HUMMELS WHARF — In his study last week at Victory Baptist Church, Pastor Steven Froelke spoke passionately of God’s calling on his life and his vision for the region to be reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“I really believe we have not yet ‘touched the hem of the garment’ in the Greater Susquehanna Valley,” Froelke said. “With all the problems we have in America — economic, drugs, alcohol — I believe the solution is the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing him in a personal way. He is the only one who can change lives.”

It is a truth that has proven itself many times over in his own life, and during his nearly three decades of ministry. A 25th anniversary celebration will be held at Victory Baptist Church next week.

Froelke’s wife, Konny, who grew up in a Christian home and committed her life to Christ at the age of 7, led him to the Lord in October 1963. They were married that December.

The marriage followed years of prayer by Froelke’s grandfather, who gave him a maroon Bible every year, and asked God to send his grandson a good, Christian girl.

“She has been my tremendous helpmate for 46 years,” Froelke said of Konny, who does much of the administrative work at the church.

Froelke rededicated his life to the Lord in 1972, a moving experience that made him fully committed and ready to do God’s will for his life.

“I said, ‘Lord, I’ll do anything you want me to do, go where you want me to go,’” Froelke said. “And that’s all He needed to hear.”

His call to ministry, he said, was the Lord working on his heart over a period of several years. In 1977, he felt called to attend Bible school and to preach, and surrendered completely to the call.

Previously a life insurance salesman, Froelke had steadily been losing sales — God’s way of telling him that just wasn’t his calling, Konny said.

After graduating in 1981 from Hyles Anderson Bible College in Indiana, Froelke and his wife took on a ministry work in Kreamer. Then, in 1984, Froelke said he “felt the Lord’s leading to start a church.”

Thus began a 25-year journey with Victory Baptist Church, which began holding services at Martin Beachy’s Auction Barn along Route 522 in Selinsgrove. The next year, they moved to the gymnasium of St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church in Shamokin Dam, where they stayed for 26 months. Approximately 75 to 80 people were attending the services. Services now number about 200.

Ground for the current building, at 709 Park Road, was broken in April 1986. Work was done by a construction company operated by one of the church’s deacons, Roger Raker, and was completed and dedicated in 1989.

“Over the past 25 years, God has blessed us with many different ministries,” Froelke said.

A choir, junior church program, nursery and a Sunday school program for all ages — are just a few. The church also has a nursing home ministry, and has been well-known for 25 years for its vast bus ministry, which picks up about 65 people for services. “We have reached hundreds of thousands of children and adults through our bus ministries,” Froelke said.

He also heads up a jail ministry, visiting three jails each week — the Northumberland, Snyder and Union County lockups — to counsel, share the gospel and present a Christian-based addictions program, Reformer’s Unanimous. The same program is offered at 7 p.m. every Friday at the church.

“The hardest struggle I have is to see people that have come to church for awhile and then see them go back into their old lifestyle,” he said. “It breaks my heart to see people who were once serving the Lord and all of a sudden fall away.”

But the rewards come alongside those struggles. As a pastor, he has seen many lives changed once they come to know Christ.

“That’s what I live for,” he said.

The church’s 25th anniversary celebration will begin at 9:30 a.m. Aug. 16 with a service that will include a special anniversary video. The service will be followed by a chicken barbecue dinner. At 7 p.m. Aug. 17, Dr. Jack Schaap, pastor of First Baptist Church in Hammond, Ind., will be speaking, and again at 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. Aug. 18 at the church. A noon luncheon will be held on Aug. 18 at The Country Cupboard in Lewisburg; tickets may be purchased at the door.

More information is available by calling the church at 743-0770.