It was while living in Asia that this vision of 'obedient nations' grew on me, even as I participated in and enjoyed working with colleagues seeking the best strategies toward completing this missional task we've all been given.
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I now live in Colorado Springs and have been married to Marna since 1987. We have three adult children: Grace, Peter and Katie, who are all in their 30s. Marna teaches middle school Language Arts, and I serve as an Idea Architect at One Challenge International's home offices while eagerly pursuing the implementation and distribution of this vision for Obedient Nations.
about Steve
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I am, first of all, a child of missionaries. For the casual observer, this means my roots trace to a conservative, Evangelical background in the North American Bible school and missionary movements of the 20th century. Even though those years happened long ago, I still have the imprint of three major civilizations and continents on my blood and background. Raised on three continents, my school years split up exactly three ways: grades 1-4 in a small 2-room school in Kujiranami, Japan, grades 5-8 in Three Hills, Alberta, and then 9-12 in the concrete jungle of Sao Paolo, Brazil.
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As the fourth of five children, I was born and raised in Japan, on the beautiful west coast of Honshu. My father had fought in Okinawa at the end of World War II, and his response was in part a fox-hole commitment to become a missionary.​
My parents split their careers in half, serving the Japanese in Japan, and then, during my high school years, working with the Japanese in Brazil.
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As my mother's father was also the founder of one of North America's leading missionary-training schools (Prairie Bible Institute), I have a tremendous heritage tracing back through the last century.
After studying Bible & missions at Prairie, and then completing a BA degree at Simpson University, I enjoyed continuing mission studies at Fuller School of Intercultural Studies, and then joined DAWN Ministries (Discipling A Whole Nation) as the Southeast Asia coordinator, based in the Philippines, seeing the DAWN movement spread in the most heavily populated region on the planet. I also founded SeaNet, the only global Christian network on better reaching the Buddhist world, in 1999. ​