By Kenneth Martin

When We Moved To Missouri From California, October 9, 1984

God sent Kenneth and Shirley Martin and 3 sons to live in Missouri. This is our Mission Field. God told me the land there is yours, I give it to you to minister in. Although we did not go to another country, God sent me and my wife to Missouri to live. We didn't have any family here or friends, but this is where God wanted us to live.

When we were getting ready to leave California, we were debt free. But the move to Missouri and getting started left us with empty pockets, and many debts, plastic money problems.

Two months after arriving here on our mission field December 24, 1984, I watched my car burn just one mile from my 23 acre farm house I had bought on payments. We were about 8 miles from Nevada, Missouri.

I removed my Tools and Christmas presents from the trunk just in time, and set them on the road beside me where I watched my car burn. My dad had just gave us that car about 6 months or so earlier before he Died. I didn't have insurance to replace my car.

Well that left me with an old 1968 pickup with one front seat, wasn't any back seats in the truck. So 5 of us traveled around in that old truck all in the front seat, packed in like sardines.

I had come here expecting the red carpet to be rolled out, you know. Everybody ready to line up because I had come to town. It wasn't that nice.

I looked around but didn't seem to be a church needing a pastor that was for me. A building just 3 miles from our farm I noticed had a upside down star on it, and I heard Neo Nazis were just 30 miles north. I learned the man I bought the farm from, had conned and deceived me, because we had no city water, our house was as high as the water tower.

I had to install a tank and well pump and electricity to get city water to my house. I thank God for the worker that worked for the water company that help me get water to my house.

I had a bee hive that shared my house. They lived in the back wall of the house and swarmed the walk to the small basement. I never got stung by them although I walked through them all the time. We seen them swarm two different springs before we moved here to Carl Junction, Missouri by Joplin. We are about 40 miles south of the 23 acre farm now, in a house in town. We moved here where I live now, 1986.

There was plumbing in the house and to the garage, milk barn, and hay barn. After I got water pressure working I discovered the pressure wouldn't hold. I later discovered a weather faucet was broke off below ground up at the hay barn.

We tried raising goats for goat milk. Milk was good as long as the goats didn't eat the wrong green leaves. We raise chickens, and I guess what's called carpenter bees and bumble bees because we had plenty of them, not to mention wasps. Snakes would come around sometime, and other critters, Deer, Possum, Coyotes, Wolves, Rabbits, Etc.  But one day a little cute beagle dog showed up at our farm. We kept the little stray (Princess) for the next 14 years I guess, until she died.

I took her hunting back then, she just tickled me. She would run around in the snow barking until she would find a rabbit, and start yipping. I though that was the cutest thing I had ever seen.

The Beagle became my youngest son's dog, and he has 3 children of his own now. The two older boys got two pure blood, red bone coon hounds, and where they nice looking dogs, and gentle. They looked just like the one's on the movie "Where The Red Fern Grows", and my boys called them "Duke" and "Dan". Those dogs hunted coons all by their self all night sometimes, because me or my sons weren't coon hunters. I sure enjoyed them being outside at night when the wolves or coyotes were doing all their howling though. When we moved here to Carl Junction I had to give the two coon dogs away. They howled to much and I kept them in a pen after we moved here. I gave them to the president of the coon dog association here in south west corner of Missouri. I always felt like they really got a nice home, he said he would take good care of our dogs. I hated to give my oldest two sons dogs away but I had no choice. The two oldest boys now have one child each.

I had me the best time of my life with my garden. I have never had a garden before or since. I planted one year a garden about 100 feet by 50 feet. I thought that was the grandest thing to go pick all that food without it being rung up at a cash register. My wife made some of the best home grown pumpkin pies you would not believe.

You see I was a city boy and always have been except this short time I was farm boy.

My younger brother in California would kid me and tell me I was like the green acres show. I think we were closer to the Brady Bunch reversed, with her 3 sons and my 3 daughters.

This is so funny, I have to tell you about this. My oldest son was raising him a red colored pig, I don't remember what you call them. But a veterinarian had to come out to our farm for some reason. Well when he got there he said he had to get in the pen to give the pig a shot or something. He told me to get in there with the pig to hold him or something.

I looked at the man and informed him I don't get in that pen, I didn't trust that stupid pig. Every time you start to get in the pen he starts squealing loud. the veterinarian said, well if you won't get in the pen, I sure won't get in there either then.

I really don't remember what happened about that, but I don't trust animals a whole lot, many dogs have liked to bite me over the years.

The pig has never done anything wrong, but it was my sons project I never messed with the pig, and I have never been around Pigs or farm animals in my life except to just see them at circuses or fairs.

Many things happened I enjoyed on my short time I lived on the farm. But I'm still a city boy, I'm not to good with animals, or vegetation for that matter.

When we moved here and we finally got the water working, it tasted bad, and smelt bad kind of like rotten eggs. People around there some we knew did drink it. I told my wife and kids were going to drink the water. After about 2 weeks of drinking that water, I thought I probably had turned green and was sick.

I said we need to find some drinking water. We started drinking Pepsi, Coke, bottled water, milk, anything but that rotten drinking water from the city tower.

Some friends (Sue and Jerry) from Chelsea, Oklahoma use to hall 20 gallons of drinking water to use in used gallon milk cartons. Then we finally bought 4, 5 gallon plastic water cans, and hauled water from Fort Scott, Kansas. We then had drinking water, but we traveled a lot from our farm to get it.

I remember later on in years after that, I heard Kenneth Copeland on one of his programs tell everybody. Now just because God sends you on a work of some kind (or how ever he worded it) don't go charging up everything because God sent you.

Well, I wish I had heard that sooner and done what he said, because I had charged and borrowed everything up I could, because I was on a mission for God.

I just knew God would pay me out of all that. Well he didn't,  I left there and moved here and filed a chapter 13 or something to survive.

I learned Kenneth Copeland's Statement, I'll get the cash for those Mission's of God's from now on. Or at least a commitment.

I started my First Radio Broadcast here on this Farm, Broke and not knowing what I was really suppose to do with our ministry, God had sent me to do. You see I didn't get any details From God on what I was suppose to do, God just sent me here to Live. I guess if nothing else was there, I have tried to live the best example of a Christian Life I could, so people could read me as their Bible.

You know sometimes the Life of The Missionary is just people watching how you live and how you enjoy life Itself. I realized that my presence here was very important, because this is where God wanted us to live. Maybe not because of the Pastor of a certain Church even. I was the Pastor of a Church for a while here also, and I believe I will again soon.

We Arrived In Missouri October 9, 1984 (My Wife's Birthday)

Our Car Burned December 24, 1984

Car Sitting In Wrecking Yard After Towed Away