30.12.15

Merry Christmas and an Update!

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Merry Christmas from the Stephensons!

Wow, what a year this has been! January found us in the highlands of Papua New Guinea wrapping up our last few months of service as volunteer missionaries there at the hospital mission station. Danielle had the privilege of teaching the highschool-aged missionary kids and offering them specific insights on preparation for the transition to college in America. Morgan used his incredible ability to fix almost anything to impact the day-to-day workings of the mission station, and his love for the people around him to impact the lives of the men he worked alongside. Theron and Lula won friends and hearts at every turn. We are so thankful that God allowed us that wonderful experience during the last year and a half, and that He has continued to lead us forward this year as we have explored what He has in store for us next. Thank you, our friends and family, for your ongoing support and encouragement as we have followed God’s calling to the ends of the earth and back again!

In March, we returned to the States to serve for the summer at Golden Bell Nazarene Camp in Divide, Colorado, where we had spent some time before leaving for Papua New Guinea. My (Danielle’s) brother and his wife served there with us as summer staff, as well as some other close friends of ours, so congratulations to Golden Bell for surviving that whole crowd of adult Missionary Kids serving this summer!

Our summer at Golden Bell confirmed our deep love for and desire to continue in Camping Ministry. In an increasingly fast-paced world, Christian Camps provide a much-needed place of retreat with God and life-changing experiences for the kids, teens, and adults who come through our doors. A series of connections that could only have come from God led us this fall to LifeChange Camp in Clinton, Missouri, where we moved at the beginning of November. What an amazing place! We are so thankful to God for leading us to “the desires of our hearts” here in this beautiful little camp in the Ozark woods, where we are close to family, we can serve as a family together at the camp, and we get to be a part of an amazing ministry team.

LifeChange Camp began 11 years ago with the dream of founders (and current directors) Bill and Carol Anderson, to provide a Christian Camp with an atmosphere of care and attention to detail. Guests feel as though we, the staff, have invited them into our home to take care of them.  It now is a gem of adorable cabins, a tiny lake (with, to Theron’s delight, BOATS), meeting areas, camp sites, an RV park, and hiking trails. We provide an intentional place to slow down, breathe deeply, and meet with God and others. Morgan is serving primarily as the Facilities Director, while Danielle fills the position of Guest Services Coordinator. As is always true with Camp Ministry, though, we all do everything! The kids have even been “helping” with cleaning, cooking, and (mostly) taste-testing any and all snack materials. Come visit us!

LifeChange is a Partner-Supported Ministry, in which all staff members are committed to helping raise awareness and support as we work together toward our vision: to proclaim the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ to children, youth, and adults, raising up the next generation of spiritual leaders through Christian Camping.  We do this by inviting partners to join us - the Spiritual support of the vast Christian community is essential to what God is doing here. Your financial partnership goes directly toward our salary/support package, making it possible for Life Change Camp to keep costs low, offering Christian Camping experiences to kids and ministry workers at a price they can afford.

Our current target support goal is $500 a month, or 20 partners at $25/month. We are asking you, our family and friends, to prayerfully consider what God might be asking you to contribute towards this goal.
How to give:
  1. Send a check with our name in the memo line to:
Life Change Camp
351 NE 831 Rd
Clinton, MO 64735

LifeChange is a 501(c)3 organization, which makes all donations tax-deductable.

Also extremely important, and a big part of the reason we are asked to raise support, is prayer support. However, prayer support goes both ways: we don’t need it any more than you do! So, we would like to pledge to you that if you pray for us, we also will pray for you. Please keep us updated as to the things we can be praying specifically for you, and we will pledge to do the same for you! If you would like to be involved in this way, write and let us know.

We are so thankful for the incredible support system God has given us in all of you. Thank you for partnering with us as we move forward into this ministry. We hope to be here a very long time!

Serving Him with you,

Morgan, Danielle, Theron, and Lula Stephenson

13.4.15

Culture Shock

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It's like sitting down at the piano to play a brand new song. I stare at the sheet of symbols in front of me, knowing that they should mean something which means something to my brain and my fingers, but I can't quite make it out. The music stumbles down my fingers and what emerges sounds like a drunk chicken dancing the macarena on the keyboard. So discouraging. I think, I will never be able to play this song. 

It is like that moment when the staircase runs out of stairs before my brain does and for one heart-stopping instant, the ground is not where I knew it would be. 

It is as if I step out of the door one day, and the sky is a striking shade of green, and I can't figure out why no one else is commenting on it or noticing it until I wonder if maybe I am the one who is crazy and the sky has been green all along. 

Sometimes it is obvious, when I go to bow and run into the other person's outstreched handshake. 
Or when I take off my shoes at the door and then my poor bare feet are embarrassingly naked all by themselves in an entire house full of well-clothed feet. 

Sometimes it is subtle and confusing, when I can't figure out why grocery shopping leaves me exhausted and stressed. 
Or when I go to say goodbye and everyone is gone before I thought we were half-way through the goodbying. 

It is as if I am dancing with the world around me and seem to be just half a step off from everyone else, just out of sync, just wrong, and everyone whose toes I step on and whose arms I run into look at me as if they cannot figure out what manner of thing is wrong with me. 



Sometimes, for no obvious reason, I am so tired and so confused and so overhwelmed and I can't even put my finger on the reason why. It is as though gravity was increased just a notch or two while I slept and now every task takes just a little bit more effort than I expect it to. (Of course, that may be courtesy of moving to 9200 feet altitude)

It is as though, as I look around, I begin to despair of anything ever being what I expect it to be again. As though I will forever be living off-balance. Out of sync. Out of touch. Alone. Both painfully invisible and embarrasingly obnoxious. Never knowing what to say or what to do or when to do or say or it, and always, always guessing wrong. 

But then, one day, I step out of my door and my foot lands sure upon the step.
And the sky looks lovely today, with it's familiar, exotic green, and although I still think skies are pretty when they are blue, green seems to be a nice alternative. 

And I realize when I reach the top of the hill, the end of the day, that I am not so very worn out. I realize that I can walk faster, jog, even run. 

One day I sit down and the song seems more familiar, and I know what these symbols are trying to tell and the music trickles down my fingers and slowly, haltingly tiptoes across the keyboard in shy harmony. 



One day I meet their outstretched hand with a firm, confident shake and enjoy the boldness and up-frontness of this culture.

One day I take my shoes off at the door and laugh at everyone's looks of knowledge that this is just who I am, that I am a little different and that is ok. 

One day I step forward into the dance and I am still a little different of rhythm, but it works, and I weave my way between the dancers and greet their smiles with one of my own as we acknowledge the spice of life and dance together. 



I sit down at the piano and settle into the familiar sight of this song and the music flows eagerly down my fingers and dances strong and sure and free across the keyboard and echoes in my soul and I realize that this song will forever be a piece of me, no matter what other songs I sing. 

And when I next sit down in front of a new sheet of music, I step out slowly but confident that it will someday sing like the song before. I know that as awkward and odd as it seems now, I will one day dance with these people like I have with those before. One day, this place will be familiar too. And my life will be richer for the addition of this song within my soul.

And so I play.