I was raised in a traditional church in East Canton, Ohio and attended a confirmation class in my teenage years. Looking back, I’m not sure just what was ‘confirmed’. In high school I was an average ‘C’ student that considered himself a ‘jock.” I participated in football, basketball, and track. I was also a weekend ‘partier'.

Following graduation from high school, I enlisted in the United States Coast Guard. Upon completion of basic training was assigned to the Coast Guard Air Station in Sitka, Alaska. I immediately started living the life of a sailor, with heavy drinking and sleeping around. I quickly became scared of that lifestyle, and I cried out to God in desperation. God answered that prayer through a pilot at the Air Station becoming my friend. We would often jog after work and go fishing on his boat. One evening, following a day of fishing, he invited me to go to a church service. Even though I smelled like a fish, I decided to accept his invitation to attend church with him.

This church was different from any other church that I’d ever attended. It was full of Life. The people lifted up their hands as soon as the music started. I knew that they had something that I did not have. I vividly recall sitting in the pew with a Gerber knife attached to my belt and tears rolling down my cheeks. I was silently praying, “God, if you are going to change me. Do it tonight.” God changed my life on May 7th, 1983.

I was only two months in the Lord, July of 1983, when my mother and father came from Ohio to visit me in Alaska. One evening in my parent’s hotel room I went through the study guide in my Bible on 'How to Witness.” They then prayed with me to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and their Savior. I remember the joy that I experienced as I left their hotel room and walked back to my barracks. I believe this is the reason that I love evangelism as much as I do.

Upon fulfillment of my four-year obligation in the Coast Guard, I helped my friend, the commander, now an ordained minister, start a video Bible school in Alaska. I went through the school, and also became an Assistant Youth Pastor at the church where I had met the Lord. In 1988 I left Alaska to attend Christ for the Nations Institute (CFNI) in Dallas, Texas. While attending CFNI, I led the High School & College Campus Outreach Ministries, and went to New Orleans for the Mardi Gras Outreach and to the Philippines for a short-term mission trip in 1990.

In 1991, following graduation from the two-year curriculum at CFNI, I moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota and attended North Central Bible College to complete a Bachelor’s Degree program in Pastoral Studies. During my course of studies at North Central, I served as a Singles Ministry Pastor and also became a House Manager at Midwest Challenge, a Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Center in South Minneapolis.

In 1994 I attended the Minneapolis Community College for an Associate’s Degree in Chemical Dependency Counseling, and was then employed by Damascus Way, a re-entry program for men released from prison and transitioning back into society.

Around 1996, I started attending Woodland Hills Church and participated in their 1997 short-term mission trip to Trinidad and Tobago. I also led a couple of evangelism teams to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. In 1999, I shared my vision for ’The J. C. Fish Co.’ with the Evangelism Pastor and the Missions Pastor of Woodland Hills Church and they were gracious to help me start up the ministry and supported it for several years. The J. C. Fish Co. is a street evangelism ministry that teaches, demonstrates, motivates, and encourages Fishers of Men to participate in Local Outreaches, and in so doing, it helps them raise Support for their next Short-term Mission Trip.

In 2005, I put the ministry on hold when the funding started to dry up and I started a new career by becoming a Corrections Officer with the Minnesota Department of Corrections. During that time, I was also able to be a spectator at my children’s extra-curricular activities, Baseball, Softball, Football and Hockey. I will never forget the encouraging words by a good friend of mine. He said, “Maybe The J. C. Fish Co. was a ministry before its time.” I retired from the Minnesota Department of Corrections in 2020 and moved back to Ohio.

In 2019, I resumed the ministry of The J. C. Fish Co. in Minnesota, and I duplicated the ministry in Ohio in 2022. In Matthew 4:19, Jesus said, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." I like to turn that statement around and ask, “If you are not a fisher of men, are you really following Christ?”

Sincerely,

Lon R. Hudak

Executive Director

The J. C. Fish Co.

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