Kingdom Couple

Babymoon!

2017-09-23T08:10:00.001-07:00

What Shall It Be????

2017-08-07T21:13:00.001-07:00

Season To Season God Is Ever Faithful

2017-07-17T20:27:00.000-07:00

Hey friends!

It has been a few months since we updated!

Uriah is really enjoying the youth pastor position at our church and our Father is taking care of our every need! We finished the school year out according to plan, and this summer Uriah is participating in camps and organizing activities for the students. He has recently started studying the curriculum we will be using for the students on Wednesday nights! We are really happy to be working with the youth this year, and have been praying that we will be instrumental in leading the students into deeper relationship with Jesus! We would appreciate your prayers for us and for the students, and for a few more passionate, committed helpers!

Alright....we have some big news! LIKE...HUGE NEWS! You might know it if you keep up with us on Facebook. Literally days after we wrote the last post, we found out that I AM PREGNANT! I am now 17 weeks and 2 days along, and feeling generally GREAT! We have our appointment to find out the baby's gender in a few weeks.

I am fattening up nicely and preparing for my approx. Dec 23 debut. I am the size of a chipmunk and I steal all of mom's energy and dad's love! My heart beat is steady and strong.

I also love to do cute things for ultrasounds...like wave hello. and last time I was sucking my thumb!

Some of my initial thoughts:
1) Gratitude and Joy! I am a MOM! This has been a dream for so long.
2) It is incredible how God has wired my body to grow a human. Uriah and I just did what we do ☺ and my body took over. I was literally amazed stupid for two weeks by this!!! It is still pretty crazy to think about!
3) GOD IS FUNNY! Looking back at finances, we noticed that Uriah deposited his last full-time paycheck on March 17. The 18th is officially the first day of my pregnancy (although we didn't know until 5 weeks later). He could have given us a baby while we had that great income (we had been trying for a while), but he didn't. Hmm..does he want us to trust him?
4) I faced some fear that I would miscarry and it was a daily struggle in my mind to choose faith and (again) trust over fear. Also, it reminded me that the baby isn't "mine" but his on loan to us for a time..a great lesson that I will probably have to be reminded of a lot.

The whole family is thrilled, and we are busy, busy getting the nursery and everything in order and going to appointments and calling insurance.

Uriah and Dad with some others built a fence for our back yard so our fur child has room to run and play and go potty!! It is definitely an exciting time for us. We really do appreciate each and everyone of you who stand in prayer with us!! God is ever Faithful!!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE reach out to us! Would love to connect with you!

Much love,
all the Stepps

Youth Pastor Say WHAT!?

2017-04-26T10:51:00.002-07:00

Hello lovely people!!

So many of you may know we have transitioned into the Youth Pastor position at CrossPoint Sterling!! This is such a joy to my heart to be able to walk in my calling, through helping students recognize their real identity in Christ!! I believe in today's society where the world is telling our kids who they need to be, it is crucial that we combat the lies with the Truth(The Person Jesus Christ)!! We are so excited to partner with what God is already doing here in Sterling.

"Our heart is to see God's kingdom invade the lives of these Youth, to see them walking in their true identity, and to simply just do life with these amazing students!" -Uriah Stepp

As far as the church budget is concerned there are not enough funds to pay me a salary, so in essence we are missionaries in our own community! Most of you already know that we have been in this position before where we have to "Get out of the boat" with Jesus! It takes a lot of faith and trust to get out of the boat of "life of comfort" and or the "life of certainty". But ultimately I believe we are safest in the hands of the Father and not the hands of ourselves!

All this being said we are asking all our supporters to pray about coming along side of us again in this season of life! We are asking for most importantly prayer! Prayer for our marriage, prayer for sensitivity to the Spirit of God, prayer for wisdom, and of course prayer for our finances. On the financial end of things we really need a monthly support system! Would you be willing to support us monthly? How much? Well the budget we have set is about $1200. We are just asking people to support us monthly with whatever they feel God is laying on their heart! By no means at all do we want to walk out our vision while putting someone else in a rough situation financially. We know that times are tough, but praise be to God because He is our provider!!

Understand our hearts when we say we are so utterly thankful for all your support! The fact that our brothers and sisters believe in us and are walking this journey out with us is incredibly encouraging!

Please Email Us @ uriah.stepp@gmail.com with your questions or if God is moving on your heart to support us monthly!

New Things!

2017-04-04T16:20:00.000-07:00

Hello, friends! I hope this finds you all well! We have made a change that we couldn't wait to tell you all about: Uriah and I have, after much thought and prayer, chosen to take on a youth pastor position at our church in Sterling.

Our desire to work with the youth in our church came quickly after our arrival back in the States, so we began working with the middle school sometime at the end of last year. Our campus pastor had taken on the youth pastor role because nobody else had stepped up and he has done a great job. But God continued to press on Uriah's heart, especially, that he should fill this gap. His time working with the RATS was invaluable, and Uriah is grateful for the knowledge and wisdom that he gained. He happily began his work at the church last week. I have also taken on some responsibility at the church, to organize community outreach opportunities.

Uriah is working part-time without salary at the moment. There are a couple of generous people in our congregation who have said that they would support a youth pastor financially and we are so grateful for that, but it is not enough to live on in and of itself. Uriah and I are able to pick up some hours at Gambino's and a couple of other odd jobs, and we are trusting God to provide the remaining $1,000 we need each month. Honestly, I was really, really enjoying the financial stability from paychecks he earned before, but God is pushing us back toward the edge, where we must rely on him as our provider. It is less certain where or when (or if), but it is always a beautiful thing that causes us to rely more on him!

Please be praying for us as we transition into these new roles and new schedules. And pray that we will be good examples and effective ministers of the Gospel for the kids that God has put in front of us. And also, please be praying if you might be part of an answer to our financial need. As always, keep in touch. We would love to hear from you..how you are doing, questions or concerns or ways we can pray for you.

-Uriah and Kaycee

Our Time In Guatemala!

2017-02-19T14:57:00.001-08:00

First off we would like to thank everyone who helped make this trip possible! We had an extremely productive and overflowing joyful trip! It is always such a privilege and opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus! We watched God work in so many different ways and facets! We give all glory to Jesus Christ and we can't wait for our next opportunity!

Again, thanks to all who stood with us through prayer and financial support you too were a part of this awesome work!

-
Uriah and Kaycee

Where In The World Are The Stepps?! And What Are They Doing?!

2016-10-16T12:18:00.003-07:00

Hello friends and Family!!

So sorry for not updating sooner, we have been quite busy!! In July we finished up and graduated our School of Biblical Studies in South Africa with Youth With A Mission!

Then we made our journey back home! So where the heck is Home you might ask? Well Home is Sterling, Kansas! A little town NW of Wichita!

There is one stoplight in this town! Itty Bitty! This is our little house here in Sterling!!

So this house was actually the same house we lived in right after we got married!! It was totally God that opened it up for us to move back in after we had been in South Africa for 9 months!

We have also Added to our family!!!

This is Bear our Dog!! He is part Black Lab and Part German Shepard!! He is full of energy and really teaching us how to be responsible :) !!!

The transition back to the states has been very smooth we have had a place to land and call home and as well have had jobs laid out for us by our gracious Father!! We have and great opportunities to serve in our local church Crosspoint of Sterling! We are both helping out with the Youth on Wednesday nights!

As far as work is concerned, Kaycee has been helping her parents with 6 amazing kids that they have adopted about 1 and 1/2 years ago! These kids are such a joy to have in our lives! Kaycee as well works a few shifts a week at the local pizza shop Gambinos!! (Some of the best pizza on earth!!) :)!!

(Starting from the left: Zackary and Allie, Eric and Nevaeh, J.J. and Alyna)

I have been working with our uncle and his business called Roberts All-Trade Services (RATS)!! We joke and say "We are the only Rats you want in your house!" haha! So I literally have been training in all trades, be it roofing, plumbing, electrical, carpentry, mold remediation, flooring, drywall, pretty much anything dealing with construction! It has been such a blessing because I see this as something I can take on the missions field with me!!

Another awesome aspect of this company is it has a vision for missions and meeting the needs of people! We want to be able to take the knowledge of our trades as well as the love of Jesus and go and minister to people all over the world! Something that we were taught in the School of Biblical Studies is how can we apply the timeless truths of scripture to the spheres of society all around us? It is awesome to be working at a place that is doing just that! Meeting people right where they are loving on them, and meeting the physical need by fixing whatever it is that needs to be fixed! God has been Disciplining me so much through this Job! Such a blessing!

This brings me to our next Endeavor!!

February 7th to the 16th Kaycee and I will be traveling with RATS (the company I work for) and an organization called Global Infusion , and we will be traveling to Guatemala!!!! We will be working with a school there in Guatemala and helping redo some electrical and plumbing there! This school is a huge soft spot on the church we currently attend here in Sterling! They have sent multiple teams to Guatemala already! As well we will be trekking up into the mountains and ministering the Love of Jesus to the Villagers!! We are so excited for this opportunity!! Our need to go is $3600. This covers our flights, lodging, and meals.

Can you help us!?

Prayer is always a huge thing when it comes to missions, we need friends and family to stand with us in prayer while we prepare and while we are on the field! Pray that God would begin to give us his heart for this country and that we would be sensitive to the Holy Spirits leading!

Learning the Language we are going to try and learn Spanish before we go!

Giving Financially again we need to raise $3600 to go on this trip. The best way for us to receive funds are through our paypal account! Our paypal email is: uriah.stepp@gmail.com or there is a Paypal donate button at the top on the right. But if technology isn't the way you roll you can make checks out to:

Crosspoint Sterling

Memo line on check:

Guatemala February Names

Addressed to:

Crosspoint

109 W Garfield Ave

Sterling, KS 67579

**Checks made out to Crosspoint qualify for a tax deductible receipt**

Thank You so much for keeping up with us on our journeys and praying for us it is much appreciated!! If you ever have any questions or prayer requests yourself don't hesitate to email us at uriah.stepp@gmail.com!

-Uriah & Kaycee Stepp

"Great Is Thy Faithfulness"

2016-06-19T04:11:00.001-07:00

Dear Friends and Family,

We just wanted to shout out and say THANK YOU for all the support that we have received from all of you, both in prayer and financially, over this last year and even our whole lives. Throughout our time here we have been able to see God's grace and faithfulness to his people, to see his sovereignty over kings and principalities of the world, his redemption purposes which stretch from the Garden of Eden to now and into the future, and most of all his love for us. We have grown up spiritually, and learned a lot of practical ministry things.Thursday we graduate and celebrate all that God has done for us through this school and begin saying our goodbyes to all of our friends and this beautiful country!

We have had a blast during these 9 Months!! We have built relationships that will last a lifetime and shared memories that will never be forgotten! God's Faithfulness is so extreme! We have learned so much in the Old Testament how He held to his covenant even though His people broke it. This has played out even in our lives as well!

I want to remind you guys of a vision that God gave us one week at church, before we left for our DTS (almost two years ago): I was standing on the edge of the ocean ready to walk out on the water. My hands were empty but as I stepped out, God came and he gave me the money I needed to walk ahead. 9 months ago we came to South Africa with about $2,000 dollars (which we guessed would keep us afloat for the first 3 months), in faith that we were supposed to be here and God would indeed provide. In the times when we didn't know where it would come from, we sometimes worried, but then we thanked God and rested on the promise he made to us--that he would provide, and we learned to be content with that. From school fees to rent to health insurance and extra things, God has provided, and we were never once late paying a bill! This is one example of God's faithfulness in our lives. This has been the theme of our entire life in missions! HE IS FAITHFUL!

Thank you for loving us and believing with us. It has not been easy, and it hasn't always been fun, but it has been good, and we are 100% thankful for this opportunity.

In two short weeks we head back to the states and hit the ground running. We graduate on the 23rd!! And we will spend one more week here, and we will GO ON SAFARI!!! Then its off to the States!!
CAN'T WAIT!

Here is a compilation of some photos of our time here!!

"The Boats in Kalk Bay"

"Our SBS Class"

"Our Esther Play"

"One of Our Movie Nights"

"Raising Awareness For A Safe House, Spinathon!!"

"Mumford And Sons Concert"

"Uncle Larry Came For A Visit"

"Walks On The Beach"

"SBS milkshake breaks"

"Our Housemate Gurtrude!"

"Muizenberg our Home for the last 9 months!"

"Our life in the Class Room!"

What's Next For The Stepps?!

2016-04-17T07:44:00.000-07:00

What's Next For The Stepps?!

Hey friends and family!! Hope you are doing splendid!! The question that humanity as a whole is always asking is, "What's Next?" This letter is a tribute to that question!

We are well into our last quarter of our School of Biblical Studies with University of the Nations! We are currently studying my favorite books, the Prophets! It has been such a great experience being able to study the bible together! We see the value of studying the bible, because this will be the foundation for our lives from here on out! Be it in our family, workplace, or community, what we are learning is able to apply to all those avenues!

Now for the meat on the sandwich! (Sorry, vegetarians!) “What's next!?” When we arrive back in the U-S of A we will be watching all your beautiful fireworks from above! We arrive back in Kansas on the 4th of July!!! Why Kansas you might ask? Kaycee's Uncle Steve has his master's licenses in electrical, plumbing, and heat and air. He has started a business and I am going to work alongside him and learn a trade! (Been a dream of mine for awhile!) But that's not even the best part! The main reason he is starting this business is to use it as a tool for discipleship! My heart has always been for people and transformation! I love watching people come in to their real identity in Christ so this totally lines up with my heart! Kaycee will be helping her parents part-time, and work on some other projects on the side. Another surprise, our first house we lived in right after we got married has come available again! Looking forward to calling that lovely nook Home again!

Before we leave there is something we must do... During our breaks we haven't had much cash to go out and see this beautiful country. So before we leave we have a week to really get out and go explore God's beautiful creation here in South Africa! We are planning to go on safari in Kruger National Park! Our housing has already been booked, we just need our flights and car rental now! We see this as one of those once and in a lifetime opportunities! Will you help us go out with a BOOMSHAKALAKA!?

We appreciate all your interest in our journey! It will be awesome to return home and reconnect with you. Thank you also for your financial and prayer support. Every time we have come up short God has supplied through your gifts, or some other way we never would have been able to conjure up!

Uriah & Kaycee Stepp

319 E. 8th, Edmond, OK 73034 • kingdomcouple.blogspot.com • uriah.stepp@gmail.com

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Steady As We Go!

2016-03-29T02:17:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!!

Hope that you all are doing amazing!! Kaycee and I just finished our second of three terms of SBS and we're now enjoying a one-week break!! I think one of my favorite projects was being able to make a timeline of Kings and Chronicles.

I know most people think.. "Oh those boring books that just talk about a bunch of random people doing a bunch of random things"... But this really brought these books alive to me! One of the greatest lessons learned so far is that the Israelites had to go through the wilderness for training purposes. That is where God revealed so much of his character and his deep commitment to his people. As normal human beings we want to skip the struggle, but God wants to take us to a new level of dependence on him, so we must go through it.

Another very fruitful things we have been able to partake in is our local outreach ministries! I can speak for both of us when I say, these ministries have both really stretched us, and formed us to be more like Christ! I have been so blessed to watch the Holy Spirit work through me as we minister to the people on the streets. It is so amazing to walk up to someone and pray for them and God reveal just how much purpose these people have in their lives! The majority of the people we minister to are homeless and have not had the easiest life. The relationships that have been made here will never be forgotten! Kaycee helps with an after-school program in a place called Grassy Hill. There are about fifteen kids between ages 7-11 who come. She and the team have felt led to help the kids along in the area of prayer through short teachings and exercises. Although she is uncomfortable with teaching, she loves spending time with them and helping disciple them!

God has been so faithful to us! Remembering back last September when we were gearing up to come out here, my mind is blown by just how detailed God has been in orchestrating all of this! He has brought us so far physically speaking and spiritually speaking. We were just talking with some friends the other day about marriage, and Kaycee and I both agree that this has been the best year of marriage for us no doubt! We have grown so much in our marriage as well as individual people. Marriage and missions is not always the easiest thing, especially when you are immersed in community and you put in any where from 40-60 hours a week into studies. God has had so much grace on us in this area! We really believe God has stretched us in our marriage for the best!

Please continue to pray with us!!

It is so important to us to finish, and finish strong!

Pray that we continue to enter in to this final term with the same hunger as when we started. It is super easy to fall into a place where we just do what we need to do to get by seeing as we are on the final stretch!

Pray we receive the reaming funds we need for rent and health insurance and our plane tickets home!

Pray we continue to grow in our marriage!

Pray we remain intentional, and focus on the rest of our time here!

Thank you so much for taking time to see where we are! We are so grateful for your support!

Sharing The Love!!

2016-02-14T10:12:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day! It's been a while since we updated. We hope that your 2016 has gotten off to an awesome start! We celebrated by getting dressed up and enjoying some food, live music, and fireworks with thousands off beautiful people downtown Cape Town! Then we got back into the study grind.. We do enjoy weekends, though. Uriah went to the Mumford & Sons concert a few weeks ago and got a deal that couldn't be passed up!! Last night we got the chance to go and worship with 30,000 other Jesus lovers at the stadium in Cape Town! We've also been swimming in the ocean and really been blessed by our friends to partake in life outside of the crazy world of Biblical studies. Also, I was able to get an amazing new haircut (Uriah added in the amazing part)!!

The New Testament studies are finished for now, and we have moved on into studying the Old Testament. Studying the Pentateuch has been really different from our New Testament studies, but it's so awesome to get to see God in action. Before we started studying, I thought that God changed his mind about people in the New Testament: Old Testament God was angry and just killed everybody, New Testament God is nice. But for the first time I am really seeing the same God throughout scripture. That’s really cool.

So our studies are still taking up most of our time. We study and are in class 40+ hours/week. Aside from that we participate in weekly intercession (prayer for others), weekly worship, and participate in weekly local outreach. Uriah is totally in his element talking and praying with people he meets on the streets! This last week my new local outreach started and I LOVED it! Five of us are going each week to a Christian after-school program for 8-11 year olds in a place where a majority of the students are Muslim. We are excited to teach the students more about the Bible and we really felt in our preparation time that God wanted us to teach them about prayer and life in the Spirit! It's so awesome to see what God has been doing in Cape Town and to be a part of it.

We are doing great with housing and all this work and everything. At this point our biggest need is financial. We have about $4600 that we still need to finish out the school. We are praying that God will provide the remaining balance, and that we can purchase our tickets this month!! Thank you for your continued prayer and financial support. We wouldn’t want to do it without you!

Merry Christmas from the Stepps!

2015-12-28T04:56:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas all of you wonderful people!

We hope and expect that this holiday season you got to enjoy time with family and friends, and that it has brought you back to the sweet place of remembering how God sent Jesus as a baby to change everything!

We want to first say thank you for being with us on this journey through relationship with us, and through your financial gifts and prayer. We will never be able to say it enough..THANK YOU!! It has been an incredible year for us, and we are thankful to God and humbled by the support of our loved ones!

It's hard to believe this time last year, we had just finished our lecture phase of the Discipleship Training School (DTS) through Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in South Africa, and we were in Nepal on our outreach phase. Being away during the holidays was hard for us, but God gave us friendships with our teammates and the Nepali people that brought us such comfort. We got to stay in Nepal for 3 months and build relationships with a church called Fresh Fire, work in an orphanage, a feeding center, and a leprosy colony, go on a trek, and pray for many people at the temples. It was an amazing time! In March we finished up our outreach and went back to South Africa and graduated from our DTS. This 6 months was such a growing experience for each of us personally, but also for our marriage! We really got to know each other, through the tough and amazing times!

We then traveled back to the States to spend time with family and figure out what God had next for our journey! Whilst spending time with family and friends catching up, we saw on the news that two large earthquakes had pelted Nepal. Side note: While we were on outreach during DTS many of us felt led to pray that God would shake the foundations and that all the temples and false idols would fall to the ground. WHOA!! Who would have known that shortly after those prayers a 7.8 earthquake would come shake Nepal and many of the temples and idols would be destroyed! Now on the other side of that we felt the weight of what our new friends were going through. Our hearts were broken for the people we had grown to love, but we also felt the excitement of God shaking not only the physical but the spiritual atmosphere in Nepal. We were able to go back to Nepal in May to help take down unstable structures and love on the people!

After one month, we felt that we should go back home and help our Great Grandmother, Pauline Clark, recover after taking a very hard fall and having a brain bleed. So we lived with Pauline for a couple months whilst she recovered! Praise Jesus for healing her! She is one of the strongest people I know, and she is now almost 100%, going here and there and truly taking care of herself! God is Good! While we were there we took some time and prayed a lot into what God would have next for us. There were many opportunities, but we truly felt that we should deepen our understanding of God's Word! Which leads us to where we are now!

We are now attending a school through University of the Nations (YWAM's university) called School of Biblical Studies (SBS). Through our first 3 months, we studied 20 books of the New Testament using the inductive method. We attend lectures, then we begin to dig in for ourselves. First we observe the text from the original reader's point of view with the historical background in mind, then we start to interpret the text and discover timeless truths and apply them to our lives. The process is long, we easily spend 50 hours per week studying and in class. It is exhausting at times, but there is a deep sense of God expanding our knowledge and understanding of who he is.

Currently we are on a 3 week Christmas break. It has been very restful! We had the opportunity to house sit for a couple here who went on a road trip! They have a very nice apartment and it was so healthy for Kaycee and I to have some space to ourselves and really focus on our marriage! We have 2 more weeks left of our break, and we have created a bucket list for our time here in Cape Town, so we hope that with some of our Christmas money to take part in some of that fun stuff!

Please be Praying for us!

That Uriah's grant money for school will come. It has been sent, but we haven't received it due to the mail system in South Africa.
That our financial needs would be met:

$2400 for rent and health insurance for the remaining six months of SBS.
Our return flight back home after SBS-roughly $2000.
Spending money for cell phone, toiletries, misc., date nights-about $600.

That we would continue to grow deep into God and trust him!
That our marriage would continue to grow and thrive.

We would like to build up our monthly support, which would make budgeting a lot easier, as well as further prepare us for whatever might be next! Would God have you partner with us on a monthly basis? It would be awesome if you would think and pray about it.

May God bless you and you family as you wrap up 2015 and begin your 2016! We pray that it is full of all things good and lovely, and that God will take you to a deeper place of knowing who he is and trusting him! We would love to hear what God is doing in your lives, too! It helps us feel connected and we want to pray for you! Please email us.

Much love,
The Stepps

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MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2015-12-13T07:26:00.002-08:00

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

God has been so faithful these past couple months!!

So most of you know we came to South Africa to take part in a program called SBS (School of biblical studies) with Youth With A Mission! We have just completed our 1st term (3-months), we have covered 20 books of the bible using the inductive study method, taught 1 book, and have taken 3 tests! These books have really come alive! We read all of Paul's Epistles and found loads of historical background info on all these different letters!

We also have been doing local outreach here in Muizenberg. Uriah has been loving this! (IN HIS ELEMENT!!) He has been doing street ministry and really connecting with people on the streets!

"God has been teaching me so much about equality, God loves the people on the streets just as much as he loves you and me! They are just as much sons and daughters of God as you and I."

A couple cool testimonies:

So we have a place to stay for the remainder of this school!
We had our debit card info stolen... about $700! Thank Jesus for banks with insurance. After the process of filing a fraud claim, and after 8 days we received all of our money back!!
The other night after our last day of class, a bunch of us were sitting and discussing what we walked away with from our first three months. We all did the same book assignments and sat through the same classes, but we all walked away from the first term with something different. God met each of us here in such different ways!

So now we are on our 3-week break. We don't have any plans, really, except that Uriah and I are going to stay in our friends' apartment while they're away..all by ourselves!! On our list of things to do are sleep (a lot), drink coffee (also a lot), eat, watch movies, go to the beach, repeat.. The best word to describe it? Glorious.

Thinking about Christmas without family again is a little bit sad. This year we will be spending it with our couple-friends from Switzerland and a few people that are sticking around for break!

Please let us know how we can pray for you! Email us at uriah.stepp@gmail.com !!

You can get updates from us via email right here!

Thanks so much for your prayers and support!

God is Faithful!!

2015-10-25T06:38:00.000-07:00

Hi friends and family! We hope you all are doing well and enjoying wearing your sweaters and sipping on pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks while watching a good game of football or carving pumpkins or jumping in leaf piles.. I seriously miss fall, for the second year in a row I miss fall! But I do have the beach and mountains. I guess it's a good trade.

Muizenberg Beach!!

Anyways, we are doing GREAT! You haven't heard from us much because our time is quickly eaten up by studies. It is hard to believe we are already starting our 7th book using the inductive study method! In the inductive method we read and observe entire books from the view of the original audience with historical background and context in mind, and then we eventually find the "timeless truths" that we can then apply to our lives.

In a typical week we will study 25+ hours, attend 12 hours of class, participate in 2+ hours of "work duties" (chores) and 2+ hours of local outreach, and base worship and base intercession. It is basically a full-time job, but it's the most rewarding full-time job ever. Our minds are being renewed and our hearts are exploding for Jesus! :)

Since we last updated you we found permanent housing (till the school is over in June). I think I mentioned last time that we are living off base because there are so many students on base they didn't have room for us. It has been kind of nice, though, having a quiet place to land at night. It's good for us. We stay with a little lady from Zimbabwe and she is really great.

To get around quickly we invested in two long boards! I really enjoy riding with Uriah. I think I'm catching on, but I'm still not very fast and hills scare me! This is our lovely Church called Connect!! It is literally right across the street from where we are living! It is so amazing to come together in midst of a hectic week and be with Family!!

Now for our favorite part: Finances! We are thankful to have all of our food and most of our school fees paid. Uriah's Indian Tribe grant paid all of his fees!!! We still need about $5550!God is faithful!

We are really working on a group of monthly supporters!! Please consider and pray about supporting us monthly!!

If you feel this is something that

God is leading you to do, please email us at: uriah.stepp@gmail.com

Thank you guys for your continued support through prayer and giving. We pray that God will bless you and your families.

"What you feed will grow, what you starve will die." -Craig Groschel

2015-09-22T08:11:00.000-07:00

Lots of travel and new stuff has happened since our last post. We had a 12 hour layover in London, where we took the underground railroad (lol, jk) and saw several interesting things, including Big Ben, the London Eye, and Westminster Abbey! Kaycee's first time in Europe was pretty awesome!

Now we are in Muizenberg, Cape Town! A family is letting us stay in their sweet little granny flat for cheap until we find something more permanent. So we got all moved in there, we saw some old friends, we met scores of new ones, and started class today! It is going to be an awesome, crazy, busy time!

Thank you for your prayers and financial support so far! We feel incredibly blessed to be where we are and to get to study the Bible for 9 months. Right now, please pray with us that we will find more permanent housing that is closer to the base.

We trust you are doing well, too. Email us or send us a message any time to chat or if you want us to pray with you. We love and miss you!

Tempus Fugit

2015-09-06T21:54:00.001-07:00

Hey Everyone! We want to take a moment to say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone for praying with us and helping us through this process in getting back to South Africa!

HERE ARE SOME PRAISE REPORTS

*SOLD OUR CAR!!

*RECEIVED OUR ONE YEAR VOLUNTEER VISAS!!

*PURCHASED OUR PLANE TICKETS!! (We will leave in 10 days!)

PRAISE JESUS!!! SO GRATEFUL FOR HIS FAITHFULNESS!!

HERE ARE SOME PRAYER REQUESTS WE HAVE:

* For extra grace as we say our hard goodbyes and transition into being students again.

* That our minds and hearts would truly be transformed during our 9 Months of intensive Bible Study

* For the remaining financial needs to be met.

* That God would lead us to the perfect place to call home in Muizenberg.

Lord willing, we will be in South Africa next time we update our blog. Love to you all!

Update and Prayer Requests!

2015-08-30T21:29:00.003-07:00

Time is going so quickly for us. It doesn't seem possible that in 3 weeks we will be in South Africa and starting our school.. We are excited about it, and trying to soak up every second of our time with friends and family in the states. (If you are in KS or OK and want to see us before we go, please speak up and we will do our best to make it work!)

Mexican food for Grami's birthday! <3

Saw my Bestie and her other half in OKC!

Two weeks ago, Uriah and I made our 3-trip out to Chicago to apply for our study visas. We were a little bummed that we had to go at first, but it ended up being and extremely satisfying trip, and we were blessed to see and spend time with many, many people we love as well as spend a night together downtown. When we applied for our visas, we were very prepared and had everything we needed and spent less than 15 minutes at the South African consulate..

Uriah's first time.. Chicago..we love you!

Meg N Mike..power couple in Chicago!

Ran into this fine man and his NEW FIANCE in Chicago! Congrats to them!

My God Sister and God Daughter. :D I LOVE YOU ROOMS!

Cousin time in St. Louis<3

I've been to Chi town several times and never saw the bean! It's much larger than I expected it would be!

(We also saw Brett and Greg & Laura (and Alyssa and Grady), but I forgot to get pictures!)

Praise reports:

1) God is providing for our needs. Finances are coming in, I prayed and found suit cases at garage sales for cheap, and I needed jeans and mom cleaned out her closet!

2) We have a family gym pass and I have mustered up the courage to begin getting back in shape!

3) Uriah and I sold our car and are officially DEBT FREE!!! (Happy dance!)

She was a good car!

I think every time we have made a big decision like this, God has taught us more about His character and His ability to take care of us. We are trusting this is what He is calling us to, and trying to keep our eyes on Him and not putting weight on what we see in the physical. Like Peter when he walked on the water. Jesus really does make us BRAVE as the song says, because we are so secure in Him even if we fall. And we're no longer slaves to fear, because we are Children of the Living God!

We have three prayer requests, and we're asking you to pray with us. If you feel like He is giving you scripture or something for us, please do share!

1) Pray for closeness to Jesus and for sensitivity to what He is saying/doing just during all this craziness.

2) Pray we (and our classmates) will get our visas . Uriah will be calling again tomorrow, and it has been kind of a hairy process and we are honestly unsure about what the outcome will be.

3) Pray that we will find housing in Muizenberg. (The base has run out of housing for students.)

4) Pray that the finances will come (for us and our classmates), and thank him for what has already come in.

(By the way, Alyssa, Uriah, and I have two more fundraising events before we leave! One is a garage sale, and the other one is a Gambino's fundraiser. :D)

If you're in Kansas, come see us!!

This is about it for now. We will update you again in the next couple weeks. God bless you all for your friendship, prayer, and kind generosity. xoxox, Kaycee and Uriah

Game Time!!

2015-07-30T08:37:00.000-07:00

Hey friends!! We've been "home" for a little over a month. Spending time with friends and family and just being in a familiar place has been quite nice. We were tempted to start settling down and having a normal life, but it's just not time for that.

Out at YWAM in Muizenberg, South Africa, they run an excellent School of Biblical Studies (SBS). Last year when we were in South Africa attending our DTS, I got the itch to do my SBS when I realized how little I know about God's Word. Uriah and I prayed and felt that we should apply together, and we were accepted Monday! The SBS runs from September to June. During this 9-month school we'll study the entire Bible, book by book, using the inductive approach. The idea is that we will leave having a better understanding of the Scriptures and be equipped to study for ourselves as well as teach others!

Here is the breakdown of our expenses:

$8,880 total tuition (includes housing, food, class materials and fees)
$80 for registration fees
$1,800 for our health insurance while we are gone
$4,000 roundtrip airfare for two
$1,800 for miscellaneous costs (date night, toiletries, transportation, giving, etc)
$16,560 grand total

The need is rather large, and potentially overwhelming--if you don't know my God! :D We wanted to extend to you the opportunity to give. Any amount is great and appreciated, $25, $50, $100, whatever you can afford. There is a "Donate" button through paypal just to the right of this post, below the picture up top. Even if you can't give, you are still a valuable part of our team and we need you to pray!

Pray that we can get our visas.
Pray for us, that we can focus on our studies and that God will meet us there!
Pray for grace in our marriage.

Thank you for reading this long post, but mostly thank you for supporting us and loving us as we go. We would love the opportunity to pray for you and support you in any way, so please comment or email us any time.

Much love,
Uriah and Kaycee

Oklahoma dwelling!

2015-06-18T20:00:00.002-07:00

Hello!! Hope you all are enjoying your summer! We have enjoyed it so far. Last we posted, we were in Nepal still, but we actually left about a week and a half ago and hit the ground running as soon as we got back to Oklahoma. The rest of our time was really amazing. It was awesome meeting so many people who felt the same call we did to go to Nepal. It seemed like this time around we were able to see many more ministries and connect with many more people than before.

As we mentioned in our last blog, a week in the village went by, and when we returned we started serving in various places. We got to serve a couple times at Banquet House (feeding the homeless and bandaging their wounds), and once Kaycee went to Beauty for Ashes (employs women to make jewelry and beautiful infinity scarves and more..) to help with inventory. We also hung out several times with our Fresh Fire church friends, and Uriah got to preach one Saturday. We were also so blessed to spend quite a bit of time with some new friends, Heather and Matt, who live in Kathmandu. While the boys went and tore down houses for two days, Heather and I stayed home with their adorable new baby, Jeremiah.

We had been praying about joining another organization for our last few weeks, when we received a call saying that Uriah's Great Grandma Pauline, who had taken a bad fall before we left, was getting out of the hospital and needed someone to stay with her at home. It seemed God spoke pretty clearly through scripture (Isaiah 58) that it was the right thing to do, and he gave us grace and excitement to go back early. We were able to bring her home last Wednesday, and she's doing great at home!

For now, Oklahoma is where God has us! There are many hopes and dreams in our hearts!! Watch and pray with us!! Thank you so much for keeping up with us!! Much Love!!

Pani puri..yum!

Cool shot from on top of a building Uriah was working on.

This is the house that Matt and Uriah were working to tear down! Yikes!

Nepal Will Always Hold A Dear Spot In Our Hearts!

Outskirts of Kathmandu.

Cows doing what they want in traffic.

A wooden chariot built for rain god festival.

Fresh Fire Church Family!! So Much Love For These Strong People!

More Family!! So Precious To Us!

Uriah & Ezekiel!

Uriah serving at Banquet House.

Patan Durbar Square--several buildings down, several held up by wooden sticks..

"We are here to be the hands and feet of Jesus.."

2015-05-25T00:12:00.000-07:00

Some of you probably already know that we made it to Nepal 11 days ago!! People here are still a little traumatized from the earthquakes (understandable). A lot of people are still camping out in tents because their houses are cracked, or they are just afraid to sleep in them.

Two days ago we returned from 7 days working and camping with about 20 others up in the village of Dandagaun with Iris Nepal. The houses in the village are made of rock and mud with heavy tile shingles, and nearly every house that we saw was destroyed. Our task was to help the villagers tear down remaining walls and to collect wood and rocks from the rubble. It was hot and sticky and hard work, but it wasn't for nothing. Our purpose is to be the hands and feet of Jesus, and to love fully, starting with their physical needs. A lot of the people would come to our camp because they had injuries or even itchy bug bites:). We had a camp "nurse" to administer care, and we got to pray with many.

Here are a few memorable things/thoughts from our time in the village that I have collected:

-God healed a man with back pain!! Yeah, God!
-The flys are really annoying but they make great alarm clocks!

-The camp dog's name was "Cat".
-Nepali food 2x/dayx7days.... Oh, yeah!

-We met some really, really incredible people who challenged us and inspired us in many different ways...Body of Christ.

-This quote: "Service unto men is service unto God." -quoted many times by some amazing teenagers, who came from difficult backgrounds but have encountered Jesus and were changed by Him and now minister so passionately.

-The same teenagers taught me how to cut potatoes properly.

-Spiders in Kansas are wimpy compared to the giant speed jumping spiders we met in while camping!

Since returning, we got caught up on rest, laundry, and grocery shopping on Saturday, and yesterday we visited a lot of friends! (Yay!) Today we are networking and finding out what is going on around the city and where we can plug in and serve. It's so amazing just to be in the middle of everything and to see God working. The Nepali people are incredibly strong and joyful in spite of their circumstances, and we are just praying that they will respond to Him. Thank you for praying with us!

Here are a few photos:

Many tents were set up at a popular roundabout in Kathmandu.

Uriah got interviewed by BBC News in Thamel!

After a week in the village, we treated ourselves to some chicken & rosemary sandwiches at Soma!

View from the village

Worshipping at camp in the village!

Bhoudda Stupa, where we spent so much time at last time, was cracked at the top.

Love this...

Tent in the rubble

The Scoop

2015-04-30T09:04:00.001-07:00

So, I just realized it has been over 2 months since our last post! I guess that makes us terrible bloggers! Lots has happened since our last update.. We said goodbye to Nepal, spent a week and a half in South Africa with our school friends and officially finished our DTS, came back to the states, visited family in Oklahoma City and hung out withMike n Marley from Minnesooota, and now we're living and working with my parents in Sterling. It has been really fun! We really wanted to know what cool opportunity we could plan for next, but God reminded us that we just needed to just stay put until it was clear.

When we heard about the terrible earthquake that hit Nepal on Saturday and saw the pictures, it began to become more clear where we should go next. At first, we were just kind of in shock, and then it sank in I hurt for the people and all I could think was "I want to be there". Uriah and I started talking about it and he expressed that he felt the same way and we began praying. (If this next part sounds smooth, don't be fooled. I have been so silly and weird and afraid to commit..it's like a roller coaster ride.) "Why not?" was the question that popped into my head yesterday morning. Why shouldn't we go? I came to the humbling realization that longing to be with a people that I love when they're hurting isn't a "Kaycee" longing, it's a Jesus longing. His heart is for people. So yesterday, Uriah put his notice in and we are having a garage sale this weekend to raise money to go. We hope to leave as soon as we can purchase tickets. We would love to stay in Kathmandu, but we can also work with friends in Pokhara. We're trusting that God will show us more specifics later. The tentative plan is to stay in Nepal for a month.

So there you have it. Two months of...whatever...in two paragraphs. I think I say it every blog, but we're thankful for our friends and family who keep rooting us on and praying for us. It's awesome following Jesus and sometimes it does feel crazy, but you guys just keep pushing us forward. We don't take it for granted. To prove it, I'll try to up my blogging game and keep you on the inside. ;)

Later guyz

Trek Update!!

2015-02-21T22:13:00.000-08:00

Wow--time is flying by for us! We are down to two weeks left here in Nepal! Some of you may know from our Facebook that we went on a trek last week.. It was one of our favorite things about outreach! Uriah and our friend Ezekiel planned and led an 8 day adventure from Kathmandu to probably the most breathtakingly beautiful place I have ever visited.. Kot Timal is a Village about 3 hours by bus east of Kathmandu. It was a really refreshing trip for us all. We hiked hard for 4 days, and rested hard for 2 days. Even just getting away from the noise and dust of Kathmandu was restful, and we got to have a lot of fun as a team just experiencing new things and seeing new places together. We felt so blessed to get this opportunity!

Some highlights from our trek:

-Hiking straight up a whole freaking mountain!!! (Phil. 4:13-my mantra! Proud that it wasn't cuss words like last time!)

-And hiking part way down.. That day was my favorite hiking day because we could enjoy the views and the hike since it was much easier and cooler.

-Team bonding--no leaders, only students this time! And we got to know Atma and Ezekiel better! They were really great guides.

-Getting to spend time with a lot of Ezekiel's family, learning more of the Nepali and Tamang languages, laughing a lot, eating and praying together.

-Experiencing village life with no running water and cooking over a fire.

-Sleeping above all the animals one night. And being woken up at all hours of the night by a rooster.

-Fresh chicken for dinner...

-Visiting an organic farm and eating fresh papaya.

-The day we washed our hair and bathed..the men built us a shower so we could have a little privacy. :)

-Uriah and Ezekiel almost got ran off a narrow path by raging bulls! They jumped up the mountain quickly and Uriah just grabbed what he could--which happened to be a thorn bush! They were both a little shook up, and Uriah had a few scratches, but they were ok otherwise. (Thank the Lord!)
-Camp fires every night!

-Attending a Nepali wedding..We even danced Nepali style to Nepali music. (I don't dance..ever.)

-Holding baby goats. :)

-Riding on the TOP of the big bus with goats half of the way back to Kathmandu!

-The views.. God is an amazing creator!

We are all getting really excited to go see our family and friends, and had a hard time being motivated to do anything last week after our trek. This week is full of ministry, and next week we have our short team debrief in Pokhara before heading back to do school debrief in South Africa. But we know we have just a little more time here to love people and pray and we want to make it count and finish strong. If you pray for us please pray for that!

Also, please keep our Nepali friend in your prayers. She found out last month that she has a tumor in her neck and she has surgery scheduled for this Friday to have it removed..it is a pretty risky surgery with a long recovery time and she is trusting God, but still a little nervous. We are praying for healing!!

Thanks for keeping up with us thus far.. Enjoy some photos from the trek:

Atma (on the left) and Ezekiel (on the right) have become near and dear to Uriah's Heart!
They were our trekking guides for our Trek!

Right before our first Ascent!!

Beautiful Sunrise!! Taken from Ezekiel's Big Brother's house!

Love the way the yellow mustard seed plants mash with the green wheat!!

Breath Taking View!

Papaya Farm!!

We Couldn't Resist!!

Bridge Shot!

Some of Ezekiel's Family!!

Love This Place!!

Much love<3

Beautiful Nepal

2015-02-01T08:26:00.000-08:00

Happy FEBRUARY! Does anybody know where January went?? So much has happened since our last update!

First off, Max and Cambria (two of our four school leaders) paid us a pastoral visit here in Nepal! They stayed a week and we all really enjoyed taking them with us to do ministry and showing them all of our favorite places.. They encouraged us to keep pursuing each other and Jesus and to finish strong! So that's our plan.

Uriah has started spending each morning leading a Bible study with a few men from our church, Fresh Fire. He also had another great opportunity to preach on Saturday. He spoke about faith and seriously killed it! :) He has also been hanging out a lot with his friend, Ezekiel. They do "treasure hunts" (ask God highlight someone to pray for) and spend time at the local snooker/pool rooms. He also has been playing badminton with some of the local kids in the area!

I have spent my time in various ways. One of my favorites: this week I was blessed to work with "Beauty for Ashes", a business that provides jobs for women rescued from human trafficking. The women make scarves and jewelry and bags to sell, and they get paid for their work so they can support themselves and their families. The two days that Anna and I went we joined them for morning devotions, then were put to work washing scarves, packaging orders, and coming up with new ideas for products. They even fed us Nepali food for lunch! We really enjoyed being a part of what God is doing there and hope to get to go back soon.

We have some exciting news from the home front: Two days ago, we got to celebrate the adoption of Uriah's and my 6 new siblings! (I think that grammar is correct.) They're such amazing kids and we have loved them since we met them. If you missed the story, you can click here. P.S. my parents are champs!

Finally, in our last update we mentioned Uriah and Josh were heading to Tibet, but they had to cancel due to closed borders. However, our team has a different exciting trip on the horizon, which I will share all about in the next blog. This is a teaser to keep you on the edge of your seat waiting for the next post.... ;)

“When we are powerless to do a thing, it is a great joy that we can come and step inside the ability of Jesus” -Corrie ten Boom

2015-01-09T09:17:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe we have been in Nepal for more than three weeks! What a crazy, adventurous three weeks it has been.. It feels like we have had to relearn everything: using the restroom, showering, cooking, disposing of garbage, transportation, communication.. On a deeper level, we're learning to love each other deeper, we're learning just how GOOD and faithful God is, and personally, I'm learning the importance of seeing in the Spirit and praying with the Spirit and not trusting what I see. It hasn't really been easy, but I'm so grateful for this time. Also, we found a great place to sooth our homesickness: The Lazy Gringo..REAL texmex!

Get in my belly!

A couple pictures from Boudha Stupa..

God has led us to such amazing opportunities, including spending time at a children's home and a school, praying bold prayers at the nearby stupa, still helping with the feeding program at Banquet House, and the one we are most excited about: He led us to a beautiful church family right near our house! We were all walking last week and a boy walked up beside Uriah and said "Jaimasi" (which is the Nepali greeting between Christians). After a moment, Uriah realized what he said and replied, "You're a Christian!" And the boy said he was and he invited us to his house to meet his family. That is where we learned about this church, called Fresh Fire.

Guys, we attended the church for the first time last week and it was possibly my favorite things since we've been here. It is a small church of maybe 30, and they meet in a single room in one of the buildings about ten minutes from our home. They have welcomed us and loved on us with gifts and much shared food and tea. We were able to pray for the sick among us and God healed several because He's just awesome like that! Today, we joined them for a prayer meeting, where we worshiped and prayed for the country and for the church and for the sick and the lost for two hours!! Then we stayed for tea and donuts and we got to laugh and joke and get to know our new friends. We already deeply love this body. I've never felt so blessed to be a part of something, even just for two months. This is the CHURCH!!

God is also doing cool things through Uriah and his friend Ezekiel from the church! They both love Jesus and are bold. Here's Uriah's testimony: "Today we asked the Holy Spirit to lead us through Mandikhatar and highlight who he wanted us to talk to, encourage, and pray with. We came to a lady who was 87 years old and had some back issues. We walked with her to her destination and prayed with her once she had a place to sit down. As we were speaking with her, her caregiver came up and began to ask who we were and what we were doing. Ezekiel explained we were led to her by the Holy Spirit and we wanted to pray with her. He then invited them to come to church with us tomorrow. They will be there she said!! As we continued walking Ezekiel took me to where his pastor works. He teaches English at a Christian organization near where we live. Once we arrived his pastor walked over to me and said, "Welcome! Do you mind sharing with my English class a bit about who you are and why you are here?" (SAY WHAT!!!) I said yes, of course, but was a little caught off guard! Turned into me preaching to this class learning English for about an hour and a half. Crazy times!! After that the pastor, Ezekiel, and I spoke about the church's vision and what is to come. It was so fun just being able to listen and encourage and pray with them!!" In the words of our DTS friend Johan: "COME ON, JESUS!"

Uriah and Josh

One last bit of news is that the crazies to the left are currently planning to take a motorcycle trip to Tibet in February! You read that right--motorcycles. (Yikes!) It will probably be a short trip, but they're really REALLY excited about it. They will be going with a group of guys and a guide, and they look forward to seeing more of Nepal and experiencing a little bit of Tibet, as well as the opportunity to release more of God's presence in that place. I'll be sitting out and enjoying an introvert weekend and probably eating some more Lazy Gringo. Bueno. :)

Please pray with us:

-For the Church in Nepal..that they would be encouraged, strengthened, and bold in sharing their faith as God guides. And for continued peace for Christians in Nepal (no government pushback)

-For those who don't yet know Jesus.

-For health in our team..we've been fighting colds and stomach issues since we got here.

-And finally, for Josh and Uriah in their planning and preparation for this trip to Tibet. They need to raise some funds, get visas and receive God's favor for crossing the border hassle-free.

THANKS for reading and supporting us! Don't forget, we'd love to hear back from you.. Let us know how you're doing and how we can be praying for you! Much love<3

Merry Christmas from Nepal!

2014-12-23T09:55:00.003-08:00

Namaste!! One week into our 12-week stay and we're all great, aside from some expected diarrhea and Sarah's wisdom tooth extraction. ;) Nepal is even more beautiful than I remembered..and we're only in Kathmandu!

The apartment we are staying at is a very nice place, located in a quiet part of town, and we have roof access with a great view! We have spent the last 7 days getting settled, getting to know the area and getting acquainted with the neighbors, getting used to the food and currency and new culture, figuring out transportation, trying to learn the language with our little books (yikes), and lots of time worshiping and praying. It has been really fun watching Uriah here..he's in his element with all these new people to get to know and of course everyone loves him!

We were somewhat unsure of what our time here would look like.. Aside from us four students setting Bible-reading goals, we just didn't have any leads, but God is so faithful to guide us! Today, the Lord spoke the same thing to three of us--two of us got an impression while we were doing our Bible readings, and the third was one of our leaders! It was such an encouragement for us. Much of our time here will be strategically praying for the beautiful Nepali people. In addition, we will also likely be attending Banquet House meetings on Thursday, which is fellowship around tea, a clinic for the sick or injured, a teaching, and a hot meal, and we hope to be able to work at a children's home and maybe do some trekking to villages!

Thank you for praying for our health, for our hearts, and for the Nepali people. We love you guys. MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Over & out.