The only congregation of the RPCNA in the state of Wyoming is in Laramie, a small city sprawled across a broad valley along Interstate 80 where the high plains meet the Rocky Mountains. If you find yourself out of breath at our psalm sings, it’s not just your imagination—our elevation is 7,200 feet, or 2,000 feet higher than Denver, which lies two hours to the south.

Laramie’s population of 31,000 designates it as the fourth largest city in Wyoming, as our sparse state boasts only 575,000 people. Home to the University of Wyoming, the sole four-year academic institution in the state, which draws around 10,000 students, the city welcomes a diversity of backgrounds, cultures, and languages not encountered elsewhere in the region and is ripe for the witness of the gospel.

The mantra “Cowboy Tough” is a nod to those who settled the lawless Wild West, and it is often repeated in modern-day Wyoming to sum up the attitudes of its inhabitants. Longtime Laramie residents here wryly quip that our brisk winds blow away the riffraff. Indeed, our long, high-altitude winters and isolated rural landscape bring a harshness for a part of the year that is not for the faint of heart. This independent spirit and western American mentality of “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” affects the spiritual climate of this region as well. Dominant ideologies are rooted in religions of works-righteousness or humanism. Within Laramie, this influence is seen in the secularism brought by the academic culture and in the dominant religious institutions: the liberal mainstream churches, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Bob and Cheryl Hemphill were sent from Westminster, Colo., to Laramie in 2007 to begin church planting efforts. It was noted that Laramie, despite being home to a major university, had no Presbyterian or Reformed churches; in fact, the state of Wyoming contained only five or six churches aligned with Reformed theology. Bible studies, psalm sings, prayer nights, and meals for international students began to draw attendance. In January 2010, the fellowship was organized as a mission church, and in June of 2015, Laramie RPC became an organized congregation of the Midwest Presbytery.

Throughout the years, our meeting place has changed from the Hemphills’ family room to a Seventh Day Adventist Church, to the public library’s meeting room, to, presently, a community center with classrooms and a kitchen. Throughout the years, we have enjoyed participation of university undergraduate and graduate students, though now most of us are simply employed around town in various roles—teacher, musician, therapist, nurse, contractor, law enforcement officer, cowboy. We are a diverse crew, brought into Laramie from states afar and even foreign countries. In times past, you could hear Chinese, Armenian, and French being spoken among our number; now Spanish and Portuguese. Only a few of us are Wyoming natives, and many have transplanted from states including California, Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. Half of us have been raised within the RPCNA, and half of us are new to the denomination.

Our church life centers on Lord’s Day morning worship at the Lincoln Community Center, followed by Sunday school for all our age groups. The Lord’s Day evening activities alternate among teaching times, psalm sings and fellowship, and a once-monthly evening worship service. We have multiple small groups and Bible studies for men and women throughout the week and a men’s discipleship program. We participate in door-to-door evangelism in the neighborhood surrounding our meeting place. Once a month during the school year, we have indoor fellowship meals after worship, and then during the balmy summer months we shift to outdoor picnics in the parks around town. We collaborate with Colorado RP churches in fellowship events, including hosting a psalm sing and picnic in August that garners around 100 attendees. We also enjoy close fellowship and pulpit swaps with the PCA congregation in Cheyenne, Wyo., which is 50 minutes to our east. We see ourselves as small but vibrant as we seek for Christ’s gospel to advance in this corner of the world, praying for God to turn hearts of “Wyoming Tough” into hearts of flesh.