Hi, my name is Pastor Roger Betterley and I would like to take a moment and share a little about myself and how it all started.
This wonderful journey began in January of 1991 at the age of 22, when the Lord saved me and miraculously delivered me from a seven year drug addiction. This new life all started at the United Pentecostal Church of Lewisburg Pennsylvania. I say new life, because it was there that God began to put my life back together like the pieces of a puzzle. He started with my broken marriage that was about to end in divorce, then He reached back into my past healing the scars of a broken home and abuse I suffered as a child.
I owed every thing to my God and savior Jesus Christ, so I began to ask Him how I could ever repay him for a new chance at life. I was so willing to do anything my God would ask! It wasn't long that He began to respond to my offer, asking me to preach his gospel! For the next seven years my family and I served our home church at Lewisburg in various capacities. We taught Sunday school, Youth Ministries, drug and alcohol counseling, as well as preaching from time to time. We remained faithful to God and our Pastor Laverne Smith until God would give us our next instructions, PROJECT WILLIAMSPORT!
It began in early 1998; the best way to describe it was like a restlessness in my spirit as if God was challenging me to step out of the boat. I felt unfulfilled in my present area of ministry which led to a time of prayer and fasting. I knew it was the same call of God that I had felt before, but to a deeper devotion and commitment. It wasnt long untill I felt that God had answered my prayers by giving me new direction, but with this came a heavy sense of responsibility. After all, things seemed pretty good the way they were. At this time in life all three of my children attended school and had made friends. We lived in a decent neighborhood and attended an excellent church. What more could we want?
With the weight of the decision now on my shoulders, I told the Lord, if this is your Will, speak the same thing to my wife, because at this point I wouldnt dare even speak the words out of fear and insecurity. Therefore, I told no one. This fresh vision for my future started to consume my every thought. I went to bed and woke up thinking of all the possibilities, until one day I couldnt take it any more. I left work early to go home and tell my wife before I exploded from trying to keep it in. We went out to lunch; I can almost picture it like it was yesterday! Just before we started to eat, I looked at her and said, Hon, what if I told you God was calling us to start a church. Her response still echos in my mind, where, at Williamsport? That was exactly the same thing God had spoken to me. He had truly answered my prayers by giving my wife the same vision.
The next step to confirm the will of God was to meet with my Pastor, Rev. Laverne Smith and seek his blessing on our lives. He not only gave his blessing, but he also agreed to help our efforts. This is when we became a daughter work of the United Pentecostal Church of Lewisburg, PA. Little did I know the first time that I went to Williamsport in 1988, to buy drugs, that the Lord would save and deliver me from my addiction, then send me back to that city to be a light!
After several months of planning, walking the streets in prayer and knocking doors, we held our first service at the Genetti Hotel November 9th, 1998, with eight in attendance. By the summer of 2002, after three and a half long years holding services in a rented hotel meeting room. We purchased the building in which we still reside. Its been almost ten years since our first service, but we are just as sure of Gods calling as we were then. God is still blessing our response by adding to the church and his kingdom on a regular basis. Now our prayer and desire is to see you there this Sunday to worship with us!
