In July 1981, Nengmay, Cherkao, and Sayvang's families moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin from Little Rock, Arkansas. Shortly after arriving to the city, they were contacted by Doctor Michael Brown, Director of Mission of Lakeland Baptist Association (LBA). Not long afterward, they decided to join the Northwest Baptist Church congregation.
How it grew
A few months later, Northwest was filled with a number of other Hmong families in the Milwaukee area. There was a concern for older men and women who do not understand english, let alone, speak it. With increasing hmong members and a need to preach the gospel in hmong, Pastor Thomas Biles was inspired to start a Hmong Mission work and break the Sunday worship into two sessions. The Hmong session started early in the morning with Pastor Tom Biles giving the sermon and Pastor Nengmay translating into hmong. Steve Biles and Mark Schneider taught Sunday School classes and led the worship hymnal. We are indebted to Pastor Tom Biles and the Northwest Baptist congregation for their time and effort in teaching and helping our hmong members to learn about God week after week year after year.
Pastor Nengmay completed his studies from Lakeland Baptist and was ordained as Pastor and became a full time Pastor.
By the grace of God, more Hmong people are hearing about the church. The members grew steadily. On March 23, 1985, Pastor Nenmay and Northwest Baptist Church etablished and constituted the Hmong First Baptist Church of Milwaukee.
First Church Purchase
On January 15, 1993, Hmong First Baptist purchased their first building on the south side of Milwaukee. When the building was acquired, it needed major repairs. It was even a bigger challenge to overcome for Pastor Nengmay and the congregation when graffiti began to appear. Pastor Nengmay got the community and local neighborhoods involved and the gangs stopped the grafitti shortly afterward. As a committed person to Christ, Pastor Nengmay led his congregation and the community to completing the church building restoration. It took seven months and was completed in July of that year.
As members continued to grow, Sunday school classes and the worship spaces were crowded. To grow more in Christ, Pastor Nengmay proposed to the congregation to build a new church. His vision was to build a large worship hall that will hold at least 200 people along with more Sunday school classes. After several meetings, the congregation voted to sell the existing building to fund the new church .
In early of 1997, the church purchased a 2.3 acres of land in the Northwest side of Milwaukee County. The church raised funds and organized volunteers to start making the historical construction of this new church on May 17, 2001.
Because the church had no collateral and was unable to secure a full bank loan for the entire constructions, the church members pooled their personal resources and loans to cover the cost of the first phase of the construction. It should be noted that only 75% of the construction of the building plan was actually completed. The other section of the building plan is anticipated to be completed by 2005. A fund-raising to cover the cost of this second phase of the construction is in progress.
During the new church building period, Pastor Nengmay decided to retire from his pastorship. Pastor Tongber Vang succeeded as Pastor on December 31, 1997. However, Pastor Nengmay continues to serve as the head of the Church Trustee and continues his ministry of reaching out to startup churches.
The church was built by its members and Southern Baptist members who came from all over the United States. Men, women and young adults as well as children participated in one way or the other to complete the construction. This was a substantial demonstration of faith and conviction to God. The new church construction was completed on November 1, 2001 and dedicated to the Lord on February of 2002.
Praised the Lord for all people who put their hearts, committed their times and efforts and contributed money to make the dream and life of the Hmong First Baptist Church into a reality.