Pastor Tracy & Sis. Amy Zimmerman
Sis. Amy Zimmerman
Sis. Amy was born in Salem, Illinois on September 28, 1968 to Delbert “Cotton” and Arvilla Wehrle from Vandalia. Amy and her family resided and lived in Vandalia where both her dad and mom were involved in many private businesses.
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Shortly after Sis. Amy turned six, in November 1974, her mother suddenly passed away and Amy’s world was turned completely upside down. Her dad, now finding himself a single parent of a 13 and a 6 year-old daughters was walking in territory that he never dreamed nor was familiar with. In 1980, Sis. Amy was baptized in water and it also received the baptism of the Holy Spirit in her life and God began to do a lifetime process in Amy’s life.
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With struggles of early adolescence and the teenage years, and desiring more of a walk with the Lord in her life, Amy moved to Magnolia, Texas with her brother Steve and his family to begin building that relationship with the Lord that she had desired for the past several years
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In May 1986, upon graduating from high school in Magnolia, Texas, Amy then enrolled in Texas Bible College and began a deeper study of the Word of God in August 1986. Meeting Pastor Tracy in college, the Lord began to put together the team and the vision of which we all sit in today.
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God has blessed Pastor & Sis. Amy with four children Megan, Mitchell, Marcus and Macy. Sis. Amy is a woman of integrity and godly character, she is a pursuer of the Word of God and is diligent in seeking to be a godly, kind and a loving woman. She is definitely a woman that many can look at and just by her lifestyle and her actions immediately know that she is a woman of God. Her main desire is to please and work for the Lord all the days of her life.
Pastor Tracy Zimmerman
Pastor Tracy was born on March 25, 1966 to Ed & Wanda Zimmerman in Oakland, Maryland. The majority of his upbringing was on a small dairy farm in western Maryland high in the Appalachian Mountains.
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Pastor Tracy’s walk with the Lord goes back to July 1974 when he was water baptized and then on June 16, 1981, he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit at a youth camp located between Baltimore and Washington DC. Pastor Tracy felt the Lord beginning to call him to ministry in April 1982. For the next three years during high school he began to seek the Lord in a greater way preparing himself for the ministry that God was calling him to.
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After graduating from high school, Pastor Tracy left home to attend Texas Bible College in Houston, Texas. During his tenure in college the Lord began to use Pastor Tracy in an evangelistic ministry that afforded him the opportunity to travel all over the eastern half of the United States. During his time in Bible college pastor Tracy met the love of his life, Amy Wehrle. Upon his graduation in May 1987, Pastor Tracy and Sis. Amy were married on August 8, 1987.
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For the next two years the Zimmerman’s traveled and held crusades and seminars all over the United States. Their travels would take them from Texas, Louisiana, all the way to the greater New England area and as far west as the beautiful Hawaiian Islands.
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In August 1989, Pastor Tracy accepted the position of Minister of Evangelism at Christian Life Center located in Gaithersburg, Maryland just 20 minutes outside Washington DC. During the next two years Pastor Tracy was instrumental in helping to build a 1500 seat sanctuary, converting the old sanctuary into a gymnasium/Family Life Center and at the same time leading the church in numerical growth.
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In August 1989 when Pastor Tracy and Sis. Amy arrived at Christian Life Center the Sunday morning average was 425 and in just two short years with the immense blessings of the Lord the morning average had blossomed to 585. Pastor Tracy was instrumental in organizing Bible studies and outreach procedures, new convert care and assimilation into the body that was instrumental bringing the kingdom of heaven into new hungry lives.
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In September 1991, the Zimmerman’s accepted an invitation to become the Youth Pastor at Christ Tabernacle in Herrick, Illinois. For the next 12 ½ years Pastor Tracy and Sis. Amy developed the kingdom of God in the lives of hundreds of teenagers in Central Illinois. Developing weekly youth services, sponsoring and hosting spiritual adventures that would take teens to multiple metropolitan areas of the country, and by hosting international missions’ trips designed to expose teens to the worldwide expanse of the kingdom of heaven and to let them experience what God was doing in other parts of the world
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The youth ministry at Christ Tabernacle flourished and grew. In 1991 beginning with 15 teenagers and seeing his many is 73 in a midweek youth service God’s blessing and favor touched many lives.
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Upon resigning as youth pastors April 1, 2004, the Zimmerman’s spent the next 2 ½ years ministering to inner city residents of South City St. Louis with Bible studies, church services, and one-on-one hands-on ministry. It was during this time of transition and ministry in St. Louis that the Lord began to open up doors of ministry in Vandalia Illinois where the Zimmerman’s had lived since 1991 and a new church was about to be born.