Missions NW Conference with Steve Saint

Dear Prayer Team,

Okay, I have to admit, I didn't really have a good sense of what the target audience of the Missions NW conference last Saturday (New Hope Community Church, Clackamas, Oregon) was supposed to be. I wish I would have read the article in the Northwest Christian News that came out in December, but I didn't. If you want the link just email me.

I wasn't sure if we were singing to a conference of people who were wanting to learn about how to reach their neighbors more effectively, or if this was a conference designed to encourage foreign Missionaries. I asked and I was told that this conference was designed to reach out to people of many denominations who have a heart to win the lost of the world through missions, and to inspire young people to follow after many wonderful Christian people who have made this their life's work. There were also many people there who have been foreign missionaries in the past.

The place was filled to over-capacity (3,300 people), and they were having to turn people away. The audience was filled with all ages from many different churches, but the floor in front of the stage and the stairs going up the aisles were filled with young people. We sang, "So Excited" and, "He Won't Let You Fall From His Hands" in the first session. Between songs Jason jokingly let everyone know that we were singing with our bass via Satellite. I then interrupted and said, "Um, Over? We aren't singing with him via satellite! We just recorded a bass track and that's what we'll be singing with!"

"Oh," Over said sheepishly, "Well, that makes it easier!" That little explanation is all we needed to say. We had a great response from the people there and when we set up the second song we geared it to those who might be feeling like they haven't found their place in ministry yet, and who are feeling a bit like they've been set on a shelf. We told them that God will never forget them and that they are still safe within his hand.

In the second session we sang The Difference, So Subtly, and Rescue. The set just seemed to flow right into the message that was coming across that night.

The big surprise of the day: The keynote speaker, Steve Saint! His father was killed in Ecuador fifty years ago along with four other missionaries by a small tribe of "stone-age" people called the Waodani who had never had the gospel preached to them. Theirs was a culture of violence. 40% of the deaths in their community were due to homicide by the spear. As a young teen during summers he stayed with his father's sister who was living with the Waodani at the invitation of the tribe. The very man, Mincaye, who had killed his father became a Christian and has served the Lord all these many years. In fact he has become like a father to Steve Saint since then. He calls him "Grandfather". Steve has written a book about his experiences called, "End of the Spear", and it has since been turned into a movie that opened on January the 20th.


Steve Saint speaks to a packed audience at Missions Fest NW


He actually had "Grandfather" there with him. Steve's company I-TEC, serves many indigenous peoples through training and technology so that the gospel can spread throughout the world. At the behest of the elders of the Waodani he learned and then taught them "The teeth fixing thing" (dentistry) so that they could bring the Gospel to the people after serving them with compassion. He then developed a dentist's chair, with drill and power supply, that they can easily fold up, place into a back pack and go to the people wherever they are. Grandfather Mincaye is one who learned dentistry and has performed thousands of dental fillings, tooth removals and root canals.

The elders also asked Steve to teach them to fly, so he has found an aircraft (a big three wheeled cockpit with a fan on the back and a parachute), has developed a training regimen, and has taught certain of the Waodani to fly from village to village to spread the gospel and provide needed service to the people there.

The worship team was great, the speaker was inspirational and the audience was just so ready to hear from the Lord that night. It was an incredible time and we feel very fortunate to have been a part of it!

How Do We Come To Know God?

Dear Prayer Team,

I just wanted to share something I heard recently that was of particular comfort to me. I think you'll see why.

A young man at the church where my family and I worship was speaking two Sundays ago about knowing God. He mentioned that as he was in a leadership position for a youth group he was asked by a particularly upstanding young man in his group three questions that shook him to his core. The questions were this: 1. Is it truly possible to know God? 2. Do you REALLY know Him? 3. How does a person really get to know Him?

Simple questions, eh? These questions catapulted the youth leader into a harrowing search for his faith that lasted over a two year period and brought him to his knees in a way that he never knew existed. Today he can answer an emphatic yes to the first two, but he answers the third by way of a story.

He befriended and later married a woman who had a little girl from previous, difficult circumstances which he did not go into. He felt an instant bond with the child and wanted her to accept him first as friend, and later as father. He naively set her on a counter and put his arms out for her to jump to him so that he could catch her. She wasn't having any of it. Why would she leap into the arms of a person who had no track record? No evidence had been gathered that he was trustworthy! He seemed big, but what if he wasn't even strong enough to catch her?

He set her on a bed about two and a half feet off the floor and tried again...still nothing. He asked her to just lean into him and very carefully she decided to do that. Over the weeks he would stand her up further and further from the edge of the bed and have her lean to him. After a while she began to jump to him and now will leap off of steps to he and his wife when they aren't even ready for her. And why not? They've faithfully shown that they will never drop her!

The waves crashed about the small boat. A ghostly figure appears atop the treacherous waters. If Jesus wanted to meet His disciples and talk, couldn't he have just scheduled a time with them? Why make the point of walking out to them upon the water?

Peter dares to ask if the Lord would allow him to walk out to Him. Was he doing this just to see if he could be some sort of "super disciple"? Was he trying to impress Jesus? Was he just a thrill seeker?

Jesus came out to them in a very dramatic and shocking way. Why? I think it was because he wanted to show them that he was beyond their expectations. He was setting them up. It was as if to say, "Okay, fit THIS situation into your logical but experiential view of the world. Doesn't it seem to you that if I can make even the most basic properties of water obey me that maybe you need not fear the situations that confront you?"

I believe that something inside of Peter needed to KNOW that Jesus was powerful enough to extend his reign over the roiling seas to protect one of His beloved disciples. As he stepped out of the boat and felt the water supporting his weight he saw Jesus' powerful strength. As he began to focus on the waves and doubted what he already knew to be true he began to sink. As Jesus caught him, Peter learned that even when our faith fails us, even when we are weak, Jesus is there to save us.

What shocking or difficult circumstances are confronting you? What challenge to overcome are you facing? And more positively, what exciting step of faith is the Lord asking you to make? Did you know that these are the very situations that God uses to teach us to know him more deeply as the God of strength, comfort, rescue, mercy, forgiveness, etc...

Do we want to know Jesus more? His strong arms will never drop us! His love never fails!

Go ahead!

Jump to Him!