Janice Claypoole was saved in 1973 at the Franklin Avenue Church of God. She first began ministering to under-priviledged children in the housing projects, telling them about Jesus and winning them to the Lord. She then taught Children's Church and adult classes in the local church, and also ministered in the nursing homes. As she grew in the Lord, she began to seek out the down and out. She would strap on a guitar and sing to alcoholics and drug addicts in an old, run down...now demolished, hotel ballroom. They would gather on Sunday afternoon and listen to her sing and tell them about Jesus. Janice answered God's call to "Preach the Word" in 1978 starting out as an evangelist and working in the prison/jail ministry. That ministry brought her in contact with even more broken, hurting, hopeless people. She would reach through the bars and minister life to them, and they would accept Jesus as Savior. One man told her there needed to be a church where people like him could feel welcomed and that if she started a church, he would be the first one there. That planted a seed that she would never forget.

One day while driving down Main Street, she watched one of the alcoholics she had sung to at the old hotel, staggering down the street. He was dragging an old, dirty, ragged blanket behind him. It broke her heart and she started crying out to God..."Please, Fix It!" Under the leading of the Holy Spirit, she started looking for a building to rent to start a church. It had to be right in the middle of the downtown area where all the street action, pool hall and liquor stores were located. God then had a man she knew walk up to her and invite her to see his building he wanted to rent...one door down from the local pool hall. She knew it was God when she stepped inside and rented it on the spot without a dime in her pocket, trusting God to supply it. God has supplied every need ever since.

She is now a licensed minister in the Church of God and pastors the Ark of Mercy Church of God in Winchester, Kentucky, which she began in September of 1989, with 109 charter members in a tiny storefront on Main Street. The congregation quickly outgrew the storefront and a bigger building was purchased in the same area to accomodate the larger crowds and many ministries which the church now has flowing out of it.

Janice Claypoole has a deliverance ministry. You can go down row after row and listen to the testimonies of the people who were bound by alcohol, drugs, pornography, demon-possessed, abusers, former strip-dancers, prostitutes, pushers, drug dealers...Now delivered by the powerful hand of God without withdrawal, without going to rehab...Just pure deliverance coming down from God. To God be all the Glory!

God's hand is on the Ark of Mercy because "Mercy" can be found there. It's a Spiritual M.A.S.H. Unit. There is a never-ending flood of incoming wounded seeking deliverance and no usher stops them at the door and escorts them outside. No matter what they look like or smell like...if they are drunk or high and can only take two steps forward and four steps back: they are some mother's child, and they've come, tears flowing like a river, looking for Jesus and Mercy. They become Highly Honored Guests and service "as usual" comes to a halt as the "99" sheep in the fold, step aside to allow the Shepherd of the Ark of Mercy, to go after and rescue the One Lost Sheep, and bring it back safely into the heavenly fold...because they still remember when everything stopped for them.

The alcoholic with the dirty, ragged blanket has since passed on ...Saved! To God Be Alll The Glory!