During the summer of 2000, Chris took a team of youth and youth leaders from Oak Mountain Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama to the Yakama reservation for one week. The group hosted children's ministry in an empty lot and roofed and painted homes for needy families. They were amazed by the poverty they encountered, heart broken by the needs of the children, and shocked to discover that many of the kids had never heard of Jesus or seen a Bible.
This experience had a deep and unexpected impact on Chris. Over the next year and a half God worked in his heart. It became clear that he was being called to move his family to the reservation in order to expand the ministry to the Yakama people.