Vineyard Spotlight: Part 2 with Jenna Stepp

Today is the second article from Jenna Stepp.  She lives in Lewiston Maine with her husband, Shawn, and 3 kids. They lead the Pathway Vineyard Heroic Leadership Institute, a training school for young leaders.  Jenna is also the Ministry Assitant to the Vineyard Eastern Regional Overseer Phil Strout. Shawn and Jenna have been involved in Kingdom focused ministry to young people since 2001 and love finding ways to engage in social justice.

Her first article can be found here.

“What is in your hand?” – Part 2

We returned to the US for my husband to further his medical training. Once again, I was not sure what my “part of the puzzle” would be. From a human perspective it looked like I was stepping down from the fight. But when you are passionate about being an abolitionist, I’ve found it follows you wherever you go. It just becomes a part of who you are and finds a way into your reality. Once again, I had to ask “What is in my hand?” and then give that to God and watch what He can do!

Through no planning on my part I ended up leading a youth group again and also assisting the Vineyard East region with their administration and event planning. It was a joy to raise awareness with many of the 600 leaders in attendance, through justice workshops and booths. During this same season, my husband was able to link arms with some of the state leaders in the human trafficking coalition. At the first meeting,  police, NGO’s and other federal organizations looked at us a little funny asking why a church was there. What a cool bridge to the community it is to be able to share how Jesus feels about these issues and to share our desire to be a part of the solution!

I have had the privilege of leading sessions at various high schools and the University of Maine speaking about human trafficking.  I never get tired of seeing young people empowered and released to tackle this grave issue of our generation.  This year we are helping Christian Dunn, the youth task force leader for the Vineyard East Region, with a project called Free. In. Deed. The goal of the project is that each youth group would take a day in March to raise both awareness and funds for the prevention human trafficking. Together, we have developed a teaching that summarizes the issue and also highlights that the Kingdom of God is ALWAYS at work, through us, in setting the captives free.

This fall, Pathway Vineyard is launching a discipleship school called Heroic Leadership Institute. You can bet, as my husband and I lead these young leaders who will likely be the church planters, youth leaders, missionaries, safe home directors, undercover investigators, doctors, or movie makers of tomorrow…they will all have an encounter with God’s heart toward injustice, the issues surrounding human trafficking, the ways to link arms and be a part of the solution…no matter what is in your hand.

[A Big Thank You to Jenna Stepp for sharing with us this week in our Vineyard Spotlight series.  And a Big Thank You to all of our friends who have shared with us this past month in the Vineyard Spotlight series!!]