Once a quiet community in the far west of North Dakota, Watford City is undergoing some major changes with the oil boom in full swing. Now the sound of jake brakes, double clutching, and trucks on the roll is getting to be a familiar sound. A recent 50 mile drive to Williston showed a count of 140 semi trucks hauling everything from water to crude oil, from drilling equipment to oil field supplies, and even a couple of grocery and Walmart trucks added to the mix.

Housing is at a premium for the influx of oil field workers. It has driven up the local real estate market, motels are booked solid and workers are parking campers, cars, vans, and tents wherever they can find a place to call home. While living this way can work in the summer months, it will have drawbacks when the cold weather hits. Still, there are jobs and money to be made here. And with the monetary struggles in the rest of the country, people are flocking here with a gold rush mentality to make hay while the sun shines.

In this setting we decided to start a church. We began in the summer of 2009 under the leadership of Pastor Burton Bundy. A city-wide informational meeting was held and shortly thereafter it was decided to start services on September 20.

But things looked bleak when, in early September, Pastor Bundy became ill. Without his leadership, things were at a standstill. Just over a week before the scheduled first service, our core group of twelve met to decide what to do. A vote was taken. The decision was to forge ahead as we all felt it was God's will and his timing. At that same meeting it was decided to name the effort "Living Faith."

And "living faith" is what it is taken over the past year as we have developed into a congregation. That development has involved incorporation, a constitution, determining a charter membership (28 communicant and 14 non-communicant members), and election of officers (secretary/treasurer, elders, and trustees). But most importantly it has been a year of developing a Christian bond with each other.

A real blessing for the group has been the fellowship times that we have had at different homes after worship on Sunday. We are on a time allowance at the First Presbyterian Church with their service following ours, so we have to leave fairly quickly. These times at members' homes have allowed us to get to know each other, bless each other and grow as a group. We have also entered the community with a Christmas food drive, visitation at the hospital and filling the pulpit at the Good Shepherd Home.

Living Faith is now in the process of searching for a pastor. There are clouds of doubt as we anticipate the costs, but we feel that it is time. For the effort is to go forward and grow, we need a leader. If we are to become a viable part of the community and serve these people we need to put a complete working church in place now. Salary and housing of a pastor may look like a large problem to us, but it is small to the God we serve.

Many people here are hungering for fellowship and friendship and we hope to provide that as we share Jesus Christ here. It is a wide open mission field and the "fields are white unto harvest."

We have started a confirmation class with two young men. We are currently working on a children's church and will have another weekly Bible study starting this fall. There have been three baptisms. While we have some laypeople able to fill the pulpit, we are so thankful to the CLB churches in Williston, ND and Sidney, MT for helping us.
We don't know "what the future holds, but we know who holds the future" and are
depending on him to uplift us as we strive, by God's grace, to put this work in place.

Dan Bundy is a founding member and elder of Living Faith Church in Watford City, ND.