Susan and I grew up sitting on the same pew @ First Baptist Church in Clarksville, Tennessee hearing sermons and sunday school lessons on the importance of sharing God’s love with our neighbors and the nations. We each have had so many people help shape who we are today. For every relationship and every investment, we are grateful. Whether it was long talks with friends during our college years, listening to John Piper sermons, or hearing of the real life missionary courage of the Claytons, God has been using every detail of our lives to prepare our hearts to say yes to His call that has come with undeniable clarity.
The past three years I have had the high privilege of preaching to the people that taught me how to walk with Jesus, at First Baptist Church in Clarksville, TN. A year and a half of that time, Susan and I traveled back and forth from Louisville, KY to Clarksville, TN for me to preach in one of the weekend services. Our first child Jack Thomas was born on Christmas Eve 2006. Six days later Susan and I moved to Clarksville to work full-time as Pastor to Young Families. Jack is loads of fun and is currently obsessed with “mawnmowers.”
In December of 2007 I graduated from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity in Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth followed by my ordination in January at First Baptist. In April we were blown away as we found out we were pregnant with twins. Elliott and Lillie are due December 16th. In the midst of all these exciting times the Lord began to stir in our hearts toward a calling to NYC.
The first thirteen weeks of our marriage was spent in New Brunswick, New Jersey working to help start a church with the North American Mission Board. Susan had been participating in a leadership training program in New York City since January of that year. When I joined her, I worked in Manhattan two days a week with a team from the North American Mission Board in addition to the work we were doing in New Brunswick.
During these days our hearts were gripped with the strategic nature of New York City in God’s global purposes. We heard about:
- the 20+ million people that live in the NY Metro Area,
- the 8.5 million people that live in NYC,
- the 66,000 people that live every square mile in Manhattan,
- the 170+ languages spoken in NYC,
- that 40% of Brooklyn is foreign born.
Not only did we hear and learn of these things, but we experienced them as we lived among these millions that God loves. We were reminded that many of the influencers of the world live in Manhattan. In God’s providence He has built a web going out from New York City to the whole world. Because we, like many of you, are passionately committed to God’s global purposes, these realities about New York City were absolutely stunning to us. The foundation for our call to New York City was laid these first weeks of our marriage.
This March (‘08), I received an invitation to preach in July at The Gallery Church of Manhattan, a Southern Baptist Church plant. This launched a conversation around the idea of us joining the Gallery team with me serving as the primary Teaching Pastor. My resume had not been sent out. We were not looking to leave First Baptist. But God, as He always is, was serving as the chief architect of it all. We spent time praying, fasting, and seeking counsel. I took two prayer and exploration trips and by the end of June it was undeniably clear that God was calling us as church planting missionaries to New York City.
We went through the painful process of sharing this news with our families and our church. Though many are sad, most have been incredibly supportive! We sold one car, still one to go. It’s going to be subways and sidewalks for us! We’ve had the moving sale and we are making final preparations.
We have the great challenge of raising our initial support. Though the church desires to become self sustaining as quickly as possible, over the next 3-5 years we will be dependent upon people like you to support us. We’d be glad to email you a copy of our detailed budget and needs - simply email me @ freddytwyatt(at)gmail(dot)com. To give you a small sample of the cost of living and doing ministry in New York City: we’ll be moving our soon to be family of five (and our cousin for 6 months who will be helping with the babies) into a 750 square foot convertable two bedroom apartment that costs us $2995 a month not including utilities. These costs have kept Southern Baptists from planting churches in NYC for far too long as there was not one SBC church planted in NYC the 10 years before 9/11. You can help us change that reality!
The LORD has given us daily encouragement that we are right in the middle of His will. An example that you will love: Once we settled on our apartment, we were informed that Susan’s Ob/Gyn’s office is in the very same building! Isn’t that amazing!
We need your support! Please let us know if you have any questions or would like a copy of our needs and budget. Rarely does anyone have the opportunity to support one missionary couple that impacts several different nations, but that is exactly what you do when you support us! For specific instructions on how to give see the “support the wyatt’s” page.