By Sydney Holder Riverbend News
Many of the most remarkable events in life happen upon us unexpectedly and many, one may assert, are by the creation of the Lord. Such is the case for Pastor Dustin Bell, who received a vision from God and decided to leave the Evangelist field in pursuit of establishing a church in Live Oak.
With the support of his wife, Bell established the Apostolic Lighthouse Church of Live Oak in Spring 2014. They have watched as their once small place of worship grew substantially from the first service of 12 people to now a gathering of 85 on Sunday mornings.
Bell recalls his time as an Evangelist, traveling across the US and running revivals. Pastors began coming to him and asking him to put a church in Live Oak, but Bell had refused. Everything changed when he went on a three-day fast and experienced a vision on the third night of himself putting a church in Live Oak and having a revival.
After his vision, Bell left the Evangelist field and together with his wife, established the Apostolic Lighthouse Church. With the money raised from preaching, the two rented the storefront building next to Badcock Home Furniture & More, in Live Oak. Their first service was on March 9, 2014 and Bell said the only people to be baptized by the Holy Ghost were himself, his wife and his oldest daughter, Kaylin.
After three years in the storefront, Bell began renting the building at their current location, next to Jerry Corbett's. The building was run down and had homeless people squatting in it, so Bell completely gutted the building and renovated it into a church.
The Apostolic Lighthouse Church of Live Oak prides itself on being a multicultural church that reaches people from six counties (Suwannee, Columbia, Lafayette, Hamilton, Madison and Gilchrist). Bell preaches in English and their songs are sung in both English and Spanish. The church has a translator and a woman to do sign language for the deaf. Bell has shared that the church has received great participation and responses from the community in their current location and credits every drop of success they have experienced to the Lord.
"The Lord gave me direction about this city," Bell said. "For seven years I've been pastoring here and we've seen great miracles, signs of wonders. We've seen people delivered from spirits. We've seen people get miracles, healings, broken bones coming back together. My heart is for families to be reunited. My heart is for people to find redemption. My vision is for the lost to find Christ. My heart beat is souls. The Apostolic Lighthouse Church of Live Oak is known as a door of hope. Anybody that needs hope can come. Anybody that needs direction can come. Anybody that needs healing can come. We are not afraid of stigmatism. We aren't afraid of diseases. We aren't afraid of Devils. We're not afraid of anything. We just believe God and we give our whole lives to this. I believe if people come check us out, they would be blown away by what God's doing in there, because this is the Lord's church. It's the Lord's doings, not mine, because truly a man can not do what has been done in seven years in that place like God has done."
However, Bell, who has devoted his entire life to the church, assures they are far from reaching the church's full potential. Bell has shared that they have been blessed to purchase property for a larger building in a new location and they will be taking a creative spin on painting their church bus with the theme "Demon Busters."
"The Lord has blessed us and we just bought two acres on 129 S, right before Southside Baptist Church and the land has been cleared. I want to involve the community in it. As we build this building, I want the community to be involved in every aspect of it," Bell said. "If people want to volunteer their time, if they want to give money, give their talent of hanging sheet rock, planting flowers, because this church is not Pastor Bell's church. This is Live Oak's church. This is the Church of Live Oak. I guess you could say I'm Live Oak's pastor, praise to God, I love the people."
Bell was not always a part of the Pentecostal Church, rather Bell was born and raised in Mayo and attended church at Brewer Lake Baptist Church, in Day Town, Fla. Before he began preaching, Bell worked at the Cement Plant in Branford as a control electrician. He worked with a man, about his age, who preached to him and began going to church with him.
"God delivered me and changed me and I realized how foolish I had been and how much I had missed out on who God was, who He really was," Bell said. "He's so much more than what people hear about and think about. He's your Father. He's your friend. He's your help in time of trouble. He's your everything. If people just knew Him like I know Him, that would change everything. Every person was born with an emptiness inside of them that could only be filled with God. They search for it with beer and alcohol and women and men and pills and dope and everything else, witchcraft, paganism, they try everything. Nothing can fill that void, but Jesus. How do I know? Well, cause I've been on the other side of the fence. I've not always been a preacher. I have pastored for a total of 10 years, this is not my first church and I've been preaching 14 years. I've seen a lot of people come and go through the years and they all had the same backstory, something was missing in their life. I just want them to find that missing piece and His name is Jesus. He will heal every broken heart and cure every broken spirit."
Bell shares that his favorite parts about preaching are seeing souls be saved and helping the broken-hearted. He adds that he hates divorce and seeing families be torn apart. He compares this to the Devil first attacking the family, Adam and Eve, in Genesis. He loves seeing people being delivered to the church and saved, helping them to feel the power of God and love.
"Jeremiah said that ‘my eye affects my heart’ and when I see people hurting, it hurts my heart," Bell said. "I see people in sin, it hurts my heart. When I see the value of women and what this world has brought people to it breaks my heart and my whole desire is to bring people to God to restore morality, to restore hope, to restore integrity and to restore purity back into people's lives."
Bell hopes people can come to Apostolic Lighthouse Church and feel His love and know they belong there as much as he does.
"They need to come and see what the Lord is doing," Bell said. "Philip told Nathaniel, ‘come and see.’ Come see for yourself. Come see where the Holy Ghost is still the Holy Ghost and the fire of God still falls and the power of God still lives. God ain't dead. God ain't compromised. God ain't changed. He's still the same and I'm looking forward to meeting more people."
Bell currently lives in Lafayette County with his large, loving family- his wife, Johanna and five children, Kaylin, Malachi, Micah, Gracie and Elisha.
Apostolic Lighthouse Church of Live Oak is located at 10340 FL-10A, in Live Oak. They have Sunday services available at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. and a Thursday service available at 7 p.m.