This is the written version of what we shared at the Sylvan Lake Community Church, our home church on May 26th. I hope you enjoy!
Nathan and I have been married for four years but
have memories together dating back about 22 years thanks to our parents who
remain great friends to this day. Fast-forward five years ago when we started
dating we found our testimonies quite similar, Nathan and I were both raised in
Christian homes, that strongly participated in church and taught the word of
God. Like so many, we eventually came to the crossroads of making our faith
our own. We both rebelled from our parents faith and sought life with the
world, as time would have it we came to the realization that Christ’s offering
of grace is the only way to true freedom. As young adults we began living out a
true faith marked by the genuine desire to follow Jesus and a heart open to be
changed and transformed by the life and resurrecting power of God and the Holy
Spirit. And so as individuals, the Lord began planting a seed of desire to
serve His kingdom.
Nathan and I were married in April of 2009. We decided that summer to put into motion a
call God had placed on both our hearts during our engagement to grow deeper
with God and stronger as His followers. So four months into our new marriage we
started our Discipleship Training School or DTS with Youth with a Mission. Our six month DTS was located in Vancouver.
It consisted of a three month lecture phase and a three month outreach phase
which we spent in Montreal and back in Vancouver at the 2010 Winter Olympics
and Paralympics. Our hearts were strongly affected during this 6 month time and
we grew to know Jesus more through this discipleship experience.
Over the last three years God's hand has continued
his work in our hearts and through our lives right here in Sylvan Lake. We've been so blessed and impacted to share in the community of this Church. In this
body of believers we have felt surrounded, loved, supported, challenged and
encouraged. We thank the leadership and the members of this Church for
supporting our decision to go and for offering your hand of partnership in this
ministry.
Since we started sharing with people about our plans
to return to Vancouver to enter into full time ministry work, one of the most
significant questions I've been asked is: why
or what led you to make this choice? I
think this is a critical question to testify for you how God works in the
everyday ordinary life. We've both had unique and individual journeys in coming
to this decision. And since Nathan came to the decision first he gets to share
first.
For me I first felt God’s call on my heart when I was 19 working at a Christian summer camp in Saskatchewan. Before that time, as Jenny said earlier, I was trying to live life on my own terms, without God. If you had asked me I would have told you that I was a Christian but only because I had “prayed the prayer” when I was a child. Looking back I wonder, can you really ask Jesus to come into your heart, but then tell him to stay out of your life? Because that’s basically what I had done.
Working at camp included leading bible studies with the kids and teaching them what it meant to make a decision to follow Jesus. This made me really start to question my life and if I really was a follower of Christ. I knew that I believed in God but as we read in James 2:19 “Even the demons believe that – and shudder”. My faith was shallow, I was a lukewarm Christian. Thankfully, God got my attention that summer and for the first time I made a true commitment to the Lord. This was about more than just the forgiveness of my sins, it was a commitment to turn from the way I had been living and whole heartedly follow Jesus wherever he wanted to lead me. From that point on I knew that I wanted to work in full time ministry serving God but I didn't know where or what that looked like.
Fast forward to the end of our DTS in 2010 and I felt God calling me back to work full time with YWAM, helping other Christians find what it means to be true Disciples of Christ. I was married by this time and really wanted Jenny to feel called as strongly as I did so that we could be partners in this ministry. I brought it up a few times with her but she wasn't ready yet and God needed to do some work in her heart first so I started praying that when the time was right for us to go, that she would be the one to bring it up again.
As I shared with you earlier God had put on our
hearts as an engaged couple, a desire to work in full time ministry. As Nathan
shared with you just now, our hearts were not yet in sync. In my heart I had
been given peace following our DTS to process what God had done in our lives. I
was waiting on the Holy Spirit until further notice was given to start thinking
about going back to Vancouver. So when notice came, it first came as a gentle
whisper in my heart, but at times I have selective hearing and so God spoke a
little louder! It was shortly after Penelope, my second daughter was born that
I found a breast lump, which after a biopsy was found to be benign. This event
was definitely the pinch God used for me to open my eyes and evaluate if I was
in step with His plan for my life! Between the time of finding the lump and the
biopsy, I was given great mortal
perspective, and I was contemplating questions like if I were to die am I
ready to meet God face to face and say to him I did my best Father and made the
most out of the time you gave me to impact your kingdom? Mathew
25:23 flooded my heart, 'Well done, good and faithful
servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of
many things. Come and share your master's happiness!” I did not know if I could answer that
question in all honestly or claim the words of Mathew 25:23. This realization
propelled me to think further about what it was God really wanted me doing with
my life. One of my life verses, Mathew 16:25, played over in my head, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life
for me will find it.” I didn't have to search my heart long before I
knew what God was speaking; it was time for me to respond in obedience to his
call to return with my family to Vancouver. A part of me knew Nathan was simply waiting on
my heart to be ready and once I said the word, we would jump both feet in. It
was on a drive home one night from Edmonton I blurted out before I could stop
long enough to change my mind “why don't we go back to Vancouver”. My spontaneous confession was all it took. I
thank the Lord; he had joined our hearts and minds for his good and perfect
purpose.
This entire
experience has been a great reminder of what I truly want; I want an abundant
life with Christ. With a heart of gratitude for the grace he freely offered me
I want to offer him my commitment to use me in whatever way he can. His grace is just unimaginable, underserved
and in this life I live I want to see other hearts so inspired
by Christ’s love, that they must live their lives radically for His glory.
Youth With A Mission is an international volunteer
movement of Christians from many backgrounds, cultures and Christian
traditions, dedicated to serving Jesus throughout the world. Their purpose is
simply to know God and make Him known. YWAM began in 1960 with a focus on
giving young people opportunities to demonstrate the love of Jesus to the whole
world through training and missions trips. Today they still focus on youth but
also have members of every age and many of their short-term efforts have grown
into long-term endeavors that have impacted lives and nations. They operate in
more than 1000 locations in over 180 countries with a staff of over 18,000
people.
We have made a two year commitment to serve with
YWAM and will be starting in mid-August. We will be serving at the Vancouver
base and will be primarily focused on running a Discipleship Training School or
DTS. The school is six months long and includes an overseas missions trip. It’s
designed to help students know God more deeply, live more like Jesus and
identify their unique gifts and purpose to use in missions. The best way I've heard DTS described is as a honeymoon with God. Pastor Kevin often talks about
his trip to Uganda and jokes about how no one there is in a hurry; they’re on
“Africa time”. Well, we aren't like that here. We're so busy that we can easily
put our relationship with God on the back burner as we get caught up in our
daily lives. Lukewarm Christianity becomes an epidemic in a culture like ours. DTS
is not like that, it’s counter cultural. Its six months of your life that you
dedicate to focusing solely on God. Our hope and passion in helping to lead
this school is that the students would fall in love with their Creator. That
they would realize that to be a Christian isn't just to say a prayer and hope
to someday meet Christ in heaven. It means meeting Jesus right now, and every
day as you follow His way and seek His will for your life.
So that’s what we’re going to be doing but where are
we at now? Right now we’re still working out the logistics of moving our family
to Vancouver. There’s still a lot to do before we go but God has been faithful
and is working everything out in His time. Our main focus right now is building
up a strong support team which includes prayer partners and financial partners.
There is a quote from Hudson Taylor that I like; he says “It is possible to
move men, through God, by prayer alone.” We truly believe this and know that in
order for our work to be fruitful in Vancouver, we will need strong prayer
support. We are counting on this Church, our church, to continually lift us up
in prayer and to pray for the hearts of those we are trying to influence for
the Kingdom. We are also trusting that God has put it on some of your hearts to
support us financially in this mission. We know that God calls some of us to Go
and others to Send and that both calls are equally important to further His
Kingdom.
In conclusion, we would like to ask you to
prayerfully consider if God is asking you to partner with us. Let us know if you’re interested in supporting us financially
or if you would like to be added to our monthly newsletter to get prayer
updates. Also, if you are thinking that God might be calling you into ministry
we would be more than happy to talk to you about that as well.
Mike Stachura
from Operation Mobilization says “The mark of a great church is not its seating capacity, but its sending
capacity.”
I know that this is a
great church and I am certain that you will do a great job not only sending us,
but continuing to send others into all the world to make disciples of all nations.
Thank you for your time, your prayers and your support.
