"We want to see you connected with God's purpose for your life so that your life is one of victory and joy!"
Randy & Cherie Gilbert
Randy and Cherie know exactly how it can feel to come from small beginnings. The family background on both sides was obscure. It didn’t seem like either of them would amount to anything great.
Randy found himself facing a terminal illness at the young age of 25. With no hope of a liver transplant, he was ready to accept what seemed to be his fate - and bitter, painful death. His body had jaundice, and his liver had hardened and began sticking out his side under his ribcage. There was no position he could sit or lay in that was comfortable. Randy remembered from his upbringing by his born-again single mother, that there was only hope for him. Jesus. In one short desperate word, Randy cried to Jesus, simply uttering the word, “Help!” Instantly, his body was healed of the disease that he was dealing with. His liver softened and returned to a normal position in his body, and all the coloring of jaundice had disappeared. He now had a natural complexion by the healing power of God at his salvation. Randy then moved to St. Augustine, Florida to attend Flagler College where he would meet his wife, Cherie.
Cherie had a similar healing experience, though hers occurred after her salvation. In her late teen and early adult years, Cherie was known all over Virginia as a striking beauty queen with the utmost poise and charm. But something was missing. Jesus. After fighting depression and lack of self worth, Cherie came to realize that her ultimate worth was that Jesus had died for her to give her eternal life. With her newfound faith in Jesus Christ, Cherie had yet to face one of the biggest challenges in her young Christian life. She was diagnosed with cancer. The doctor Cherie was seeing at the time told her that he had to remove the cancer and all perform a hysterectomy in order to save her life. He said she would never be able to have her own children. This was devastating to Cherie, because she had always wanted her own children. Because she knew that Jesus was the healer, she simply smiled and told the doctor, “It’s okay. Jesus is going to heal me.” He began to cry at the declaration of such simple, immovable faith. Cherie was willing to submit to the surgery to have the cancer removed and believed God for a miracle. When she woke up, the doctor was sitting on her hospital bed, weeping. She looked at him, and he turned to her saying, “It’s a miracle! The cancer can’t be found, I don’t know where it went.” She just smiled and simply said, “I told you Jesus was going to heal me.”
Cherie was also attending Flagler College at this time, and once she and Randy became acquainted and started ministering together to a local Bible study group, they knew that God had called them to be man and wife, and to minister the Word together.
God then began to speak Randy about the city of Richmond, Virginia in 1976, when he and Cherie were visiting her family for Christmas. They had been seeking the Lord for His plan for their lives in the ministry, and knew that this was part of it. They attended one year of Bible school at Rhema Bible Training Center, and then moved to Richmond, VA in 1979 to begin their church, Faith Landmarks Ministries.
At first, the church did not have a name. Pastors knew that there was something special about this ministry and were waiting for God to brand it with the name He had given it. During one of her devotional times, Pastor Cherie clearly saw the name that God had chosen. She was reading, “You should be leaving LANDMARKS of FAITH for others to follow so they can find their way through the storms of life and find Me!”
In 1988, FLM purchased its first piece of property on Chamberlayne Road after the church had already been in existence for about 7 years. In 1989, with 800 people attending, FLM opened its new doors. In 2001, FLM expanded its facility with a brand-new sanctuary and additional common areas and classrooms. The all-new, state-of-the-art youth facility on the FLM campus completed construction in the spring of 2008, and began holding youth meetings, high school and Bible school classes regularly.
Randy and Cherie felt their calling expanding, and in 2003 they began broadcasting on local and national television with Contact with Randy and Cherie. Contact has already touched countless lives across the nation and the world, and its mission is to see every person live victoriously in Christ Jesus. Contact holds annual crusades across the world. For 10 years, Africa and Kenya were specifically targeted for massive soul-winning crusades that have resulted in seeing over 2 million people saved. Every crusade yields greater results and salvations than the previous, and millions have come to Christ through the outreach ministries of Contact.
Contact with Randy and Cherie began filming on their brand-new studio set in late 2008. Now Contact with Randy and Cherie is filmed with close, in-depth teaching from its hosts, Randy and Cherie, and viewers are receiving an up-close-and-personal message on each program. Together, with its partners, Contact with Randy and Cherie will continue to teach victorious living to believers, and reach out to the lost of our world with the loving message of Jesus Christ.