A House Church That Became a Center
The story starts, by the church's own telling, with Pastors Pete and Shirley Valdez leading a Saturday night Bible study in the home of a Home Interiors consultant in Adrian. One of the women in that group, now Deaconess Karin Klingensmith, remembers the night Pete began teaching from John chapter three about being "born again." She had grown up assuming church attendance was enough; that lesson changed everything. Within a few years the gathering had grown enough to rent space, and Elder Anita Torres recalls joining JILM in 1990 "when services were held in personal residences before we obtained our first building."
The mailing address today is PO Box 944, Adrian, MI 49221, and the congregation continues to identify itself as God's Power Unlimited! World Outreach Center, Inc.
What They Believe
The statement of faith reads as a thoroughly Pentecostal confession. Members affirm the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, salvation by confessing Him as Lord and believing in the heart that He died for our sins, the inerrancy of Scripture, and a literal hell and lake of fire for those whose names are not written in the Book of Life.
The church teaches that Jesus Christ is the Chief Cornerstone and that He gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:11-16). Members pursue love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, listing the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:8-11).
Two commitments run through the statement. First, the Great Commission: Mark 16:15 is the verse the church lifts up, and the statement of faith affirms that "these signs shall follow" believers who preach the gospel - casting out devils, speaking in new tongues, laying hands on the sick so they recover. Second, a watching hope: members believe Jesus will soon return for His people and lean on 1 Thessalonians 5:14-24 as a rule of life - "pray without ceasing," "prove all things; hold fast that which is good," "abstain from all appearance of evil."
Praise and Worship
Psalm 150 shapes the worship: "play skillfully with a loud noise," "upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee," "Praise him upon the loud cymbals." John 4:24 sets the tone - "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." The band includes Ray on drums, David on bass, and another David on lead guitar, with Gary rounding out the musicians. Visitors stepping into a service should expect Spirit-led, expressive congregational singing anchored by a small group of instrumentalists.
Elders, Deacons and Deaconesses
The leadership team is led by Pastors Pete and Shirley Valdez, who have mentored the congregation over four decades. Around them serve two deacons, three deaconesses and one elder.
- Dan Caywood - Deacon.
- Jerry Bufford - Deacon.
- Lupe Navaratte - Deaconess. Licensed Minister through Jesus Is Lord Ministries, with a ministry of helps, a prison team calling in 1992, and a deaconess calling in 1999. She interned with the Catherine Cobb Domestic Violence Program and has taught God's Word at Herrick Manor nursing home for more than twenty years, alongside decades of teaching teens, pre-teens and third- and fourth-graders. In 2010 she was called to the mission field in Mexico and the jungles of Peru.
- JoAnn Wallace - Deaconess. Joined JILM on February 14, 1992, after God healed her neck when doctors said she would never work again. She serves on the Board and as Administrative Secretary. She headed up the church prison team for sixteen years, seeing hundreds of incarcerated women come to the Lord, and is described as doing strong work in "Divine Appointments."
- Karin Klingensmith - Deaconess. Her testimony of finding the Valdezes' home Bible study and being taught the new birth is the snapshot of how the church began.
- Anita Torres - Elder. Born and raised in Adrian, member of JILM since 1990. She and her late husband Carlos became elders around 2001. She oversees the food and clothing ministries, helps coordinate church dinners for guest speakers, assists with God's Handmaidens, and helps with the teen class once a month.
Inside the Building: Food, Clothing and the Handmaidens
The ministries that touch Adrian most directly grow out of the same Spirit-filled DNA. Anita Torres oversees the food and clothing ministries; God's Handmaidens is the women's ministry she assists; the teen class meets monthly under her care. The church prison team, once led by Deaconess Wallace for sixteen years, took the gospel into local correctional facilities. Deaconess Navaratte continues to teach weekly at Herrick Manor nursing home, bringing the word of God to the elderly.
A Worldwide Footprint
International Fellowships Ministries is the umbrella under which JILM supports missionaries and ministries on several continents.
The Marquez Family: Missionaries to the Peruvian Amazon
Roger and Rebeca Márquez serve with the Cristina Misionera Alianza Church of Callao among unreached ethnic groups in the Amazonian Ecological Preserve. Roger, a Shipibo man, was rescued from infanticide as an infant, gave his life to Christ at ten, was trained at the Bible Institute of the South American Mission and the Alliance Theological Institute, and has spent decades working with the Association of Evangelical Shipibo Churches. Rebeca is from Lima, met the Lord at sixteen through a song based on Ecclesiastes 12:1, and now serves alongside him. They parent Roger David and have completed a five-month missionary training with Youth With A Mission in Dallas.
From Grave to Glory: Uganda
Pastor Augustine Benjamin Nizeyimana, a survivor of the Rwanda genocide who was a refugee orphan from age six to eighteen, founded "From Grave To Glory - Uganda" and pastors Kingdom and Righteous Life Ministries International in Kampala. He and his wife Jane and daughter Joanah care for refugee orphans and carry a vision for one thousand. Their mission: "To restore a sense of divine Identity, Heritage, Purpose, Potential, and Destiny to every individual."
Sam Stark Ministries
Christopher Glenn Sam Stark is described as a seasoned apostolic pastor with years of congregational leadership, church planting and development. He and his wife Lizell, a psalmist who has written over a hundred songs, flow together in the gifts of the Holy Spirit with strong prophetic word. The Stark family's CD "Awesome God" includes tracks like "New Season," "Waymaker" and "Revelation Song."
Haiti and Tanzania
The church also lists partnerships with Haiti Christian Family Ministries and a Tanzania mission.
Reaching Out, Reaching In
The church frames its life around a single verse: Mark 16:15 - "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." That verse is both the church's name and its marching order. What happens inside the building - Spirit-led worship, the exercise of the gifts, the laying on of hands for the sick - is meant to flow outward into Adrian, into Peru and Uganda and Haiti and Tanzania, and into the lives of the broken and forgotten right next door.