Dodge Center missionary returns home to lead church

A Dodge Center native has returned to his hometown to lead the flock at First Congregational Church.
Pastor Keith Mosier grew up in Dodge Center and was home schooled, graduating from high school in 2002. At age 16, he moved to Africa with his family to preach in the bush and start new churches.
“It was an exciting experience,” Mosier said. “It was life changing. It prepared me for missionary and pastoral work.”
Initially, Mosier worked with the evangelism team, sharpening tools, fixing bicycles and repairing school buildings in remote villages. Later he went on to preach. He would find areas that “needed Christ” and share the teachings of the Bible.
“After a few years, I felt the Lord calling me to do missionary work long-term,” Mosier said. He enrolled at Weimar College in California at age 21 and graduated in 2008. He then started Congo Frontline Missions with his dad and a pastor friend.
The Congo was a dangerous place to go at that time, he recounts. But he felt God calling him to serve and, with no salary, found friends and donors to help get the project started. Starting in 2008, he trained people to share the Bible in remote areas. He also oversaw the building and planting of churches.
“There were large areas in the Congo river basin that hadn’t been reached by the Gospel message,” he said. “Our goal was to train an army of soul winners to share the love of Jesus in these areas.”
His parents and siblings survived a plane crash when they first traveled to see Mosier in the Congo. “They felt the Lord’s protection was evidence that they should join me in the work,” Mosier said. “We enjoyed toiling together in Congo for three years.”
“I feel like God worked through our hands,” he said. “I couldn’t have dreamed of doing it by myself. I feel satisfied that we did the work the Lord called us to do.”
At the end of 2017, Mosier and his family left the country for safety reasons. “The area we lived was becoming more dangerous all the time. Our neighbors were being robbed at gun point, and rebel activity around the country had increased significantly,” he said.
“There was a time we had to flee from an angry mob. It was really scary,” Mosier said. “We were near an accident where someone was killed. As we drove to the police station some people tried to chase us down on motorcycle. My whole family was with me in the car. My daughter said, ‘I’m scared but I’m praying.’ She was seven years old at that time.”
“As we went though town, a mob gathered and chased (the family), surrounding the car and banging on the doors. They were misinformed and thought we had killed someone so the mob planned to burn our vehicle,” he said. “Amazingly my family stayed calm through the ordeal. My daughter, who had been learning church history, remembered a Christian martyr and said ‘I’m thinking about John Hus right now.’ Finally a policeman came and entered the car and drove (the family) to safety.”
In November of 2017, Mosier and his family left the country to take a furlough. Then they returned to Africa in July 2019 to work as missionaries at a hospital in Chad.
They performed more than 12,000 baptisms and planted more than 100 churches. “God gets all the glory for the work we did. We trained over 1,000 people to share their faith, and they will continue to spread the light of God’s word in the Congo river basin,“ Mosier said.
In March of this year, the family was evacuated from Chad because of the corona virus. They got on the last plane out of the country before the border was shut down.
For their health, education and ministry, Mosier said the family felt called to continue their work in the United States. “During the past year my oldest daughter and I both came down with malaria three times. I’ve had malaria close to 20 times since I first visited Africa and parasites and amebic dysentery were a continual challenge for our family.  After years of battling with tropical diseases we feel the Lord is leading us back to pastoral ministry in the States,” he said. “Our goal is to point people to Jesus and share what he has done for us during our service in Africa.”
Keith is married to Tammy and they have four children with a fifth on the way. They have Shiloh, 10, Caleb, 8, Anna, 6 and Talitha, 4.
When the family returned from Africa, they moved into a Dodge Center home they’d built years prior on the family farm. Mosier sent out applications for work. “We were blessed and amazed to find work right here in Dodge Center,” he said. “A lot of places were on a hiring freeze because of corona virus. The pastor here had retired in March so we helped them reopen in June. I was delighted. I felt it was an answer to prayer.”
“I feel it is a wonderful congregation to minister to. I think it’s really special to be able to serve the community where I grew up.”
“I like being able to preach the word of God,” Mosier said. “I like the family-like environment of this congregation. It’s a small church where everyone knows everyone. It’s a very welcoming church. They’re willing to have anybody from any denomination come and worship here.”