By Jennifer Klitzke

Jesus says, “You will have the poor with you every day for the rest of your lives. Whenever you ‘feel’ like it, you can do something for them” (Mark 14:7).

Global Impact Pastor, Steve Hanson, closes The Message and reflects on this Scripture verse and the last 20 years of ministry with Open Door. Then the Spirit impresses a thought on his heart, “I ‘feel’ like a cup of freshly ground coffee at Starbucks or the thrill of going to a Gopher’s basketball game.”

Then he wonders, “When do I ever ‘feel’ like being with the poor?”

His memory travels back to the first time when he went to Haiti, 21 years ago. He said, “The stench of poverty, the dust and filth, was so thick I couldn’t wash it off.” He saw an endless sea of blank faces that merged together to form a multitude of overwhelming need. He was panged with an unsettling thought, “Poverty from a distance is disparaging.”

“I didn’t feel like being there,” Steve said, “as long as poverty remained at a distance, all I felt was pity. But when I came to know that the faces of poverty have names, I became engaged in their story.”

Steve remembers his first encounter with poverty when his dad brought him and his two brothers to the Minneapolis Revival Mission. Ten-year-old Steve didn’t feel like spending a Friday night serving food to homeless people, but after he gave to others in need, he returned home feeling full and rich.

Another encounter with poverty was in his twenties when Steve became a Big Brother and friend to a fatherless, inner-city boy. Forty years later, Steve and Sam are still friends.

You see, building deeply authentic, long-term relationships is what Steve Hanson’s life is about.

He brought this concept into ministry as well. For the last two decades, Steve has established and developed long-term relationships throughout the world as Global Impact Pastor, and he has invited us along for the journey.

20 years in ministry
In 1985, Steve Hanson left a private practice in psychology and became the Youth Pastor at Open Door. He wanted Youth to experience something beyond a color television set and shopping malls. He wanted them to experience what he experienced in Haiti.

“I ruined these kids,” he said, “in a positive way, by opening their eyes and ears to the faces and stories of poverty.”

In 1987, Steve took the Youth to Haiti for the first Open Door short-term mission trip. He soon discovered that short-term mission trips are practical learning labs to test out authenticity, risk belonging, learn to love others who are different, and move beyond seeing a multitude of need to realizing that the faces of poverty have names with stories to tell.

Four years after working with the Youth, Steve was asked to become the first Mission Pastor at Open Door. His vision was–and continues to be–unconventional. In addition to supporting missionaries who serve in foreign places, he notices foreign places where God is already working and equips the native people with the resources they need to develop God’s work. Then after a partnership has been established, he sends short-term mission teams from Open Door to participate in cross-cultural experiences.

These experiences help to strengthen relationships within our church body and across cultural lines. “Relationships grow in organic ways,” Steve said, “meaning that they evolve on their own without constructing an agenda.”

Among the 30 global and international partnerships, Open Door has been in relationships with Pastor Dio in Haiti for 17 years and Pastor Herdie in Belize for 15 years. A 16-year relationship with Steve Hass who is now the Vice President of World Vision led us to support HIV/AIDS in Africa through the Beyond Our Door special project.

“I feel like we’ve grown up with the people of Hopkins Village, Belize and Tricotte, Haiti,” Steve said. “I like to stick with people for the long haul.”

Reflecting over the last 20 years in ministry, Steve has gotten to know many names and faces beyond our door. Each one has a story, and Steve has invited us into their journey. He introduced us to the sunny smile of Raheem, a Belizean boy with brittle-bone disease. While children his age play basketball, he’s confined to a table and stares at the same four walls and ceiling every day. Through Project Mercy, Open Door children and adults compassionately raised a barrel-load of coins; enough to build a safe brick home for Raheem’s family of seven and a school for him and two other siblings with brittle-bone disease.

Another story is about Fanfan, a beautiful, young Haitian girl who was born with a mental disability. In Haiti, her condition is considered a voodoo curse. Fanfan’s God-revering family was too embarrassed and hid her whenever any American stopped by for a visit. Five visits passed before the family trusted Steve enough to let Fanfan come out from hiding. In 2005-2006 more coins rolled in through Project Mercy to build a special-needs home where mentally disabled Haitians, like Fanfan, can live freely and be loved unashamed.

In Uganda, Steve introduced us to the blank, lifeless stare of a hopeless and disparaged African boy named Peter. At the age of 13, he was left to raise his four siblings after both parents died of HIV/AIDS. Through the Beyond Our Door special project, enough money was raised to build a safe, brick home with running water for Peter and his family. It replaced the mud hut they once lived in. In fact, in all, 38 homes have been built in the last three years through the generosity of the Open Door community.

In Northern Uganda we met a terrorized teenage boy named Innocent. He is one of thousands who have escaped the horrors of Lord’s Resistance Army. The Beyond Our Door special project provides resources to World Vision that help restore these broken lives.

Getting to know the names and faces of the poor and building deeply authentic, long-term relationships with our partners are why Project Mercy and the Beyond Our Door special project work so well.

“But it’s far more than a fund raising campaign,” Steve said. “It’s about making a difference in the lives of other human beings – getting to know their names and join their story.”

So when Steve asks, “When do I ever ‘feel’ like being with the poor?” He just thinks back over the last 20 years of ministry at Open Door and smiles at all the faces, names, and stories that capture his memory within our doors and beyond.

Written by Jennifer Klitzke.

Published in the January/February 2007 issue of Kingdom Now, a publication of Church of the Open Door, Maple Grove, Minnesota.

By Jennifer Klitzke

“Are you the people who pray?” a Belizean woman asked the mission team.

She stopped by the team’s quarters after dinner that night. Then she asked, “Will you pray for my sick grandma?”

The team followed the young woman to her grandma’s tiny, wooden shack. A handmade table kept modest items off the dirt floor: cassava bread in a bowl, a toothbrush grandma used to brush her two remaining teeth, and a flickering candle that cast dancing shadows of the team onto the mosquito netting that covered grandma’s bed.

Behind the netting was a gravely ill, older woman. History was written deep within the wrinkles of her age-worn face. She’s a woman of many children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren – 150 in all. A year before, this grandma became a child of God at the age of 92.

Grandma softly groaned with delight along with the team as they sang. They laid hands on her and prayed, and the Spirit of God filled the room.

Jill Peterson and Jim Skelly were team leaders that year. “It felt like we ushered this 92-year-old child of God into Heaven,” one of the team members said to Jim.

Hopkins Village, Belize is a humble fishing village where miracles happen. “We don’t bring Jesus to Belize,” Jim said. “We join Jesus in the work He is already doing there.”

Jim has been traveling to Belize since the first Open Door mission trip in 1992. A year before this trip, he was broken from a recent divorce and found grace and healing in Jesus. Jim was excited to take his new found faith to Belize.

The people of Hopkins Village opened wide their hearts and arms to Jim. He felt unconditionally loved and accepted the minute he arrived.

Fourteen years and nineteen mission trips later, the Belizeans have become like family to Jim and vice versa. Every time the villagers see him, they literally come running. When Jim pictures Belize, he sees big loving smiles and the faces of friends with Pastor Herdie and his wife right in front.

Three years ago Jim’s former wife, Cheryl, joined the mission team to Belize. Jim and Cheryl discovered a side of each other that drew them back to the marriage altar. Two years ago, Concio, an elderly Belizean man, escorted Cheryl down the aisle. Pastor Herdie married Jim and Cheryl surrounded by a roomful of teary-eyed villagers. This broken marriage was now restored – one more miracle written in the chapters of Hopkins Village, Belize.

That day a prominent villager stood outside the doorway of the church. Looking at Jim, he said to Pastor Steve Hanson, “There is the most beloved man in this village.”

Reagan’s story

Reagan Kramer is another mission team member and remembers when she came to Belize for the first time in 2001. She asked herself, “Why am I here and what will I do?” As soon as she heard about Raheem, a young boy with brittle-bone disease, her heart knew why she was there.

Reagan said, “Belize has been life transforming. I have grown in my faith, learned to let go of control, and I feel closer to God as a result.”

Last February, Raheem was stricken with double pneumonia and began to give up on life. It looked so grim that a coffin was even ordered.

As soon as Reagan heard the news about Raheem’s failing health, she rallied a group of her friends, and they fervently prayed until they received word that he had miraculously pulled through.

A couple days later Reagan flew to Hopkins Village with the team. She spent her time by Raheem’s side and taught him how to make beaded jewelry. Since then, he’s become quite the entrepreneur. In two days, he made $200 – the same amount his dad makes in two weeks working full time!

Now Raheem is saving his money to buy a computer. He may not be able to physically leave his bed, but a computer will let him travel anywhere in the world.

More like a marriage

In 1991, Haiti was becoming a dangerous place to visit. It was time to find an additional mission destination; a place that was affordable, easy to get to, and English-speaking.

Steve Hanson, Global Impact Pastor sent Cossette (Dussault) Parriott, one of the Global Impact leaders, to scout Belize. Then she discovered Hopkins Village – a small Caribbean fishing village filled with friendly English-speaking people and beautiful, sandy beaches. It was an answer to prayer.
Pastor Steve and Cossette wondered what would a mission trip be like where the agenda is not to have an agenda? What would it be like to host a mission trip that is filled with prayer and praise, led of God, and being present with people? What if it is a place where we worship God for several hours each day and wait for what God brings to us?

Life at Hopkins Village is like a time warp compared to the multitasking, materialistic, fast-paced American lifestyle. Life slows WAY down. The people don’t have much, but what they do have cannot be bought: genuine happiness, joy, generous hearts and a simplistic lifestyle.

According to Pastor Steve, Belize is more than a mission destination – it’s more like an interracial marriage. When he first fell in love with the Belizean people, he said, “I felt like we were cheating on Haiti by dating Belize.”

Over the years, Open Door and Hopkins Village have gone from a dating relationship to a marriage. Pastor Steve said, “With each mission trip, the relationships grow even stronger.”

Pastor Steve refers to Belize as a short-term, long-term mission trip. Open Door has grown up with the people of Hopkins Village. “When a new comer joins a Belize mission team for the first time, they become part of a fourteen year relationship,” he said.

New team members are automatically accepted into the fold and unconditionally loved by the Belizean people. “They will meet you and call you friend because of the ongoing marriage we have with Hopkins Village,” Pastor Steve said.

After fourteen years of slowing down to hear God, He has accomplished more than we could have ever asked. The lame walked… when a six-year-old child received an artificial leg, a special pair of shoes were crafted for a mentally disabled woman, and medical treatment provided relief for a man with a severely infected foot. A dead marriage was resurrected… when  a husband and wife reconciled after ten years apart. A life was transformed… when the village drunk was “born again” and became a respected elder within the community. Homes were built for the homeless. A church building was constructed. A special-needs home and school for three children with brittle-bone disease were built. Wisdom and encouragement spurred on Pastor Herdie to persevere during times of crisis and need. Three native-tongue Garifana gospel CDs were produced. All this without an agenda.

The foundation that was formed fourteen years ago still remains: spending hours in prayer and praise, noticing where God is already working and waiting for His leading, and being present with people.

Each year a new group of short-term missionaries joins this long-time mission. Will you be part of the next chapter? Maybe you’ll spend time with Raheem and his family, Pastor Herdie and his wife, Concio, Pauline, and Guadalupe. Be part of the unexpected miracles that pop up through prayer and worship at a place where time slows WAY down and where the agenda is not to have one.

Published in the November/December 2006 issue of Kingdom Now, a publication of Church of the Open Door, Maple Grove, Minnesota.