From my earliest memories, I always knew I would be a preacher. At the age of seven and eight, I began having dreams of myself as a grown man preaching to people of different colors, languages, and nationalities. Finally, my mother took me aside and told me the story behind my birth. After several years of marriage, she'd been unable to have children, so she prayed, "Lord, if you will give me a son, I will give him back to you all the days of his life." Although my mother has now joined my father in Heaven, she was able to see God honor her prayer as He has truly sent me around the world to preach and teach His Word. God not only gave her one son, though, He also blessed my parents with three more children: my brother Randy, and my two sisters, Judy Gregory and Sharon Upton.

In 1958, at the age of 11, I was baptized in water as well as in the Holy Spirit. At the moment of my water baptism, a word of prophecy was given saying, "My hand is upon this child. I have called him to be a preacher from his mother's womb. He will preach the Gospel around the world." I preached my first revival in Fayetteville, Arkansas that year. Though I was a boy, I experienced God's anointing to preach, and He blessed the meeting with 28 people making choices for salvation or rededication of their lives and with 18 people receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

I began preaching youth meetings and even served as youth pastor for two churches while I was a teenager, but it was after my high school graduation, when I was attending the University of Arkansas that I felt the definite call of God to go into full time evangelism.

I began traveling through Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri preaching. Then, in 1967, while preaching a meeting in Dora, Arkansas, I met a young lady named Evelyn Tapp. I sensed her dedication to the Lord as well as His call on her life, so in June 1968, we were married and began traveling together in evangelism.

God blessed our efforts for Him, but even though we began to see many lives changed as people began to hunger for more of God's Word and power in their lives, we were not seeing many people saved. This lack caused me to begin to pray desperately, "God give me souls, or I die." In 1969, our hunger for souls led us to go on our first missionary trip to Chiapas, Mexico. What we found was overwhelming; though there was a great field ready and ripe for harvest, very few workers were there. We began traveling there as often as we were able.

Also, in September 1971, Evelyn and I were blessed with our first child Lora Gayle. Although we were living in a small travel trailer, we converted a bed into a crib to make it safe for the baby. The closeness of our living quarters, though, didn't keep us from making many wonderful memories during these early days of our family.

It was near this time, in 1971, that we met Pastors Kemp and Carol Holden who had just recently moved to Fort Smith. This relationship opened new missionary fields in the Caribbean and also introduced us to a minister's fellowship called Worldwide Missionary Evangelism, of which I became a member.

During this time, we continued our evangelism in Mexico, Jamaica, and Haiti as well as in the United States. We saw the harvest was truly ripe and God was pouring out His Spirit on many nations. God began opening many new ministry doors for us, so that by 1975, we were raising thousands of dollars for missionary work. We decided to incorporate our ministry as The Living Faith for the purpose of raising and dispersing missionary funds and ministry materials.

Today, under The Living Faith's umbrella of ministry, we help to oversee about 500 churches in Mexico and Guatemala as well as take teaching materials around the world. We are deeply grateful for the fine brothers who serve beside Evelyn and me on our board: Ted Flynn, Harry Saylor, David Gibson, Randy Williams, Ed Huie, Ruben Villanueva, and Juan Berrios.

To our surprise in 1979, Evelyn and I were asked to become the pastors of Hamilton Christian Center in Hamilton, Ohio. This was a real challenge for us as first-time pastors because it was, in our eyes, a fairly large church - about 500 members. But step by step, we worked and learned many things that would later prove invaluable in our global ministry.

Not only did we develop many close friendships during these years, but God also helped me to develop Foundation Truth, a practical study of 39 basic Christian doctrines for training new converts. Since its first edition, this book has gone around the world. We have printed over 100,000 copies for distribution in about 80 nations and are currently in the translation process for the 26th language.

During our time in Hamilton, our second child, Kari Renee, was born in July 1980. We discovered a few months after her birth that she had been born with both hips out of joint, but God was good and led us to a doctor who not only took excellent care of her, but also charged us nothing. Although she was in a full-body cast for several weeks and then in a hip brace for a few months, she was left with no lasting effects and is in fine health today - for which we thank God.

In 1987, after 8 years as pastors of Hamilton Christian Center, we resigned because we knew God was calling us into full-time missionary work training national pastors. This decision was very difficult because the church was growing and doing well, but we knew it was time to go.

For the past 21 years, since leaving Hamilton, my life has been focused on the world. Although I still minister many times a year in the United States, I am making roughly 10 international trips each year ministering to approximately 2500 national pastors and workers.
Besides Foundation Truth, God has helped me develop many teaching materials - books, DVDs and CDs - to reach as many people as I can.

In 2003, after the death of our long-time Chairman, W. S. McMasters, I became the Chairman of Worldwide Missionary Evangelism, the ministers' fellowship I had been connected with since 1971. This new experience has made my life much busier, but my deep desire to encourage and bless ministers has made me grateful for another door of ministry.

Also, during this time, I received a life work Doctorate of Divinity from Vision University as well as an honorary Doctorate of Humanities in World Mission from Clarion School of Ministry. The awarding of these has been a truly humbling experience for me.

These past 50 years have truly been a journey of faith for my family and me. We want to express our gratitude to the many churches and friends who have supported us and believed in us. We could not have accomplished much without you and your faithful prayers for us. You will certainly share in any rewards that are given when we get to Heaven.

I want to express my love first to my wife Evelyn who has stood faithfully with me through all the changes in our lives over the past forty years, and secondly, to our family. Our older daughter Lora and her husband Vince Farrell, along with our two precious grandchildren Emma and Bennett, are also involved in ministry. Our youngest daughter Kari works in our office and has been a tremendous help in editing all the printed materials as well as doing volunteer work at our home church.

Finally, I just want to say that God has been good and faithful to us, and I am humbled by what He has done through such unlikely vessels as we were.

God bless you,

Dale Yerton

The Living Faith
P O Box 1000
Van Buren AR 72957