History

Our church family started in April of 1996 in an old vacant schoolhouse eight miles north of Helena by Pastor John and Gloria after they returned from 13 years of missionary work in Japan and Russia. The rent was $5 dollars a week!

The first three years were long and cold, the only facilities were two leaning outhouses thirty feet into the bitterly cold Montana winters. It was the one gas heater in the corner that drew us close together in those days. Some of our original members like Luanne Busaker, Carol Higgins, and Bill and Sandy Hardie are still a vital part of the church today. Like a little house on the prairie, it was a simple but precious beginning. God was blessing, and the church began to grow.

Our backs were literally against the wall when the Hardie ranch provided land for a church on their property. Then in May of 2000 the old Bob’s Valley Market building was donated to us by Bob and Pat Bartmess. By July we raised the $10,000 dollars to move the building to its present location knocking down only two mailboxes in the ten mile journey. The Country magazine did an article on our church titled, “a church on the move in more ways than one”. We were excited…it looked like an ark coming up the road.

By 2002 our congregation had again outgrown our new building again. We were at a place where we could either stay the same or respond to another leap and stretch of faith. We decided arise and make room for growth. So one Sunday after service that July, we circled around the back of our proposed addition, joined hearts and hands and prayed, holding another ground breaking ceremony Montana style with the a D7 cat. We only had enough money for the foundation. We paid as we went. Winter caught us broke and uncoverd…months were spent shoveling snow off our wet floor. These were some discouraging times with our investment weathering before our eyes. All our construction and labor was done by our church family and friends donating time where they could for God’s house. Finally in November we were able to set the rafters during a snowstorm at twenty below. Bit by bit we continued on and then Easter Sunday we celebrated our first service in the new building, while being serenaded by a Meadow Lark.

We are a debt free church today because of the inspiration and sacrifice of many who do not even live in Montana. People like Pastor John’s uncle and mentor, Rev. David Coote, contributed heavily to Last Chance Chapel, inspiring us on by their sacrificial giving and help. Several churches also in the Helena area like the Missionary Alliance church, Hannaford Bible church and the International Chapel gave to our needs to keep us a debt free body of believers.

We are not only looking at plans to take this gospel across the nations, but also across this great state. Three years ago one Easter morning thirty-six of us got up early and drove across town to the community of York to have a church service in the York Community Center. We did that for one year. At the end of that year the Lord provided a pastor for this little church - Brother Bill Bridier. They now have around thirty folks attending. They call themselves Last Chance Chapel # 2. So just as York now has a church in their community, our dream is to do it again, over and over, till we can see a Bible believing Gospel church in every hamlet throughout Montana.