Meet Teaven & Sarah

It has taken me a few days to write this blog as it is such a great God story. And yet, hard for me to look at all the emotion behind it. We met Teaven when we were at the Hospitality House in October of 2010. Teaven lived in the room upstairs next to ours. He is engaged to Sarah, Sarah is Ken & Judi Wooten's daughter. Ken & Judi currently are the House Directors for the Hospitality House.

One day, Teaven came in from work and he & I were chatting as he gathered his mail. I saw that he had a letter from YoungLife. I asked him if he worked for YoungLife. He told me that he did work for them doing military youth ministry work on Fort Hood. I asked him if he might have known a friend of ours who use to work with YoungLife before he was killed in Iraq. As soon as I said Leif Nott, he got misty-eyed, and I got teary too. Teaven explained that Leif had been his youth leader when he was a teenager. He told me how Leif had shared Christ with him, but that he had not been willing to accept Christ at the time. While Leif was deployed, Teaven received encouraging notes from Iraq. Leif, having been killed in July of 2003, never got to know that he would be instrumental in Teaven accepting Christ as his Savior. It was then that I told Teaven that Chris was the one who had led Leif to the Lord. Talk about emotional. When Chris came home a little later, Teaven and Chris shared with each good memories of Leif. It was a joy for me to witness the look on their faces. The assurance they had that their friend was with Christ, but at the same time longing for one more conversation with him.

Teaven then told us that Leif was not only his leader, but had also been in his Father's unit. It was through Leif's example and Teaven's words that Teaven's father came to be a believer as well.

Teaven and Sarah are getting married in a few weeks. As Teaven's Spiritual Grand-father, Chris & I will be at the wedding. To us this was another Ebenezer Stone that God had selected Fort Hood for us. Pray for Teaven & Sarah. Pray for their new marriage to go smoothly. Pray for them as they prepare to be ESL teachers in a foreign country, hoping to share the Good News of Jesus where they go, (Korea or Russia is in the works). Pray that as they say good-byes to their families they will hold to the hope that they are living for something bigger than themselves.