Pictured above: On Easter Sunday 2026, church planting missionary Danny Ford preached to a crowd that included a family who were attending for the first time. They were his neighbors, and the wife had given her life to Christ the day before through the Ford family’s outreach to them. A few weeks later, the husband would give his life to Christ as well. Submitted photo

DESTIN, Fla. – Most people in the Southeast likely last thought of Destin when they were planning a vacation along Florida’s Gulf Coast, but for one church planting missionary, the coastal city went from vacation spot to mission field.

“When I was a teenager, we used to vacation here in Destin as a family,” Danny Ford said. “I was walking the beach one night with my uncle and my cousins and, for some reason, just felt like it would be really awesome if someone started a church here that loved God, loved people and wanted to make a difference.”

Even as the idea came into his head as a teenager, Ford wasn’t thinking Destin was devoid of healthy churches, but the seemingly random thought would implant itself in his mind like a seed.

Several years later, that seed grew into a church plant called Gulf City Church as a part of Send Network Florida.

“I just kept doing ministry, kept doing my degrees and went to Delaware, actually, and was working with LifeHouse Church in Townsend,” Ford said.

Ford described LifeHouse as a church that, within its first 13 years as a congregation, had planted six churches. While serving on staff, his heart to reach the Florida Panhandle never dissipated.

“I just felt burdened to actually come to Destin,” said Ford. “I felt like the Lord was saying to look at churches in the area of the Panhandle and just see the struggle of what’s going on and how he can still work.”

The city’s website mentions changes to the community since the 1980s when it grew from a small fishing village into a stretch of 24 miles of beaches that welcomes roughly 4.5 million people each year.

While fishing remains a key part of Destin’s economy and culture, the expansion of the hospitality industry has led to people from all over the world coming to live and work there.

“It’s a great community of people who are very loving, but Destin has changed a lot in the last 10 years,” Ford said. “The nations are here in ways that I can’t describe. Our neighbors to our church building are Russian, Ukrainian, Brazilian, Venezuelan, Haitian, Jamaican. We literally have the nations at our doorstep.”

Like any pastor would, Ford wrestled with the best plan for equipping his people to reach out to those neighbors. Then, a Gospel conversation by the pool opened the door for a vision the church could use.

Ford’s wife, Kori, was poolside with a couple of friends, including a neighbor who was not a believer. Ford went to check on them and felt impressed to share the Gospel with her. An hour of conversation later and with tears in her eyes, she gave her life to Christ there by the pool.

That was the day before Easter, and the entire family came to church the next day. The husband gave his life to Christ a few weeks later.

“We counted the steps, and there were only 20 steps from our house to their house,” Ford said. “I instantly knew that God was calling us to start within our church and within our personal ministry a ministry called 20 Steps Ministries where our hope is to be the missionaries of our street.

“We want to encourage people that, wherever you are, you’re only a small number of steps away from someone who needs Jesus or needs encouragement in their faith.”

To help emphasize that idea Ford has prepared his church to go through Who’s Your One, an evangelism initiative launched by the North American Mission Board.

“Our goal is to say, ‘We may be a smaller church, but we’re going to be a faithful church,’” Ford said. “You’re the missionary of your street, so what’s your 20 steps? What’s your ministry opportunity? Who’s right above you, right below you, right beside you on a daily basis that you can make a difference in their life one day at a time?”

That couple Ford and his wife were able to lead to the Lord? He and Kori have been discipling them at their dining room table, and they’ve recently been talking more about how to pay it forward and share the Gospel with others the way the Fords did with them.

The challenge ahead with Who’s Your One is to encourage everyone in the church to identify at least one person with whom they can build an intentional relationship that leads to sharing the Gospel.

Church planting is hard work, Ford said, but reaching others and making disciples is a central aim of their church. When the work gets difficult, there’s a family of missionaries and churches who have their back through Send Network.

“We know that there’s a lot of churches that God is starting,” Ford said, “but somehow Send Network does a good job making sure that everyone knows they’re at least seen and prayed for.”