SEVIERVILLE, Tenn. — Riverside RV Park and Resort in Sevierville has been home to an open-air church for 30 years, serving people just passing through and those in their own backyard.
The Loveday family moved from Florida back to Sevier County and opened the Riverside Campground in 1989.
On Sunday, they celebrated three decades of pool baptisms and church services at the campground.
Thirty years ago, Kent Loveday, the owner and pastor at Riverside, had a lot of questions for the big man upstairs.
"God, where do you want me?" Loveday asked. "And why have you called this minister to an RV Park to do this business so I could do this ministry?"
He and his family took a leap of faith and moved to Sevierville to open Riverside RV Park and Resort, but he knew he needed a place to worship once he got there.
Loveday said his dad had the perfect solution for the full-time minister.
"He said, 'there's an open-air pavilion and you can preach there,'" Loveday said. "So that's kind of how that went."
At the time, Loveday admits he didn't think he and his family would stay long, but God had other plans.
Sunday, visitors and family got to relive the memories and progress from then until now.
Ashley Shepherd, Loveday's daughter, said she has great memories of growing up fishing and playing with other children from all over the country every year.
"It's our mission field," Shepherd said. "People come in and we get to love on them through the business, we love on them through the ministry, so it definitely is a lighthouse to this area."
Shining their light on people just passing through and in their own backyard.
"People from all over, all over the world, you know different countries, but definitely all over the United States, they get to come and they get to hear God's word every week," Shepherd said.
Up until now, the church stayed in an open-air pavilion without walls, but they just added garage doors to the sides in December 2018, so this is the first church season with "movable walls."
"Now we're the church with movable walls but immovable faith," Loveday said.
The church is open from Easter through October. Riverside Missions has also played a huge part in giving back to their community. The church doesn't take up an offering every Sunday, rather leaves a box next to the coffee pot for people to give as they choose.
Loveday said the Mission has given back to Sevier County after the 2016 wildfires and donates to the local food pantry. The church also gives back to other countries, like Honduras.