Pastor Richard Peil
Pastor Richard Peil was born in the Oregon town of Grants Pass and, though he spent the majority of his childhood in the Rogue Valley, did call Bend home for five years of his childhood. He received Christ as Saviour on May 7, 1995, at the age of twenty-seven at Fair Havens Baptist Church in Spring Valley, Ca. His wife, Cynthia, was saved shortly after and they began attending church faithfully with their young daughter, Shelby. In October of 1995 Pastor Peil yielded his life to God’s call to full-time Christian service. He left a ten-year career with the U.S. Navy to prepare for future ministry service and attended Fair Havens Bible Institute. While at Fair Havens Pastor Peil served as a children’s Sunday school teacher, bus captain, bus director, children’s ministry director, adult Sunday school teacher, Christian school teacher, Christian school principal, and assistant pastor. In the spring of 2001, Pastor Peil united with First Baptist Church of Spring Valley serving as assistant pastor. God blessed the Peil’s with a son, Caleb, in November of 2001.
Being a native of Oregon, Pastor Peil had long had a burden for the unreached of his home state and desired to be used of God to plant a church somewhere in Oregon. In the summer of 2001 God directed Pastor Peil to plant a church in his childhood home of Bend. The family began full-time deputation in January of 2002, and raised sufficient monthly support to relocate to Bend in September of 2002. They conducted the first service of Victory Baptist Church in a rented school classroom on October 6, 2002, with 37 people in attendance. They hosted a grand-opening service on Easter Sunday, 2003, with 117 people attending, and several receiving Christ as Saviour.