I remember the first time I met Steven. He seemed very mysterious and serious. He had a kind of alone, dark sense about himself. Not dark in an alarming or bad way, just an unknown dark, as if you never really knew what he was truly thinking. I’ll admit that at the beginning it was a bit difficult to get to know him. He liked to keep to himself, and was usually expressionless. He was simply fine not talking with anybody. Many times I remember walking past Steven and simply exchanging a head nod, or on rare occasion a pleasant “How are you?” Which was routinely followed by a quick “bien” (good) and nothing more. That seemed to be the extent of our conversations.
“Discipleship goes at the speed of relationship”. This is what we live by, so it looked like to get to know Steven better, I had to start digging a bit. I needed to try to be a bit more direct.
After I heard Steven share his testimony for the first time, who he was that I had seen up to that point began to make a lot more sense. Steven has a strong testimony. Growing up, he had spent a lot of time alone. Feeling of extreme loneliness and that your life doesn’t matter or have any worth, are very common in situations like this. From hearing of the absence of very important figures in his life, I started to gain more understanding about the Steven I was beginning to know.
One rainy afternoon, I remember standing in the hallway outside of the classroom, and for the first time, we broke through the casual conversation and I started to get to know the person behind the “mysterious” look I had known before. As Steven shared some vulnerable things with me, I started to realize that he actually wasn’t that closed off; he was just used to and ok with being alone. That was normal for him. He had learned how to live life without having several very close people in his life.
It’s amazing to look back now after the ten, quick months of Vida220 and remember the Steven that first showed up at our base. In these past seven months he has seemed to transform into a person who is so connected and attentive to not only God, but the people around him. It actually took me back to the first time I saw him during our training week, halfway through outreach. It was amazing to see his interaction with other people. It wasn’t with everybody, but it was amazing. I remember now, seeing him sitting on the steps of our base in the rocky, green, Honduran mountains, always with a cup of coffee in hand, chatting and reminiscing with others about all of their experiences and the things that God was teaching them and doing through them.
Since training is a short, very busy time, I didn’t really get to experience all of Steven’s transformation, until I stepped onto the dirt roads of Sula, Honduras to visit the team on outreach. On their outreach, the Sula team had opened their house to the community. Almost every night they had children, youth, and adults come over for a movie, to visit, play games, and really just spend time with them. It was incredible to see Steven in this atmosphere. The way that he cared for the people that came to their open house. One of Steven’s heart languages is food. Steven has a two year degree in cooking. He has an amazing talent of taking any ingredient and making something amazingly delicious out of it. He also is very creative, so there were times where they had planned for a certain number of people, and ten or fifteen more showed up.
One night while I was visiting the Sula team, that very thing happened. People from the community started showing up to watch a movie. We had some bread sticks and pizza (a rare delicacy) left over from traveling earlier that day. There wasn’t enough slices of pizza and bread sticks for even one per person, but Steven cut them all up into bite size pieces, and as we sat and watched the movie, we passed them around and everyone ate until their heart’s content. It was so much fun seeing Steven in this atmosphere. He had become someone who was very relational with people and was always looking to serve them in the best way he could.
The most amazing thing is to see who Steven is today. Although he still seems somewhat mysterious, he has a smile that can make anyone immediately feel apart of the group. His smile is authentic and radiant. Even though he’s a big guy (tall and built, not heavy) with a long beard, his smile and heart can warm even the smallest child’s heart. And I definitely have many more stories and pictures to prove it.
Steven has just returned to be a team leader for the next generation of Vida220. We are super excited to see the way God is going to use his change and past experience to challenge, and walk alongside the next wave of students. We are very expectant of what God has in store for the next 10 months. We believe that if God can do these things in our lives, and use stories like Steven’s, He can and will continue to touch the lives of many others. As people step out into what normally feels like the unknown, and open up their hearts to the healing and power that God wants to bring into their lives, while choosing to have their lives glorify Him and not ourselves, our loving, all-powerful, and sovereign Father, fulfills his promises of doing great things in and through their lives!
By Vinny Miller
Vida220 Director