Our Story

One By One Ministries Incorporated started one day when Elijah and I (Courtney) were sitting together and talking in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) about Elijah's village Miramba on the coast of Lake Kivu. Elijah had been talking to me about his family and the poor conditions of the economy, the society, and the spirituality in the village where he grew up. I, having been there before, felt a strong pull from the Lord to start a work in the community and asked Elijah more about what we could do.

Our first vision was to start a business for the community that gave them the opportunity to make money by selling coffee internationally. Shortly after this idea we flew to the USA to attend my brother's wedding, stay for a month, then fly back to the DRC with the hopeful knowledge on how to start exporting coffee to the States. While we were in the States however we started talking to friends in the coffee industry trying to gain wisdom and we soon realized that coffee was not the direction the Lord wanted us to go in as it would cause a lot of conflict in the village and most likely end with people dying due to the controlled and corrupt market there. So back to the drawing board we went!

Now pause for a moment while I take you back to when I first arrived in the USA after having spent six months in Congo. I was sitting with the Lord processing about ministry in the DRC and the Lord reminded me of a song he used to sing over me after the very first time I had gone to Africa, he sang, "Come, come, come, to the Garden." Then suddenly the Lord changed the song, "One by one, to the Garden." He spoke to me reminding me that he wants every individual person to come to know him not just the multitudes. So that night I sent Elijah a message saying, "If we ever get there I think the Lord wants our ministry to be called One By One Ministries." As we continued on our journey to find what the Lord wanted for Miramba we felt certain that He was leading us to become an official nonprofit organization. One weekend Elijah and I were driving to a familiy-firends lake house and were talking about what we felt passionate about within ministry. I said, "Rasing up the next generation." Elijah said, "Teaching people about God." Then our early conversations about ministry popped into my mind and I said, "Elijah, how far away is the closest school in the village?" He answered saying, " About an hour on foot in each direction." Remembering some of the things Elijah had told me about that school I suddenly felt very passionate when I asked, "what if we build a school?"

"That would be amazing!" Elijah answered. So, we continued driving on to the lake house feeling very excited talking more about the village and what we needed to become an official nonprofit. We arrived at the lake house and went around to each room testing the beds, and seeing which view we liked best. We decided on the one overlooking the lake and moved our stuff into the room then I looked down at the coffee table and what did I see but a book titled, "One By One!" I turned to Elijah mouth open in complete shock! Out of the five rooms we could have chosen the Lord already knew and had set it up perfectly for us! In that moment the inspiration of the Holy Spirit came upon me. I grabbed our laptop and went to the couch and wrote out our mission statement within a matter of minutes. This is what the Lord wanted!

Three months later we had our Nonprofit, One By One Ministries inc.