“Truth seems like a table.”

In 1974, Tower of Power released an album called Urban Renewal, which had a groove-tastic song on it called “Only So Much Oil In The Ground”. One stanza reads as follows:

“There’s only so much oil in the ground
Sooner or later there won’t be none around
Alternate sources of power must be found
Cause there’s only so much oil in the ground”

I’m surprised we haven’t seen McCain or Obama throwing this down over the undeniable, face-melting grooves of drummer David Bartlett and bassist Francis Rocco Prestia during their campaigns. Anyway…

The whole non-employment thing is starting to hurt a little more. I know that among other things, God is teaching me to rely on Him, but it is not easy. He has provided healthy, affordable food through Trader Joe’s, wonderful Christian community in my roommates, and avenues to use the God-given gifts of poetry and music. However, without a rhythm or consistency in my day that includes work, it becomes difficult to know how much time I can be devoting to certain activities. The self-imposed schedule is developing, and I know I want to ideally be involved in education, so I am taking steps toward that. Grad school applications, job application, standardized test taking, studying, applying for jobs, applying for jobs, writing, reading, and spending time with people have all been things I do, and do a lot even, but it still feels like I’m running in a hamster cage. While missing some of the essentials, it’s hard to see the non-essentials as worth the time, though it could be that God is giving me this time to invest in those things, providing just enough subbing, etc. to give me what I need, allowing me to not be not bogged down by an 8-9 hour/day schedule. Questions, questions. If you could pray that I’d get a teaching job at the Northwest School next month, I would greatly appreciate it. Secretly, or I guess not so secretly, this is what I hope God has in his reserves.

On a more positive note, I started a Spoken Word writing/performance class on Saturday with Daemond Arrindell, educator and ‘Slam-master’ of the Seattle Poetry Slam. He had a lot of encouraging and constructively critical things to say. It’s so awesome getting feedback from the guy that’s coached the last 5 Seattle National Teams, two of which had National Champions on them. Looking forward to more of that, for sure. The title of this post was a free-writing practice prompt we had. A side note about free writing: much like freestyle rapping, the words that end up being produced are a truer reflection of what is actually going on in your mind at the subconscious level, without the analytical part of your brain a.k.a. moral P.C. filter kicking in. It’s difficult looking at what I’m actually the quickest to say or write, like taking liquid Robitussin, or smelling mold. Praise the Lord for His grace. That’s all I’ll say about that.

I miss you Denton dwellers. It’s alright almost all the time, I mean, it needs to be stated that God’s given me awesome friends up here, but recent phone conversations have gotten me, and it’s no fun to get got. It seems natural that we could end it with “hey wanna go to Waffle House later?” and meet up around 11 for waffles and hash browns, but I know that it will not be. I don’t even think Waffle House has any stores up here. Nope, checked the website, they don’t. I suppose that’s best for the collective Northwest’s health’s sake.

Recent happenings:

1. Saw friends Kim and Blake. Blake, Kim, and I went to high school together. Blake then went to UNT and now lives in Portland. Kim was visiting for the weekend. It was a grand time.

2. Hiking in the Cascades on a beautiful sunny day.

(that’s Puget Sound in the distance)

3. Getting involved with church music ministry. Super rad.
4. Roommate tennis-court dodge ball after a day of rain.
5. The random run-ins with people I know around the city have begun. They make it feel a little more like home.

Truth seems like a table

People sewing their holy books into table cloths to cover it,
spilling their juices and ales on it,
resting their feet.
I slept on a table last night
It was the best sleep I’ve had since my post-op hospital beds
the gentle warmth of grace and sedatives loosing their hold
Tables have four legs, like sheep and lions
but those are always going places
My father built the first table we ever had at home.
Over time it became worn, broken, and chipped, but it was still there
like truth

Peace in Christ and Christ alone,

Steven

“I can make my life in Washington”

- Darcy. Check them out. They’re super rad. If you read this in time, go to their CD release show tonight. I’d be there if I wasn’t here where I am, which is not where it is.

I get to quote that in surface level conversation.

Denton to Seattle is a long drive, though it’s safe to say that there are longer drives to be driven (we met a couple on the way up that drove from Virginia to Tuscon to Seattle). Over the 3 days, including about 37 hours of car time, I had a delightful time with my amazing mother, who helped drive and arrange logistics for the first few days of my life in Seattle. It was difficult to leave such close friends as these (for Charlotte Street people, this is taking a long time and I will get more pictures up later, know that I got love for you):

Some know that this summer was a season of doubt and struggle in my faith in Christ. I sit behind this computer to say that through the process of preparation and moving here, I have felt and seen God restoring me; giving me faith to trust Him, abundantly pouring His joy on me as I rest in Him for provision of most things I take for granted, like a place of residence, a job, a church home, and a tightly knit community of friends. He has been giving me new relationships and friendships with people who are supportive and share the passion to see God’s kingdom on earth. It’s beautiful to be up here and see people in love with Christ.

I do miss home and the people who live there. From time to time, that sentiment is as real as the ground under my feet. But in all honesty, this week has felt as much like breathing as anything else. That’s not to say that I wasn’t ‘breathing’ in Denton, but I think I’m feeling what it’s like to walk in faith in the place God has brought me. The nature, arts, frequent cyclists, conversation, and need. The newness of the city will fade, like this only-in-dreams weather we’ve been having, but I can say that God has led me here. From the start of our trip right up to this moment He has surrounded me with His love, giving me people, providing appointments, and arranging the best of circumstances. Like, for instance, driving across the whole of southern Wyoming, northern Utah, and North Oregon we drove by “CAUTION: HIGH WINDS” signs and highway wind barriers in total tranquility. Pulling a trailer, this was a God-send. Aside from one gas station, there was always an easy-to-pull-in spot long enough for our car and trailer combo that was on the right side of the car to fill up. We had no flats, no trailer troubles, no car breakdowns, and no theft. The Lord provided a month of free storage in a unit twice as big as U-Haul would normally give as part of their services. The night after I turned down a teaching job in faith, I was put in contact with the librarian at Northwest School by my former neighbor – we had lunch the next day and it seems that at the very least I can substitute teach there and possibly tutor in the meantime. Dave Dolengewicz,  a friend of mine from my former church gig moved here a little while before I did, and we’ll continue our friendship where it left off! My former neighbors in Colleyville are moving back up to Bellingham next month and they’ve given me direction in the job search as well as deep encouragement. I competed at the Seattle Poetry Slam this week and was received with open arms by poets I’ve admired, watched, and listened to for months. Home cooked meals, couches to sleep on, and haircuts (thanks Natalie) are readily available and I’ve only been here for 4 days.

I feel His arms around me.

Here’s a quick summary of things that have happened this week.

God reminded me of friendships along the way.

and again.

visited the loneliest woman in the smallest town in the United States.

shared an afternoon at the arboretum with dear friend Charlie and dearer friend Natalie.

saw once in a lifetime breathtaking sky masterpieces.

some boats joined us for a little while, too.

stayed near the most natural car wash ever.

Dinner at the Spit Fire, host of the Seattle Poetry Slam

competed in the first official slam of the year...

and got third place!

A quick note about the poetry slam – it was in the same moment humbling and emboldening.  It’s been a while since I was in a band or part of anything where I invited friends to pay money to watch me perform, and even this first week I felt so loved by friends as they supported me. God answered prayer in ways that I can’t express, making the hope I had to join the poetry community of Seattle a tangible idea, allowing me to do well and start relationships with such talented poets from the get-go. I look forward to getting to know them and building friendships with them, and grin ear to ear thinking about the possibilities of my growth as a follower of Christ and an artist this year.

Additional quick note: my mom wouldn’t let me take pictures of her, which is why there aren’t any shown.

Thank you for your prayers, I’ve felt them this week like you wouldn’t know. Please don’t hesitate to let me know how I can pray for you. It would be my delight.

Love,
Steven

Sun

Seattle Status: Arrived!

I’m waiting until I can get some time to myself to really write about the drive and first impressions, and show some pictures of both those things, but I wanted to let all those who read this know that I’m here, alive, not sick, and excited! God has been making this a wayyyyy easier transition than I could have hoped. More on that later.

Until then, if you would, please pray about a few things:
1. That God would arrange a place for me to live and the right roommates with whom to live. 
2. A job – recently opened (but not guaranteed) doors are tutoring math at a Boys and Girls club and teaching or tutoring math at the Northwest School. By God’s grace and some connections through dear friends/neighbors I got to have lunch with the librarian at this school and get a brief look at the environment it fosters and uhhhh yeah it’s awesome. Check it out. I’m not sure exactly what God would have me do for work right now, and I trust that He will arrange everything in His good time, but these are both bad to the bone in their own ways. I’d love to be a teacher at a school like that one. Oh man.
3. The right church – There are a few faith communities here that I know something about and like, but need special discernment to join the body where I can both serve the church and grow with fullness in Christ to the maximum. 

Until then, I hope you are doing well and rejoicing in God’s grace. Expect more words and pictures soon. I miss you.

Wub,
Steven

Truck

Thursday afternoon marked my return from Seattle. In journaling about the trip, I realized that too much happened and I met too many people to fully relate the experience on this blog, even if only for the sake of both your time and mine. However, I’ll fill you in on a few things.

1. I’m moving there in a couple weeks.
2. At the Navigators National b2g Conference, I met people who are living in community and focused on spreading the gospel through communities with which they are involved, like art houses, music, piano classes, sports, etc.  Michael Frost, the speaker for the event, spoke to the fact that God is everywhere, and we need not fear being somewhere where He is not, because He is there. He also spoke at length about the missional church. At times, I lose sight of this fact about God, that He is preparing and ordering everything before we arrive. Though I am wary of being missional to the neglect of those within the church, the call to go live out the gospel and God’s love among the lost is one that God has given us, and it’s something in which we get the privilege of living.
3. Also, in staying with some friends of Natalie (thanks again Natalie for arranging that!) I was connected with christian guys who provided me with abundant hospitality, and in the future I hope will be dear friends and brothers.
4. The poetry community is tight and also “off the chain”. Some people use the latter phrase to describe something that is ridiculously awesome.
5. Through the tangible experience of going there, seeing some of the church, and getting some semblance of my potential normal life, God showed me that it is good (the move).
6. I know that there were a lot of people praying for me this week, and I can’t fully express my thanks to you here. Truly. I wish you could have seen how fluid some of the conversations with people were and how little I had to work to arrange meetings with all the people I needed to. I wish normal life were like that. Thank you.

On point 5 – tonight the decision to move started to sit more heavily on my heart and mind. Four years of life – with all its close relationships, struggles, failures, crushes, heartaches, victories, stupid decisions, and so on –  has drawn me into dear friendships which seem to whisper “stay” louder and even louder still, only amplified by my natural affinity for people.  Something as simple as hearing Matt, a young neighborhood friend, ask, “Why are you moving?” in a non-business-suit way made me re-evaluate my reasons for going. “To join a Bible study?”  Praise God for whatever pieces of truth He has planted in Matt’s mind this year, but I desire so much to see him come to faith, to know the love of God, and selfishly, I want to be here when it happens, but I have to come back to this – I got to be used even this last week as an encouragement and defender of the truth of God within the church in Seattle, and the opportunities for growth in my walk with God, and it is good. I know it will be hard, probably harder than I know, but with all the tools He’s given me to see, it is what God has shown me is next, so it is the best, and it’ll be awesome! With that said, if you are interested in my life enough to keep up with this, chances are that we’re close, and there’s no probability except for 1 (100%) that I’ll miss you. Let’s talk in the same room before I leave.

Also, a few pictures from the trip, mostly from this week’s poetry slam – Youth Speaks Seattle vs. Seattle Poetry Slam:

Danny Sherrard performing.

One of four emcees in a hip hop group that closed up the night.

He was making things easy and fun for the camera!

I got to serve with Chris and Amanda Millheisler in Seattle this past March, and they graciously made time to hang out with me one afternoon on the trip. They're awesome!

I’m not quite done writing publicly about this whole moving thing yet, so expect to see more. Do give me a call if you’re inclined to do so.

Leaving on a jet plane

…And I am officially the 1,425,872,301st person to use that as a title for a blog. Thank you, John Denver.

But in all seriousness, tomorrow I am taking a plane to Seattle, and contrary to the afore-quoted song, I do know when I’ll be coming back again. It’s in 8 days. I don’t have a ton of time to post about recent thoughts or communicate recent events anecdotally, but I will say this:

This week I will attend a Navigators conference and two Seattle Poetry Slams (check link to the right), as well as visit friends and follow the Lord’s leading regarding my location of residence for the next however-long-of-time. Year. That sounds nice and defined. Please pray as I and others have done (thank you) that God would show me where and what He wants me to be this year, and that I would be excited about wherever and whatever that is. It might be Seattle, in fact it’s highly possible that it’s Seattle, but it also could not be Seattle. The universals are in place – discipleship, ministry, art, looking at graduate education, etc. – but the specifics seem to be masked, much like the Phantom in one of my favorite musicals, the Phantom of the Opera…just without the unhealthy love life and murderous tendencies. I expect that this week will be awesome by itself, but also want to be submissive to and drawing near to God; to not do things purely out of my desires or my incomprehensibly limited wisdom about futures and what makes them the most glorifying to Him. This decision seems like a right and left decision (not one where there is a clear right or wrong), and God is glorified in all things, but I want to be as closely in line with His will as possible given that this includes a location. So, in short, please pray for me. Thank you. I will report back  with my findings after a trip which looks on paper and in my heart thoughts like magnificence.

Steven

By the way – check out this field of mathematics that I didn’t know about until a few weeks ago – biomathematics. It’s one I’m thinking about pursuing in the next year or two. I love biology. Seems pretty awesome! And I quote from the NCSU site:

“Biomathematics is the use of mathematical models to help understand phenomena in biology.

Modern experimental biology is very good at taking biological systems apart (at all levels of organization, from genome to global nutrient cycling), into components simple enough that their structure and function can be studied in isolation. Dynamic models are a way to put the pieces back together, with equations that represent the system’s components, processes, and the structure of their interactions.

Mathematical models are important tools in basic scientific research in many areas of biology, including physiology, ecology, evolution, toxicology, immunology, natural resource management, and conservation biology. The result obtained from analysis and simulation of system models are used to test and extend biological theory, and to suggest new hypotheses or experiments. Models are also widely used to synthesize available information and provide quantitative answers to practical questions. What measures can be used to reverse the decline in sea turtle populations, and how soon can we tell if they are working? How can laboratory experiments on chemical carcinogenicity be scaled up to set safe exposure limits on humans? For questions like these, where it is desirable to predict the outcome accurately before action is taken, quantitative modeling is essential.

Thus, while mathematical biology may sound like a narrow discipline, in fact it encompasses all of biology and virtually all of the mathematical sciences, including statistics, operations research, and scientific computing.

Within the biomathematics program at N. C. State, faculty and student research areas include immunology, biomechanics, neurobiology, wildlife and agricultural management, conservation biology, population genetics and ecology, environmental toxicology, and pharmacokinetics. Research on specific applications is complemented by fundamental work on mathematical, statistical, and computational methods for fitting models to data and deriving their properties. The research interests of biomathematics faculty and current students are described elsewhere on this website.”

See(attle) ya later!

Agrarian mind scape

Normally, I try not to post too frequently. However, without the time to process through anything too  substantial in words, I wanted to bring another poet to your attention. This poet’s name is Taylor Mali. His work warrants a post to itself, and thus I will proceed. This first poem convicted me (pun intended, you’ll see…) about the way I speak to others in general, and especially about faith. It is relevant to our society, and I urge you to watch it, as it would be a benefit to you regardless of your background. The second is a passionate, humorous, but still deliberate poem about teaching and the care of children. Mali is himself, a teacher. Lastly, I finish with a section of something I just started regarding this ’season’ of life. There is change in the air, and though change is a weighted two sided coin, heads still comes up occasionally; a face I’m coming to grips with more every day.

August halls this year are lined with bitter butter.
Each day is a plastic too-narrow slide down greased pans
seasoned with just-inside-the-locker-door cut-outs of
Rolling Stone, phone number trophies, friends, and laughter.
Whatever it is, I like what’s cooking, I like to think that there’s
nothing hotter than what’s about to happen.
A season’s start dwarfs the former’s failing heart.
Yet in transit my sides keep sticking to
“I love you”s buried in silence,
and the people who live where my five two-cents sidewalk dimes went.
I ascend these taste bud stairwells with theirs in pocket,
savoring what remains of where I’ve been.

Canada recycles cans…uh…duh

Well everyone, I have returned to the states yet again from a country not so far away…Canada. I may not have told many of you (if there are enough to qualify the use of ‘many’) that I was going to Canada, but I tell you now, it is where I’ve been for the past week. I got to travel there with the youth and leaders (including 3 members of my family) of First Baptist Church of Colleyville (my former church) for the yearly youth mission trip! It was really awesome. God brought more than 10 people into a relationship with Christ during our time there and showed me His faithfulness in numerous ways, as well as gave me opportunities to lead worship (eek!), play djembe with a local church, and perform a poem for the youth/adults. In addition, He allowed me to see another body of christians committed to sharing the gospel and fostering a passion for missions in teenagers. It was difficult in some of the same ways that France was difficult regarding people’s response to the gospel, but overall I have returned an encouraged man.  Perhaps after more reflection, I’ll be able to say more about it.

For now, it has been brought to my attention that picture postings are long overdue. These are a few of the pictures from Canada (I only took pictures on the last day of the trip, our afternoon/night in Banff and the next morning). I feel extremely blessed to have visited yet another breathtaking part of the world. Enjoy, and look forward to some other pictures from other trips coming soon!

Rapid river through Banff

Lake in Banff

Dad and I in Banff!
 
Some of us hiked up a mountain, and this was the view. Totally rad!

Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary, where we slept and met.

The view of Cochrane, Alberta from CSBS.

Unfortunate youth Saran-wrapped to a van.

A cool gate/barbed-wire fence at the seminary!

And again!

The whole family minus David! Time to leave though… :(

edit

In the last post, I talked about how I like the phrase, “keepin’ a 9 to 5 on the side.” After thinking about it some, I’ve decided that I don’t. Call me fickle, but here’s why.

By the end of our lives, we’ll spend so much time at work! And the very thing that makes people hate their jobs or school is that it is looked at as a nuisance or something to get out of the way so we can get on with real life. Well, if we all found things to like about our jobs or schooling or whatever (surely there is something to be found), we would probably do the jobs better and not be so down about our jobs, and thus that third or more of our day that we spend working! Sorry, short rant, studying is awesome, there is something inherently good about working and doing a job well, and if no one worked 9 to 5’s or 8 to 6’s or whatever variation one works, many parts of our functioning society might collapse. Hmm…Might. There’s something I wish I had!

I Measure My Progress in “Per Spective”s

Note: I’m not working much right now, but I will be soon. And also, the previous statement hinges on your definition of work, though I am willing to concede to the hard working men, women, mothers, and fathers, who have been to more than twice the moments I have, that I’m not working much right now.

A poet I have recently grown to like named Matt Gano has a blog. The title of his blog is “Keepin a 9 to 5 on the side.” I said to my roommate Paul aloud, “I like that.”

I said this because… I do.

Because, if our lives, or if, our purposes, are suspended between two numbers I’d rather have it be 5 to 9. Not only because 5 to 9 is 16 hours which is twice the quantity of the other third of the day, but also because 5 is when I get to do the things I’ve just been thinking about since 9 while trying to do the other things I try not to think much about between 5 and 9. 

I recently unwrapped a dream titled “Love.” having mistaken it for chocolate, but even when it wasn’t what I had thought it was, I didn’t want to let it go to waste, so I’ve been chewing on this jerky-like rough stuff ever since, questioning if I’ll ever learn to digest it. They say I’ve been made for it, but most often I can’t even recognize it’s face. It’s written Jesus loved like humans dream of and He was executed, so I spend hours studying mug shots and police line ups so one day I’ll see it when it’s staring at me; because I’m all too familiar with the back of its head, the ever shrinking points on a tightrope timeline I’m walking tied from 5 to 9 over my last breath.

Wearing France Pants (and a hat in the winter)

Upon arriving in Nice, it comes as no surprise that tourists rush to the city in the summertime. A beautiful beach (though I think most people would prefer sand to the rocks that are there), good music on the street, an amazing old town (“Vieux Nice”) with picturesque streets around every corner, fashion, shopping, villas in the hills, and a relaxed pace of life are just a few things to love about the city.  With a café and pain au chocolat (chocolate croissants) each morning and delicious fresh meals each day, it was easy for me to feel less like a missionary and more like a tourist. However, it becomes clear upon engaging someone in spiritual conversation that the country has largely turned its back on God as anyone powerful or worth knowing.  Even more so than in America, people perceive Jesus as a mere man or prophet, if that, and any kind of absolute claims about reality are discarded as arrogant and bigoted schemes to make a living.
Thus, this was a difficult trip.

The week before we left, as you would know if you have seen this blog before, I had the privilege of traveling through Alaska with my family. There are not many places in the world more beautiful than what I saw over those eight days. However, I allowed little time for myself to quietly sit and reflect on the truth of God through the trip, starving myself,  until the last day I felt God wooing me back to Himself with His mountains, lakes, rivers, and valleys. The snow-capped, sun-draped horizon tugged at my heart and spoke in inaudible frequencies, “Come home, son.” In my weakness and lack of time, I did little to run back to the Lord before lifting off the runway again for France – putting myself in a poor condition for a person to begin a trip whose purpose is to share the gospel in a dark and distracting place.

And it showed. While tourists played in the waves rolling into Nice, I followed a high frequency wave between faith and doubt, desiring to feel secure in God’s arms, knowing His voice. God still allowed me to preach the gospel in Nice, not because I always wanted salvation for our new friends like I should, and not because of my ability, but as a wounded, dying man in the dirt speaking the only words he can’t deny to be true, knowing that people need them like they need water to drink. With each blatant rejection and confident “je ne suis pas d’accord” (I don’t agree), my mouth and heart were further polarized. Less inclined to believe the words but more determined to speak them; thankful that God would convince me enough with His word and hand in my life enough that even in afternoon bouts of agnostic humanism I could not think of any more necessary thing to tell. By the end of the trip, The Lord affirmed my faith and spoke to me through both my teammates and the church in Nice. But before doing that, He let me mentally bear the burdens of self-reliance, responsibility for another’s salvation, and producing faith on my own, which, as you may know, are far too large for one man or even five hundred men to do. I am now more thankful than ever that God is God and I am just Steven. How much better is it to be used by the God of creation and regeneration and sit at His feet than to try to fill that role yourself? Save yourself the time, it’s a lot better.

Personal highlights from the trip:

• God’s faithfulness to provide relationships
• Getting to have a few gospel-oriented conversations in French
• Visiting Famille Pointier twice (the family I stayed with for two weeks in 2003 while doing language study).
• Slower pace of life
• Seeing unity of different people groups through Christ

What I will apply at home:

• Plan less each day
• Be better read (politics, philosophy, literature)
• Go to graduate school
• Learn some Spanish***
• Continue to study French
• Pray more fervently for the lost

***On this trip I got to know a few different christians in Nice who are passionately praying and seeking ways to disciple the French people but not learning French. Some French citizens speak English, but most non-tourism-associated people speak very little, and I found myself being critical of that approach of ministry only to be convicted about doing the same thing this year. My neighborhood is at least 50% Hispanic and probably 50 or more percent non-English speaking, and yet, I have made almost no attempt to learn their language on even a basic level. Now, is this America? Yes. Should people moving here be trying to learn English in the same way that an American moving to France should learn French? Yes. However, this is a relatively easy and practical way to show God’s love to someone and communicate with them. So, on a broader level I mean that one should consider the culture that they are a part of and diligently do what they can to relate to and love this culture. For you, it might mean being more current on major league baseball. For me in this moment, this translates to learning some Spanish.

There is great spiritual need in France. Most statistics I have seen gauge the number of walking Protestant Christians between 1-5% of the French population. French citizens commonly claim Catholicism, but the few Catholics I got to talk to became uncomfortable or told me to leave them when I asked them anything about the deity of Christ. This is not indicative of every single person involved with the Catholic Church, but in my short experience and in talking to missionaries, it describes the majority of Catholics in France.

“Who am I to decide which one of the thousands of religions is right?” “How can I know which one is true?” “All religions are one.” This is the French national religion. An open door for new age religion, man’s philosophy, and Islam.  Are the stereotypes about French people hating Americans correct? Perhaps the American government, but on an individual level, at least in the South, they couldn’t be farther from the truth. I met many sweet, hospitable, giving, delightful men and women who at the same time reject the notion of an Almighty Merciful God. Our call, though, was so well put by Pastor Tom of the Nice International Baptist Church in a sermon on a night when I was at the end of my rope. “People will reject you. People will tell you that you are wrong. But you have to keep preaching. You have to continue God’s work because the gospel is true, and it is the only thing the world needs to hear.” Yes.

In Acts 7:54-8:3 and 9:1-20 we read that God has the ability to change even someone who is maliciously persecuting christians into a persecuted carrier of the gospel (and in this instance the author of much of our New Testament). For missionaries in Europe (and I anticipate this in America eventually), life is a struggle of faith, praying that He will reclaim the nation for His name. Please pray for Europe. Pray for America.

To those who supported me in prayer and financially, thank you. This experience has broadened my perspective on God’s pursuit of both His children and the lost as well as given me solid direction toward that region of the world long-term. Please consider that the world is fleeting; that God has revealed Himself through Jesus Christ, His son, who died on the cross after living a sinless life only to raise again three days later and now offers redemption from your sins; and that there are millions of people who have not been told this in love or told this at all. Let this affect your heart and life. One day, Christ will return and take up His children, and on that glorious day we, renewed, will rejoice together in His mercy and grace toward mankind, and we can do nothing better than glorify God, storing up riches for that day, for the glory of God.

Love,
Steven