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For over a year, Debbie Burpo hadn’t seen her… didn’t know how or where she was, until she stepped into her office that day.

There was a bit of desperation in the woman’s voice, but also a sense of reassurance knowing that Burpo would be there to walk with her through her troubles and everything would be okay.

Burpo, the senior pastor at Frontline Ministries in Kingfisher, said of the visitor to her office that day, she is “a perfect picture of our ministry.”

God’s word says we are to feed the hungry, give to the thirsty, invite the stranger in, clothe the naked, look after the sick and visit those in prison, she said.

“I want people to say, ‘If you need help go to Frontline Ministries because they are going to love you and they will help you get over the bridge,’ ” Burpo said.

Frontline Ministries strives to fulfill that mission on a daily basis and outreach has been a cornerstone for the church since the beginning.

She and her husband of 46 years, Tim, started the church in their home and moved to a rented building on Main Street in 2009. The church grew from 15 members to about 70 in three months, she said.

They relocated twice more to another Main Street property and then to the current location on West Erwin Avenue, which they received debtfree from the International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC).

A life recovery program was initiated in the beginning and is still part of their ministry today. The program is a 12-step outpatient recovery program for people overcoming drug and alcohol addiction.

“Our recovery program is so important,” Burpo said. “We have several church members that have been clean and sober for several years.

“We loved them through it and they turned their lives around.”

The church is involved in many other outreach programs including ministering to the homeless in Oklahoma City and providing a food bank, soup kitchen and thrift store for the community of Kingfisher and the surrounding area.

The soup kitchen serves food to approximately 60 children, as well as adults, on Wednesday night and also serves breakfast on Sunday mornings.

Many of the children they serve lack opportunities other kids have and they need people to love them, Burpo said.

“For the children we minister to, we hope to ingrain in them that there is a place you can find love and acceptance,” she said.

The food bank currently distributes an average of 60 boxes of food weekly to people in the community.

A federal commodities program for the elderly is also distributed monthly through the church to 42 individuals in the community.

“We have an amazing team of volunteers that help us with all of our outreach programs,” Burpo said.

Associate Pastor Ron Porter oversees a significant portion of the outreach ministry.

The church receives food from the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma for the food bank, but it is supplemented with proceeds from its thrift store.

The thrift store, His House, has been in operation for about two years and is currently located to the west of the main building.

It is open Thursday and Friday, but donations are accepted throughout the week. For donations, they request that you call the church so someone can meet you there.

“We have received great donations,” Burpo said. “We are very thankful that the people of Kingfisher have been so supportive.”

Although the dream of opening two long-term sober living residential homes on the church property received a setback in 2019 when a zoning request was denied, they are considering other options for the future.

In the midst of all the outreach efforts, Frontline Ministries recently began an expansion phase and is in the process of building an almost $2 million family life center. It will have a full-court gymnasium, stage, classrooms, commercial kitchen, snack bar and a large fellowship hall.

The vision is to use it for the community’s benefit, Burpo said. When it is complete, she said part of the plan is to utilize it for GED classes, job readiness classes, after-school programs and other needs within the community.

“I call it our ‘dream center,’ ” she said.

Burpo has always had big dreams, but some took a little longer to materialize.

She worked as an administrative secretary for over 30 years at Kingfisher Public Schools and Kingfisher’s hospital and was working as a secretary to the president of Southwestern Christian University in Bethany when she decided to pursue a degree in counseling.

She was 46 years old at the time and taking the ACT was a little intimidating, she said, but four years later she received her bachelor of science, with honors, in human and family services and a minor in biblical studies.

“It is never too late to do what God has called you to do,” she said. “He will get it done, if you will listen.”

She has always felt called to ministry from a young age, she said.

As a young girl growing up in Kingfisher, she attended a revival at the Assembly of God where Leon Seaton was the pastor.

“When I was 11 years old he led me to the Lord,” she said. “I gave my heart to the Lord then and that has stayed with me through everything.”

Her desire to serve others, especially those affected by drugs and alcohol addiction, stems from personal experience within her family.

Most families have been affected in some way by drug or alcohol addiction and hers is no exception, she said.

Working with families who have been affected by addiction has become her passion.

“I love seeing people’s lives transformed,” she said.

Burpo feels she has been called to this ministry, but there have been obstacles along the path and being a female preacher is not an easy road, she said.

“I do this because I sincerely love people, people who are hurting,” she said. “They are in a pit and need a hand up…not a hand out.

“I know what God has called me to do.”

Burpo is a fourth generation product of Kingfisher and she loves the community and the people.

She and her husband have five daughters - Lisa, Lori, Laci, Leah and Laine - who all graduated from KHS and all but one still live in Kingfisher. They also have nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

As Burpo recalled an incident in 1994, she said it expresses the heart of the people here.

Lori, who was 16 years old at the time, was hit by a car and was not expected to live, she said.

While Burpo was at her daughter’s side in a Dallas hospital for over a month, she said people in Kingfisher poured out their love and took care of her family.

“I will never forget how this community rallied around us with prayer, finances and food,” she said.

Lori recovered and is now a nurse at Mercy Hospital Kingfisher.

During that difficult time, Burpo said, her faith was bolstered and she knows that nothing is impossible with God.

One of her favorite scriptures is found in Hebrews 12 and states:

“And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”

“I live by that, especially when life starts falling apart,” Burpo said.

“We have to keep our our eyes fixed on Jesus, not give up and not lose sight of the vision.”

Burpo and Frontline Ministries keep pushing forward with their vision to serve and help those in the community through their many outreach efforts.

“I love our community and it’s a wonderful place to live,” Burpo said.

“I want Frontline Ministries to be a church that if there is a need in Kingfisher, come and tell us what it is and we want to help, no matter how difficult it is.”