The Father's Heart

Revealing the Father's heart

Header Right

Justin Steidinger

Camp Beyond Summer Outreach

by Leave a Comment

As the school year has come to a close a new season has started.  In January of this year Jon and I were asked to become teachers at a camp committed to helping high school students from China and Taiwan establish life values before heading to U.S. Universities in the years ahead.  The camp is attended by mostly Buddhists and sometimes Muslims who have had little to no understanding of Jesus.

When the Lord opened the door of opportunity for us it was a confirmation to things he had already put on our heart regarding the Pacific Northwest.  In the past few months we have been helping set the curriculum and preparing for classes in June, July and August.  The camp itself is not overtly Christian.  It is however, catered toward helping students understand and deal with pressures around school, parental relationships, addictions, dating and sex, and other life challenges from a Christian perspective.  The goal of the camp director is to provide influence from a Christian perspective allowing teachers to build relationships with students, understand their life struggles, and through relationship lead into decisions around and for Christ.  TFHG was asked to participate because of our strong passion for discipling and empowering others up into greatness for Christ.

The opportunity ahead will open doors to colleges and universities in the U.S. as well as doors to other nations.  We’d like to ask you to please be in prayer for these students.  We want them to have soft hearts, be ready to receive and we want to hear clearly from Holy Spirit on how to minister to them.

Our family will be leaving on May 22 and passing through some cities in the western U.S. where some ministry connections and fruit has already happened.  We will end up at the camp outside of Portland Oregon around the middle of June where Ethan, Hanan, Josiah and Kaitlin will join the international students for 3 weeks before heading back home across the northern U.S.  As we head home, Jon, Larisa and their boys will be arriving in Portland for the July camp and head home August 1st. Justin will be returning on August 2 for the final camp ending at the end of August.  It is going to be an amazing and very busy summer with over 40 international students lives impacted.

If you would like to keep up with the journeys follow us on Facebook or email us and we will put you on our list to receive emails as we go.

Kaitlin Cares

by Leave a Comment

Kaitlin has a big heart for her 9-year-old frame.  Her passion for those less fortunate and often forgotten caused her to take initiative and do what she could to show them they are loved.   She started making care packages for the homeless in her hometown and using her own money to fund the packages.  She worked to earn money and then purchased things to give away.  She loves adding her own creative love to each package.  Now she invites you to join in on the fun.  If you would like to be a part of this amazing story consider supporting her cause financially or by sharing with others.  To give to Kaitlin’s project visit Kaitlin Care’s giving page.

 

Becoming Disciple Makers

by Leave a Comment

Last year we started a Wednesday night “church group” among millennials interested in getting closer to Christ with a vision to reach their campus and communities for Jesus.  It started with a couple of young men, eventually grew to include women and has continued to grow to include an amazing group of young people growing with a passion to see Jesus glorified in their schools, workplaces, and communities.  As we turned the new year the Lord put it on our hearts to start trying to hand it off and give much more attention to the work of making disciples among others.

Our time together usually consists of a meal, praying together, going through the word and/or worship.  We began using some basic disciple making tools as our topic of discussion since those include the word and prayer.  They also provide a simple reproducible way for each person to do the same with others.  We have started encouraging the group to take the same simple lessons and share them with others they are around every day.  Since starting, we have had even more people join the group and take interest in reaching others.

It is amazing how many people we meet who want to reach others for Christ but do not know where to begin.  Lifelong Christians who have been faithful don’t understand simple basics like why the gospel is called the good news.  The church seems to understand whether we should allow women teachers, instrumental music, or how, when, and who should baptize (although we are sometimes wrong) but we still miss the basic.  Having simple and practical discussions with this group and training them on these basic truths has proven very fruitful.

We have been using a tool called Pocket Disciple.  It was created by a friend, Erik Fish, who has focused primarily on colleges and universities around the U.S.  The material is very easy to understand and replicate and teaches students to be active in sharing their own experiences with others.  The material is not just for the millennial generation and I encourage you to check it out.  If you would like someone to walk you through using it email us and we can set up a training so you can start doing the same.

Since introducing the material 3 weeks ago we have had multiple students give stories about sharing it with others in their circle of influence.  This past weekend we heard from a student who said he has someone who now wants to get baptized and follow Jesus the same way.  We are just starting to see a growing momentum and are excited to bring you updates on movements happening at MTSU, Belmont, and other universities as students are obedient to share Jesus using these simple tools.

Keep up with our newsletters to receive updates on what Jesus is doing in Middle Tennessee.

Revealing The Father’s Heart

by

A few weeks ago I was in Atlanta for a wonderful night of ministry. A small group of us began a conversation about our father in heaven and his desire for us to know who we are as his children and to know his heart. A young lady joined the group and began to share about challenges she had in living out the kingdom in her every day life. She was asking questions about all of the times she had not reached out to someone when she felt she should.  She was indicating to us that God wouldn’t use her because she had disappointed Him.   As she was speaking I was suddenly overwhelmed with the father’s heart for her. She was a beautiful young lady on the outside but in that moment I saw her as a beautiful daughter. As though she were my very own daughter who I had a great love for. I suddenly felt like she was beautiful just because she is my daughter. And in that moment I realized exactly how the Father felt about her…I walked over next to her, put my arm around her and gave her a hug, and said

“You can’t get it wrong. The father just gave me his heart for you and I can see how beautiful you are to Him!  He wants to hug you and tell you that He loves you just like you are. In His eyes you’re not able to make a mistake so don’t worry about the missed opportunities or the things you think you did wrong in trying to serve Him. He loves you because you’re His daughter. He only wants the best for you and that includes experiencing His joy of impacting others life with His love. Not because that earns His favor but because you experience His joy, His goodness.

She started to cry. And then an interesting thing happened. In the unity that we have in the body of Christ and while I was connected to the father’s heart I immediately felt the heart of the man standing to my left and simultaneously the heart of the woman on my right that I had just spoken.

His heart was saying, “Man I wish I could feel the father’s heart like that.” ( he later confirmed this was exactly what he was thinking while this was happening and it gave me a chance to encourage and affirm him in the father’s love as well)

Her heart was suddenly so overwhelmed with the love of the father that she didn’t want to leave my presence. She had only just met me and there was absolutely no physical attraction. She just wanted to be around me because suddenly she felt the father through me. I could feel her heart saying, I wish he would just hold me like that and never let go.

As I have reflected on this, I was so amazed at how the father could reveal his heart to one individual and through the unity of our faith let all of our hearts connect. One person being encouraged to something greater, another person manifesting the heart and love of the father through them, while a third person receives the affirmation and love of her father as his beautiful daughter.

God is so good to share his love and share his heart with us. I want to encourage you today to not get caught up in trying to heal people, prophesy over people, witness to people, take care of the hungry or do activities that you feel you NEED to do to “minister.” Instead, ask the Lord to reveal his heart in you so that you can allow his heart in you to reach out and touch the hearts of those around you with his love. Experiencing his heart in me has been one of the greatest miracles I have ever experienced.

Interview with Engaging Missions Show

by Leave a Comment

After our recent trip to Myanmar and Thailand, Josiah and I participated in an interview with my friend Bryan Entzminger, host of the Engaging Missions Show.  We kicked off a series of shows on kids in ministry (something really close to my heart).  I am super excited about this series and the future guests.  Please consider visiting and subscribing to the Engaging Missions Show if you have a heart for missions or you would like to be encouraged by all that God is doing around the world.

If you have not heard some of our stories from Myanmar and the amazing things God did take time to listen to a few of them here.  Josiah is a little nervous starting out but I was so proud of him not only in learning to operate with the Holy Spirit at 11 years old but also to get on the radio and share his heart and the stories from our trip.  I hope you enjoy.

Listen here or please consider visiting The Engaging Missions Show website.