March update

Dear Friends,

Well, we have now been at LifeChange Camp for four months! Crazy, isn’t it, how time flies? We continue to be astonished every day at God’s incredible leading, bringing us here to a place so perfect for our family. It is a real joy to work alongside the team we have here, and to invest our time and energy into the people we minister to.

This last month, we had a group of 80 ladies come for a retreat weekend, on the most beautiful, warm weekend: it was in the 70s! The ladies had small group times around the lake in the sunshine… when we walked by, we got to see so many women worshipping God, praying, and enjoying the lake and the sun and the birds. There was even a turtle sitting beside the lake -- he must have thought spring was already here! The women loved it here -- they all commented on the good food and clean cabins. I guess that means we have done our job!

Lula and Morgan had a shared birthday party the last weekend of February, and Morgan’s family came up to celebrate. It was so warm, again, that we broke out the kayaks! Not bad for February!

Morgan is currently working on developing a couple of low ropes challenge course elements to introduce this summer, as well as setting up rappelling down one of our ravines here on camp. He is so excited to be using his talent and passion in this area!

Danielle is working in the office, learning the ropes of the website, and doing graphic design of posters and a new brochure for the camp. Follow LifeChange Camp on facebook to see her posters! … Oh, and also to keep updated on our daily camp life, we guess.

For you, our prayer and financial partners, we are eternally grateful. We see the hand of God in our daily lives, interactions with others, health for our family, and wisdom in day-to-day decisions, and we know that your prayers are a huge part of that.

We are continuing to pray and search together with Bill and Carol, our camp directors, for the best housing location for our family, whether it be a new house on-camp or a  piece of land close by. The goal is to complete that housing project with no debt to LifeChange, so please continue to pray with us for wisdom in that decision, as well as the funding to do so. We hope to make the move by the end of this year.

Please also pray with us as we here at camp search for the summer staff to be a part of our team this summer. We are still looking for a few more  counselors for all the campers who will begin coming through our doors in only three months! We have a couple of recruiting trips still ahead of us, so please be in prayer with us for God’s best plan for the members of our summer team.

Financially, God continues to amaze us. Every month thus far, we have received exactly $500 in support -- the exact amount we need! We are now at $175/month in “recurring” donations -- it was reported to us that due to a glitch on paypal, some “recurring” donations were only processed as “one-time” donations, so if you believe you set up a recurring donation, you might check to make sure it is still coming out of your account and didn’t just come out one time. If you want to parter with us financially, you can do so at http://www.lifechangecamp.org/get-involved/giving, tagging your donation for Morgan and Danielle Stephenson.

Remember, there is plenty of opportunity here for volunteers in the kitchen, housekeeping, maintenance, or just space in our RV/ tent campground, so feel free to come see us! We would love to serve you dinner.

Serving Him with you,

Morgan, Danielle, Theron, and Lula Stephenson

February update

God has been so amazing, calling and bringing us, as a family to this place where we can partner with you and Him in His plan to redeem the world!  

LifeChange Camp has as it’s its mission to "proclaim the gospel to all ages, raise up spiritual leaders, and maintain excellence in a safe, fun, growing camp experience." 

To us, this means being part of providing a safe, fun location where God can truly meet with kids, youth and adults away from the everyday noise of life. We have watched this month as groups of all ages gather to praise, worship, and seek God here as we have the opportunity to feed them, speak with them, and love them. Our Winter Teen Retreat allowed a great group of teens from several churches to connect with each other and God, and to hear and respond to a series of messages about being "made new" in Christ.  It is so rewarding to be a part of that!

Of course, every ministry always has two parts: those who are going and those who are sending. Something amazing happens when these ministry partnerships come together, each person responding to the role they have to play: lives are truly changed. You, our prayer and financial support team, play a vital role in the lives that are being changed here.!

We see the hand of God daily in continued health and safety for our family, and we deeply covet your continued prayers. Right now, one big prayer request is the finding of a house for our family to live near LifeChange Camp. We currently live about 20 minutes away, which, for a facilities manager, is long ways. We, and the team we work with, would love to see us move either onto camp or right next door. There is one particular piece of property that seems to be perfect for both our housing and possible future staff housing, and we are praying that if it is God's will, the camp would be able to purchase that piece of property. Please pray together with us that exactly the right housing situation would be able to move forward! 

Financially, during January we received exactly the amount we needed: $500! How amazing! We also received ongoing pledges totaling to $75/month for this year! 

This leaves us with $425/month that we still need to raise this year to meet our goal, and to be able to continue doing ministry here well. 

We are so thankful to have friends and family on our team who partner with us in ministry. If you feel called to be a part of our financial support team, you can do so at this link:http://www.lifechangecamp.org/get-involved/giving -- just mention our name in the note.

We love you and are so thankful for the amazing people we have in our lives. -- if you are ever in our part of the world, we would LOVE to have you over for dinner!

Merry Christmas and an Update!

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

    2) Donate online at http://www.lifechangecamp.org/get-involved/giving

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

Culture Shock

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. 

Judging Her

I looked at her with her slightly baggy jeans that had given up on life a while back and yet she just kept wearing as if she did not realize that they were barely hanging on. 

Her tummy pooched a little, the pooch of a woman who had gotten pregnant again before quite regaining her former shape after the first baby. The pooch of a woman who now realizes she probably won't ever be quite exactly the same again.

I looked at her hair... Not quite short, not quite long, not quite brown, not quite blonde, not quite straight, not quite curly. It was scooped up in little twists and bobby pinned into submission far from reaching grabbing baby hands. 

I looked at her, like I had looked at so many others like her, and to my surprise, I found that I had no judgment for her this time. I did not mentally criticize her clothing, or her lack of makeup, or her obvious unenthusiasm for sit ups. 

I thought abought the dishes that piled dirty in her sink, and the tupperware and pans piled haphazardly in her cupboards, and felt only kinship, and even pride in her for choosing to play with her kids or kiss her husband or even just be without worrying that for this moment in time, the dishes remained unwashed.

I noticed the toys scattered about the floor, the spilled juice from her toddler's breakfast, her kids state of undress as they were all still in pajamas at this hour of the morning, and I did not feel condemnation. I did not compare her to all the other moms who surely had it all together this morning. I only smiled at her in the knowledge that sometimes... Life is just chaos, and that is just fine.

I thought about how I sometimes disagreed with her choice of sleep training methods, about how I had so many times in the past secretly blamed her children's misbehavior on her inability to stick with cry-it-out for more than two minutes, or her tendency to feed the baby every time she cried in the night because it was just easier and she was so tired. 

I thought about how I had passed quick judgment on the times she used too sharp of a tone of voice in scolding her son, or the times she let things go she really shouldn't have because it was just too much work to correct this time. I had looked down on her for her lack of that holiest of grails of parenting: Consistency.

But this time, to my surprise, I found that the judgments had, somewhere along the way, faded, leaving me with a sense of understanding. A sense of the faultiness and brokenness of all of us. A sense of grace. 

I stood there, contemplating this turn of events, and wondered when I had stopped criticizing her so sharply. 

When I had stopped judging her and all of her fellow women who did not have it all together. 

When I had stopped mentally comparing her to the ideal which we all surely strove for. 

I wondered when I had decided to just let her be. 

To appreciate her.

To smile at her, with no underlying castigation.

I wondered when I had started extending grace to her. 

I wasn't sure. 

I felt perhaps it had to do with a day when I realized that judgment is contagious. 

It does not stay neatly confined to the one I would like to be judging, but spills over until I am judging everything I see.

Perhaps at some point I had come to realize that I could not contain judgment. 

That in allowing it to flow through me to others, I had deal with it flowing back to me. 

That judgment is not picky.

It sticks to everything in its path, washing away the colors of joy and peace and thanksgiving.

At some point, I had started choosing grace instead. 

I had taken the judgmental thoughts, one at a time examining them and choosing to cast them aside like refuse and choosing instead to clothe myself in grace. 

To extend grace to every one I met, adorning them, too, in priceless pearls of acceptance and love that saw their faults and made them beautiful.

 The grace which flows around all of us, pulling us in closer instead of separating and pitting us against each other. 

The grace which forces me to see the humanity of the women around me, how we are all in this together, how I am not above or below any of them.

The same grace which I found myself extending to the one in front of me now. 

I smiled at her, a smile full of grace and joy and knowledge that she is beautiful and loved and an amazing mom and wonderful wife and that the dishes and tummy pooches and spills and baggy jeans just are the trappings of chaotic, joyful life right now, and are made beautiful by grace. 

She smiled the same smile back at me,

And I turned from the mirror to face the next moment of life with grace.