Jon Cardwell

Jon Cardwell was saved by God’s grace on June 3, 1985 while serving in the military as a deep sea diver in the U.S. Navy. The call to ministry came 8 years later when he was invited to serve the Lord in the Philippine mission field. Jon’s entry into pastoral ministry came another 6 years afterward, when he was invited to serve as pastor of First Filipino Methodist Church in Riverside, California. Although Baptist, Reformed and Covenantal in theology, Jon reluctantly, yet obediently, submitted to the unanimous call to pastor the church. In 2002, Jon answered the call to minister in remote “bush” Alaska as a missionary-pastor, first to the Aleut village of King Cove, and later, to the Yup’ik village of Scammon Bay. Illness forced Jon to leave remote village life, departing Alaska in 2008 and receiving the call to pastor Sovereign Grace Baptist Church in Anniston, Alabama. Although continuing to suffer neurological symptoms from “latent onset diving decompression sickness,” after more than 9 years of ministry in Alabama, Jon has answered the Lord’s call to return to minister in Alaska. As of May 18, 2018, Jon Cardwell is now ministering as pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Ninilchik, a native fishing village on the Cook Inlet coast of Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula.