Before Pastor Keith Christie joined the church he was a rodeo-going bronc rider with what he described as a "pretty bad attitude".
Standing in Mount Isa's Christian Outreach Centre, it is hard to draw any parallel between the Pastor Keith who stands before you and the photos of the bronc rider on his office walls.
Pastor Keith reopened the Christian Outreach Centre two decades ago and celebrated the milestone last month.
He said he was originally on his way to Mareeba in the Atherton Tablelands when he felt the call to return to Mount Isa, where he had previously worked in a mine.
"I just felt God tell me to come back here and restart the Christian Outreach Centre," Pastor Keith said.
"The building was in a bit of disarray, but yeah, we just worked away at it and cleaned it up.
"The first night I started it up, it was a Wednesday night, it was my first service and the place was full."
The Christian Outreach Centre had operated in Mount Isa since the 1980s but had shut down in 1999 when the previous Pastor left.
Blue army
Mount Isa residents are accustomed to seeing Pastor Keith and his 'blue army' in Mount Isa — a collection of volunteers from the church in blue shirts who provide community assistance to anyone in need.
Pastor Keith said the volunteers and those they help have been hit hard by COVID-19 restrictions.
"We had a big youth program running prior to COVID at the Sunset Oval and we were getting 120 children every Friday night," he said.
"The biggest heartbreak is for the kids on Friday nights, because some of those kids that we were feeding, sometimes that would be the only feed some of those kids would have [that day]."
Despite the challenges, Pastor Keith said the church and his volunteer army are still continuing to do what they can.
"It's hard because I will never turn my back on anyone that needs help, so we just do what we can," he said.
"We stick by the restrictions and honour those things as part of the community.
"But we are still helping everyone we can."
