Dr. Stan and JoAnne Frye


      “The greatest blessings to me, in 40 years of ministry, have been the salvation of people’s souls and the transformation of their lives. That’s all the reward I need—to see somebody’s life transformed.” 
      In an interview with The Christian View, Dr. Stan Frye shared memories from four decades of spreading the Gospel through evangelism and mission work. 
      “My wife and I received a note in the mail from a young lady in our church who wrote to tell us what a transformation had taken place in her life since she came to our church and got committed to the Lord,” he said. “Those kinds of things are all the rewards that I need—the transformation of lives and to see people serve Christ faithfully after they have been saved. My heart beats to see people come to Jesus. That’s the main reason I live.” 
      Frye felt the call to the ministry at the age of 18 in 1965. “I struggled with the call for over a year,” he said. “I discussed it with my Pastor over and over. I surrendered to the ministry the second Sunday in February, 1966, and I’ve been hard at it ever since. There is nothing any more certain in my life than my salvation and my call to the ministry. It had been a struggle because I had felt so inadequate, and I had an inferiority complex. I was afraid of crowds and people. But God relishes the thought of taking ordinary people and doing extraordinary things so that He will get the glory.” 
      Frye graduated with an associate degree from Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute in Hendersonville, North Carolina and earned his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from Luther Rice Seminary in Lithonia, Georgia. He earned his Doctor of Ministry degree from the Southern Baptist School of Biblical Studies in Jacksonville, Florida. 
      Since 1968, he has pastored eight churches and has preached more than 8,000 times, including at 800 revival meetings and crusades. 
      “Being a Pastor helps me to identify with the local church and appreciate the struggles that the churches and the Pastors go through,” he said. 
      As President of Gateway International Missions, Frye is preparing to leave the pastorate at Gateway Baptist Church in Newton, North Carolina in order to enter the mission field on a full-time basis. 
      Gateway International Missions is now serving in five countries – Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, and the Ukraine. “I am praying about Thailand, Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Ethiopia, and Jamaica,” Frye said. 
      Frye began going to Kenya in 1985 and to Uganda in 1987. “I went regularly, probably once a year or once every two years the first few initial years,” he said. “Then, I had a horrible accident in 1993 in which one of my associate pastors was killed. He and I were thrown out of the vehicle, and he died in my arms. I was reluctant to go back after that. I was so down and had lost my burden, but it wasn’t long till God brought the burden back to me. My trips increased, and, in 2001, I took over this ministry in Uganda and Kenya. In 2002, we organized, officially and formally, Gateway International Missions. 
      “Our primary ministry is evangelism and discipleship in the prisons of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, and now even outside of Africa, in the Ukraine. We furnish thousands of Bibles and Bible literature for the prisons. We also do the same in the schools—that’s the second part of our ministry. The third part is training Pastors and chaplains, in seminars and conferences, in those African countries. The fourth part of our ministry is with the medical clinics and eye clinics. We also provide a tremendous amount of Bible courses, Bible booklets for growth and development, and a world of humanitarian assistance. We’re rebuilding a hospital at the prison. We have an orphan ministry and support 325 orphans through Gateway International Missions. 
      “We take mission teams from churches here in America and put them on the front lines of the mission work there. Young people are now going with us on these trips. The people are excited about the work we’re doing. In 2004, we had 70,000 professions of faith. In 2005, we did more medical clinics, which slows the ability to preach and travel, but we had 60,000 professions of faith. We have scores of testimonies from transformed lives.” 
      In transforming Frye’s own life, several people have been positive influences, including his parents, Earl and Irene Frye. 
      “The primary person of influence in my life originally was my mother,” he said. “She was saved. My father was not. She was the first person who ever shared Jesus with me. I didn’t get saved initially, but later on. 
      “The first Pastor I ever had, Pastor Horace Moree of Smyrna Baptist Church in Taylorsville, North Carolina, was a graduate of Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute, and he came to our little country church. He shared Christ with me and led me through the plan of salvation. I will always be indebted to him for that. After I got saved, I stayed in church until I became a teenager. Because my father wasn’t saved, and because there wasn’t a strong spiritual influence in my family other than my Mom, I got out of church for about three years while I was a teenager. But, through difficult circumstances, God sent me back to church. I surrendered my life to full-time ministry under Pastor Moree, and God called me to preach under his ministry. 
      “A short time later, he moved to another church, several miles away. For two years, I really didn’t have anyone to mentor me.
      “But, in 1967, I started to Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute, and I met a man named Rev. Dean Dillard from North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. He had been a Pastor for quite some time. He began to befriend me and help me and was a personal influence in my life. In his church, he gave me the first opportunity to preach a revival. He recommended me to my first church, and he made a tremendous impact on my life. About two years ago, he went on to be with the Lord, and I had to conduct his funeral. It was an honor, but it was hard. 
      “Two men who impacted my preaching ministry were Dr. Kenneth Ridings, who is now the President of Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute, and Dr. John Rymer. They whetted my appetite for the Bible and expository preaching. They were instrumental in giving me a hunger for the Bible and for Jesus and the exposition of Scriptures. 
      “After I had finished my schooling there, and was in my first pastorate, a layman, one of my first deacons, came alongside of me. His name was Bobby Fender, and Bobby is now with the Lord. He took it upon himself to really encourage me. And then, I changed pastorates after three and a half years. I went through a difficult time for the next several years of ministry. 
      “It was about 1976 when I moved to Jacksonville to finish seminary. I had been doing a lot of work externally. I met a man named Mickey Parrish, who was a Christian businessman and a layman in the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville. Mickey and I started visiting and sharing the Gospel in Florida’s state prisons. He showed me prison work. He later moved to Kenya, East Africa. I started going to Africa in 1985 to work with him. So, he mentored me and taught me the prison ministry, and, ultimately, I took over this work from him in Africa in 2001. 
      “My former Pastor at First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida, Dr. Homer Lindsay, Jr., was instrumental in encouraging me and helping me. 
      “Dr. Ray Starnes, who is retired now, was so instrumental in encouraging me in difficult times. He helped me tremendously.
      “Roger Buff was my Sunday School Director at Tri-City Baptist Church in Conover, North Carolina for eight years. The church grew dramatically. We grew from 40 to 2,000 in membership. He taught me organizational skills, and the Lord used him to grow the Sunday School from 30 to more than 800. 
      “Terry Gwaltney, a layman from the Taylorsville area in North Carolina who now serves on our Board of Directors, has impacted my life tremendously. When I was going through a bout with clinical depression, after I had had that horrible wreck in Africa in 1993, he was there for me, and he has just been a great blessing to me. 
      “I also want to mention Dr. Bill Stafford, from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Dr. Johnny Hunt, from First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Georgia. These men have impacted my life through 40 years of ministry.” 
      Also great encouragers have been JoAnne, his wife of 41 years, and their family. The Fryes’ son, Joel Frye, is Pastor of Oxford Baptist Church in Conover, North Carolina, and he and his wife, Tricia, have a daughter, Abigail, and son, Joshua. The Fryes’ daughter, Rebecca, and her husband, Michael McKinney, have twin daughters, Anna and Rachel, and twin sons, Andrew and Matthew. Michael is the student Pastor at Gateway Baptist Church. 
      Of great encouragement to him have been the Scriptures, to which he has turned when in time of need. 
      “One of the greatest passages I love,” he said, “is Psalm 27: The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD. Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek. Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up. Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies. Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. “The one I live by is Philippians 3:10-14: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” 
      Pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus is Frye’s continuing mission with Gateway International Missions--seeing the Lord save souls and transform lives in this country and in the world.




      Link: www.gatewayinternationalmissions.com