Richie & Missy Orrick
Our Call to Wales:
In December 2000, my wife and I moved to St. Petersburg, Florida. We began attending Park Street Baptist Church. After about six months, we felt led to get more involved. We volunteered to serve in the church’s visitation program. On September 29, 2001, while out making my very first visit with my pastor, Dennis Jennings, I was gloriously saved!
Growing up in West Virgina, Missy attended a Methodist Church. At a young age she was sprinkled and grew up believing in Jesus. However, it wasn’t until she started attending Park Street Baptist Church in St Peterburg, Florida in 2001 that Missy became assured of her salvation and was scripturally baptized. Missy is forever thankful for a church that clearly presented the Gospel.
We soon surrendered to be missionaries after being impacted by a missions trip to the United Kingdom, a missions conference, and guest missionary speakers. In the summer of 2002, we moved to Springfield, Missouri and enrolled at Baptist Bible College. In 2004 God made it possible for us to go on our second missions trip to the U.K. After graduating from BBC in May of 2005, we were brought on staff as Missionary Interns at Cherry Street Baptist Church, Springfield, Missouri, under Senior Pastor Ken Gillming. In 2008 we were approved as BBFI Career Missionaries to the country of Wales. While serving in Wales, we worked alongside two veteran missionary families, serving in numerous areas of ministry. We were blessed to see many people come to Christ.
In 2012 we sensed God directing us back to the United States. Though we could not fully understand all that God was doing, we knew He wanted us to return home. After a time of intense prayer and counsel, we followed God’s lead. Once we returned, we were asked to be on staff at our Sending Church, Cherry Street Baptist Church under the leadership of Pastor Dennis Jennings. While on staff at CSBC, God allowed us to be involved in a multitude of ministries where we have leanred so much about leadership and administration. During our time there, God also made it clear that He still had plans for us to be missionaires and He wanted us to return to Wales. It’s our goal to take all that we learned from our first opportunity to serve in Wales as well as all God has taught us during these past four years at CSBC and return to the country God has called us to.
Our Country
Where Are We Going?
- Post-Christian Country of Wales
- Over 3 million people
- Churches are closing at an alarming rate
- 77% of the population claim no religion at all
- Islam is the fastest growing religion
What Is Our Vision?
- Win the Welsh to Christ
- Baptize and disciple believers
- Train nationals to start self-governing, self-supporting, self-propagating, independent, local Baptist churches
What Is Our Plan?
- Engage national pastors and Welsh churches
- Assess areas in urgent need
- Prayerfully consider location to start out ministry
- Revive closing churches and plant new churches
Letter Update:
We want to open this month’s letter in praise as we were able to make our way to the USA. Thank you so very much for your prayers regarding our travels. But, before we get into all the Lord has allowed us to be a part of since arriving back in the States, we have several items to share that took place before we left Wales. And one of those was our annual ladies retreat where over 10 of our ladies were able to get away together for several days and be strengthened and encouraged through the teaching of God’s Word.
Another blessing before we left involved a community wide family fund day that the local town council invited our church to be a part of. The theme was “USA for the Day,” and so our church provided several free inflatables to enjoy along with an assortment of American candies and American flag face paint. The response was overwhelming as hundreds of church invitations were given out and many Gospel conversations were had. The very next day, we were so encouraged to have several visitors to our church services as a direct result of our outreach.
Speaking of that Sunday, we are also rejoicing as a young man named Jake, who we have been witnessing to for the past few years and praying for faithfully, decided to give his life to Jesus!
One last item of praise to share before we departed for the USA involved the Visa paperwork of the Adams’ family. Thus far, four of their five Visas have been granted. Please pray for their daughter, Addison’s, Visa as there was a system failure that has made it necessary for her application to be resubmitted and is thus taking longer than the others to be processed.
Shifting our attention now to our time in USA, we have hit the ground running with the renewal of our Missouri Driver’s License as well as reporting to a couple of supporting churches, visiting the new BBFI Missions office, and making the trip to wild and wonderful West Virginia to see Missy’s family. We are rejoicing in how the Lord has allowed us to be a part of His glorious Gospel work even while we are stateside. In the first church we reported to, a young man named Zach came forward at the end of the service to accept Christ as his Saviour! And after arriving in West Virginia, while in the hospital room of Missy’s mom, we were blessed to pray with Missy’s brother Jimmy, who received assurance of his salvation. The very next Sunday Richie was given the privilege of baptizing him at a supporting church that he has been attending! And to cap off all this amazing news, we also want to give God the glory for providing the needed funds to pay off our car loan and an additional camp scholarship! Praise the Lord!
As we close our this letter we would ask that you please continue to pray Missy’s mom as her health has been an up and down battle for some time now. We were able to talk with her doctors and they are going to be sending a nurse to here home weekly to help with her care. Please also pray for Missy’s health as she has been dealing with her own challenges for the past couple of years and has had to battle through severe pain these past several days.
Richie, Missy, Briton, and Isabella
If you would like to stay updated with the Orrick family or feel led to give to help them on their journey, you can give your donations to Hickory Ridge Baptist Church. You can also stay connected with the Orrick family through their website. Click the button below.