October 2002 Prayer Letter

Tuesday October 29, 2002

Greetings in the name of the Lord,

I am very excited to be able to tell you about a new ministry that I have the privilege to be a part of.

International Teams (IT) has launched a new Missions internship program called Encounter Teams. It is targeted at young adults (18-30) who have participated in short-term cross-cultural ministries, and are seriously considering some sort of full-time ministry. It is currently an 8-month program that takes these people to 5 different countries in which IT has work going on. It gives them an opportunity to get involved in a number of different ministries in a bunch of different cultures, and get to work along side quite a few established missionaries. Participants of the first team came back talking about all the ways they had been stretched, and how much they had learned about themselves and about God. It was an excellent opportunity for them to take part in advancing the kingdom, grow much deeper in their understanding of God, themselves, the world, and where God might be taking them in the future. After the first team, one of the team members commented, “Tell them they'll never be the same! Tell them to 'go for-it' and be ready for God to do amazing things!” I’ve included a portion of the Encounter Teams brochure on the following page that gives some more information on what this program is about.

International Teams is bringing me on staff to be a team leader for upcoming Encounter Teams groups. This is an exciting opportunity for me to have a part in the development of young adults who feel God’s call on their lives to ministry. My role will be overall care of the team, mentoring team members as they seek to learn more about God, themselves, the world, and their future. In each of the locations we go to, we will be working along side career missionaries, who will be leading the various types of ministries we are involved in.

It has been exciting to see how God has been directing and preparing me over this past year. Receiving and confirming God’s call has been an interesting process, one in which I have seen His hand at work all the way through. The coming months will likely also be quite interesting. Please be praying for me as I begin raising the prayer and financial support that I will need in order to do this work He’s called me to. If you feel called to partner with me in this ministry, I’d love to hear from you! Included is a response card in which you can indicate if you’d like to be a part of my prayer team, financial support team, or if you’d like to get involved in some other way. Tax receipts are available for any financial gifts.

Lord willing, in January, I will be at IT’s missionary training school in Elgin, near Chicago, for 4 months. Please be praying for me in this as well, that I would be open to all God has to teach me, and that the training would better prepare me for what I have to do in the coming years.

If you could be praying that God would continue to guide and direct those making decisions about the future of this ministry, we would greatly appreciate it. Pray that God would be glorified, and lives would continue to be changed – both the lives of those involved in the teams, and all the people we have the privilege of ministering to.

I wait with great anticipation to see what God will do in my life, and the lives I have the privilege to come in contact with. We serve an awesome God, and I know that through His strength and His power, He can do great things.

I would love to connect with you either before Christmas, or after I get back from training this summer. Please feel free to contact me regarding anything I’ve talked about here.

May God richly bless you,

Steve Van Bruwaene

Thanksgiving Prayer Update

For those of you for whom this is the first such email, welcome! I send out a prayer letter periodically to those whom I think might be interested in hearing what God has been up to in my life. If you know others who might be interested, please feel free to forward this to them, or let me know, and I can add them to the list. If you'd rather not receive this for any reason (or would prefer to receive letters less often), please let me know, and I'll be happy to update my list.

Saturday October 12, 2002

To all my praying friends,

I hope you're having a great thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for, don't we?

I'd like to start by thanking those of you who have been praying for me and encouraging me as I've been working through this process of following God's call on my life. Things have progressed quite a bit since my last letter in early September.

In my last email, I was pretty vague about what it was I was looking into. I apologize for that -- until things had advanced enough in the process, I didn't feel that it was necessarily appropriate to announce what was up. At this point, there are a few details that still need to fall into place before things become official, but it's almost there! It is so exciting to see God working and directing me...

Over the past year, I've had a growing interest in working with people, and in cross-cultural/over-seas work. I've been growing into a better understanding of who God made me to be, how He has gifted me, and a deeper understanding of who He is. It's been an interesting year. I had sensed that God was stretching me in a number of ways, and bringing quite a number of challenges into my life in order to prepare me for something that He had coming up for me. I can't say that the process was always fun, but looking back, it has been exciting to see God's hand at work in so many things.

In the last 6 months or so, I've been doing a lot of thinking and praying about where God would have me next. I've considered a number of possibilities that, to some extent, fit some of the passions and gifts I have. While many things seemed interesting, nothing was jumping out at me as something I really wanted to do full-time, or felt called to do. As part of the process of figuring out where He might want me, I spent a couple of weeks in the Philippines, visiting some good missionary friends, and getting involved in the ministry they were a part of. It was quite an exciting time, a time in which God was able to teach me a bunch more, and an opportunity to see first hand some of the things He would soon be calling me into.

A month or so later, an opportunity came up that jumped out at me as something that really excited me -- an opportunity that will stretch me in many ways; one that fits quite well with the gifts God has given me; and something that, as I've prayed about it, talked with many people about, and as I've studied scripture, have felt God's call in.

International Teams (IT) has launched a new Missions internship program called Encounter Teams. It is targeted at younger people (18-30) who have participated in short-term cross-cultural missions, and are seriously considering some sort of full-time ministry. It's an 8-month program that takes these people to ministries in 5 different countries in which IT has work going on. It gives these people an opportunity to get involved in a number of different ministries in a bunch of different cultures, and get to work along side quite a few career missionaries. Participants of the first team (that I had the privilege of visiting in the Philippines) came back talking about all the ways they had been stretched, and how much they had learned about themselves and about God. It was an excellent opportunity for them to grow much deeper in their understanding of God, themselves, the world, and where God might be taking them.

I recall talking to a pastor recently who told me some frightening statistics about pastors. Apparently 50% of people who train to be pastors drop out by their 5th year, and only 1 in 9 make it to retirement. However, for those who have done an internship, these numbers apparently drop off quite a bit. I suspect that the stats. for missionaries are even more dramatic. Giving people an opportunity to find what it is like to live far away from home, in other cultures for an extended period of time, an opportunity to be involved in a number of different types of ministries, and to see firsthand what the life of a missionary is really like is, to me, an excellent way to help prepare them for where ever God calls them.

I've been given the opportunity to come on staff with IT as an Encounter Teams team leader. My role would be to travel with upcoming teams, mentoring team members, coordinating with career missionaries in each ministry location, general logistics, etc. What an exciting opportunity to use my gifts for His service, and to invest my life in the lives of others. To have a small part in God's working in the lives of the next generation of leaders is a very exciting prospect to me!

So long as the last few details fall into place, tentative plans are to begin my support raising this fall, and then to head down to IT's training site in Elgin (near Chicago) in January for a 4-month training program they have for their full-time missionaries. The next team. that I hope to be a part of. launches on August 23, 2002. In the meantime, I would be busy preparing for the team, helping with promotion of Encounter Teams and around the national office, and continuing to meet with people that might be called to partner with me in the ministry.

Would you pray with me in this?

• Praise God for how he has guided and directed me so clearly to this point


• Pray that the final details would fall into place as Christ would have them, and that I would be willing to follow where ever He leads (even if it isn't what I'm hoping for)


• Praise God for how He has been preparing me so far. Pray that I would continue to be open to His teaching.


• Pray that God would be preparing the hearts of those He is calling to partner with me in this ministry. Praise Him for those who have expressed an interest already!


• Pray that the remaining time in the place God currently has me would be honoring to Him


• Praise God for the spiritual protection I've experienced so far. Pray that, with Christ's help, I will be able to resist the attacks of the evil one. If this is where God wants me to be, you can be sure that the evil one will do all he can to put a stop to it.

I expect that once the remaining details fall into place, I'll start sending out more formal information on what's coming up, and will try to start meeting with some of you to tell you more about this. In the meantime, I would love to talk with any of you that have any questions. There's also an Encounter Teams website that is currently under development, that has some good information about the program. You can check it out at http://www.iteams.ca/Encounter_teams

Thanks so much for your prayer and interest in my life. I'll look forward to talking with you more in the coming weeks.

For His glory,
Steve.