The White Family STory
The Family...
God set me and Chelsea free from the bonds of Roman Catholicism in our teenage years and we pray God uses our testimonies of God's grace to build His Kingdom around the world! Chelsea and I currently reside in Baton Rouge, LA and have been married since 2011. We are blessed with seven beautiful children that keep our home quite lively: Zuri, Cruz, Crozby, Azalea, Zinnia, Zion, & Zephaniah. (We also have children in Heaven now due to premature birth and miscarriage that we look forward to seeing again very soon. To learn more about Ezra Manley White (Mar. 7, 2012 - Mar. 8, 2012), who was born at 20 weeks, 5 days, please watch our tribute video Intricately Woven.) We preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to ourselves first, because we are weak and needy of God’s grace everyday. We strive for transparency, letting others in as we are transformed from one degree of glory to another. We love God’s Word, beautiful music, playing outside with the kids, and laughing as much as we can! Personally, we are in major agreement with The First London Baptist Confession of Faith, 1646 and we enjoy sweet Christian fellowship with all those that believe, preach, and teach the Biblical Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Smothering Stone of Sin Removed...
I was born right outside New Orleans in LaPlace, LA and was raised Roman Catholic. We were nominally Catholic for much of my childhood and I was subjected to six years of Roman Catholic elementary education. In middle school, I became an altar boy for selfish reasons and began to go to Mass regularly. The religion was simply a way for me to seem righteous on the outside, because inwardly I was as filthy as could be. As I think about life before Christ, I consider Romans 1.
"They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, proud, boastful, inventors of evil things, and disobedient toward parents..."
Romans 1:29-30
As a teenager, my sin was getting out of control and my family feared I was at a crossroads as high school was quickly approaching. After a tumultuous couple of years, I was sent by my father to a Christian military school in Port Gibson, MS called Chamberlain-Hunt Academy for my 8th grade year. It was there that a young family on staff, The Whitneys, befriended me and invited me to a summer retreat. By God's grace, while at the Laguna Beach Christian Retreat in Panama City, FL, He saved me at the age of 14 on the night of July 12th, 2000. All the sins of my youth accumulated that night and felt like a large, smothering stone on my chest. I cried out to Jesus Christ with a loud voice to take that stone of sin off me and save me...and praise God He did! I'm thankful for the fellow saints that encouraged me to follow Christ in my teen years. Sadly, however, many roots of sin lingered due to my lack of Bible intake and discipleship. I pursued dating relationships and worked hard in my athletics. It was not until college that I received the sound doctrines of the Bible with joy. Through powerful expository preaching in various churches in Hammond, LA, and annual missions conferences, I learned the gospel and the heartbreaking reality that thousands of unreached people groups will never hear the gospel unless someone brings it to them. Throughout those transformative college years, I had the amazing privilege of taking several life-changing short term mission trips to South Africa, Swaziland, Vietnam, and India.
Into the Fray...
But how was I sharing the gospel on those mission trips? Did I even share the gospel with my own family, friends, and neighbors in my own neighborhood, BEFORE I got on the plane? Why was I so zealous to evangelize OVER THERE a couple times a year, but lacked the zeal and discipline RIGHT HERE to be a soul-winner everyday? In 2016, God introduced me to the ministry of Ray Comfort at Living Waters. God used the evangelistic zeal, steadfast discipline, and loving compassion of Ray Comfort to convict me of how little I shared the gospel in my daily life. (Though I no longer stand in agreement with Ray Comfort and the Living Waters team that the Ten Commandments are the "key to evangelism", I am absolutely thankful God has used them to lead thousands of believers out to the streets to declare God's Good News.)
For many years I said I was "called to be a missionary", but I rarely offered the lost around me the hope of Jesus Christ! I repented and asked God to teach me how to preach the gospel obediently and faithfully. By His grace, I hand out gospel tracts regularly now, pursue evangelistic conversations with nearly everyone I meet, and I started my new life of open air preaching in February 2017. Soon after, Declaring Truth Ministries was born. All glory to God for opening my eyes to the need around me! It is such a joy to proclaim the Good News that God is reconciling sinners to Himself through the perfect life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ! As His ambassador, I go forward into the fray, to declare the Good News of my King and Savior, that I may share in His sufferings for the sake of the elect and for His glory.
Bus Life...
For several years, we lived in Tickfaw, LA and grew a family there. In 2019, we experienced a remarkable God-sized portion of generosity! Ministry partners relieved us of our mortgage by buying our home from us! With an eye toward setting missionary families free of debt, they updated the home in Tickfaw, resold, and gave us the profits to buy something outright. With the proceeds from the home sale and after fundraising for many months, God provided a beautiful 1977 MC-8 Crusader motor coach bus conversion for us to live in for a season. The Brewer Family graciously allowed us to park our bus on their property in Denham Springs, Louisiana and we will forever be thankful for their help in our time of need. A family of eight living in a bus with 300 sq. ft was difficult for us spoiled Americans, but realizing it was freeing us from debt was invigorating! It taught us patience and contentment, as we waited upon the Lord for His provision. We strive to "endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." (2 Tim. 2:10)
Baton Rouge Ministry
We never imagined living in Baton Rouge! But through the generous outpouring of support from our ministry partners and through constant prayer, God placed us in a home just 5 minutes away from Louisiana State University. We are able to utilize our home for home schooling our seven arrows (Psalm 127:4), church meetings, discipleship training, Bible studies, and outreach coordination.
Home Fellowship of Baton Rouge
After the death of my mother in 2020, with a clear reminder of the brevity of life, the Lord put it upon my heart to work towards planting a church. We began meeting with a few other believers in Baton Rouge in 2021, and the name of that church was Kerusso Baptist Church. In those exciting early days, we sought to understand what God's Word teaches about His design for the edification of the Church. After fellow church members moved away, we were uncertain of our church planting future. All we knew was that we were desperate for times of refreshing to come from the presence of the Lord. (Acts 3:19)
In January 2023, with a fresh sense of peace in yielding to the Holy Spirit, we started a home bible study going through the parables of our Lord Jesus. Our family committed to demonstrate the love of Christ to all of our friends and trust God with all the rest. By God's grace, in September 2024, three families from that Bible study came together in one accord to establish Home Fellowship of Baton Rouge. On October 5th, 2024, through many tears of joy, the Spirit lead our little flock to recognize me as an elder. It's my joy and privilege to take on the "good work." (1 Tim. 3:1)
Stewardship & Giving Thanks!
Seeking to be good stewards of the manifold grace of God (1 Peter 4:10), our family is dedicated to declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ boldly to all peoples and equipping believers to do the same. Thank you so much for reading our story! If you have stumbled across my testimony above of God's forgiveness and have not experienced it for yourself, please learn more about the Gospel right away!
If our story has resonated with you and God is calling you into the fray to spread His Story more faithfully, there are a number of ways to partner with us to declare truth alongside us. You can sign up for the DTM newsletter, Dispatch From The Front, for White Family updates, encouraging testimonies, and Biblical teachings on the Gospel and evangelism. Our family, all our Gospel labors, and the resources we provide are completely funded by the generous recurring support and one-time special gifts from individual believers and churches. Consider becoming a Monthly Ministry Partner to play an essential role co-laboring with us in the Great Commission so that repentance and remission of sins is preached in the name of Jesus to all nations. (Lk 24:47) Every gift keeps our feet on the streets declaring "the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation" (Eph. 1:13).
He has delivered us from the power of darkness and
conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
in whom we have redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 1:13-14
We are so thankful for all that God has done in our lives through His Church! We've met kind saints all around the world that have encouraged us to "press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14). God has provided for DTM in so many ways since we began this ministry in 2017, and He's given us the strength to endure many hardships. We trust that our heavenly Father will care for His children well, physically and spiritually, as we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. (Matt. 6-7) Praise the LORD!
Zoe White
Director, Declaring Truth Ministries