An Early Dream

Back in the early days of our marriage and ministry, we used to dream about having a “traveling ministry.” We’d talk about the idea of taking our three young children out on the road to churches in a gospel-oriented ministry. We wondered what it would be like to go from church to church, living in a travel trailer, and wondered if God would ever have us to do such a thing. We could sing, the kids could sing, Steve could preach, and Jennifer could play the harp and piano. We could provide children’s classes and choir workshops for churches along the way.

Once or twice, we even went and looked at travel trailers. 

Twenty years slipped by, and our early dreams of an “on the road” ministry faded with time. We had plenty to do within the church ministry where we loved serving, and our family kept growing with one baby after another. A traveling ministry was pretty much the furthest thing from our minds as life got busier with each passing year.

Then, in 2019, God moved us. It was a painful uprooting of our whole life and pretty much our whole world. But we followed God’s call in spite of our many questions. What would this big change actually end up looking like for our ministry-loving family? It seemed things were going to be very different as we came to serve in communications work for The Biblical Chronologist.

Things did look very different, and we never anticipated that our long-ago dream of having a “traveling ministry” was about to be fulfilled, in a way. After getting grounded a little bit (and after Covid), we began to seek opportunities to travel out to churches with our newly established Truth in Time ministry. We sent a postcard out to churches within a local radius and stated “no meeting is too small.” And opportunities began to open up.

So, at the time of this writing, here this weekend we head out again. The three children we had back in our early days are now all grown up (and boy do we miss them!). And now we have five children traveling with us who weren’t even born back when this dream was born in our hearts.

We don’t live in a travel trailer (thankfully). Steve still preaches, as passionate as ever about communicating truth, and Jennifer still plays the piano and harp. We don’t work with choirs or teach children’s classes, but we do have five kids who love to sing and play four different instruments.

Traveling out to speak and sing entails plenty of work, effort, chaotic music practices, and many tired days and nights, but through it all we see God’s hand. Last weekend we were in a church where a young father made a beeline to sign up for our podcast afterwards (he was raised in church, had been out of church for several years, and now was coming back to bring his little girl to church). Another fellow who had been raised as an atheist, from England, spoke to Steve after the service about the importance of biblical apologetics ministries. 

We usually begin our concerts by singing, “From the ends of the earth, from the depths of the sea, from the heights of heavens, Your name be praised…. exalted in every nation, sovereign of all creation, Lord Most High, we magnify!” Amen, and amen.

For more info on our Truth in Time ministry, dash over here to our site and check us out!