Part 4 Can You Believe It?

On this last day of the first month of 2016, and the final Sunday, lets consider Part four of our series entitled;
Can You Believe It? Weve considered that Sarah laughed, that Naomi plodded, and that Hannah wept. What
about the last woman we are to look at as an example? Her name is Mary, mother of Jesus, and she submitted.
[2 Slides] We do not know how old she was when the angel Gabriel appeared to her, but we assume she was a
young woman, and, she was a virgin. Since she was still a virgin, she asked Gabriel how it could be that she
would have a child who would be called the Son of the Most High. When Gabriel told her, The Holy Spirit
will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, Mary replied, I am the Lords
servant, May your word to me be fulfilled (see Luke 1:26-45). The text says that she hurried to the house
of her relative, Elizabeth, because Gabriel had said that she was with child also in her advanced years (vs.37).
When Marys voice was heard by Elizabeth, immediately the baby in her womb leaped for joy, and she was
filled with the Holy Spirit (vs. 41). As such, the Spirit enabled her to recognize what had happened with Mary
without her saying so (discernment, word of knowledge, etc.), and as a result, Elizabeth made this statement:
Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her! (Vs. 45)
Mary was given a very difficult word. We tend to read the account so easily, but if you put yourself in Marys
place, would you have so readily submitted? Though she rejoiced in the presence of Elizabeth (Luke 1:46-47),
for Mary, that word meant she would become a person of public disgrace in her small village of Nazareth. In
fact, the hometown folk never believed the story of the Virgin Birth because during Jesus entire ministry, they
referred to Him as the son of Joseph. For Mary, that word meant risking her betrothal with Joseph, a righteous
man, who would immediately assume she had been unfaithful. For Mary, that word meant leaving her home for
years to journey to Bethlehem for the birth and then to Egypt as a displaced person, a refugee. For Mary, that
word meant standing at the foot of a cross thirty-three years later watching her son die a horrendous death.
Like Mary, none of us can really know what it means when we say yes to His call on our lives. We submit
knowing He has a master plan and we do not. All He asks is that we say yes. Mary believed the word spoken to
her even though she did not know where all that word would take her. You and I love it when God tells us words
we want to hear. But sometimes He gives us a difficult word, a word that calls for submission.
1

The first pastor of this AG church in Klawock (now Prince of Peace) was Stan Snider. He and his family came
to Klawock in late 1981. At one point he worked for the city as the lead garbage man. In jest, we used to call
him Pastor Stan, the garbage man. It took a genuine act of submission at the time for he and Sharon to
relocate here. About five years later, another young couple moved to the area, and also began attending the
church. Theirs names Rob & Val Steward. You will need to personally ask them if this move took an act of
submission on their part? However, the people Id really like to tell you about are another missionary family.
In a combined sense and strangely enough, they share the same names as the folks I have just mentioned.
Nearly five years ago, on a Thursday night at the 2011 General Council in Phoenix, Arizona, Ann and Elle
Steward, a mother and daughter, stood on the platform: one dressed head to toe in a burqa. Gradually the mother
shared with those in attendance as she unwrapped her daughter that we must reach out in friendship and love to
those we may be afraid to talk to, that they also need the love of Jesus shared with them. Ann, alongside her
husband Stan and children Elle and Stanley junior, serve as Assemblies of God missionaries in Istanbul, Turkey
a city of seventeen million, but with less than one thousand Turkish believers. [Slide]
At the age of five, Stan had dangled his legs over the edge of the platform in a small, empty church pastored by his
grandfather. While his grandfather lay that day on the platform of the church he had built with his own hands, he
put his hands on his chest and began his prayer with, Glory, glory, glory! . . . glory, glory, glory! Stan simply
laid down to imitate him, and in those moments, God spoke quietly to his heart, I have a purpose for your life. I
have a particular task for you to do that, if you do not do, it will go undone. The years went by. Stan met and
married Ann, and Elyse and Stanley junior came along. While serving as a policeman in San Diego, Stan felt he
was following through on Gods purposes by serving on the boards of his church and Teen Challenge and being
very active in lay ministry. But, then a series of adversities hit, and God spoke to him again, I gave you a
purpose. I want all of you. I want everything. So, the family gave up their Southern California lifestyle to
follow Gods call. Stan was often heard to say, Its very easy these days for American Christians to live a good
life, to serve their church and their community, and do good things. But sometimes theres a big difference
between living a good life and living the life God has prepared for you.
Ultimately, the Spirit led them to Istanbul to live out their faith on a daily basis within an all-Muslim
community. Additionally, they took their four-wheel drive vehicle on dangerous roads into the Dark Canyon.
[Slide] The Dark Canyon is hidden in the depths of the Euphrates region, made up of gorges and hillsides,
grasslands and rock formations etched and sustained by the Euphrates River. They visited village after
village, sharing their love for Jesus among people who had never heard the gospel. There are thousands of
these small communities representing hundreds of thousands of people, but not a single church, not a single
Christian, and not a single Bible. Despite the whole family learning the language, embedding themselves
within the culture, loving the people God placed them with, no one came to Jesus. Twice they witnessed the
miraculous: God healed an elderly woman of cancer and a man of blindness after they had prayed for them, but
still no one came to Christ. Their family deeply loved the Muslim people they lived among, and were loved in
return. But there were no visible results of their life and labor.
They became desperate and began to pray, Lord, pour us out for these people. Use us. Let us be laid waste for
them. Were not looking for an early retirement. Were not looking down the road to life after our twenty years as
missionaries. We want to see Muslims saved. This is our life! We want to see our friends find you! Stan cried
2

out, God, Youve performed signs and wonders and healings. But were not seeing any change in the hearts of
our Muslim friends. What will it take? Use us! Were willing to pour ourselves out so that the lost will be
found. He felt Gods word echo in his heart, Sometimes works of sorrow, loss, and sacrifice speak louder than
works of signs, wonders, and miracles.
During the summer of 2012, as a family, they set out again through the Dark Canyon. They had a sense that the
expedition they were about to embark on was a crucial, monumental one. The day before they left, Ann prayed,
God, weve yet to see some movement toward salvation. Weve been here in Turkey for seven years, weve
prayed and weve seen miracles. Weve poured our lives into this community as well as the villages weve run
across. But no one is being saved . . . What is it going to take to change the hearts of our Muslim friends? Well do
anything, God! We counted the cost before we ever came to Turkey. We wanted to go where no one was going.
We knew we were going into a country where any of us could lose our lives in a moment. Weve never looked for
safety, only for You to use us. Ive put my kids in Your hands, and I know they are Yours. Im willing for You to
do whatever it takes. Can we see one person saved? Can we see one person decide to follow You? Whatever the
cost, God, we lay down our own hopes and dreams. Then in her spirit she felt God ask her this question, Are
you willing to suffer? She replied, God, I thought we settled this a long time ago. Im willing to suffer . . . no
matter the cost.
As she continued to pray, she had a vision of her right hand bleeding profusely. She marveled at the sheer
amount of blood coming from her hand. As she mulled over what this might mean, a thought came with clarity:
Stan is my right hand. God, is this a vision of what will happen to Stan? Gods response echoed in her mind, If
you abide in Me, this will not cripple you.
Not long after this, Superintendent George Wood spent a day with them in Istanbul during travels to the middle
east, where they had just returned from that Dark Canyon trek, visiting villages where not even one Christian
had ever been. Stan told George that he wasnt feeling well; he thought he might have picked up a bug from
eating some of the village food. He was going to see a doctor after the superintendents visit to find out what
was wrong. Ten days later, Dr. Wood and the AGWM team received this e-mail from Stan after a preliminary
diagnosis was made that he had cancer:
If this is terminal cancer, as it seems at this point to be according to the films, we will be able to say we felt
this coming. These last two years Ann and I have been devoting two to five hours per day in prayer for
Turkey. Weve been begging God, imploring Him to do whatever it takes to break the hold Satan has on
this land. It has been our hardest years, feeling a little marginalized, politics, struggling financially, and
seeing no fruit . . . As we have been praying this last year we have sensed God laying a choice before
us . . . almost a tender question of Do you really mean whatever it takes? We both have said, Yes,
God, whatever it takes to break the hold of the enemy over these people.
Almost simultaneous to the diagnosis of terminal cancer, a woman in a prayer meeting experienced a vision in
which she saw a glass canopy over Turkey and it was suffocating the people. But then she saw a hand thrust up
through the canopy, shattering the glass. The hand that broke the dome was wounded and bloody. Remembering
Anns vision of the bleeding right hand, Stan said that a solemn feeling descended on them, and these words
3

came as a word of knowledge; In breaking the glass, the hand brought air and water and a chance for the
Turkish people to live. But there was a cost of blood that went along with it. Before the cancer, they had
prayed all along, At any cost - at any cost. Shake this nation. Break the strongholds. Stan related that they
could have said, Not at the cost of our children. Not at the cost of a sixtieth wedding anniversary. Not at the
cost of having a home someday where we can write and go for long walks. No! Instead they prayed, Pour us
out. Use us.
I know this story doesnt fit well into the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel so popular in some circles and
many churches in America. To be blunt, it may not set well with you? We live in an era of cheap grace and easy
blame: Well, if things are not going well for you, then there must be sin in your life or a lack of faith. Or, If
you just prayed more, this wouldnt be happening to you.
But you see, submission to God takes us down far deeper paths. In one of the last conversations that George
Wood had with Stan, he said, My fear is that I wont be courageous until the end. I want to face this with
courage and finish well. God is faithful. God will help me. My cancer is the talent I have to offer to God. In the
Muslim faith, there is no peace as death approaches, because one can never be certain of the verdict on
judgment day. Stan approached his death, in his terms as a way to die out loud, as a witness to all the Muslim
friends he had made that you can have peace even in dying because of faith in Jesus. Stan eventually passed
away on August 2, 2013. His former Police Department in San Diego honored him [Slide] as did the Assemblies
of God. His dying days are chronicled in a recently released book called Dying Out Loud which expresses the
goal of very publically demonstrating his faith in God through the dying process. In it, Stan states, God
whispered into our hearts, live this dying out loud.
The remaining Steward family continues in their living out Marys words of submission, I am the Lords
servant. Are we also willing to pray, Lord, whatever it takes. Use me to break down the strongholds in my
community? Are we willing to go the full distance with Christ: in success or failure, for better or for worse, for
richer or for poorer until we find ourselves forever with Himwhere there is no night, no sorrow, no pain, no
crying, no deathfor all these things will have passed away? May we always truly mean it when we sing, I
surrender all. All to Jesus, I surrender. I surrender all.
I began this series [Slide], Can You Believe It, by saying that it was borne out of the 2016 General Council
theme, BELIEVE. Perhaps at the beginning of this 4-part-series you thought that you might receive a three or
four-step formula for faith, that believing is as easy as turning on the right switch. But instead, Ive asked you
to look at the story of four biblical women as well as some believers from our era, and ponder these questions:
Like Sarah, is God planning something so big that you will at first laugh at the prospect of what He promises?
Can you believe, as did our forefathers and foremothers in 1914, that the Holy Spirit is up to something in your
life and ministry that is immeasurably more than you could ever ask or imagine? Like Naomi, can you keep
plodding even when life has beaten the stuffing out of you? Can you believe even in your worst hour of grief, as
William Simpson did, that a harvest will eventually come from your faithfulness to Gods call? Like Hannah,
are you so broken over the barrenness of your life and of the lives around you that you are pouring out your soul
to God with weeping and tears? Can you believe, as Amanda Benedict did, that through your prayers and
intercession God will do a mighty work, even if you dont live to see it?
4

The word AMEN has perhaps become so much of a clich that we dont realize what we are saying when it
comes out of our mouths. Like Mary, are you ready to say, I am the Lords servant. May it be to me as you
have said? In essence, she was saying AMEN (So be it) to Gabriels (Gods) decree. Can you believe, like Stan
& Ann and Elle & Stanley Steward, that you will offer yourself to do what God calls you to, no matter the cost?
If you are ready to do all these things, Im convinced that you will experience the faith that overcomes the
world and find what it truly means to BELIEVE; to believe for greater things! [Slide]
One of our own missionaries, Paul Burkhart [who oversees Chi Alpha in Alaska], shared a victory in believing
by sharing this article in his last winter newsletter to those that support his ministry. In many ways, I recognize
the laughing, plodding, weeping, and submitting; all in this story.

THE ONE
Belonging before belief! Discipling before decisions!

Allowing people to belong to our Christian community before they believe and purposefully investing in
discipleship before they make a public declaration are principles that we learned and embraced while serving as
missionaries overseas in a closed and persecuted context. However, these principles are true in Alaska too. One
of our students named Jared is from Nikiski, a community on the Alaskan Kenai Peninsula. His father rejected
God when he was young and tragically died cementing his family to become antagonistic towards Christianity.
When we met him in 2014 he was a determined atheist. He was immediately welcomed into our community as
a friend and slowly his life has been changing. In September of 2015, Nate, who is an Alaskan native and first
generation small group leader, committed to loving Jared so that he might love Christ. Nate paid Jared's way to
our fall retreat and has invested countless hours into his life! As a result Jared started going to small group and
coming to our weekly service to sit in the back and watch. Its been almost 18 months that Jared has belonged,
18 months that he has been discipled, and 18 months that God has been drawing him. Recently, at one of our
Thursday night services, I preached on belief and all that day the Holy Spirit prompted me to pray that the walls
would crumble in his heart. That evening several people made decisions for Christ, but Jared did not. I
wrestled with this until Sunday night when I met with Nate and our other small group leaders. I started writing
a list of fringe friends to pray for and when Jareds name was written, as it had been for every week for more
than a year, Nate grabbed my pencil and crossed off his name! I looked in shock and Nate shared how just
minutes before our meeting Sunday night Jared came and confessed that Jesus is Lord! Ive never seen so much
excitement, joy, cheers, and tears for just one. One! But isnt it the one that Christ died for? May we never
forget that His love is about the one! May we never lose joy and celebration about the salvation of the one!
May we never stop working to know God and make Him known for the one!