“I’ve become a better leader and teacher because Ben trusted me with opportunities for both.”

A young soldier said this to me recently as we were visiting the Fort Hood Soldiers Hospitality House. Ben and Melody Bloker have directed this ministry for over six years and have seen countless lives, including this soldier, transformed by Christ.

Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas is one of the largest Army installations in the world with over 40,000 soldiers stationed there. The Cadence hospitality house is a beautiful 6,500 square foot home that sits on 16 acres. The grounds have a hiking path, a full size outdoor basketball court with lights, and a RV hookup area. It also has a pavilion for picnics, events and weddings, a play area for children, and even a few frisbee golf holes.

What makes this place a home, though, is the care and hospitality offered by Melody and Ben and their kids. They love the soldiers and their families well, and it shows!

Joyce and I were recently there to speak at a “Raise the Roof” fundraiser in which $36,000 was raised toward a new roof for the hospitality house. One of their soldiers is a gifted concert pianist, and he blessed the 60+ participants with an amazing and stirring concert of Christmas music (pictured above).

Fort Hood has a reputation for being a “dark place,” where soldiers can sometimes live in a challenging and difficult environment. It takes a team of servants to shine the gospel light in such a place, and Cadence has eleven staff on duty there. In addition to the hospitality house staff, our Cadence team members also teach men and women’s Bible studies, host retreats and day trips, serve on a chapel leadership team, take soldiers on work projects and mission trips, and are involved in numerous discipleship relationships.

All of that in conjunction and coordination with the local churches, parachurches, and chaplains makes for a place where love and the gospel are powerfully on the move in that military community!

Your gifts and prayers make this ministry happen. As we enter another year of life and ministry, I want to thank you on behalf of military people at Fort Hood and around the world for your partnership in the advancement of the gospel.

“She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.” Luke 2:7 NLT

The very entry of the Son of God into this world was a moment of unwelcomed displacement because there was “no lodging available for them.” In fact, this little family was on the road in flight to Egypt when Jesus was still very young.

Jesus was also born into an environment of hostility, darkness, and danger. As we softly sing, “Silent night, holy night; all is calm, all is bright” in this season, we also remember that in sending His Son into this dark, evil, and broken world, God the Father was declaring an act of war on Satan, his demons, and all the evil in this life. Light broke into darkness!

More so than just an unavailable room for lodging, the very forces of darkness and evil recoiled at His birth. He was far from welcome in this territory of their current dominion.

They had reason to fear, for Jesus’ birth swung open the door for all who would receive this gift to be welcomed into the family of God. This is the astonishing “good news that will bring great joy to all people.” Luke 2:10b

Years ago, one of our Cadence founders, Dotty Hash, wrote the book Fill These Rooms. In it she described her and her husband Tom’s prayers for God to bring military people into their home, one of the first OCSC Hospitality Houses, so they could share this good news. God answered their prayers then, and He has been bringing military people into Cadence homes ever since.

One of those places, the Kaiserslautern Hospitality House in Germany will celebrate 50 years of ministry in 2022. Fifty years of military people and their families filling those rooms and being transformed by Jesus!

Cadence has rented the same German home for all these years (see photo). Now God is opening the door for us to purchase this house and secure these rooms for ministry for many more years to come! After so many years of hospitality, the house now needs significant upgrades, improvements, expansion, and general TLC.

Would you like to be a part of this ministry by contributing an extra gift this year toward the K-Town House Renovation fund? If so, go to Cadence.org/KTown. Thank you for considering partnering with Cadence in this new season of ministry in this home.

Friends, as we celebrate the arrival of our Savior and as we share this good news of great joy, may your rooms, our rooms, Cadence hospitality house rooms, and the rooms of our hearts be filled with people who will be loved, welcomed, and enjoyed.

Not all welcomed Jesus upon His arrival, but by His life, death, and resurrection He’s provided the opportunity for all to encounter Him in life-changing redemption and community.

Thank you for being a significant part of filling Cadence rooms with military people.​

David Schroeder
President

Joyce and I really enjoyed our recent trip to visit our Cadence staff in Europe. We participated in their field-wide retreat as well as visited all our ministries and staff in Germany. What joy we experienced as we engaged in their gatherings, heard their stories and challenges, and had wonderful conversations with military people.

Most of our hospitality houses are full once again; indeed, some of them are overflowing with military people. All of them are teeming with a new appreciation and hunger for rich fellowship and deep community. The rooms of these homes are filled with love, joy, worship, Bible studies, and the lively chatter of renewed face-to-face relationships.

We also talked to chaplains who expressed gratefulness for their partnership with our Cadence staff in loving their military community.

In Wiesbaden, Germany, we heard a powerful testimony at the Cadence Summit Haus from a young woman in the Army whose life has been transformed by Jesus in these months of experiencing Him in the lives of that community of believers. She was baptized just a few weeks ago.

In Vilseck, Germany, we talked to two Soldiers who both have trusted Christ in the last 3–4 months.

In Spangdahlem, Germany, Joyce had a fascinating conversation with a young Air­man at the Cadence ministry, The Hangar. She had recently finished six weeks of service at Ramstein Air Base giving medical care to the displaced Afghanistan refugees who had been evacuated from that country. She spoke of the women and children in particular and how meaningful it was to be the arms and feet of Jesus to them in this time of change and challenge.

And how we enjoyed getting to know some of our new Cadence staff who just a few years ago had been in the military and participating in a hospitality house and now were loving and blessing military people in their own ministries.

Friends, your prayers and support are making a difference in the lives of military people around the world. Joyce and I were privileged once again to witness and experi­ence it first-hand, and we testify to you that lives are being transformed by Jesus!

In this month of Thanksgiving, we express to you our deep gratefulness for partnering with us in this vital and fruitful ministry.

David Schroeder
President

Recently, I’ve been reflecting on my favorite leadership passage in Scripture.

Speaking of King David, the psalmist Asaph says, “He chose his servant David, and took him from the sheepfold; from tending the nursing ewes he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel, his inheritance. With upright heart he tended them, and guided them with skillful hand.” Psalm 78:71–72 NRSV

I want to focus on a few thoughts from these verses for our consideration.

First, as with God’s selection of other leaders in the Bible, there is a clear acknowledgement of that which is God’s responsibility and that which is the leader’s. God “chose” David and “took him from,” and then “he brought him to.”

God often surprises us with His choice of leaders—many times He selects the unexpected and the unlikely to step into this calling. He sees what we often don’t see, like the heart and mind of the person. He then takes them “from” a current place or position and “to” something new that is both challenging and rewarding.

While we often only think of positional leadership in our Western mindset, I believe God has chosen each of us to lead, to influence, and to make a difference in our families, communities, and workplaces. While David was chosen for the specific leadership position of king, we all have been called by God to be salt, light, ambassadors, living epistles, fragrant aromas, disciples, priests, and much more.

Embedded in each of these callings are the joys and responsibilities of influencing and making a difference for Jesus in this world.

I also love the descriptors in this text of David’s responsibilities—to be “his servant,” to “be the shepherd,” to lead and tend with “upright heart,” and to guide with “skillful hand.”

The word “skillful” is used about 42 times in the Old Testament and is often translated “wisdom” or “understanding.” Also, the word “hand” is not the common Hebrew word used to describe the hand, but rather a more specific word which can be translated “palm.” It is most often used to describe the priests turning their hands upward and outward in a prayer or in a blessing.

In these two words alone we see a beautiful picture of the leadership we are all called to live—to wisely guide and care for those around us in a spirit of dependence upon God and as an act of worship to Him. As an example, I often see this wonderfully lived out by mothers and fathers with young children who lead and guide their families with faith, wisdom, and love. They inspire me to become a better leader!

May God stir your hearts as you seek to influence those around you for Him, just as we in Cadence strive to accomplish this in military communities around the world. Thank you for your partnership with us in this endeavor and for your leadership in your families and communities.

David Schroeder
President

Cadence Student Ministries is celebrating 40 years of ministry to the military!

In the summer of 1981, four students from Multnomah School of the Bible (now Multnomah University) formed a quartet called Malachi Singers. This group was the result of two Cadence Kids, Joyce and Dave Patty, dreaming and praying about summer military ministry while in college and their dad, Dick Patty, who was the Europe Field Leader at that time, believing in this vision. He told them, “If you put the group together, I’ll put together your first summer itinerary.”

Having lived in Germany for a year with their parents, Joyce and Dave experienced first-hand the incredible opportunities and needs of military students whose parents were stationed in Europe. At that time, Cadence (then OCSC) primarily ministered to military people through hospitality houses and servicemen’s centers, but there was little focus on their teenage dependents.

As a 19-year-old Freshman at Multnomah that year, I had no idea how trying out for this singing/drama team would change my life. Forty years ago this summer, I joined Joyce, Dave, and Marla and boarded my very first airplane (pictured above) and flew to Germany to minister to military students and soldiers through concerts, retreats, and small group discipleship. Dick and Margaret generously lent us a vehicle and their house was our home base.

We saw 63 students and soldiers come to Christ that summer. The next summer of 1982 that number almost doubled as 110 souls came to Jesus! Because of this response, we formed two singing teams in 1983 and began inviting our youth ministry friends to consider moving to Germany to partner with chaplains and become full-time youth workers on a military installation. And so, in 1984, Malachi Ministries “officially” became the youth ministry branch of OCSC.

Since then, Malachi, now Cadence Student Ministry and Cadence Children’s Ministry, has impacted thousands of military students for Jesus at military installations across Europe, Asia, and in the United States.

I didn’t grow up in a military family or community, so when I landed in Germany that first summer I met my very first military person at our first concert. Now all these years later, I continue to love military people and their families with all my heart. In fact, this is the essence of Cadence. It’s who we are and what we do: we love military people and their families.

The recent challenging and tragic events in Afghanistan have reminded us of the potential peril and sacrifice our military people and their families live with in service to their country.

In all our ministries at Cadence, we are dedicated to honoring this service, loving our military well, and faithfully bringing the hope of the gospel to this community—67 years now for the mission and 40 years for Cadence Student and Children’s ministries . . . and counting.

David Schroeder
President