San Francisco Sightseeing Articles

Paul Crites and Paul Fletcher are two of the three domestic missionaries along with Wes Woodell - who work with Minister Richard Blythe at the Lake Merced Church of Christ.

Crites, Fletcher and Woodell all attended the Center for Advanced Ministry Training at Harding University in Searcy, Ark.

In separate interviews, the two "Pauls" visited with The Christian Chronicle about their ministry in San Francisco.

Paul Fletcher: First and foremost, we believe God has been the one who has opened the doors every step of the way to bring us to this point in the work here. I first became aware of the opportunity in 2004 while I was attending the Harding School of Biblical Studies. My dear friend and classmate Paul "Bull" Crites had been approached by Marvin Crowson, director of Outreach America, who had let him know about the Lake Merced Church of Christ in San Francisco, Calif. We shared the news with several others in the HSBS program and began forming a team. I remember telling Wes Woodell about it for the first time at a HSBS function. Along with Marvin Crowson, several other of our dear friends and classmates - Ryan Lloyd, Alex Wilson, Maggie Hlasta and Kyle Clarke - contributed greatly to the planning of this mission effort. Today, three of those families are now serving here. Paul Crites, now married to his wonderful wife Noemi, came to San Francisco Tour in July 2006. My wife, Dory, and I and our two children, Caleb and Shiloh, came out the following month in August 2006. Wes and Airiel Woodell and their two children, Naomi and Conrad, arrived in December 2008.

The church was apparently searching for a team of domestic missionaries to come and help revive efforts in order to grow. I knew this was something I wanted to be a part of, a team who could help proclaim the good news of Jesus to one of our well-known, big cities in the U.S. I really believe we need to be sharing the good news with the same passion in the U.S. as we do overseas, not taking anything away from the latter. Besides that, San Francisco is one of our cities in the U.S. where the world has literally come to us. But as important as that is, this mission included more than that.

It was and still is a mission to show that we care about churches in the Church of Christ who have been "fighting the good fight" for a long time. These churches have been and are being brought along, by the grace of God, over the years by some of God's finest sons and daughters, but for one reason or another have come to a place where they don't have the able workers or direction they once did to make a strong effort to reach out with the mission of Christ in a lasting way within their communities.

Here was an opportunity, as Jesus entrusted to Peter, to "feed my sheep" and to also "go into the entire world and preach the gospel." It's the biblical passion we all have for those of us who've given our lives to Christ and service in His Kingdom, and it was that passion that brought us to do the work here in San Francisco. I believe that now, more than ever, this work has proved to be worth it all as we see our love growing for one another, the embrace of the new people God sends our way and the dreams of many, past and present, taking shape. Praise God!