When Bob and Eleanor Kujath drove out of Durango fourteen years ago, the burden for the area lingered. It was beyond imagination that God had opened the opportunity for both Bob and Eleanor to retire from their jobs in Phoenix, and they were on their way!  The current pastor of theirr former church had actually requested that they join their staff as ministers of pastoral care. That was the beginning of the miracles --- and the preparation stage for something new.


Unusual things kept happening.  Clyde James just presented Bob a new Bible that Clyde had prayed over for months - marking particular scriptures – with a leather cover inscribed "Rounding Up Strays" depicting a cowboy roping horses.  Vic Schultheiss, a Maui, Hawaii, businessman, informed us that God was restoring all that "the locust had eaten"; the vision was not completed yet.  At a small Bayfield restaurant Willard Hottell cornered Bob with the request to return to pastoring in the Bayfield area.

With the blessings of the Durango church pastors and elders, the doors to a new Foursquare church were opened in part of the old Pine River Bank building on the main highway in Bayfield on Tuesday, October 1, 1996.  It was set up with four dozen chairs for an organizational meeting, and it was figured it would hold about 50 people, perhaps good enough for the first year ­little did we know. Without advertising, 32 people showed up that night and chose the name Pine Valley Church of the Foursquare Gospel.

 After going back to Sam’s for two dozen more chairs, each of the 72 chairs were filled that first Sunday and 9 people came forward making decisions for Christ. The miracles had only begun. Within one month prime land was donated for building a church and the building fund was begun. By December that same year the church was chartered with 71 members. It became necessary to expand to two morning services in January 1997, and three by March. The high average monthly attendance that first year was April with 247.

 The next major event that brought Pine Valley Church to its current state was the ground-breaking service in May 1998 for the new building which we currently occupy. Cleary Buildings dropped in the sticks and put up the shell building, and then everyone pitched in to help finish it. The first unofficial service was Christmas Eve 1998 where we crowded into the south end (without classroom walls yet) to truly celebrate! By February 1999, we officially began using the south end for services every week while we were working on completing the inside of the sanctuary. Dedication Sunday was October 3, 1999, three years from opening Sunday.

We are now currently averaging 350 people in our Sunday service, over 120 junior highers and high schoolers at theMILL, and around 100 kids in our children’s programs. To God be the glory, great things He has done!