A Good Word

Moving Forward in the Strength of God

by Steve Kramer, missionary to the Netherlands

Julie and I stepped off the plane about 15 months ago as first-term Assemblies of God appointed missionaries. I’ll never forget my initial thoughts when I arrived in Amsterdam that day. I was overwhelmed with emotion as I reflected on events that brought us to this historical moment. I met Julie at an itineration service in Medford, Oregon, only a year before (an amazing story in itself). She and I had a short courtship (5 months) and then we got married. Immediately, she joined me on the itineration trail in order to raise a “married budget.” We refer to those days of itineration as our “extended honeymoon”—a time we will not soon forget.

As I write this, I am overlooking a scene that looks like a postcard straight from Holland. Our house sits on a picturesque canal just outside Groningen, a university city in the northern part of the Netherlands. My wife, Julie, and I are partnering with local Dutch churches to establish effective university ministries that will reach half a million university students in the Netherlands. It is a huge challenge, but we know that with God all things are possible. We absolutely love the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and fulfill His call on our lives. He has done so much and my life story is nothing short of miraculous.

My journey in life has been a little different than most people’s. First of all, I feel and have almost always felt that I am the most blessed man on earth. But mine is a story I would not have been comfortable writing in my earlier years. I was born two-and-a-half months premature with cerebral palsy. The doctors told my parents I would never walk and would be lucky to live a normal life—if I lived at all. In my younger years, as I lay in hospital beds in the wake of post-surgery care, rolled myself around in a wheelchair, and endured the ridicule of kids on the playground, it was obvious that I was different. I began to ask the big questions of life—not if I could get the new video game system or if I could play on the varsity basketball team—but the age-old question why. I never questioned why me, but I did question why I was not healed. I was saved in an Assemblies of God church and had seen miracles, healings, signs and wonders. Sometimes in the quietness of the night—as I was awakened by the discomfort of the night braces I wore to keep my legs from tightening with spasticity—I wondered why it seemed everyone else was being healed but me.

These questions are part of ongoing growth in my relationship with and trust in God. I remember wondering, when God called me to the Netherlands at the age of 12, how a disabled kid unable to walk on his own could possibly fulfill this type of call. I remember writing my master’s thesis at Assemblies of God Theological Seminary on the question of human suffering. It was 40 pages long and had a lot of answers, but it still didn’t help my mobility and the limitations I faced.

By this time you may be thinking, Wow, not very encouraging. Poor guy. But that is not the point I am trying to get across. We are often reluctant to share our weakness because we see it as just that—weakness. We put on a plastic smile and pretend all is well. We hope if we just try hard enough and believe long enough, all of our weaknesses will disappear.

The other day I was riding my three-wheeler Speed-the-Light bike (STL has made my ministry here possible with this incredible blessing of a bike) to my Dutch class at the university. It was a typical Dutch fall day: windy, rainy and cold. And it was all blowing right in my face. We live about two miles from the center of town, and I always feel like I am participating in the qualifying trials for the Tour de France. Every now and then, a Dutch bicyclist blows past me, but for the most part I am alone. I ride my bike along the curving path, through the green pastures dotted occasionally with grazing sheep. It is a good time for introspection and conversing with God while battling the elements. Questions fill my mind again. I am filled with wonder as I now ask God, how can life be this good?

You see, when I go to my Dutch class, I sit next to Torsten. He is from Germany and is almost completely blind. He asked me on the first day of class how I know for sure I am a Christian. For some reason, because of my human weakness, he is able to more clearly see Jesus Christ, “the hope of glory” in me. Then later in the day, my professor looks at me with astonishment when I get on my bike to ride back home. In almost every class, she has a new question to ask me about my faith in Christ. Last week, she asked me to explain to my Muslim classmate what “sin” is. Divine appointments like this happen all the time. Not because of me, but because of Christ in me.

I never understood fully what the apostle Paul writes in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians until we arrived in the Netherlands. He writes, “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise” (verse 27). A few verses later, he says “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord” (verse 31).

I wonder what kind of world we would live in, if instead of trumpeting our successes, we began to glory in the God who is made strong in our weakness. This concept goes against the culture of the day. But I can honestly say that any impact I make for the Kingdom of God won’t be because of what I can do—but because of what He can do.

Now that is food for thought, on your next bike ride…

You can e-mail Steve at steve.kramer@agmd.org or visit his Web site here.