ASHLEY DAY
Pastor
Ashley Day began his career in a school of languages in London's
West End. It was at a Billy Graham Crusade in 1954, at London’s Harringay Arena,
where the Lord began to tug at the Day’s hearts to leave Ashley’s prestigious career
in London and go into full-time ministry. God took two ordinary people and without
formal theological training, placed them in a ministry, that over a period of forty-five
years impacted thousands of lives. It is a demonstration of what God can do if we
are willing to step out in faith.
The ministry began, when moving down to the rural areas of Cornwall, Pastor Day preached in small pastorless churches for the next few years, working in a china clay mine to earn a living. After immigrating to the United States in 1959, the Days first served in the Milwaukee Rescue Mission and then with Village Missions, where they pastored several churches in Oregon. In 1973, Pastor Day became Chaplain at Stonecroft, the headquarters of the mission in Kansas City, MO. His first overseas broadcast began from HCJB in Quito, Ecuador. Seed-Time Ministries was formed the following year in Manzanita, Oregon. In 1975, Pastor Day and his wife, Edna, were called back to England, to minister at the Brookdale Evangelical Church in Ilfracombe, Devon. During those years, Seed-Time was transferred to Bakersfield, California and voluntarily operated by John and Lillian Penner, under whose leadership the ministry continued to grow. Bible studies were recorded in England and mailed to Bakersfield, where they were duplicated and distributed widely by the Penners.
Seed-Time Ministries was returned to Pastor Day in October 1980, after the family returned to the United States to pastor the Coeur d'Alene Bible Church, in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Seed-Time became an official ministry of the church at that time and was supported by the congregation as a mission outreach. Pastor Day served as Senior Pastor until September 2003, when upon his retirement from the full-time ministry, he became Pastor Emeritus.
In the later years, the Lord enabled Pastor Day to continue to minister and despite the tug to retire, he never really did. He spent much of this time occupied with Seed-Time radio broadcasts and successfully committed several of his message series into book form. This continued until March 29th, 2014, when the Lord called him home. His wife Edna lived on another seven years and at 91 joined Ashley in the Lord's presence on April 8, 2021. His family share a commitment in seeing the Word continue to be sown through this committed man of God. Ashley captured their story in his biography Saved to Serve, available on Amazon.