Ministry Focus: Finance/expense report processing
“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms (1 Peter 4:10 NIV).
Steve was working as a commercial truck driver when he learned that Wycliffe moved missionaries with trucks and had a great need for drivers. He enjoyed serving in that capacity for the summer of 1983. In 1986, he was able to begin the process of serving on a longer term basis. Over a period of 15 years, he was able to assist missionaries from many organizations move thousands of shipments. This involved travel in 44 states and the western part of Canada.
During one of his trips to the east coast, Steve met a special young lady. Dawn grew up in South America where her father was a missionary pilot. She was spending the summer with her parents in North Carolina between years of college. They were married in 1989 and spent their first year together in Canada.
A Wycliffe training centre in the mountains of California was the location for their first assignment. Dawn worked on the finances for the centre while Steve did maintenance and also moved missionaries part time. Eventually, Steve became the West Coast Operations Manager for the trucking operation.
When the west coast warehouse was closed, Steve and Dawn were made aware of the need for a business manager in Vanuatu. They were able to help out the translators in that country for about 4 years. As their daughters prepared for high school, educational opportunities were very limited in Vanuatu. Once again, Steve and Dawn were made aware of a need, and this time it was for someone to process expense reports in Wycliffe Canada’s office in Calgary. They accepted this challenge and their daughters were able to continue with their education in Alberta.
Steve and Dawn consider themselves to be among those who stand in the gaps so that others are not distracted from providing God’s Word for more than 1,600 language groups that still need Scripture in their mother tongue.