Good Neighbor Podcast: Auburn and Opelika

Ep.#78: Ordinary People, Obedient Steps: The Four Corners Ministries

• Susannah Hodges at Village Centre Press

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We share how two rural pastors in Alabama sparked a movement that now spans a 100-acre community in northern Uganda, training pastors, educating children, creating dignified jobs, and strengthening local churches. Yancy opens up about leaving a corporate career, facing hardship, and choosing obedience over comfort.

• founding story and early focus on sending ordinary people 
• Abana’s Hope as a holistic Christian community 
• Living Stones church and school serving local families 
• Life Beads microenterprise and dignified work for women 
• shift from orphan care to child development program 
• kitchen and farm supporting food security and discipleship 
• pastor training center across Uganda, South Sudan, Congo 
• Yancy’s calling from corporate to mission leadership 
• common misconceptions about who can serve 
• practical ways to pray, go, and give 
• how to connect: fourcorners.org, office, phone, email, YouTube

Please call us here at the office, downtown Opelika. Our office is 202 S. 8th Street in downtown Opelika. Our phone number is 334-737-6338. You can send us an email at info@fourcorners.org. Come see us at the thrift store.


SPEAKER_00:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Susanna Hodges.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome. With me is Yancy Carpenter with the Four Corners Ministries here in Opalica, Alabama. Welcome, Yancy.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, thank you so much for having me, Susanna. Glad to be here.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, you're certainly welcome. And I'm going to enjoy this conversation because, you know, I live in Opalica and I walk downtown quite often and see your offices in Opalica, Alabama. And I'm sure there are people that walk by and go, what is that? So tell us, what is the Four Corners Ministries?

SPEAKER_02:

So Four Corners Ministries started in 2003 and in Wadley, Alabama, of all places, with uh a man named Jimmy Sprayberry, who is the pastor of Mountain Springs Baptist Church, and uh his friend Paul Wilson, who is the pastor of Wadley Baptist Church, and they went on a short-term mission trip together. And on the way back in 2003, they decided to form Four Corners Ministries with the simple goal of getting God's people from rural churches in Alabama engaged in God's global mission. And that uh that is how it began. That's still part of who we are. Uh we work with local churches uh here in Alabama and and uh other states uh uh to send short-term and long-term missionaries to support the local church, uh, primarily in northern Uganda. And so that's how Four Corners Ministries began, just with a uh one uh small step of obedience from Wadley, Alabama, from Pastor Jimmy. Uh it has greatly grown over the years and expanded. Um we have a place called Abana's Hope in northern Uganda. It's it's a hundred acres, and uh our desire uh was to build a comprehensive Christian community. Uh, the hub of Abanis Hope is Living Stones Community Church that started underneath a shade tree with just a few people in a Bible study that now is hundreds of believers worshiping Jesus every Sunday. Out of that, uh there is uh Living Stones uh Christian School. It's a primary school. There's there's 260 children that are receiving a quality education from a biblical worldview. Um we didn't want to start a school because uh we didn't we didn't know how to start a school, but but our missionaries responded uh to the need uh and and started Living Stones Christian School in 2016. And and really everything uh that is happening in Abana's Hope is is responding to the need in the community as our missionaries have done life there. Uh there are uh uh Life Beach ministry, which you see as you walk down one of the water you see in the window, you see this beautiful jewelry, and that began uh uh again uh with a lady there who uh knew how to make this jewelry, and there's desperate need for uh uh jobs there. So uh we began the Life Beats Ministry where these ladies learn how to make jewelry out of paper. Uh we bring it back stateside and sell it. We have Life Beats partners here that that sell this jewelry, but it gives these ladies an opportunity to earn income with dignity. Uh they also get uh opportunity to hear the gospel uh through a weekly Bible study. Uh so we are we are grateful for that that ministry as well. Uh and we began with uh should have started with this, but uh we thought we were going to do orphan care there. Habanas means children. Uh and we were gonna we were gonna primarily focus on orphan care. Uh so Habana's Hope means children's hope. But when we got there, we we learned very quickly that uh having house parents raise children who are not their own as a ministry was was very foreign to the rural achievement. Okay, yeah. We shifted to what we call the child development program. And right now there are 75 children uh that are in this this program where uh they receive school fees uh sponsored by by people here. Uh they receive food supplements, they receive health care, uh, but most importantly, they receive uh uh the good news of Christ. Uh our missionaries work work with them and our our Chole brothers and sisters. Uh so we have access to all of these families uh through the child development program. There's uh there's a kitchen, uh, Miss Doreen, she feeds 400 people, uh, two meals a day, breakfast and lunch. There's a farm, a 70-acre farm that grows food for the school and the community. Uh, and also there's a Bible study uh that that takes place at the kitchen, at the school, at the at the farm, uh, because everything we do is is an effort to uh communicate and demonstrate the gospel of Jesus to to unreached and underequipped people groups. And and so that's who we are now, uh, and it's still expanding. Our our latest ministry is the the pastor training center. I was able to be there last last month, and we had 69 men graduate from a three-year pastor training program, uh, 69 men from 18 different tribes in three different countries, Uganda, South Sudan, and the Congo. So we are just so grateful for that uh opportunity to invest in these faithful men who will who will teach others also and as they go out now uh to strengthen the local church and plant churches uh to the ends of the earth. So that's that's who we are now, and we are we are so grateful for this opportunity to serve the local church here and supporting the local church there and taking part in God's great redemptive story.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that is an incredible mission you have, and what a great story, and the impact that you're making in Uganda is incredible. Uh tell me a little bit though about you, Yancy. How did you get into the ministry? What brought you or led you to helping out with Four Corners?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, that's uh that's kind of a funny story and and and and somewhat embarrassing. Uh no. But I'll share it. Okay. Um so in 2005, uh, these two young men from South Sudan came and spoke to my Sunday school class, and I could not have told you where Sudan was on the globe. Right. I was uh following Jesus, but also just pursuing the American dream. I thought, you know, hey, I go to church, I worship Jesus, but I'm I'm you know building my career. I work for a Fortune 100 company, I'm gonna climb the ladder, you know, I'm gonna get a house, I'm gonna get a lake house, I'm gonna get a new car, I'm gonna get all these things, you know, not bad things, but that's just where my mind was at the time. But God used these two young men uh from Moundry, South Sudan, and they came and they spoke to our Sunday school class, they talked about the persecuted church, and then they also shared, we've been commissioned to go and make disciples of all nations, as we see in Matthew 28. And God used that just to convict me that that meant me too. If that's true for these two guys from the bush of of Africa, uh, then that's true for me too. And so I I submitted and surrendered to go on this mission trip, which uh a friend of mine had been asking me for some time to go. And I just said, no, I'm I'm going on vacation. I only have three weeks of vacation going to on a mission trip. Why would I do that? That's for missionaries, right? Yeah, uh, not for me. Um, but I went and God began changing my life and changing my priorities. My wife and I went in 2006 on our first short-term mission trip with Four Corners Ministries, and then we began leading teams and going uh as often as we could and volunteering, serving on the board. And uh for this role, I was serving as as chairman of the board seven years ago when when this opportunity to serve as president uh came and uh I was asked to serve in this role, and I just it didn't make sense to me at all. I I'm not qualified. And uh I said, I'll find somebody to fill this role, and this is really a long story, but I'll try to make it short.

SPEAKER_01:

That's okay, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh and I I just thought, well, you got all of me. I'm gonna volunteer, I'm gonna serve, I'll just keep working. I work for a Fortune 100 company, had great income, uh insurance, uh benefits, stock options, 401k, pension, all of it. You know, and I'm like, I'm like, I'll just find somebody that uh that will do this job, and and actually better than I could. And uh interviewed three people, uh, two of them are doctors, and so well quite they had all the credentials, and and I thought would be better. And they all said no.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh know these guys well, and uh they said, why don't you do it? And you should do it. And uh I just I wrestled with that for about a year, uh Susanna, and uh God just convicted me. I remember I remember him impressing upon my heart, uh, do you trust in me uh for for to provide for you, or do you trust in your ability to earn?

SPEAKER_01:

It's one of his promises, he's he's gonna take care of you, right?

SPEAKER_02:

I was like, oh God, I I do trust you. Then the next was, do you trust in me for your health and for your next breath? Or do you trust in your blue cross blue shield insurance? And I was like, Oh God, I I trust you. And uh, and then the lastly it was, do you trust in me for your future and your eternity? Or do you trust in your 401k? And uh because four corners has none of these things, and I was like, Oh God, I I trust you. I if you if you want to use the gifts you've given me and the life you've given me to serve at Four Corners, it's yours to use. So I I left my job after 20 years, uh, and they allowed me to retire, even though I was not old enough to retire, but I got to share with all the people whom I loved and worked with while I was going, which was which was good. And uh been here for for January will be seven years. So uh uh God's been good and he's been faithful, and I'm I'm grateful uh for what I've got to see him do uh and be a part of.

SPEAKER_01:

So you stepped out on faith and and now you've been with Four Corners uh well as in your current role for didn't you say seven years, but you've been involved for a lot longer than that. Um you've been around for a while. So what are some of the misconceptions people have uh about four corners or maybe just about ministry in general?

SPEAKER_02:

Hey, I I think the biggest misconception is the same misconception I had sitting in that Sunday school classroom so many years ago is that I'm just a regular person. I'm I'm not a pastor, I've not been to seminary, uh that's for you know mission work and and and God's work, that's for the professionals, the the pastors, and the and the people that work at the church. And I uh, you know, what can what can God do with me? Uh that is a common misconception, but we just see over and over again uh that God uses uh common people uh like like like me to to do his work. Our missionaries, they're just the most regular, common people. Uh Jimmy Sprayberry uh is the most humble, gentle, Christ-like man I know, but he is just an ordinary guy who's been obedient. And I and I think that that's the misconception is that you the same that I have. I I need to have all these credentials, I need to have all this knowledge and experience in order to be used by God, but that's not true. Uh all God wants us to be is obedient. And and he does amazing things through common, ordinary people who are obedient uh to what he's called them to do, and it and it and that way he gets the glory. He receives all the glory as he deserves because it doesn't make sense for for common uh people like me to get to be a part of of his great redemptive story.

SPEAKER_01:

But yes, we are. It's absolutely powerful what he what he does for you, and he will equip you for what he's called you to do. And you're right, you don't have to uh you don't have to think about, you know, I'm not equipped to do whatever. You are God'll get you there. You you absolutely are.

SPEAKER_02:

He was called to equip, he equips the called.

SPEAKER_01:

That's exactly right. That's exactly right. So let's uh switch here a little bit and talk about you personally for a second. What do you do for fun when you're not working on uh the tasks involved with four corners?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh well, uh, you know, God's called us to be fishers of men, but I also like to be a fisher of fish. Good fish. And uh I've always loved to fish, and and I have an 11-year-old son, Jack, who loves to fish even more than I do. Uh so I I love to go fishing with Jack. Uh have a 12-year-old daughter, Emily. She's 12, going on 21. Of course. And uh so uh she also loves fish, but in a very different way. She likes it raw. And uh she loves to eat sushi. Sushi. And so she and I are the only ones in the family that really enjoy sushi. So she and I every month we you might see us at a local sushi restaurant. We go on a daddy-daughter date and eat sushi together, and she tells me about all the things. Uh, she has many words, and uh, and I I I listen and we eat sushi together. And uh my youngest daughter, Julia, she is seven, and uh, and usually we will we love going to Krispy Kreme together and having donuts and then to the playground. She still loves the playground, and I know that that that season is it will be ending soon, so we enjoy doing that together. And my wife, I've been married for for 26 years, and uh we we enjoy traveling together and and and and eating out and uh we're going to the game tomorrow. So uh uh we just enjoy spending time together as a family, um, and I'm grateful for for each of them.

SPEAKER_01:

Very good. So part of the reason I do this podcast is to encourage people to uh follow their dreams, their skills, or even uh get into entrepreneurship because I like you said, we often tell ourselves we can't do it, right? When all it really takes is just some action. But even when you get started along that path, you come across obstacles or hardships or challenges uh that sometimes can um actually can make you a stronger person or your business stronger, or in your case, your ministry stronger. What were some of those um hardships that Four Corners has come across, or maybe even you personally that made you a stronger person or made Four Corners stronger? Uh, you know, nonprofit?

SPEAKER_02:

You know, there there have been many hardships as I look back, and uh many times things looked impossible. And you know, that's often what it looks like to us and people who are starting. I know many business owners, and even in my my career before Four Corners, uh many times things looked impossible, and uh and there were hardships that uh that you just didn't think you could overcome. Uh, but with God, all things are possible. And I I I guess if I had to pick one, I'd I'd I'd have to uh go back to even before Four Corners. And um when I was uh a very young man, age 17, probably uh this this hardship was very pivotal. And uh uh I believed three lies. And I think I I'm gonna share this one because I believe this, these are the lies that uh that that our adversary wants all of us to believe, whether you're a business owner or in ministry, it it doesn't matter. Um I I believe he tries to tell us these lies, and I believed these lies when I was a 17-year-old young man. And the first lie is uh that God's word is not good, that his law is not good. I didn't think it was good for me. I thought it was to keep me from having fun and doing what I wanted to do, and uh, and so I rejected them. And uh I I just whatever felt good, I did it. If a little bit felt good, more would feel better. And I just lived to please myself and uh do whatever I wanted to do, uh, which leads to the second lie. The second lie, I believe, was there are no consequences from breaking God's law.

SPEAKER_01:

And there sure are, yes.

SPEAKER_02:

And there sure are. And I found myself, without sharing the the horrible details, I found myself experiencing the consequences uh of a rebellious life, of a rejection of God's way, thinking my way was better. Many things happened. My parents got divorced, uh, I really had no relationship with my father. My grandfather died suddenly, and I had made some horrible decisions that uh that were very shameful and everybody knew. And and uh this was this was uh December of 1995. I'll never forget. I found myself in a deep dark depression, uh, even at that young age, and I believed the third lie, uh, which which was that life was not worth living. And uh the best thing that I could do to no longer shame my mother uh was to take my own life. And I believed that lie and uh had planned to do so, but God absolutely intervened. And I remember this was not so much a prayer, but uh just a another outburst. And uh I just said, God, I don't believe you. I don't believe you love me, I don't believe you have a plan for me, I don't believe any of the things I've ever heard about you. But if you're real, show me. And uh, Susanna, the next day is still hard to describe, even though I've been thinking about it for 30 years. The next day, uh I was at work, but I had planned that I would get my little car, my little 92 Eclipse sports car going as fast as it would go down 231 south out of Nothan, Alabama, and I would pull it off the road and it'd all be over. And everybody would say, Yep, we saw that coming because Yancey was reckless, and uh and and no one would be the wiser. But God intervened, and I I experienced a father's love that just overwhelmed me in the moment, and uh I could not deny it. And um, and as I look back now, I see like Romans 8 teaches us that we received the spirit of adoption, and that's what happened to me.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right. Saved me.

SPEAKER_02:

I wasn't looking for him, I was trying to please myself, but God saved me and he adopted me and he calls me son. And I remember I went back into that back storeroom at Ronnie's Men's and Boysware, and I sat down on a box of Levi's jeans, and I just cried. I just broke and I said, God, I've ruined myself, but if you want me, I'm yours. And uh, you know, and he always does.

SPEAKER_01:

He wants you, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And he has been cleaning me up, and I've made so many mistakes, too many to to to name, and I've failed, and he has been faithful. Um I've been unfaithful, he's been faithful, he's good, he's faithful, he's wise, he's sovereign, and I'm his. And I'm so grateful that he did not leave me in that state. In that state, I'm dead in my sin, and he gave me life. And it's been a good life, way better than anything I could have experienced or done in and of my own ability, uh, which led me to depression and and and and and the desire for death. Um, but God, he's gracious, he's merciful, and he has been to me. And so that is that is when I look back, that is that is definitely the the biggest one. There's been many hardships since I could tell you about infertility. My wife and I suffered and struggled with infertility for 15 years. There's been many, many heartaches and uh ups and downs uh over the years, and at four corners too. But as I look back, God is good and he is faithful. I know those two things.

SPEAKER_01:

And that is true. That's absolutely true. So, what is one thing that you wish people knew about four corners that they may not realize, uh especially about your mission and what you guys do?

SPEAKER_02:

You know, I I just uh as people listen to this, I I don't know who will all hear this. Uh, but uh you may it may be people like like that, like I was when I was 17 and have no idea who God is. If you don't, I pray that you will taste and see that he is good. Please call me. Uh I'll talk to you about it. Uh but uh that I guess the main thing is that Jesus is worthy. He is worthy of worship from our neighborhood to the nations. And that is what Four Corners is about. We believe that Jesus is worthy of worship, and that is why we exist uh to communicate and demonstrate this life-saving gospel of Jesus to unreached and under-equipped people groups. We do that uh through the local church and and Abbana's Hope, but also in our thrift stores. Here we have four thrift stores uh that we want to be salt and light right here in our neighborhoods. Uh uh God uses those thrift stores to pay for all the administrative costs of the ministry and part of the the mission. So we're grateful for that. So come see us uh at the thrift store. You can you can here there's three things that that that people can do. They everybody can pray. Pray for us, pray for pray for our missionaries, um, Atabanis Hope, uh, pray for uh the Acholi tribe, that all those whom God has has ransomed uh with his with Christ's blood, that that they will repent and believe, and that um they will worship him as he deserves. So everybody, everybody uh who is a follower of Christ can pray. We ask you to do that. Uh and uh uh you may be able to go. We're we we need more missionaries, short term and long term. So we're we're asking the Lord of the harvest to uh send more laborers into the harvest. And uh, or maybe you can give, you know, you can support financially by by by becoming a four-quarters partner, or you can donate to the thrift stores, or you can shop at the thrift stores. So uh we we want people to know that uh that Jesus is worthy of worship, he's worthy of my life, he's worthy of your life, um, and we desire for him to be worshipped uh by all peoples, uh, right here from Auburn and Opalica, Alabama to uh the ends of the earth.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, absolutely. So tell me a little bit about how to get in touch or learn more about Four Corners. Uh, where do you find that kind of information?

SPEAKER_02:

You can go to fourcorners.org is our website. That's probably the best place to start. Uh you can call us here at the office, downtown Opalica. Our office is 202 South 8th Street here in downtown Opalica. Our phone number is 334-737-6338. You can send us an email at info at fourcorners.org. Uh, we have a YouTube channel and all the social media stuff if you want to see some of the people and hear uh directly from uh some of our Choli brothers and sisters uh what God has done through his servants at Four Corners Ministries. You can go to our YouTube channel and see those firsthand, and we invite you to come come and see. And uh I'm so thankful for this opportunity to share. Uh Suzanne, appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it's been a pleasure talking with you, Yancy, and learning about the Four Corners uh Ministries, and I do appreciate you being on our podcast today. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02:

All right, thank you, Susanna.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Auburn. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpauburn.com. That's gnpauburn.com or call 334-429-7404.