Christmas 2004 Letter

Tuesday December 7, 2004

Greetings Friends!

The Christmas season is a time when we celebrate the arrival of our Lord Jesus as a baby 2000 years ago. For Grace and I, we’re also celebrating the anticipation of our next baby. Yes – Grace and I are expecting! The baby is due June 21. We are very excited about this upcoming addition to our family. Life has been pretty exciting these last few months in light of this. Now I have even more to adjust to!

God has been continuing to use us! Grace and I are now both helping out with the Jr. Youth group at the church. We’re also involved in a new church plant – LifeSpring Christian Fellowship. It is quite exciting to be a part of a new ministry to our city.

With International Teams (IT), I’ve been busy in a number of different areas. At the office, I’m the “Special Projects” guy. I’ve been doing graphic design, web site development, and recently replaced some phone lines with internet ones that should save the office $200-400/month. The office Christmas card included here is my latest graphic design work. This role has been an great opportunity to use the gifts God has given me to help this office be more effective & creative in our mandate – helping the church mobilize more people to ministry, and helping those in the field to fulfill their calling.



In my other role with IT, I’m working as volunteer coordinator for our new Refugee Ministry in Kitchener. As it’s such a new program, it’s been a time for all of us on the team to figure out what our roles really entail, and how we can work effectively together. I’m excited to see all the things God will do in the lives of the refugees we serve in the coming year!

As you might imagine, the fact that Grace and I are expecting has had an impact on a number of things. As many of you know, during pregnancy struggles with colds, lack of sleep, etc., can become even more challenging. With morning sickness past, things have gotten better, but there are certainly still challenging days for Grace. Please be praying for her in this.

Another impact has been that Grace will not be able to continue babysitting every afternoon for much longer. This is both good and bad – it frees her up to be more involved in ministry activities when she’s feeling up to it, but also means that we will lose one of our sources of income. This compounds the problem we’re already facing of not having enough coming in to continue meeting our budget. In order to make our minimal budget (minimal day-to-day living costs) for the next year, we’ll need to raise an additional $1200/month.

Thanks so much to those of you who are already a part of our team – those who are praying for us, and those who give monthly and occasionally. It has been such a blessing. If you’re not currently a part of this team, will you pray about what God would have you do? We know that where God has called, He will provide. Please pray that those God has called to be involved would respond to His calling.

Thanks so much for your interest and prayer. May God richly bless you during this Christmas Season.
Steve & Grace

Steve's October Prayer Update

Thursday October 7, 2004

Greetings Friends!

A lot has happened since our last letter. God has continued to teach, use, guide, and provide for us. He is such a good God.

I’ve been kept quite busy lately working on various web and graphic design projects, along with work for Welcome Home, the new refugee ministry International Teams recently started in Kitchener. I’ve found it exciting to be actively involved in a number of different things that will have real kingdom impact.

Welcome Home is holding an open house on Sunday October 24, 2004. It would be a great opportunity to see more of this ministry first hand. You are all welcome to come! I’ve attached an invitation to the event.

We also have a cycling event coming soon to raise money for International Teams (IT) ministries to refugees here in Canada. Neil Ostrander, the president of IT Canada will be cycling 100K on October 30, along with other interested cycling enthusiasts. If you’d like more info on this event, check out http://www.iteams.ca , or talk to me.

Grace has been keeping herself busy being a parent and taking care of another young boy. She’s also begun helping out with the junior youth group at Lincoln Road Chapel. Recently, she’s been struggling with some challenging health issues. Please be praying that the doctors would be able to diagnose and find ways to deal with this soon.

Grace and I have been growing lots in our relationship with each other. It’s been exciting to get to know her better. And while it continues to be a huge adjustment, it’s been a good one. In our last letter, I mentioned that adjusting to lack of sleep with Aris being up at all hours was quite a challenge for me. Well, praise God, she’s sleeping through more often now, and I’m also learning to deal with less sleep, so while it’s still a challenge, I am managing much better than I was.

It has been exciting to see how God has been supplying our needs. We’ve recently had a new financial supporter come on, and most supporters are continuing to support us in our ministry. Praise God! Thanks so much to those of you who are faithfully giving to us in our ministry. For those interested, we’re currently sitting around 65% of our short-term budget (where we should be by April).

Thanks to all of you who have been faithfully praying for us as well. It has been such an encouragement to know that people are standing in the gap. Please continue to pray:

• That we would have wisdom in how best to serve the refugees we’re working with, and that God would be at work in their lives


• Praise God for His provision. Pray that He would richly bless those who are a part of this, and that others who are called would respond


•  Pray that I would be able to make effective use of my time in developing resources for IT, and that what goes out would have real kingdom impact.

 

We have a new prayer card and brochure describing our ministry. If you haven’t received either of them, let us know and we’d love to send them to you.

For His Glory,

Steve Van Bruwaene

We're Married!

Tuesday July 27, 2004

Greetings Friends!

A lot has happened since Steve’s last letter. He hair has grown. He cut his toenails. And there was something else … Oh ya – we got married. What an exciting day it was. We really appreciated having so many of our friends in attendance to witness our vows and celebrate with us. Leading up to the wedding was a fun while sometimes stressful time, but it was exciting to see the things God did that day.

Aris, Grace’s 14 month old daughter, was to be in the wedding as the flower girl. We were becoming concerned about how this would work as every time she had seen Grace in her dress, she had become quite upset. Obviously not something we wanted to have at the wedding. We were also hoping she would learn to walk in time for the wedding. As it turned out, she was happy all through the ceremony. She was adorable walking down the aisle. Praise God for this, and thanks to all of you who were praying for Aris.

There were many of other blessings too. The weather was perfect, the people were wonderful, and although we were rather tired out by the end of the day (especially Grace as Aris woke up quite early that morning), we managed to get through the day stress-free.

Another time of real blessing for us was when we opened the gifts. We were blown away by the generosity of so many friends and family. People purchased all sorts of wonderful gifts for us, gave us over $2000 in money and gift certificates that will be very helpful in getting our new home up and running. We were especially blessed by another gift towards our ministry of $1000. God has certainly blessed us abundantly.

Since getting married, life has been very different for both of us as we adjust to married life, and as Steve adjusts to being a dad. In most respects, this has been quite an enjoyable experience. Steve is still having some trouble with lack of sleep as Aris is up a lot during the night, and he’s just now learning to adjust to this.

So, what are we doing now? Steve is continuing to work with International Teams. He’s working out of the National office much of the time, with responsibilities in developing tools that will assist our mobilizers in getting more people to the field, producing videos, etc. He’s also spending part of his time working with “Welcome Home”, a new ministry to refugees in Kitchener, as volunteer coordinator. Grace has a growing interest in refugee ministry as well, so in addition to being a stay at home mom, and babysitting several children part-time, she’s exploring how she can be involved in this ministry.

An ongoing role every missionary has is in raising support necessary to sustain their ministry. For any missionary to be successful, they need people praying for them, as well as money to pay the bills, and enable the ministry. And we’re no exception. In the coming weeks and months, we’ll be working on raising our level of monthly support to a point where our ministry is sustainable. We’ll be doing things like putting together a brochure describing more of what we do, sending letters & notes to people, and visiting with people. If you’d like to visit with us to learn more about our ministry, please feel free to contact us.

Thanks so much for your prayer and interest in our lives. May God richly bless you.



Steve & Grace Van Bruwaene

Prayer Corner

Thanks so much for all your prayer. That has truly been what has gotten us to this point. Here are some things that you can be praying about in the coming weeks:

• That we would learn how to get the sleep & time with God we need as we raise Aris


• That God would continue to grow our relationship with Him and each other


• That God would continue to provide for us, and that those He’s called to be a part of our team would respond in His time


• That God would be guiding each of us as we seek to serve Refugees in Kitchener

RSVP Due Soon!

Greetings friends!



As you've hopefully heard by now, Grace and I are getting married on July 10.



It's an open invitation to both the ceremony and the reception.



There is just one catch -- we need to know what to expect for the reception, so we can plan for it appropriately.  As such we're asking for an RSVP by June 26 from everyone expecting to be there -- names too.  As part of our planning, knowing how many main courses, salads, and deserts to expect will also be very helpful.  If you're not sure what you're going to bring yet, if you could pick one of those 3 categories to tell us, and figure out the details later, that would be quite helpful for us.



We want to share our special day with everyone.  But if we don't know you're coming to the reception, we won't be prepared for you, so please let us know soon.



To RSVP, please send an email to steve_grace_wedding@yahoo.ca or call (519) 884-6163


Have a great week!  We look forward to seeing you soon.



Steve and Grace.



PS: If you've received this email directly in addition to this one through my prayer mailing list, I apologize for the duplicate.  If you've already RSVP'd, I apologize for bothering you again.

God knows exactly what He's doing!

Tuesday May 18, 2004

God knows exactly what He's doing!

Isn't it cool to be able to look back, and see what God's been able to do, especially when things weren’t obvious at the time? The last few years of my life have been like that. Since Encounter Teams got shut down at Christmas, I have wondered what God’s been up to. But God's been at work in everything around me, and as I look back, I'm able to see some really exciting things.

During the last few months of transition to my new role, I’ve been able to work on various projects at the office – things that will help us to be more effective in helping to mobilize and sustain our missionaries in the field, that more might hear the gospel. So while at times, I wondered why I wasn’t jumping into “My New Role”, I was able to be involved in kingdom-building work. God knew what needed to be done, and who was able to do it.

During this time, some new opportunities have also developed in the area of refugee ministry in Kitchener-Waterloo that look like a better fit for me than what I likely would have gotten into had I jumped in a few months earlier. Isn’t it great to know that an all-knowing God is the one directing our paths?

This time has also been quite beneficial for Grace. In addition to having the chance to shape a role that she can be a part of, God has been using the time to help her work through some of the stresses that come with ministry life. Grace has, from day one, been supportive of me in where God is calling me, but at the same time has found the idea of living on support pretty scary. Over the last few months, God has been at work in her in that area in all sorts of ways, preparing her for this new life. It’s been exciting to see related discussions come up in small group, chances for her to talk with other missionaries about this, etc. I guess God is good at preparing people for what He calls them to.

International Teams (IT) holds a conference every year to provide times for our ministry leaders from around the world to get together for teaching, worship, connecting and renewal. This year, it happened to be hosted right here in Waterloo. In addition to serving the larger IT community, it was a great opportunity for us to connect with many different missionaries from around the world. Grace was especially blessed by the time – she went from being supportive of me in where God has called me, to feeling that IT is a very good fit for her (“perhaps even the best fit”), being excited about what IT is doing, and feeling a growing passion for refugee ministry. She also got to know a number of our missionaries, and built some great friendships. Again, more signs that God knows exactly what He’s doing in preparing us.

It has been exciting to be able to share what God has been doing in my life and ministry with some of you, and to see how God has provided up to this point. One of my financial supporters recently indicated that as his wedding gift, he’s planning to raise his monthly support for our ministry. What an encouragement that’s been to us. I’d love to chat with more of you in the coming months about what God has been doing, so if I don’t track you down first, please feel free to ask!

Thanks so much for your continued interest, prayer, and support of our ministry. Please pray:

• That God would continue to guide as details of our ministry fall into place.


• That He would be protecting us as we prepare for marriage and ministry together. The evil one would like nothing better than to sidetrack us, so please pray that his efforts are confounded.


• Praise God for how He continues to provide. Please keep praying that more people would catch the vision as we begin communicating in the coming months where God is taking us.

Thanks so much for standing with us!

For His glory,
Steve

Wedding Invitation

(I know this is a departure from what I usually send to this mailing list, but I trust you'll allow the exception this once...)





Greetings friends!

As many of you have heard, Grace and I are planning to be married on July 10, 2004!  We're getting married at 10:00am, followed by the reception at 2:00pm, all at Lincoln Road Chapel. (145 Lincoln Road, Waterloo, ON)

We want to share this special day with everyone who’s interested – all our friends and family are welcome. And children are welcome too!

In order to make this feasible, we’ve decided to make the reception pot-luck.

That means that you are welcome.  All we ask is that you bring your favourite main course, salad, and/or dessert – at least enough food to feed everyone that’s coming with you.

Please RSVP by June 26, 2004 by sending an email to steve_grace_wedding@yahoo.ca or calling (519) 884-6163.  Indicate who’s coming (names of all guests), and what food you’re bringing along.

We've attached an invitation you can print out that has a map showing where the church is, and hotels in the area.  If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader version 4 or above, you should be able to open it without difficulty.  If not, you can get a copy of Acrobat Reader for free at
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html


Thanks for your interest!  We look forward to seeing you at the wedding!



Your friends,

Steve & Grace.



PS: For those interested, we’re registered at The Bay.

Lots of news!

Wednesday March 24, 2004

“How would you like to marry me?” “I’d love to.”

Those words were spoken as Grace and I walked along the Grand River in Kitchener near her parents’ home earlier this month. We’re engaged, and planning to be married on July 10th of this year! It’s exciting to see where God has taken each of us over the last few years to bring us to this point. He’s been preparing each of us for each other, and all that He has for us.

As you know, I had the opportunity to spend a month in Athens recently, working with refugees in a refugee drop-in center started by International Teams (IT). It was a great time to learn more about refugees, and some of the things that I can do to help. It was also an exciting way to serve the people there, build relationships, and have an impact on the lives of others.

Many of you are aware that my role with IT is in transition as well. Several years ago, I felt called by God out of employment in the computer industry into ministry with IT. I sensed God saying “start walking in that direction. I’ll tell you what you need to know as you go along.” So I did. I pursued the ministry He directed me to, and began walking down that road. After a year, it became clear that the particular program I was involved with wasn’t going as IT had hoped (although the ministry of IT as a whole is still thriving). The decision was made to shut that program down. However my call has remained the same – “keep walking down this road, and I’ll tell you what you need to know as you go along”. I’m excited about what He has next.

So, what will I be doing? There are a couple of areas I’ll be involved in here at IT – mobilization and refugee ministry. While details still need to be finalized and we’re seeking input from church leaders, what’s next is firming up.

One of IT Canada’s mandates is to assist the church in Canada in raising up people to mission. I’ll be able to contribute to this effort in a number of ways – traveling with several short-term teams that go out each year, building relationships with team members and encouraging them in wherever God might be calling them. If you’d like to be a part of one of the teams, let me know! I’ll also be able to participate in various projects related to mobilization – developing communication resources (videos, web sites, print, etc.), and developing various computer systems that will assist us in being more effective in our efforts. It’s exciting to have opportunities to make use of skills God has developed in me over the years.

I will also be involved in refugee ministry locally. IT Canada has been developing a new ministry to new immigrants in the Kitchener-Waterloo area this past year. There are opportunities for Grace and I to participate in this, connecting with new families and/or individuals to the area. IT is also in the process of setting up a refugee discipleship/housing project in the area that we may be able to work with in the coming years.

Thanks so much for your continued interest and prayer. It is so valued and needed! Please keep praying:

• Praise God for our engagement. Pray that Grace and I would be prepared for what God has for us
  


• Praise God for the opportunities He has for us. Pray for wisdom & guidance as we continue to make decisions about my role
  


• Please pray for spiritual protection as well. When people are doing what God would have them do, the evil one tends to do what ever he can to confound it

Thanks so much for standing with us. May God richly bless you!

For His glory,
Steve

I'm Back!

Wednesday February 18, 2004

Greetings friends!



I'm back!  Thanks so much for your prayer and encouragement during my time in Athens.  It was so very much appreciated.  God was definitely at work in my life, and in the ministry while I was there.



I had the privilege of witnessing the excitement of "N", a Christian Refugee that's working with us, as he shared with Scott McCracken the director of the ministry there, about a new open door we had been given.  There is a hotel in Athens that has been operated by an Afgan for Afgan refugees.  Some Christian refugees and others on the team had tried to go into this hotel to minister to the refugees there, and share their faith with them.  The owner of the hotel was not at all pleased about this, and had bared us from entry.  Well, the hotel was recently taken over by new management.  The Afgan man who now owns the place, while he doesn't really like Christianity, he hates Islam, and would prefer to have Christians in his hotel as they seem to be better people.  So he has invited us to go in and show the Jesus video, preach to the people there, hand out tracks, etc.  What a great open door!  It was very encouraging to see the excitement in "N" as he shared this news.



As God continues to be at work in Athens, He's also been at work in my life, guiding and preparing me for things He has for me in the coming months and years.  Before coming on staff with International Teams, I was working in the software development industry.  Some were surprised that I seemed to be turning my back on that background, although I have certainly drawn from experiences I gained there.  In the last few months, a number of opportunities have come up within International Teams to put those skills to use again.  God has also been continuing to develop my passion for working with people, seeing believers grow in their faith, and move into what God has called them to do.  There are opportunities here to go out with short term teams, and do just that.  In the KW area, International Teams is also beginning to work with Refugees that are settling in Canada, so there are opportunities for me to get involved in that sort of ministry too.



Please be praying for me and the leadership here, as we work through how my role will be shaped in the coming months.  We've got lots of ideas, and are pursuing the idea of combining some of these things.  Please pray that we would be where God wants us to be in this, and that those around us would get excited about where God is taking us.



Hopefully in the next week or so, I'll be trying to get out an email with more on my trip, and what's coming next.  In the meantime, you can check out some pictures from Athens at

http://photos.yahoo.com/bruwaene



Have a great week!  I'll look forward to talking with you again soon.



For His glory,

Steve.

Athens Update #2

Friday January 30, 2003

Greetings from Athens!

A fair bit has happened since my last letter a couple of weeks ago. I’ve had the opportunity to take part in many aspects of the ministry here, get to know both the staff, and some of the refugees better, and do some more sightseeing.

During one of the drop-in times, I had the opportunity to work with the children here. Briare, a young Albanian boy comes here quite often. His father is a blind man who sells cigarettes on street corners to make some money. His mother is mentally ill, and generally not in his life at all. The result is a young boy who is quite a handful – I guess that’s the only way he know to get attention. While there are children like this back home, Briare is a refugee who doesn’t have the same services and safety net available to him that we’ve grown used to. Please pray for him, and the many other children like him.

I’ve also been kept busy teaching an English class, helping in the kitchen, playing backgammon with refugees, cleaning up tables, etc. I’ve also gotten to have some great talks with some of the refugees, staff, and volunteers here. It’s been exciting to see the diversity of the body of believers, and how we are all able to work together so well.

Another exciting opportunity I’ve had here is in building relationships with other short term people that have come through the ministry. Sky was here for just over a week. He’s been traveling through Europe for several months, visiting a number of missionaries as he explores his future in ministry. I had the opportunity to have a number of great discussions with him about missions, ministry, life, and things he could be doing in the future. These sorts of talks are things that always excite me, and something I’d love to be able to do a lot more of.

I’ve also had the opportunity to do some more sightseeing here. A couple of weeks ago, I got to visit ancient Corinth. The top right picture is one of me at the Bema Seat where Paul was brought in Acts 18:12. Seeing sights that are referred to in the bible has been pretty exciting – it helps to make those passages come more alive for me. I also had a chance to see more of the ruins in Athens, including the marketplace near Mars Hill. In that area, there are ruins of many temples, shrines, places of worship, etc. to many gods, just like Paul mentioned when he spoke to the philosophers and leaders there.

I’ve also included several other pictures of my time in Corinth. One is a picture of the bathhouse in Corinth. Also, above the main city of Corinth, is Acrocorinth, the more secure part of the city at the top of the mountain. There, we were able to explore the ruins of what looks like a military fortress. Being quite a high point, it also provided an amazing view.

As you might expect, this time away has also been quite a learning time for both Grace and I as we have to deal with being apart for an extended period of time. I’m excited to say that the relationship continues to deepen as a result. It’s been tough at times, but good too. Before leaving on this trip, we had wondered what would happen between us. Distance like this can be a real acid-test of a relationship. Sometimes, people forget about each other, while other times, they really miss each other. Both reactions say a lot about their real feelings for each other. It has been exciting to see my feelings for Grace grow as a result of my time away. Would you be praying for the two of us? Our relationship is getting quite serious. Please be praying that God would continue to teach us lots during this time, and that we would continue to seek His guidance in where He would have this relationship go.

Thanks so much for your prayer, encouragement and support during this time, as I grow, and seek God’s continued direction in my life. Praise Him for what He’s doing, and continue to pray that it would become clear where He wants me next.

For His glory,
Steve.

Hello from Athens!

Friday January 16, 2003

Greetings Friends!

I’ve been in Athens for almost a week now. I hear people have been starting to wonder how things have been going. What has Steve been up to?

Well I’ve been keeping myself pretty busy. I arrived this past Sunday afternoon. Monday is the day off for the missionaries here, so I had the opportunity to get a tour of the city, and see some of the historic sites. I’ve included a few pictures here, including Mars Hill, where Paul spoke to a meeting of the Areopagus in Acts 17. It was basically a large rock that people could sit on and talk. It’s been kept essentially the way it was, aside from a plaque with Acts 17 written on it in Greek.

Tuesday and Thursday of this week, I had the opportunity to go into the Athens Refugee Center (ARC) that International Teams started 13 years ago. It’s a drop-in center for Refugees that are passing through, or hoping to settle in Athens. Currently, the refugees are primarily from Sudan, Somalia, Iraq (both Iraqis and Kurds), Iran, and Afghanistan.

At the ARC, we hand out food to around 400 people, have space for them to sit and talk, play games, and watch the Jesus video. The video is usually playing in one of the languages represented by the people that come in.

I’ve had the opportunity to sit with several of the men, and play Backgammon, or some other similar game, and talk. It’s been interesting to see the different variants of the game, including ones where the rules seem to change mid-game. Communication with refugees can be a challenge at times, as there’s generally quite a language barrier. So far, the guys I’ve sat with are able to speak a bit of English, but generally not very much. To be able to sit and play a game has been quite helpful, in that it gives me an opportunity to begin building a relationship with the person I’m playing with, time to struggle through simple communication, and try to show Christ’s love.

The team here also runs another ministry they call “The Nest”. It’s a house they open up to refugee families and single men who are seekers or new believers. They have space for 30 people to live for up to a year, and while they’re there, they have bible studies, and various other discipleship opportunities. I had the opportunity to have supper there with a bunch of the people one evening. We had an Iranian meal of rice, and some sort of vegetable and meat sauce we put over the rice. It was quite nice.

Thanks so much for your continued prayer while I’m away. Please continue to pray:

• That I would be a blessing to the team


• That I would be able to build good relationships with the refugees I come in contact, and have opportunities to point them to Christ


• That I would be open to all God has to do in me while I’m here


• That God would continue to direct in next steps in ministry, and my relationship with Grace, and that I’d be willing to follow where He leads

Thanks again for your interest and involvement in my life. May God richly bless you.

For His glory,

Steve Van Bruwaene

Note from Neil Ostrander

Dear Friends of Steve Van Bruwaene,

I am writing you today on behalf of Steve to inform you of some major changes we're making at International Teams of Canada.  As you know, Steve has been working under the leadership of Craig Bauman who is the director of our Encounter Teams program.  After a series of meetings with Craig, we've made the decision to close down Encounter Teams. 

As you can imagine, this is a difficult decision for us.  However, there are several elements that we counted on to “feed” interns into Encounter Teams that have simply not materialized.  After much consultation we've concluded that we as an organization are just ahead-of-our-time in the development of such a program.  While we may pick up this approach sometime in the future, I need to state unequivocally that we are no longer pursuing interns for Encounter Teams.  We continue to mobilize individual interns with our teams around the world, but the Encounter Teams approach will not be pursued. 

Also, Craig and Steve's leadership is so valuable to us that we are eager to deploy them in areas where they can be more effective and leverage their personal strengths.  So, while it is difficult to let go of a dream, we are confident that God is leading us in these decisions. 

Steve has demonstrated his Godly character and his ministry skills to us and other leaders within IT. During his time in the Philippines he was able to offer practical help while learning some valuable lessons in cross-cultural ministry. Gani Sison, our East Asian director said to me; “Steve is a real hero around here! He has helped us with problems that we’ve been trying to get fixed for months!”

Steve is also heading to Athens to work with our Refugee Team there. I know they will be thrilled to have Steve’s help. I was just there with a team and I was reminded that our Athens Team needs dedicated young men like Steve. I would be excited to see Steve get “grounded” there as we will be sending a number of short-term teams to Athens this next year. Steve would then be available to join some of these teams and help them be more effective in their ministry in Athens.

While the Athens trip is “set” and we have some initial ideas about how Steve can be used in the future, we want to seek the input and advice of leaders from Steve’s home church. I expect the process to unfold during the first part of the New Year.

Can I ask you to join with me in praying for Steve? He is a quality young man with a genuine desire to serve God. He will need our encouragement during this time of transition and re-deployment.

If you have questions about International Teams Canada please do not hesitate to call Craig or me at (519) 669-8844.

Blessings to you,

Neil Ostrander

President & CEO

Important Update

Wednesday January 7, 2004

Greetings Friends!

I trust you have all had a good Christmas break.  Mine has been rather different than normal, with lots to share.

Many of you have been praying for the next Encounter Teams program – that God would raise up participants for that program, so we’d be able to have a team this summer.  Well, it seems that God has other plans, and we are again faced with not having any participants.  As a result of this, and other things we are working through as an organization, the leadership here at International Teams Canada (ITC) has decided to bring Encounter Teams to a close.  I’ve included a letter from Neil Ostrander, the President of ITC, which will give you some more info on this.

As a result of this change, I find myself in a position where I am still excited about missions and International Teams (IT), but needing to work through where I can fit now.

At the same time, there are other developments in my own life.  This past fall, I've been getting to know a nice girl at the church I'm attending here in Waterloo.   Grace and I started dating in mid-December.  This has actually been quite a surprise to me – the whole thing has been very unlike anything I had expected, or sought after, but instead something that God seems to have orchestrated.  One of many surprises for me is that she’s a single mom.  A while back, through a series of bad situations and choices, she ended up getting pregnant.  Her pregnancy and subsequent birth of Aris (her daughter) has given Grace the drive to get her life back on track with God, and she is becoming a great woman of God.

Obviously things are still fairly new, so we'll see where God takes this relationship, but it is beginning to look like another development in my life that's likely to have an impact on the process of reshaping my role in the coming months and years.

I recall a year and a half ago when I was working through where God was calling me, it became clear that He was pointing me in the direction I ended up heading this past year.  But the destination was never clear.  It was more like God was saying, “start walking in that direction.  I’ll tell you what you need to know as you go along.”  It seems Encounter Teams was not the final destination, but simply something He placed in the path for a time to help prepare me for whatever He has in store.  It will be exciting to see what He continues to do along the way.

Would you pray for all of us (leaders at ITC, Grace, myself, church leaders, etc.) as we seek God’s direction in the coming months?  We are considering several possibilities in the area of mobilization, short-term teams, local ministries, and perhaps other things as well. Please be praying that it would become clear where God would have me serve next, and that we would all get excited about it.

Long before the decision to close down Encounter Teams, I was planning to join our Athens Refugee Team for a month.  I’ll be leaving this Saturday.  Among many other things, this should be a great time to think through and even explore various possibilities for future ministry, and to learn more about myself as well.  Please be praying that I would be a real blessing to the team there, and that I would be open to all God has to teach me while I’m away.

Thanks so much for your continued prayers, especially during this time.

For His Glory,

Steve.