Pastor Steve's life ministry deals with bringing hope and restoration to the hurting and down trodden, both inside and outside of the church. His message of God's grace and love is backed by a powerful testimony of addiction from his past and his message of healing and hope of things to come is evidenced by the scars of his present. Driven by a heart to please God, Pastor Steve and his wife Gaye serve their community faithfully and show love and grace to all people.


Steve and Gaye Vanzant

In addition to being the Fire Chaplain of the Haltom City Fire Department, Pastor Steve is a certified Trauma Responder and a Certified Trauma Stress Specialist with the ATSS. He was deployed to Sri Lanka during the tsunami relief efforts, by the Green Cross as a Certified Field Traumatologist, to train the local people to deal with trauma.
His other certifications include Emergency Services, Spiritual Care, and Mass Disaster and Terrorism with the ICISF. For more information on these organizations, follow the links below.

http://www.greencross.org/

http://www.atss.info/

http://www.icisf.org/

http://www.haltomcitytx.com/

 

UNBELIEVABLE! August has arrived. August.The time of year when thousands of bright, shining, happy, laughing North Texan faces turn toward school. They, of course, belong to mothers... (Smile)...
School time.

When I was young, this was a time to "turn over a new leaf." I had just completed a whole summer, gone to youth camp, and could now "begin again," even believing that I could make a difference at my school. But, like all the times in the past, I just sat there. Day after day, class after class, slowly allowing the "fire" of youth camp to be extinguished by the fear and compromise of my own heart.

Several years ago, I heard a story of Larry Walters, a 33-year-old man who had decided he wanted to see his neighborhood from a new perspective. He went down to the local army surplus store one morning, and bought 45 weather balloons. That afternoon, he strapped himself into a lawn chair, to which several of his friends tied the now helium-filled balloons. He took along a six-pack of beer, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a BB gun, figuring he could shoot the balloons, one at a time, when he was ready to land.
Walters, who assumed the balloons would lift him about 100 feet in the air, was caught off guard when the chair soared more than 11,000 feet into the sky - smack into the middle of the air traffic pattern at the Los Angeles International Airport. Too frightened to shoot any of the balloons, he stayed airborne for more than two hours, forcing the airport to shut down it's runways for much of the afternoon, causing long delays in flights, from all across the country.

Soon after he was safely grounded, and cited by police, reporters asked him three questions: "Were you scared?" He responded quickly, "Yes!" "Would you do it again?" "No!" came his response. "Why did you do it?" they asked. "Because," he said, "You can't just sit there."
I am not saying that we should purchase 45 hot air balloons, scribble "Jesus" on the side of them, and float out into oblivion. I am suggesting, however, (especially to our young people that are returning to school), to not "just sit there" and let this school year pass you by.

Live for Christ in front of your classmates.I am not proposing that you try to "beat" Jesus into them with your 55 pound Student Bible, I am advising something more "strange" than that - Be kind to that kid that gets on your last nerve. Hug somebody. Say nice things to and/or about your teacher, or, don't say anything at all. Don't get caught up in "put down" wars. Go out of your way to talk to the one that nobody else likes.
In other words...

Be like Jesus. Make a difference. Change. After all, it's no fun to just sit there...

Sincerely His,
Pastor Steve Vanzant

The Significance of One is available now.