(Somerset, KY) Pastor Johnny Dunbar of Heritage Hope Church of God wasn’t doing anything extraordinary when the phone rang that afternoon. He was sitting at his desk, preparing a sermon for a church in the northern part of the state, thinking through how many of his own church members were quietly struggling.
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“My folks (in the church) never come to me. They never ask for help.”
He sat there wondering how he could offer assistance (during the government shutdown) without wounding anyone’s pride. Then the phone rang—and everything changed.
The voice on the other end belonged to a woman pretending to be in desperate need of baby formula. Her story was urgent.
Something in Pastor Johnny’s spirit nudged him. “This time, something felt different.”
Pastor Johnny offered to buy the woman baby formula. He even asked what flavor she preferred. He was ready to head out to the store to make sure she got what she needed.
As the conversation went on, the woman finally blurted out the truth:
“I was testing you.”
Instead of reacting with anger or condemnation, Pastor Dunbar just kept talking with her. And the conversation, which began with deception, ended up sparking something much bigger than either of them expected.
Within days, that recorded call had spread across social media. People were moved—not by outrage, but by grace. The gentleness in his voice. The patience. The kindness.
“It’s wild,” Pastor Johnny says. “I’ve listened to that recording once, because I can’t stand hearing myself talk. But I still can’t find anything in it that explains why people responded the way they did. It wasn’t me. It was God.”
The woman was a TikToker named Nikalie Monroe who ran the viral “social experiment.” She had called dozens of churches pretending to be a struggling mother out of baby formula — and many churches declined, sparking major debate about Christian compassion and charity.
Since then, he’s heard from people all over the world who said they had given up—on church, on Christians, even on God Himself.
But something about that call awakened something in them.
“The common thread?” Pastor Johnny says quietly.
“So many people told me: ‘I gave up on God. I gave up on the church. And this… this brought me back.’”
Pastor Johnny laughs when people refer to him as an “Appalachian Papaw”—a nickname given affectionately by locals and now echoed by people across the country who have watched his story unfold.
“I’m 69 years old,” he says. “I pastor a small church. I’m not well-known. I never expected any of this.”
Yet calls came pouring in—from the Washington Post, Christian news outlets, television stations, and people simply wanting to say, “Your kindness restored my faith.”
His response?
A mixture of humility… bewilderment… and deep gratitude.
“I told my church: God has given us a moment in time. We may never see anything like this again. But while it’s here, we’re going to use it to bless as many people as possible.”
And bless them they have.
Pastor Dunbar has intentionally avoided the spotlight, but he did allow us to share the ways his church has chosen to bless their region:
Members received envelopes containing gift cards to Kroger's and were told to go find someone who needed encouragement—no fanfare, no cameras, just kindness.
Their church is helping renovate units so vulnerable widows can have a safe place to stay.
Offering support, resources, and funding to help people find shelter as the weather turns bitterly cold.
Pastor Johnny has made sure pastors in the area have the resources to help people immediately—without having to wait for committees or approvals when someone walks in hungry.
The church prepared 125 Thanksgiving food boxes—each packed with a full holiday meal for families in need.
An Amazon wish list has been the source of overwhelming generosity, with essential items flowing in for families facing hardship.
Each act is fueled by the same belief:
"If God tells us to give, we give. And once we release it, the outcome belongs to Him."
One of the most powerful parts of Pastor Dunbar’s story is the transformation of the young woman who originally recorded and posted the phone call.
Pastor Johnny remembers praying early one morning and sensing God speak:
“This is about her salvation.”
When she came to visit his church, Pastor Johnny greeted her with compassion—not judgment.
And when she hugged him before leaving, he recognized a deep, unspoken pain.
“I whispered to her, ‘God is using you. You don’t even know how many people He’ll touch through this.’”
She left that day with only a few hundred followers on TikTok. Within minutes of posting, her audience exploded into the tens of thousands.
“God works in the oddest ways,” Pastor Johnny says. “Only He could take a mistake… a lie… something the enemy meant for harm… and turn it into a worldwide testimony.”
Pastor Johnny’s hope has always been simple:
“If anybody writes the story of this church… don’t let them find me. Let them find Jesus.”
And that’s exactly what’s happening.
Through a surprising phone call, a viral video, and one pastor’s gentle, unwavering kindness, thousands of people have been reminded of something they desperately needed to believe again: God cares about His children.