A brief history and background of Lighthouse Ministries

Lighthouse Ministry began in 2001 with a simple Backyard Bible School aimed at reaching local children before they faced life’s hardest challenges. What started as a small outreach quickly grew into a vibrant community ministry and, eventually, a church dedicated to sharing God’s love through teaching, service, and connection. Today, Lighthouse continues to shine hope in Abbeville, building faith and relationships that transform lives.

For many years the Mennonite churches here in Abbeville were involved in prison ministry, going into different prisons across the state. On one of these visits one of the prisoners said to one of the volunteers, “It is nice of you to visit us now but where were you before I ended up in here?” This question started some people to thinking, how can we do more to reach people while they are young and before they end up in prison. So in the summer of 2001 Brad & Rachel Stoll decided to step out and try something new. They recruited the young people in their church and went out and started inviting kids in the projects to come to a Bible School in Billy Stoll’s backyard. (Hence the name Backyard Bible School) That first year they had 30- 50 children each night. They did crafts, games, snacks and Bible lessons with them. 

These first years of Bible School started the vision for reaching the children of Abbeville and the desire to do more. One Sunday morning, in the winter of 2002, Brad called together a few men who had expressed interest in reaching out to the community. There were about 6-8 men from several different churches. They prayed and discussed possibilities and it was decided to pursue renting a storefront in the old Bilo/Fred’s building complex as a place to hold Sunday school throughout the year. Several evenings were spent cleaning, painting and preparing the building for Sunday school. The building fit the need perfectly, as it formally had been home to a doctor’s office for dialysis patients. 

As the families involved were still attending other churches, it was decided to have Sunday school early on Sunday mornings so they could still attend their home churches. As the ministry was prayed for and in asking God’s direction, the book, “Whose Child is This”, by Bill Wilson, was passed around and became very helpful in the vision of Sunday school. A lot of how Sunday school was structured came from his ministry in NYC. Several vans were purchased and some were borrowed from local churches and they set out to find kids. The kids were divided into several classes, and there was also a time of singing and a story/lesson. Everyone had a spot to fill and some two or three. The average attendance was from 30-50 children on a Sunday. The buses were out picking up by 8:30 which was early but the kids were eager to come. When summer came, a large tent was rented and Backyard Bible School was held in a large field behind Stoll Trailers. Bible School grew each year and there were volunteers from many of the local churches who would come to help. 

After about two years of meeting for Sunday school, and then going to their own separate churches, the families began to discuss starting their own church to better facilitate the ministry. They put a lot of prayer and thought into this decision. They asked Billy & Barbara Stoll if they would be willing to pastor the church and from that Lighthouse Ministries, as a church, was born. They stayed in the store front and used it for Sunday school and church. In 2009, the possibility of a larger building started being discussed with a gym and a larger space for the kids. Friendship was no longer using their fellowship hall and the opportunity to buy it became an option. So in early 2010 Lighthouse moved from the store front to its present building.