirrel along with the cuisine our friends had prepared.
Missionary Candidate School
In June of 2012, we attended the Candidate School with Word for the World Baptist Ministries in Rossville, Georgia. What a time of encouragement it was to hear lots of good preaching and hear from preachers and veteran missionaries. The meetings began on Monday morning and ended on Friday afternoon. Morning and evening we had services with the orientation during the afternoons. We were given a lot of helpful information about deputation and preparation for the field; along with correspondence and handling of funds. Brother Rudy Stembridge proved to be a huge help with his assistance in the office. Thursday morning, my wife and I were questioned by the board of directors. Their only concern was that we were not raising enough monthly support and recommended that we increase it so we have a buffer should some churches come to the place where they are not able to support us. We were grateful to be welcomed into the missionary family!
God provides unexpectedly
Deputation was a tremendous blessing and encouragement to us. We travelled thousands of miles to hundreds of churches seeking to raise awareness of the need to reach the Tibetan people. Many churches and families committed to partner with us to pray faithfully and give monthly so we could live overseas and preach the Gospel of Christ.
God took wonderful care of us! One time while traveling to Houston, Texas for a meeting on a Sunday night, we stopped in a church near San Antonio for their morning service. We had almost no money at the time. On the way, we passed a car where a couple young ladies were on the side of the road trying to change their flat tire. We stopped and helped them and they insisted that we take $20 for helping them! When we finally arrived at the church, we were late. Sunday school was already taking place, so our family just waited in the foyer. The pastor happened to come by and I introduced myself to him. He told me that he had no voice that morning and asked if I would preach the morning message! Gladly I accepted, and had the privilege to preach to about 300 people. Afterward, I was given a check for $500! God would take care of us.
You can’t out-give God
I have always been a believer in giving to missions ourselves. One mission conference we were at was in Ohio. Brother Robbie Morrison preached about giving a birthday gift to Jesus, as Christmas was nearing. I decided to give $500 to the missionary family we would be serving with in Nepal. Little did I know, but God would bless that and double it in return!
Shortly after that took place we were in Georgia. One place we loved to visit, as we traveled the country, was Goodwill stores! We were constantly looking for clothes that we could pack and take to the field with us. One Goodwill in Atlanta, Georgia had a basketball nicely encased in a plastic stand and was half price. It had the autographs of the Hawks basketball team. I knew it was worth around $300. I paid only $50 because it was on sale! I figured I could resell it. We went to visit my wife’s Uncle Steve who is in the Atlanta area and a huge sports’ memorabilia collector. I wanted to ask him about how to get it authenticated for reselling. He asked to look at it and said he wanted a neat gift to give his sons for Christmas. He pulled out ten $100 bills and asked if that was enough! I was dumbfounded but happy to sell!
Children can get involved too
The children at a church in Ohio had collected a love offering and gave us about $260! I was overwhelmed, and knew we had to do something special with the children’s money. So I called our mission board and informed them we needed to start a fund with money given by kids to reach Tibetan kids. The project was called “Hope for the Himalayas”. We used the funds to buy flannel graph for teaching. We would use the funds also for needed outreach projects and Gospel literature.
But there is another story that must be told here. A few months earlier, I had met a nine-year old boy named Cody in Virginia. Cody took a great interest in our family and ministry to Nepal. He put our prayer card in his top drawer and has never forgotten us. In fact, he supported us with a dollar each month and increased that to $5 a month! When we received the first dollar, I knew God had something special in mind. I was reminded of the widow’s mite which Christ recognized as a truly sacrificial offering. I believe his dollar was a seed of faith that God blessed and multiplied. We had at least $20,000 donated to the Hope for the Himalayas fund over the years, especially after the big earthquake in 2015. Watch below as I speak with Cody about giving to missions!
A child shall lead them
But this wasn’t the end of what God was doing in Cody’s life. A few months after he started supporting us, he called and told me that he had surrendered his life to serve God. He preached in a Master’s Club competition on “Why we should support missions”. He came in first place and got to preach the message to his church. Then he approached his pastor and asked if their church was already supporting the Knickerbocker family. The pastor told him “No.” Cody told him that he really thought they should. Well a few months passed and the pastor pulled Cody aside and informed him that the deacons had met and took our family on for monthly support! Little is much when God is in it! Don’t ever underestimate what God will do through you. As Jesus said, “Be it unto you, according to thy faith.
Cody is graduating from Pensacola Christian College in May, 2024 and has a heart to serve as an assistant pastor and possibly pastor a Spanish-speaking church one day! What a blessing to see God use young people.
My wife’s influence
After supporting our family for several years, one pastor told me that the reason their church took us on for support was because of my wife’s testimony! She was so candid and heartfelt, and it really touched his heart.
God really used my wife to help another couple while we were at a mission’s conference in Florida. After the service, I spoke with a young man who believed God wanted him in evangelism. His father was an evangelist and he was struggling with the call. His wife was actually having difficulty with surrender. My wife’s testimony that night greatly helped her. A few months later, we were at a mission’s conference in New York and this young man’s dad happened to be the main speaker. He told us that his son had called him into evangelism that night. He and his wife had sat in the car crying, talking about the possibility of making a move into evangelism. That summer, they left to assist a college traveling group!
While we were up North, the missionary family in Nepal that we were friends with had come to America on furlough. We got to meet up with them in New York. Since I had gone on our survey trip to Nepal alone, the rest of my family had yet to meet them. We got to spend Memorial Day weekend together. Jamie and *Shirley hit it off great together! Our kids are similar ages and we all enjoyed good fellowship.
Helping one another
A few months later, both of our families were scheduled to be in Texas. Since we were near them, we visited with John and Shirley at a conference they were in. The pastor let us stay at his house and let us set up our display table at their church. They took both of our families on for monthly support! The following week, we were scheduled to be in another mission conference in Waco, Texas. John and Shirley told us their schedule was open. A family had an extra room for them to stay in and the pastor had Brother John present his work and preach too! We were all taken on for support there! What fun it is to be able to help one another.
In February of 2013, my wife had the opportunity to visit Nepal with my cousin Janelle. The missionary family had just returned to the field and my wife wanted to go see the country. Jamie prayed for $1,000 tickets and found them nearly that price! She was able to price household items and know what to pack from a mother’s perspective. Meanwhile, I was able to keep up with meetings in Texas!
Unforeseen trials
Deputation definitely came with its challenges. Not having a consistent schedule and a permanent house can be a strain on the family. In March of 2013, we were in about thirty meetings, and travelled from Texas to New York, on to Florida, and ended up in Michigan! We also had a miscarriage during this month of March Madness! Another tough month was “Suicide September” of the same year, when we were in a different state each of the five Sundays. My wife got sick and we found out we had another miscarriage. But this time she was sixteen weeks along and the baby had been dead for nearly half that time. But we found that God’s grace is sufficient no matter what we go through!
Deputation is ministry. It is what you make it. If you go to a church with the mindset to encourage people and the pastor, it will be quite rewarding. We got to be involved with Vacation Bible Schools, parades, door-knocking, teaching classes, singing, and preaching as needed. We were privileged to meet some of the greatest servants of the Lord and see God’s work in so many places around the United States.
Five supporters from one conference
We were blessed in many ways financially. Another church in Ohio had us in for a mission’s conference. They had a guest preacher from North Carolina. We ended up leaving with five new monthly supporters from the one conference! Not only did the church commit to support us, but the guest preacher invited us to come to his church and another sister church of their in North Carolina, which resulted in two more supporting churches. Also, another missionary family who was in the conference started supporting our ministry! While we were at the church, we went door-knocking for another new church plant in the area. That church had us return to present our work and also took us on for support! In fact, while we were door-knocking for that church, we met a Christian who was so interested in our ministry, they gave us a $100 to help!
So many precious families took us into their homes, and we made dear friends who would faithfully hold the rope in prayer for us over the next several years. We made friends with the Repaskeys at Southside Baptist Church in Tampa, Florida (currently our home church). Debby is an E.R. doctor and she was a life line for us while we were in Nepal. Many times we would contact her when we had questions about someone who was sick or injured.
I am grateful for all the people we were able to meet and challenge regarding the need for missions. Deputation is also referred to as “pre-field ministry” and certainly was a blessing to us. After about two years of traveling to churches from the east coast to mid-west (and Alaska), we were ready to pack our suitcases and make the move to Nepal. My wife especially looked forward to the day she could settle in her own house!
*For security purposes, I have used a pseudonym for our missionary friends John and Shirley.
About the author:
Luke graduated from Crown College of the Bible in 2003. He married Jamie in July of 2006. God has blessed them with five children. Together they had the privilege of serving in the pastorate of a Baptist Church in Florida from 2007-2011.
In August of 2011, our family began our journey to serve the Lord as labourers among Unreached People Groups in Asia. We prepared ourselves at Baptist Bible Translator’s Institute in Bowie, Texas. During that time, God directed our path to work among the Tibetan people in the country of Nepal.
In February of 2014, we moved to Kathmandu, Nepal and experienced God’s work of grace and protection upon our family. We had the privilege to serve at the Crown Nepal Bible College. Teaching classes and preaching at youth conferences was a great opportunity for our family. We also were able to assist in outreaches to villages of the Tamang and Gurung people.
In 2021, we moved to Tampa, Florida. We currently are serving in our home church Southside Baptist Church and teach in the Christian Academy. Luke continues his writing ministry (www.pilgrimoftruth.com) and video messages on his YouTube channel (Pilgrim of Truth). His goal is to aid believers in making Christ known to the world. He continues to seek to assist churches in America. His heart’s desire is to help meet the needs of the unreached people groups in the world.
You may read the previous chapters from Fully Equipped: Having What it Takes to Give Your All here.
