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Born Sept. 13, 1976 in Hudsonville, MI
Graduated from Hudsonville High School, 1994
Short-term missionary summers of ’97, ’98 with Reign Ministries
Graduated from Cedarville University, 1998 with a B.A. in Christian Education
Intern pastor at Spring Creek Church 1998-2002
Married to Joy in May, 2000
Graduated from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 2003 with a Master of Divinity
In his free time, Darin enjoys being outdoors, sports, playing video games, reading, and painting
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Born Sept. 21, 1976 in Shelby, MI
Graduated from Shelby High School, 1994
Short-term missionary summers of ’96,’97, ’98 with Reign Ministries
Graduated from Cedarville University in 1998 with a B.A. in Communication Arts
Graduated from Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary in May, 2000 with a Master’s of Religious Education
Married to Darin in May, 2000
In her spare time, Joy enjoys scrapbooking, reading, painting, and spending time with friends
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 Born 3 August 2005
Cut first tooth in late March
Favorite past-times include practicing her crawling, squealing at the top of her lungs, eating toast, playing in the grass.
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Imagine an excited, yet fearful, 19-year old girl spending a summer in Europe doing street evangelism. She spends an afternoon sharing the gospel with an Arab man in the town square. The two go their separate ways, but the man has not accepted the gospel. For the first time, her heart is sincerely moved for the lost and she begins to ask God to break her heart for the things that break his.
Now imagine an 18-year old who said he’d never be a pastor and who had his life’s plan all mapped out. Then, during his freshman year of college, God shows him his dreams are entirely too small and will not really make him happy in the end. Instead his heavenly Father proves He wants what is best and that “he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose”.
These are some early steps in the journey towards God’s heartbeat for our lives. Many more steps would follow before he led us to develop youth ministry in the UK.. Although we both attended Cedarville University starting in 1994, we met in 1997 as we prepared to spend the summer in Europe on a mission team with REIGN Ministries. This summer of mission work not only exposed us to the world’s burning need for a Savior, but proved to be the spark the Holy Spirit used to ignite within both of us a passion for discipling young people. We traveled with REIGN Ministries for a number of summers and each experience gave us a stronger resolve to spend our lives reaching and discipling people who need God.
Though our time together at Cedarville and on REIGN Ministries mission teams, we had built a meaningful friendship. But at graduation day, we each went our separate ways. Darin had received a degree in Christian Education and headed to Milwaukee, WI to pursue an internship at Spring Creek Church. Joy graduated with a degree in Communication Arts and left to begin work on a Master’s of Religious Education at Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary. Rather than growing apart, the distance made our friendship flourish and, in the fall of 1998, a romance began. We both could see how God was weaving our lives, passions, and ministry together over the past years. When we married on May 26th, 2000, the very happy Joy not only became Mrs. Darin Stevens, but a resident of Milwaukee, WI as well.
By this time, Darin had started work on a Masters of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School while he continued his internship. The opportunity to learn from the pastoral team at Spring Creek was a gift from God, as this training ground allowed us to make many mistakes and learn many life-long lessons. As Darin continued his education at Trinity, God gave him the opportunity to further develop a friendship with Kyle McKinnon. Kyle was a mutual friend of Darin and Joy’s at Cedarville and was the one who encouraged them to travel with him on those summer mission teams. Kyle’s dream for a number of years was to return to the UK permanently in order to develop ministry to youth. As Kyle discussed his plans for England, it became clear to Darin that God wanted him to start praying about possibly joining Kyle in this ministry. God was working to shape our hearts for Him, for each other and for ministry. Now God was going to show us His heart for young people in the UK.
After several months of prayer and research, we decided to visit Kyle to see first-hand what God was doing in the lives of British young people. The UK and Europe, as we remembered from their REIGN Ministry days, was filled with technology, industry and ultimately emptiness from trying to live independently from God. This latest trip to England confirmed that a generation of young people was eerily missing from churches in the UK. It also revealed some of the unique opportunities God is opening up- open doors that can be used to build relationships with teens and to share the Good News of Jesus with them.
Since that visit, God continues to confirm He has been preparing us over a series of years to work with young people in the UK. God cares deeply for the young people here and He will be faithful to complete the work He started in them.
From Michigan to Ohio to Wisconsin to England. A lot of steps…and the journey has just begun! “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…and surely I am with you always…”
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