Thankful Then, Thankful Now

1ST BATTALION, 35TH ARMOR REGIMENT, 1ST ARMORED DIVISION, BAUMHOLDER, GERMANY (“THE ROCK!”)

This was my first duty assignment in the Army for my wife Aimee and me as we arrived in Germany in September 1999. We had been married eight months; I had been in the Army nine months; and now we were about to figure out married life, Army life, and overseas life all at once. As I think back to that first Thanksgiving in Germany, I had no idea how grateful we would be for the community we were beginning to encounter at the Cadence hospitality house.

I also didn’t realize the gift we had been given in our Battalion chaplain and his family. Chaplain Ken Sorenson and his wife, Patrice, were calming spirits to the challenges that came with all the “new” in our lives. CH Sorenson would regularly pursue me and ensure I was doing okay as I learned how to be an Armor officer. Patrice stayed connected to my wife throughout my many deployments and training exercises. Their whole family was deeply involved in the hospitality house community. (And on our first wedding anniversary, when I was deployed to another U.S. base for training, CH Sorenson even arranged for Aimee to meet me in the chapel so we could have pizza together! I’m thankful the Battalion Commander didn’t find out!)

This month I am thinking back to our first Thanksgiving as a married couple 25 years ago and again giving thanks to God for the Baumholder Hospitality House and the Sorensons. And I give thanks for you, because your financial gifts to Cadence are ensuring many young Soldiers and their families have a similar opportunity to find Christian love and community.

We also want you to know that you can partner with Cadence in supporting the ministry of U.S. military chaplains. Victory Ranch is Cadence’s retreat facility located in South Carolina. One aspect of this ministry is to provide spiritual resiliency training space to chaplains from the Chaplain Basic Officer Leadership Course (CBOLC) at Ft. Jackson. Situated on 17 acres of land, Victory Ranch provides unique opportunities for all new incoming Army chaplains to connect and grow outside of the classroom environment. Furthermore, they enjoy the experience of Cadence hospitality and thus know about our ministry when they arrive at their first duty station.

Every year Cadence selects a “Joshua Project” in which we seek the Lord to abundantly provide financially for specific material necessities. The needs at Victory Ranch include driveway repairs, replacement of the roof on the recreation barn, and siding on the main house. Would you consider a Thanksgiving Gift to our Joshua Project to help ensure that chaplains and their families continue to experience the blessing of Cadence ministries? We have an $8,000 matching gift already in place and would love for you to bring it to life! Learn more at Cadence.org/JoshuaProject.

Happy Thanksgiving!

In the goodness of Jesus,
Brian Kleager
VP for Strategic Partnerships and PR

We Share

We share the gospel and our lives with the military community.

For 70 years, the mission of Cadence International has aligned and galvanized our staff in their fruitful ministry to military people and their families. When I think back on the 40 years Joyce and I have served in Cadence, the unrelenting focus of our hearts has been on this mission of loving military people.

A few weeks ago, I was considering the power of “sharing our lives” as I watched two of our Cadence kids play little league baseball. It just so happened that my visit to this ministry corresponded with our staff’s kids’ game. Of course I wanted to cheer them on—our Cadence kids have a very special place in our hearts.

What I hadn’t anticipated was seeing at least 10 soldiers from that hospitality house ministry also at the game rooting for these two boys! But of course they were—this is what “sharing our lives” means. We are there for each other in the moments and events of life. We share experiences of celebration and of sorrow, of the miraculous and the mundane, and of everyday importance to each person.

After the game, we hung out together at the nearby Dairy Queen. I heard the story of a young couple who met at the hospitality house, were married by the house director, and were now facing a year apart as newlyweds. The husband was deploying to South Korea for Army infantry training. This is not an uncommon story in military life.

What struck me was the peace of heart these two displayed as they talked about this looming time living on different continents. They were trusting God and His plan and were relying on His goodness and His provision. They also knew that she would be loved and supported well by the Cadence hospitality house community while he was deployed.

This is the heart and soul of Cadence ministry—We share the gospel and our lives.

Friends, you make this possible. This story is being repeated multiple times in many places even as I write these words to you. Your prayers and financial partnership fuel this gospel-centered missional living in military communities around the world.

You are an important part of this fruit—fruit that will last into eternity.

Thank you!
David Schroeder, President

As the Deer Pants

Have you ever been so thirsty that nothing mattered more than finding something to quench your thirst?

Earlier this year, I found myself in a situation where I was thirstier than I had ever been. I was in the hospital due to lung-related issues and needed a procedure performed under anesthesia. They gave me the typical “no food or drink after midnight” instructions ahead of time—no big deal. However, after the procedure, when I awoke and needed the help of a BiPAP machine to keep my oxygen levels up, I started to experience extreme thirst. Each minute the BiPAP mask was on my face, forcing pressurized air into my nose and mouth, I became more and more desperate for even just an ice cube. It would end up being five hours before I was allowed to drink some water.

I wish I could say that during those hours I leaned into the Lord’s presence with prayer and great faith, but aside from a few desperate prayers, I honestly thought of nothing more than quenching my thirst. It was weeks later, as I was feeling much better and reflecting on how God faithfully carried me through that situation, that I had the deep desire to thirst for the Lord with the same intense thirst I felt that day. I cried out to God, “Help me thirst for You more!”

Psalm 42:1–2 (ESV) As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

I don’t know about you, but whenever I used to read this Psalm or sing the hymn, “As the Deer,” I pictured a grassy valley and flowing stream with a nearby doe gently approaching the water for a drink. Now, after my experience and through digging into these Scriptures, the image in my head is one of an exhausted deer approaching a mostly dried-up stream with weak but determined steps. As she navigates the dry, rocky terrain of the once grassy valley, she occasionally collapses on her hind legs and waits for the discouragement to pass and the strength to keep moving towards the water she desperately needs.

Are we desperate for the living water Jesus so freely gives? Do our souls thirst for intimacy with God more than anything else? Perhaps some days. And like my rollercoaster recovery from my lung issues, we may have days when that thirst is high and days when it’s low. There may be days when our to-do lists or the troubles of this world diminish that thirst, but also days when our hearts’ deepest desire is for the only living God and His righteousness.

In the days ahead, my prayer for you, our faithful partners, is that you will thirst for the Lord and His righteousness and be blessed.

Together in Christ,

Natalie Harper
CFO/VP for Administration

Setting Our Minds on Things Above

It’s time for a New Year’s resolution check-in. Did you make one, and if so, how is that going?

A few years ago, I heard someone being interviewed on a podcast about New Year’s resolutions. They gave some statistics stating that 43% of people quit their resolutions by the end of January, and only about 9% keep their resolutions for the entire year. Wow! That’s not very encouraging, and it begs the question of why bother making a resolution to begin with.

The podcast guest went on to say that he no longer makes resolutions but instead comes up with a yearly theme to live by. This idea really resonated with me, and I have adopted this as an annual practice.

The Bible is full of encouragements and exhortations like this one in Colossians 3:2: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” If you are like me, keeping all of Scripture’s exhortations and commands at the forefront of my mind can sometimes feel challenging. I’ve found it helpful to listen to the Spirit’s prompting and focus on one or two areas in particular that will keep my heart centered on Christ and “things above.” My yearly theme is born out of this.

Last December, I began to pray through what my theme would be for the coming year and settled on “be more curious and less judgmental,” which came from these verses:

Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with a heart of mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if someone happens to have a complaint against anyone else. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also forgive others. Colossians 3:12–13

Even though we are already halfway through the year, I encourage you to consider choosing a theme, perhaps from the verses above, to help keep you centered on Jesus in the coming months. Let’s press on together as we seek to set our minds on Him!

Paul Bradley
VP for Affiliate and Foreign Military Ministries

Kingdom Connections

American military personnel are accustomed to packing up and going wherever the military sends them, whether it is a six-month unaccompanied deployment or a three-year duty assignment in the U.S. or overseas. Accordingly, Cadence staff may have only a few months to invest in those who attend their ministry and usually no more than three years.

Cadence staff Deric and Rebecca Sneller understand the difficulties these transitions bring more than most. Not only have they served with Cadence since 2014, but Deric is also a chaplain in the Army Reserves. As directors of the K-Town Hospitality House in the Kaiserslautern Military Community (KMC) in Germany, they welcomed Marlina into their ministry this last year, knowing it would only be for a short time. She quickly became a significant member of their community, as she shared in meals, holidays, outings, and ministry, and even blessed them with a date night. Marlina shares what her time at the K-Town House meant to her:

Where am I to begin with the blessings the Sneller family left on my life in the span of just nine months? From the start, God’s grace and love were orchestrating it all. My new husband and I (both active-duty Army) had just been reunited after spending our first year of marriage apart when I received the news I would be leaving once again for Germany.

By late June of 2023, I arrived at the KMC for a nine-month rotation with a unit that was still new to me. My heart was heavy and conflicted. When I met the Snellers, their family was an instant joy to be around. They reflected the much-needed love of God for which my soul was searching. They opened their home and hearts to me, displaying true hospitality. Their steady trust in the Lord and His plan for them has been a testament to faith and something I admire.

When we met, they had also just arrived in Germany and were starting their ministry from scratch. Watching Rebecca fearlessly invite anyone the Lord put on her heart amazed me, as did their trust in God’s process and vision for what ministry would look like in their new context. From being involved in their new and growing ministry, God showed me that even things that seem temporary can have a long-lasting impact; kingdom connections are eternal.

—Excerpt from Deric and Rebecca’s March 2024 newsletter

This Present Moment

“Really, God?”

Am I the only one who asks that question from time to time? Over and over, I have found myself in new environments. Military moves, different ministry locations, and changing seasons of life bring new relationships and variables, and it can be so easy in those moments to feel the weight of change.

There are days I wish my circumstances were more comfortable or that I had more or less of something. At times, when an obstacle lies in my path, I am once again faced with the decision of how to respond to it. When I am walking in the Spirit, I desire to live fully where the Lord has placed me. But when I walk in the flesh, it’s easy to find reasons to complain or resist, and then I miss what God wants to do in the present moment.

As a family, we have been searching the Scriptures for those things that God commands us to do. It has been both rich and challenging. The four most common commands we find in Scripture are these:

Give thanks
Praise the Lord
Rejoice
Do not fear

When we examine our present circumstances through the lens of these four commands, our entire perspective changes. We find that our hearts and minds stop searching for answers, and we find purpose, peace, and power from the Lord, sufficient for us in the present moment.

Whatever circumstances you find yourself in today, I invite you to approach them with these four clear and loving commands of God in mind. May you find His power, His peace, and His purpose this day. You are right where you need to be.

By His Spirit,
Dave Hutchings
VP for Field Ministries