One of my Heroes

Posted by oneEmpowered at 1/7/2010 9:33 AM
Categories: Encouragement
I have been truly blessed with the people God has placed in my life!

Recently, I reconnected (on Facebook) with one of my heroes, Steve Smoker.

In 1985, I had only been a Christian for a short time when my family moved to the coast of North Carolina. Looking for a place to worship, I visited a little church where Pastor Steve had recently joined the staff as youth pastor.

Now, here was a guy who is exceptionally talented and creative. With his management ability and skill in graphic design, he could have done very well in the corporate world. Any advertising agency would be lucky to have him. In fact, I think Disney once had an interest in him. But, instead of seeking worldly success, he and his wife (who has an angelic singing voice) chose to minister to a motley group of kids in a little neighborhood called Crab Point.

Surely, there were moments when Steve and Linda wondered what they had gotten into. As one of the kids, I remember some times when we would have made the Bad News Bears look like a cohesive team by comparison. You could say we put the “fun” in dysfunctional.

With Pastor Steve’s leadership, we had the most amazing youth group events. There was snow skiing, river rafting, theme parks, mystery retreats, conferences, concerts, summer camps and even a missions trip to Costa Rica. One of our group, Frank Kinsey, serves as a missionary in Costa Rica today.

It wasn’t all fun and games (though there was an incredible amount of fun). Pastor Steve taught us by example what it means to be a prayer warrior. He also taught us the importance of: having a firm foundation in Christ, seeking the approval of God rather than people, choosing what’s right instead of what’s popular, and looking for the opportunities for God to use us.

I remember the Bible passages that we memorized, the songs of worship that we learned in Spanish and sign language, the prayer meetings we had, and the prayer journals we kept that detailed what we were praying about and how God answered those prayers. I referred back to my prayer journal for years afterwards and marveled at what God had done.

There’s something else I remember that may seem trivial to many, but it really stuck with me. I called Pastor Steve one day to ask him a quick question – I don’t remember what it was, but I remember that it wasn’t very important. Probably a 15 second conversation.

At the end of the call he said in an earnest tone, “Thanks for calling.”

I know it’s not earth-shattering, but no-one had ever said that to me before. I bugged the guy about something unimportant and he thanked me for calling! At that moment, I felt more appreciated, more wanted and more worthwhile than ever before. God’s love was demonstrated through such a simple act.

I’m pretty sure that Pastor Steve prayed for opportunities to be a Godly hero in our lives.

Pastor Steve, thank you for being willing to be used by God.
 

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