Our Clan Stellhorn Supporters Are Amazing! Awesome! Affirming! Appreciated! Thank You!
May has come, and it feels like this year is rolling faster than we could imagine! Seems like it was just yesterday that we were in the initial stages to become affiliates with New International, and now over half way there to being on the field!
April was full of both fun and challenges. There were hard times, exciting times, and then times of waiting. As we walk each month to the next, we trust Him to direct our steps, so April involved a lot of trust and patience.
Before we begin our update, we want to take a moment and thank everyone who joined the Clan this last month, everyone who has been a part of the Clan, and those we met with this month that gave us the opportunity to share our story! YOU are Clan Stellhorn! Thank you for helping send us out into the world to make disciples!
Easter 2021 at C4
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Let's Talk Update!
As we began April we had just crossed the 50% mark, right on target where we wanted to be. April was a slower month, so I (Chris) turned more toward prayer and took the opportunity to continue my studies as we prepare to move the family overseas. In specific, this month I turned my attention to furthering my studies on the topic of leadership, team building and motivation. I knocked out the books, “Gung Ho!” and “Self Leadership & The One Minute Manager” by Ken Blanchard and then “Top Secret” by Mark Miller. I also began reading, “Full Steam Ahead” & “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”.
Each of these books about leadership teach topics about team building, creating cohesiveness, motivating your team, and overall helping people work better and more efficiently, but they focus highly on working for a purpose. A large commonality in most, if not all of these books is the importance of positive words, whether it be encouragement or positive correction when necessary.
All of these words were good this month. I being big on getting things done, like to knock things out and check it off the list, but God instead likes to continue to teach me to wait on Him and His timing.
April felt like a lot of that teaching was being done, but while waiting provided me with resources for study. You see these books had been on my list to read for a while. Earlier in April, I went into the Waller Resale Shop in town called, “WARM” , (Waller Assistance and Restorative Ministry) and there on the book shelf were a bunch of these books which I can only assume had all been donated by the same person. I picked two of them up, but quickly knocking them out, went back for some of the others. At only $1 a piece, it was like they were being gifted to me! I had considered these books, but at $9-$15 a piece, I had just never picked them up. On days without meetings, after the normal calls, emails and texts, I used the time to study.
Below, I’ll share all about our church presentations this month and some of the other ups and downs, but for now here’s some of the short updates to know!
We ended April at about 54%, our upfront support is closing in on 2/3’s the needed amount, and we were excited to make several new connections!
Right off, I want to share that Christ Covenant Church in Beaumont made the decision to support us monthly! We visited at CCC back in March. We were very excited to receive this news!
April Travels!
This month, we had the opportunity to speak at both Second Christian Church and Waller Baptist Church here in the Houston area. After Easter, we went first to SCC where my long time, good friend Jeffrey Eernisse serves. You may have heard me mention Jeffrey once or twice in stories if you know me or have heard our mission presentation. Second and I have a long history, as I became connected with SCC early in my time in ministry by assisting with taking their youth to camp and hosting events together with their youth minister.
We appreciated the opportunity to share about God’s plans for our family and about Clan Stellhorn! One piece of this presentation that I won’t forget is due to Facebook live, their place to stand is upon two chairs, so that the projection screen may be seen during the live feed. It looks natural on the live stream, but at first I gave a bit of a laugh because I felt like a giant in a kilt!
I really appreciate my family at SCC. In fact, back in 2019 an anonymous member at SCC donated the money for Shannon to have a non-insurance covered surgery that was needed for issues related to her hip. That was HUGE, and an incredible blessing to us! If you live near Second Christian Church, I want to encourage you to visit them sometime or drop in on their live stream! If you want to check out the live presentation check out their Facebook page!
In Mid-April, the week after visiting at SCC, we hopped down the street and presented at Waller Baptist Church in Waller, TX. Waller is where we are living right now as we transition between Texas and Scotland. Several months ago, I became connected with WBC during a rather discouraging day. We were around the 35% mark, and I woke that morning feeling like I had plateaued in our supporting raising, not knowing where to go from there. I shared this with Shannon briefly, and a couple hours later received an email from, “Support Raising Solutions” from whom we took our support raising training. The email said, “What to do when you feel you’ve plateaued” (or pretty close to what the title was). I didn’t even need to read the article to feel like God was at work and hearing me that morning.
I decided on the way home from errands to drop by and cold call some churches and ended up in the doors at WBC visiting with a very energetic and encouraging fellow, Blake, the minister at WBC. Short story, WBC invited us to come share at Clan Stellhorn, and it was a super encouraging morning. Several folks bought Clan Stellhorn shirts and gave donations toward our upfront costs. We were humbled by the generosity and welcoming spirit we were shown that morning.
We left that morning feeling renewed in spirit and determination. If you want to check out the presentation, you can find it here! If you are north of the Houston area and need an encouragement, stop in at WBC or check out their live stream!
We will be beginning our Miles for Missions walk at the WBC parking lot by the water tower on May 22nd if you want to join us! Just sign-up and join our team and/or sponsor the walk! Miles for Missions
A bit of news from Shannon
As our family continues to transition towards our move to Scotland, I am slowly getting closer to transitioning out of my home birth practice. Since our last update, I have delivered three babies, and now down to my last five pregnant clients. I have started to actively post to sell a lot of office related items, and after my last client delivers in late June/early July, will have a couple open house events at my office to try to sell everything. After six years of being in the role as instructor and workshop coordinator for the Texas Midwifery School, I helped teach my last workshop and fully transitioned this workshop over to the midwives taking charge.
On the Family Side
Excitement came to our family this month as some of our local Chick-Fil-A’s reopened their doors unexpectedly! Gideon had an MRI early in the month, and on the way back, passed an opened CFA we had heard about. On my “bucket list” before moving out of the country was being able to eat inside at a CFA at least one more time before moving.
Silas is playing his last season of soccer here in the states, which finishes up here in a few weeks.
Gideon had his tonsils out as well, which kept this past week fairly busy as he was recovering.
Cephas attended the Phase 1 weekend for Marked Men for Christ. He is set to ship out June 8th to the Coast Guard.
Coming in May!
This month we plan to visit with Cross Roads Christian Church in McKinney, TX on May 16th! If you want to watch us on their live stream you can catch it from their website or their Facebook page. If you are around the Dallas area, please come and support us! We will of course have our shirts as well!
I will be preaching at C4 May 23rd if you want to join us in person or online. There will be a potluck dinner after the 11am service if you want to come! My final Sunday at Cypress Crossings CC is May 30th.
As normal, our children are signed up to attend Tanglewood Christian Camp this summer as well. If you don’t have a summer camp for your kids or are interested, let us know and we will get you info about Tanglewood and attending with C4!
Check out some videos!
Check out this video the boys made!
The May Update!
Monthly Support
Upfront Support
Support Status
If you don’t know, as of last month, the income from Shannon’s business began to come to completion. What that means is most births are paid for earlier on in the pregnancy and pay our personal and business bills months ahead prior to the birth itself. With shutting down her business it means income for us has halted from outside sources as we move forward, this was expected and knew it was coming of course. We prayed, made plans and agreed though that we did not want to begin living off of our mission support for as long as possible. In doing so, the longer we can hold from pulling from our monthly support, the more of that support goes directly toward our upfront costs until the time it becomes necessary. All funds that have come in to this date via New International have gone toward our upfront support that we are raising. The awesome thing is that God HAS been providing! We did expect to begin living off of our monthly support by this time as we transition to fully preparing for the field, but God has provided in numerous other ways allowing us to hold off so far. We believe when scripture teaches that the worker is worthy of their hire and we will begin to pull from the support as it becomes necessary, He has provided up till now through the government stimulus checks, through the excess from our home insurance once we sold it and numerous other little ways. We continue to pray for his providence as we walk this journey! We are working hard to reach 100% of our full funding and we would ask you to join us at whatever amount the spirit leads you. We all have a duty to the mission of going into the world, that’s the words I heard on the radio the other day, some of us are goers and some are givers and both jobs are equally important and both are ordained by God.
