Our Story

ORIGINS OF UNUSUAL SOLDIERS

The vision for Unusual Soldiers began on a scouting trip to Arkansas during the summer of 2000. A guy nicknamed “Biz” was surveying the area with a church planting team. While he was there, he attended a storefront bible study to help him discern his next steps. As a result of going to that little bible study his life was radically changed. Biz sat in a room with a handful of strangers. After a long pause of awkward silence, an elderly gentleman limped out of the back room and asked the newcomers to introduce themselves. Biz introduced himself and told everyone about the church planting team. He mentioned the sacrifices that some of the team members were making and the silver-haired teacher was amazed. He gazed at Biz and said, “Boy, that there…are some unusual soldiers.” At that moment, Biz’s heart was branded with a mission. He knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his life striving to awaken an army of unusual soldiers for God, but he had no idea what that meant.

  • Biz became a youth pastor in Port Huron, Michigan, rather than a church planter. However, he remembered the word’s of that elderly man in Arkansas and quickly started a 6-month discipleship boot camp for a select few students called “Unusual Soldiers”. This training program taught students the importance of Humility, Passion, Vision, and Courage. Each month the training included an element to take the students out of their comfort zones and it ended with a cross-cultural mission trip. However, as the years passed Biz began to sense that ‘Unusual Soldiers’ was supposed to be something more than a youth program.

  • Biz felt the Lord leading him to abandon everything in an attempt to fully grasp what it means to be an unusual soldier. He quit his job, emptied his bank account, and with his wife’s blessing he traveled alone to Africa in hopes of seeing isolated Maasai villages find hope. He had nothing but a backpack, a Bible, and a burden. As he partnered with Maasai tribesmen, he was amazed at their faith boldness. These men truly were Unusual Soldiers. Their willingness to pioneer into dark and even dangerous situations inspired Biz. And the results blew Biz away; numerous people found hope. A year later he joined a ministry called Forge that allowed him to explore his calling.

  • An initiative was launched to plot the remaining isolated Maasai villages by plane. It sounded like a childish dream, but it came to fruition.

  • Biz and three Maasai leaders gathered and trained 30 teams of Maasai to engage the plotted regions. Many American churches came behind this effort to pray and fund the rental cars, food, and conference fees. After the conference, the teams were immediately sent out to the plotted regions all across southern Kenya. Watching the thirty teams drive off was an amazing sight, Biz had never seen such valor in action. He was undeniably witnessing a movement of ‘Unusual Soldiers’ . As a result many faced trials and obstacles, but in the end every team had a victorious report. Many hundreds had found hope in Christ, disciple-movements were launched, and eventually new churches were planted.

  • The ministry of raising up Unusual Soldiers to engage dark, dangerous, and despised places expands to every inhabited continent. training events like Stranded and Slingshot begin to take place.

  • The book Dangerous is published. This book chronicles the ministry of Unusual Soldiers and aims to awaken more Christ followers to engage the world’s darkest regions.

  • During the outbreak of Covid, the nonprofit Unusual Soldiers was officially born and new national training events began to take shape.

Missionary with the Maasai Tribe in Kenya, East Africa.

Maasai Missionaries in Kenya, East Africa.