The People of Command Two

Gloria Jay Evans

Gloria Jay Evans is a native Texan who came to South Dakota many years ago to head the Occupational Therapy Department at Children's Care Hospital & School (CCHS.) In Sioux Falls, she met and married Doug Evans who was a teacher at Washington High School and the new Director of the Physical Education Program for the school district. The following years were spent raising their three children and promoting health and physical fitness. At the same time they had the privilege of sitting under the ministry of a pastor who was an early advocate of marketplace ministry and interdenominational activities. Gloria was deeply involved in the first Fire House Coffee House on Minnesota Avenue which was an ecumenical ministry established by her church.

As an artist, Gloria has been an active participant in the visual arts of Sioux Falls. She has worked in advertising, book illustration, and greeting card design. She has a small publishing business, Evans Enterprises/E E Books. She publishes and distributes books she and her late husband have written. Gloria writes and illustrates what she calls "adult children's books" because they are books for adults that are hand lettered and fully illustrated. Her book, THE WALL, has been used extensively in work with people in recovery. Her business is her ministry. All income is returned to the business and all profits are donated to Christian ministries, programs, missions or projects.

Gloria is active in the Prayer Ministry in her church and, until recently, the Care Ministry. She has gone on several mission trips including work projects and visiting mission stations in Puerto Rico, Alaska, and Thailand. She is a strong advocate of prayer and Bible study groups and has been in such groups since college days.

Gloria's three children are in Texas and Minnesota. She has 5 grandchildren.

Nate and Meghan Phillips

Originally from Denver, CO, Nathan and Megan Phillips moved to Sioux Falls in June 2008. They live as missionaries and have enjoyed 7 years of marriage. While children are an exciting future hope, they enjoy Julius, their 4-year old cat. After 10 years of traveling nation-wide with a music ministry called Foolish Things, the Lord called them very clearly to live a lifestyle of prayer, and to serve with Mike and Sue McComber at the Firehouse Underground / Underground House of Prayer (UHOP). The coffeehouse ministry is an atmosphere where deep and personal relationships can be built with guests that come, allowing evangelism and discipleship to progress naturally. Out of the overflow of time spent with God, guests are served and loved with compassion. Specifically with the UHOP, Nathan and Megan are available for prayer nightly, lead sets of intercessory prayer, organize prayer events, and lead worship. Nathan and Megan serve on the prayer ministry team at The Point Church. They are available for prayer before and after services and do home and hospital visits. The Lord continues to grow their understanding and application of prophecy, deliverance, intercession, and spiritual warfare. While they are honored and humbled to partner with the Lord in these ways, intimacy with God and pursuing the heart of Christ continues to be the foundation of everything. Love for God and love for others is a consistent striving and prayer.

Mary Kelly

Mary is a native of Sioux Falls, SD, where she has been active in the design business since 1975. In 1996 Mary was asked to lead and develop a prayer ministry in her local church, involving all aspects of prayer including corporate intercession. In January 1999, Mary was commissioned to lead a city corporate intercessory prayer group, which involves a unified group of interdenominational intercessors who pray for the city and state. In March of 2000 Intercessors International, a national organization, certified her as an instructor. Intercessors International is a prayer ministry whose focus is upon prayer from the local level to a global ministry. Mary has also been the prayer trainer and leader for Life Light Ministries, which is the nations largest free music fest centering on evangelism, and has joined with them in working on the National Day of Prayer.

Prayer and evangelism have motivated Mary to be involved with Harvest Evangelism's Lighthouses of Prayer, a prayer evangelistic technique for winning cities for Christ. In 1999 she was asked by Harvest and commissioned by local pastors to introduce lighthouses of prayer throughout South Dakota. In February of 2003 the lighthouse movement intensified into prayer evangelism efforts for city reaching. She is the founder of Command Two, a parachurch ministry that calls all the saints to pray for the lost. Based on a relationships building method, Command Two is reaching into communities through workplace people and local congregations. Mary was apart of an international transformation delegation, through Harvest Evangelism, that went to Argentina to offer a canopy of prayer for that nation.

She leads workshops and prayer seminars for those who are hungry to go deeper with God. She is licensed for ministry by the American Baptist Churches, USA and has earned a Master's Degree in Practical Ministry.

She believes and passions others to be connected to God through the power of prayer. She has also served on the Board of Deacon of First Baptist Church in Sioux Falls. She and her husband Dick, have eight children and nine grandchildren.

Read Mary's Testimony here.

Pastor Bjorn Lervik

Pastor Bjorn Lervik is the Senior Pastor at Hope Lutheran Church, where he has been in ministry since 1997. Bjorn emigrated from Norway with his parents and sister in 1952 and settled in the Twin Cities. After some stints as a surveyor, a carpenter, and doing contract cleaning, Bjorn finished his bachelor's degree and then went to Luther Seminary, graduating in 1990 at the ripe age of 45.

His first call was as an interim Pastor in Tronheim, Norway, his birthplace, at the church he was baptized in as an infant. (Must have been a God-thing)... While in Norway, Bjorn married Kathryn Ann Potter, from Edina, Minnesota, and she shared his adventure there for a year. Bjorn found there weren't enough golf courses in Norway and they came back to the Twin Cities, where they stayed until the Lord called them to Sioux Falls. One of Bjorn's life verses is Psalm 16:6, "The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance." Sioux Falls is indeed a pleasant place for Bjorn and Kathy, along with the opportunities the Lord has provided them.

Pastor Dwayne T. Williams

Pastor Dwayne T. Williams, the son of Joseph and Delores Williams, was raised and educated in Utica, New York. Upon graduation from the former Utica Free Academy, he entered the United States Air Force where he served as a Law Enforcement Specialist .

In 1992, Pastor Williams received his call to the gospel ministry. He then began his studies under the guidance of the late Reverend Franklin J. Upthegrove at St Paul's Baptist Church in Utica. He served faithfully in the position of Associate Minister at St. Paul's Baptist Church in Utica, upon becoming a licensed in October of 1993, until receiving ordination through the American Baptist Churches in August of 2000. Pastor Williams received and answered his first pastoral call to Friendship Baptist Church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, also in August where he is currently serving. His mission being to enhance the role of Friendship Baptist Church in setting the standard for the multicultural diverse church of the world, a church where the love of God is presented to all, a church where Christ is preached and souls are converted and hearts are turned toward God. Counting all to the Glory of God.

In addition his Pastorate at Friendship Baptist Church, Pastor Williams is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity Degree at University of Sioux Falls and North American Baptist Seminary in Sioux Falls.

Daniel Bair

I was born in Wisconsin, raised in New Jersey, and married in South Dakota. The transplanted roots have gone down deeply in South Dakota. Now married 41 years, (the same woman has tolerated me that long), with 2 married daughters, and 3 grandchildren. I accepted the Lord at the age of 42, thanks to the calling of the Holy Spirit. As a member of First Baptist Church, my passion is to see church outside its walls. We spend most of our days outside the church either working or caring for others. Jesus sought and taught 12 common people to spread the good news. I believe what Ed Silvoso wrote, that transformation of cities, states and Nations will come when unity among all ethnic groups is achieved and systemic poverty is removed. That will come through the Marketplace.