On September 1 the Payson church held a mortgage-burning ceremony, celebrating the end of payments for their church building.

Pastor Matthew Vixie commented, "This church has accomplished astounding feats as they have been led by the Spirit of the Lord. They paid off a $48,000 debt while many of the members existed on fixed incomes. The members of this church do not see obstacles, they only see opportunities for God to work."

An unusual story surrounds the history of this church, nestled high in the mountains north of Phoenix.

In 1964, Gar and Eleanor Baybrook, members of the Tempe church, were traveling through Payson when Gar heard what he reported as an audible voice telling him that Adventist church work should be started there. After a subsequent trip, he reported hearing the same voice with the same message.

The Baybrooks returned to their Tempe church and asked for volunteers to begin the work in Payson. And they purchased a house in Payson, where church members met from 1964 to 1974.

For several years Gar and Eleanor traveled from their home in Scottsdale to Payson, where they established a publishing and used book ministry, Leaves of Autumn.

In 1972, Gar purchased a piece of property on Wade Lane for the future church building, and in 1974 he quit his career as a scientist and moved to Payson to devote his full time to gospel ministry.

Because a pastor was not available for that remote area of Arizona, lay leaders ran the church program for several years.

In 1974, Gar purchased a piece of property adjacent to the church property, and built a building on it. Members worshiped in that building from 1974 to 1980. And in 1974 Ernie and Betty Anderson built the Payson Adventist School on the church lot.

In the late 1970s Harold Howard came to be the pastor. He had a vision of erecting a real church sanctuary. Ten years later, in 1980, California Mission Builders, a division of Maranatha, came to Payson and erected the church, with Carl Swensen donating all the materials. The members worked hard for their church building, and it was debt free from the beginning.

Over the years the membership grew and the Payson church flourished. In 2006 the church secured a loan of $48,000 for repairs and renovations. But the church had liked being debt-free, so in January 2007, the members made a commitment to pay off the loan. An anonymous donor pledged to match all other debt-elimination contributions for a period of two months, and by April the debt was paid.

"I want to see the church continue meeting the challenges of today as they have in the past," Vixie says. "Five of our members are planning to go to Kenya to hold an evangelistic series with ShareHim. When they return, they will hold meetings again right here in Payson.

"I want the town to know what a mighty God we serve and what wondrous things He has already done—and will continue to do—in Payson."