Pastor Jess Hill

Jesse Earl Hill (better known as Jess) was born in October of 1935 in Clarendon, TX. After living in several places, he graduated from Odessa High School in Odessa, Texas in 1954. During the summer of 1954, Jess started attending the Temple Baptist Church in Odessa. Pepper Garrett the youth pastor, led Jess to Christ on July 10. On July the 11th, Jess was baptized by Rev. Curtis Thorpe and became a member of Temple Baptist Church. The first week of August, Jess attended youth camp in Cloud Croft, New Mexico. On the last night of camp after hearing David Cavin preach, Jess surrendered his life to preach the gospel. In September of 1954, Jess enrolled in Baptist Bible College. In the second year at BBV, Jess met Lorna Enns from Inman, Kansas. On June 4th of 1956, they were married in the West Side Baptist Church by Rev. Lonnie Smith.

God blessed the Hills with two daughters and two sons. they now have 14 grandchildren, seven boys and seven girls.

After graduation from BBC (1957), Jess and Lorna moved to Andrews, Texas where they started the Grace Baptist Church. God blessed with a wonderful ministry in Andrews. The church grew to an average attendance over 150 with a high attendance of 220.

In February of 1964, the Lord led the Hills to move to Houston, Texas where they started the Braeburn Baptist Church. The church grew to a high attendance of over 500 during their first 25 years of ministry. In the late 80’s, the church began to go down in attendance. It was decided in the early 90’s that the church must relocate in order to continue. The property was sold and the church moved twelve miles west into Sugar Land, Texas where they have basically started over under the new name, Oak Lake Baptist Church. God has blessed with a beautiful new church site and a wonderful church family.

Jess and Lorna celebrated 40 years of ministry at Oak Lake Baptist Church in April of 2004!