Pastor Leroy and Pastor Iris are natives of Staunton, Va.  They are graduates of Wilson Memorial High School.  Both are products of St. Paul's United Methodist Church where they worked closely with their pastor, Dr. John R. Sawyer, for 13 years after their marriage in 1960.  

Pastor Leroy felt called of God to the ministry after he and Iris attended a Tony Fontaine concert at John Lewis Junior High School in 1971.  He came home and was praying about the call that he felt in his heart.  Leroy was amazed beyond measure when he opened his 

Bible for his reading that night when these rhema words from the Lord leaped off the page into his heart from Habakkuk 2:l-3:    

"I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me...and the Lord answered me, and said,...the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie, though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry."  

  A year later he was a student at Eastern Mennonite College (now EMU) and graduated in 1975 while pastoring three churches in Highland and Bath counties.  He graduated from Eastern Mennonite Seminary in 1978.  He received his Doctor of Ministry Degree from Bethany Theological Seminary in Oak Brook, Illinois, in 1987.  Leroy and Iris are both members of International Convention of Faith Ministries.    

Iris is a graduate of Dunsmore Business College and Blue Ridge Community College where she received an Associate in Applied Science Degree with a major in Mental Health Technology.  She also graduated from Faith Christian Bible School in Warrenton, Virginia.  Iris was a certified activities director for fifteen years in local nursing homes.    

Pastor's Leroy and Iris' first full-time pastorate was Newport Church of the Brethren in Shenandoah, Virginia, where they served for ten years.

Pastor Leroy had a life-changing experience in 1970 when he read Kathryn Kuhlman's book, 'I Believe in Miracles." He and Iris began to attend her miracle services in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where they saw the power of God in action.  They learned first-hand about divine healing and that God still heals today just as he did in the book of Acts--that "Jesus Christ (is) the same yesterday, and today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).  Pastor Leroy experienced a miracle of divine healing in those meetings.  He and Iris were baptized in the mighty Holy Spirit according to Matthew 3:11 and Acts 2:4 and entered the power dimension that God desires for every Christian.    

They felt led of the Lord to establish the first charismatic Word of Faith church in Page County on January 1, 1989. They completed their 18th year at Redeeming Love Fellowship at the end of December, 2006, where they have a loving, working and growing congregation.  Pastors Leroy and Iris will celebrate 33 years in the ministry April 12, 2007.