Tight family harmony, inspirational testimonies and a classic Southern Gospel sound characterize the Mattingly Family ministry. Since their inception in 1974, Jim and Ruby Mattingly's message has been the same. They strive to make the gospel of Jesus Christ foremost, and to encourage pastors, churches and families wherever He leads them. 
They make their home in Moody, MO, but spend three hundred days a year traveling and singing. Averaging one hundred and eighty concerts each year, the Lord continues to bless their ministry. "The Lord is working and moving and we just feel honored to be along for the ride," says Jim. 
The group consists of father and mother, Jim and Ruby, and three of their six children, Jeremiah, Ruth Ann and Jonathan, and Jonathan's wife Sarah. 

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The Mattingly Family Part 1

The Mattingly Family Part 2 

The Mattingly Part 3 

Originally, we thought God was moving us towards Kenya, because we had a friend that was inviting us to come work with him, and we were helping him in starting up his ministry in Kenya. As we were praying as to where God wanted us to go, door after door kept closing in the direction of Kenya. But we kept on hearing more about Wales and how less than 3% of the Welsh population has heard the Gospel. As time went on and we kept praying, Wales kept on coming up. At one point, I was praying in my office at my church in Illinois. I prayed, “God, I know you’re calling us to the Mission field, but I need to know where. Is it Kenya or is it Wales?”

Emmaus Baptist College gets its name from an encounter two disciples had with the Risen Savior recounted in the 24th chapter of the Gospel of Luke. The result of the encounter caused these two to have their eyes opened, to know the Lord better, and to be witnesses to others of the Resurrection. That is our goal as well! We want students to gain knowledge (eyes opened), to grow in their personal relationship with Jesus (know the Lord), and to be equipped to take the message of the Gospel to others. During its 66 year history, Emmaus has trained hundreds of alumni who serve the Lord literally around the globe.

Damien Austin – I was born in Massachusetts and raised in a devoted Catholic family. From my earliest memory when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up my response was always that I wanted to be a priest. I spent the first eight years of my education in Catholic school. I asked my parents to send me to a seminary in Rhode Island after grammar school, but they couldn’t afford it and I went to the public high school. I took a course in world religions and discovered that I didn’t believe fully in any of them, and that included Catholicism. I stopped going to church, against my parent’s wishes, and became a self-proclaimed atheist. I never searched for the meaning of life after that and accepted my role in life. I became a factory worker after high school and I accepted that as my role in life. At forty-five years of age, I moved to Florida. I got a job in a factory, and after five years on the job, a co-worker, James Rudd, began to ask me questions about my faith, not my religion, but my faith. I told him I really didn’t believe in anything. I had accepted the Big Bang theory of accidental life and inevitable death. He began to teach me about God and Jesus using his Bible as his proof and explanation of all that is. After a few months of questions and answers, I went to church with him. Pastor Carl Wells of Willow Oak Baptist Church preached a message that “there would come a time when God would stop calling on you.” I felt the Holy Spirit move in me, and recognized that God might be giving me a final chance to soften my heart and accept Christ as my Savior. I walked the aisle on Oct. 2, 2005, and was baptized Oct. 9. My fiftieth birthday was October 15, 2005. My testimony is that it is never too late to talk to someone about the Lord. A few months later Dr. Pennell, a missionary to Ukraine, came to speak at the church and I was moved by his ministry. I asked him if I could join him on the field, and he told me that I needed to get a good Christian education first. I quit my job and set all my retirement savings toward learning more about God. I enrolled at Emmaus Baptist College and graduated in 2010. I worked the first summer at 60th Ave Baptist Church in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the following summers at Florida Baptist Youth Camp under the mentoring of Brother Steve Dobson. During my junior year I met Melanie. Melanie was in banking, and she was a devout Catholic that was introduced to me by mutual friends. During one of our first dates, she expressed that she had no intention of changing her religion. She began to come to church with me on Sunday and still attend Catholic mass on Saturday afternoon. Within a month, the Holy Spirit grabbed her attention and she began to recognize things she had accepted all her life that had no substance in the Word of God. She began to ask questions and we spent many hours talking about our faith and religion. One Sunday, Pastor Carl preached a message that there were six reasons Satan will use to try to convince a person not to walk the aisle. Number six was “You don’t have to do it today!” Melanie grabbed my arm and said “I need to do this today!” She accepted Christ as her Savior on November 30, 2008, and was baptized the following week. In celebration, I purchased a Bible for her with her name on the cover… it only read “Melanie.” I told her that I left enough room to add the name “Austin” if she would marry me. Yes, the stories are true. I proposed to Melanie at The Golden Coral. We laugh about it even today. We were married May 9, 2009. I was scheduled to attend Westwood Baptist School of Missions as Westwood M.B.C. in Winter Haven in the fall of 2010. Our plan was for Melanie to continue working while I learned to become a missionary. But one Saturday morning the Holy Spirit got hold of Melanie and after a conversation over supper with Doug Wiersema, we recognized that she needed to learn to be a missionary and that it was important for her to attend the school as well. We took a leap of faith and Melanie quit her job and enrolled. Now neither of us had a job and we were living off our savings. Doug mentioned that Dr. Pennell was going to Ukraine for Christmas and we asked if we could join him. We did, and we recognized our calling to serve the Lord in Ukraine. We visited the Ukraine for the summer of 2011 and returned home to travel about and tell churches about our calling. We moved to Ukraine in October of 2012. The rest you learn from our monthly missionary letters. God Bless James Rudd!