Our History

The Lord breathed International Disciple Training (IDT) into existence through his servant, Rance Cook on January 1st, 1984.  As he was reading Isaiah 58:6-9 Rance knew that the Lord was giving him the following verses as the foundation for this ministry He was about to begin....

“Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness,To undo the heavy burdens,To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh. Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; 
You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’

The vision for IDT was received through prayer, and the very first project was small, clothing and canned foods drive at a small church in Elk Grove, California.  When the mid-size truck was finally loaded, Rance realized that these few, small bags of clothing and food, combined with enough faith, could care for the multitudes. In his exact words, “I was so excited, I felt we could feed and clothe the world!”

The Lord brought Rance and Brandy to Vicente Guerrero, Baja California Mexico in November of 1993  from Lodi, California to start IDT Mexico. Our first base was built in 1995, in what is now called Las Misiones, where a geodesic dome kit was donated to us and assembled by our missionaries. A couple years later we expanded to a new base nearby in Ejido Zarahemla.

Over the years, one of the miracles God has provided through visiting groups and various missionaries was our home-building program. Through IDT over 3,000 homes for very needy people in our area have been built and their families have received the Gospel along with this gift, which otherwise they could never afford. In addition, the Lord has blessed us with being able to share His love in a number of countries including Israel, Liberia, U.S.A., and Canada, plus missionary journeys to Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Malaysia, India, and, of course, Mexico.

For 20 years our base in Zarahemla was home to many of our missionaries and the center of our activities and fellowship along with housing hundreds groups yearly on short-term missions trips. Because running the housebuild ministry and housing and hosting these groups became a full time job, eventually, Pastor Rance made the decision to decentralize our activities to allow IDT to refocus on long term evangelism and discipleship. In 2014 the IDT Zarahemla base was given over to long time IDT missionary Bill Sopher who continues to run the house-build ministry and host visiting groups as he had been doing for many years; only now under the name of Heart for all Nations a ministry he had founded over 20 years previously. At this time the main IDT activities were shifted back to our dome mission site, which has been operating as a community center for many years. Heart and IDT are intertwined in an inseparable bond of brotherhood and partnership to such a point that it is often difficult to describe where one ends and the other begins. 

In 2016, after over 30 years as the President, CEO and Senior Pastor of IDT, Pastor Rance retired from the leadership of IDT to allow the next generation to rise up and continue his legacy. Rance and Brandy continue to reside in their home in Mexico, a few miles from the IDT Mexico Missions Base in Las Misiones, Baja California with their son Santiago; where they are nearby to share their encouragement, wisdom and experience with us whenever necessary. They continue to Pastor Simchah fellowship, their "little country church" as Pastor Rance fondly refers to it, which is attended by our missionaries and many of IDT's spiritual children and grandchildren.