Steve and Anita jamin' for Jesus

There is an old country song that says, “Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.” Well, if they turn out like Steve, they will be just fine and we might have to write a new country song recommending that we start asking mamas to raise up some more of them!

 

   Steve grew up on a ranch in Utah and learned how to do hard work at a young age. When he wasn’t working the cows and horses, he would work on his roping and riding skills with dreams of hitting it big on the rodeo circuit. He never hit the big time but he did a fair amount of rodeo riding until he hurt his back and couldn’t do it any more.

 

   The good thing about modern day cowboy work is that it forces a guy to be a real jack-of-all-trades. The small family ranch generally isn’t moneyed-up enough to hire out the repair of the equipment or various carpentry projects that come up. He had to learn how to do the mechanic work on the trucks and other equipment and became very adept as a builder as well. He would even sometimes help his dad trap mountain lions and bears for the state when they became a nuisance to area livestock and transport them to other areas for relocation. But he of course did more than his fair share of the more famous cowboy work like herding cows, looking for stays, branding, mending fences and helping with the delivery of calves etc.

 

   Steve had been to Alaska once on a vacation and it didn’t take him long to decide that he was bound and determined to live here. It took a while but he eventually moved to Anchorage and found work on the North slope as a heavy equipment operator and mechanic. But it wasn’t until he got a job working in a remote camp on Prince of Wales Island that he noticed God was working overtime on his soul to get him saved.

 

   In his own words he puts it like this, “I was stuck out there in this remote camp and I ended up ‘stuck’ with a serious born again Christian as a roommate. The guy wasn’t an ‘in-your-face type’ but he was always dropping hints and doing things to communicate his faith. If that wasn’t enough, the only radio station we got out there was a Christian station out of Petersburg and I had to listen to God stuff all the time. Over time the Lord was starting to get through to me. My wife Anita started going to church and one day she just asked me if I would go with her. I was already ripe for the picking because God had already been working on me, so I said yes and it didn’t take long for me to respond when there was an opportunity to go forward and give my life to Jesus.”

 

   Steve and Anita both gave their hearts to Jesus and they held nothing back when they did! You will find them right smack-dab in the middle of pert-near every thing ever happening at their church doing volunteer work. They both also like to help out with the church meetings at the Pioneer home and the Mary Conrad convalescent home. Whenever the occasion calls for music, you will Steve pickin’ his banjo and Anita firing away on her fiddle (that would be violin for the folks who ain’t country types). Wherever there is a need, they are first in line to serve.

 

   They love to meet and greet the visitors to church and do their fair share of bringing new folks to church because they never met a person that they weren’t eager to be friendly with. Steve meets all kinds of people while he is out driving truck or moving snow or crushing rock or building something or fixing equipment or any of the other things he does for the outfit he currently works for. Only a cowboy could wear THAT many hats in one job!

 

   Steve has been mulling the idea of starting a special church service aimed at reaching out to the people who come from the cowboy background. He feels that there are people who are open to the gospel who just can’t see themselves sitting in a ‘typical’ church atmosphere. They would feel a lot better sitting on a bale of hay than a church pew or sanctuary chair no matter how cushy it might be.

 

   You won’t have trouble finding Steve if you bump into him at church. He is the guy with the big ol’ hat and he will most likely be looking for you if you are a visitor because he will want to be sure to greet you and shake your hand.