STORIES FROM THE FIELD
FROM THE PRESIDENT
Prayer: The Essential Foundation of Ministry
This year, I would like to invite you to something essential. It is something I believe will shape the future of Cadence and expand the reach of the gospel in powerful ways, and it is something many of you are already doing.
From the Field
The InCadence Podcast:
Stories of God’s work in and through the military.
Legacy of Love
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16–17
A Soldier’s Child
After hearing about A Soldier’s Child SOS Christmas on WayFM a few times on our way to school, my nine-year-old daughter, Kenna, asked if we could participate. The following week, she sold items at our church’s holiday market and felt she could sponsor a child with the earnings. An easy click on the site led us to the purchasing of gifts for a girl the same age as my daughter.
Faithful and Available
One thing that continues to amaze Candace and me is how God works through those who attend our house ministry, not just us. One man, in particular, is relatively new to Korea and still processing through a hard breakup that occurred before he came.
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.
Legacy of Love
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16–17
A Soldier’s Child
After hearing about A Soldier’s Child SOS Christmas on WayFM a few times on our way to school, my nine-year-old daughter, Kenna, asked if we could participate. The following week, she sold items at our church’s holiday market and felt she could sponsor a child with the earnings. An easy click on the site led us to the purchasing of gifts for a girl the same age as my daughter.
Faithful and Available
One thing that continues to amaze Candace and me is how God works through those who attend our house ministry, not just us. One man, in particular, is relatively new to Korea and still processing through a hard breakup that occurred before he came.
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.
A Prelude to the Great Commission
“. . . but some doubted.”
Three simple words tucked away in the grand narrative of Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, and commissioning.
The disciples had likely just experienced a full range of emotions as they journeyed with Jesus through Passion Week. Matthew records their reactions to the resurrection of our Savior in chapter 28 verse 9, “Suddenly Jesus met them and said, ‘Greetings!’ And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshipped him.” Awe and adoration were the only possible responses to the risen Christ!
Life-Changing Community
Fort Polk is located in the Vernon Parish of Louisiana. The fort is under the command of the Joint Readiness Training Center of the 4th Brigade and is the only training center in the Army which both trains and deploys units for combat missions. Approximately 9,000 active-duty military call Fort Polk their home.
We Send
The Cadence Way lists five priorities that describe the unique ways Cadence ministers to and impacts military communities and the world for Christ. You can find them on the front page of Cadence.org. They are:
To Live is Christ
I recently attended the memorial service for a Wycliffe missionary who went to heaven after a battle with cancer. She and her husband share the same sending church with Joyce and me here in Littleton, Colorado. Two of their daughters were active in the young adult church group which we led and taught for nine years.
Name Above All Names
“There is a name I love to hear, I love to sing its worth. It sounds like music in my ears, the sweetest Name on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus, oh how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus, because He first loved me.”
Like many of you, I basically grew up in a pew. Church twice on Sundays, often on Wednesdays, and other times as well. The great hymns of the faith are etched on my heart from years of singing both melody and harmony along with my five siblings and the congregation.
There’s something about hymns that anchor those who know and love them. When my wife, Joyce, sits down to the piano in our living room to play a hymn (and she can play them all) there is a stillness and peace that permeates our home.
Shelter in the Storm
Recently appointed as new Cadence missionaries, Duncan and Suzanne have a wonderful story of God using Cadence in Duncan’s life as a young man serving in the Army. Cadence missionaries, Brad and Debbie Ellgen, were there for Duncan at a key moment in his life. Here is his story:
An Intern Returns
Joyce and I began our Cadence International careers as young adults serving in the mission’s Student Ministry division (known then as Malachi Ministries). We enjoyed over ten years of fruitful ministry to military students and their parents stationed at various Army installations in Germany.
Since then, we have served Cadence at our Headquarters here in Englewood, Colorado. We always love hearing stories from the field of transformed military lives, and it’s especially encouraging to hear of military students still being influenced for Jesus through Cadence Student Ministries.
The Gospel in the Center
Each Sunday at our local church, the cross is brought from the platform back down the aisle to the middle of the sanctuary for the reading of the gospel. Behind the cross, a pastor walks holding the Bible high as on each side the people turn to face the cross. Then it is said, “We bring the cross into the center of the people as an outward sign that Christ is with us and among us. May His Word be always on our minds, upon our lips, and deep within our hearts.”
One Hope
I attended two memorial services recently—one in Missouri and one in Michigan.
The service in Missouri was to grieve the sudden loss of a young man tragically killed in a car accident on his way home from work. He had been married for only two months to the daughter of one of our Cadence couples.
The chapel was filled with young people seeking to somehow trust God and celebrate Caleb’s life while also wrestling with the fragility of life here in this broken world under the curse.