Top Ten Things I Am Thankful For

I wanted to take a few minutes to make my list of Thanksgiving. This blog is usually about what is happening in 3:18 Ministries, but I wanted to hijack this space to share with you what I am thankful for! Here is the Top Ten list in alphabetical order…


The Board of 3:18 Ministries – We are just getting started, but already I am confident that God has put together a strong team to help guide this ministry. We need accountability and have a team around us who have the permission to hold us accountable. We trust them. I am so thankful for our board.

God – The author of life. Our sustainer. Our provider. Our salvation. Our hope. I am so thankful for all He is, all He has done and all He is preparing to do.

God’s Call – I know me and I’m sure I could find someone better, more qualified than myself. I don’t understand God’s call, but I am so thankful that He would call me to such an important ministry.

My Family – I can’t imagine what it is like for a couple to go to their families and say, “We are becoming missionaries and moving.” Our parents have been more than supportive over these past 7 years. They have never made us feel guilty and in fact have gone out of their way to be our biggest cheerleaders and supporters. We are so blessed by our parents.

My Kids – Our family isn’t quite the traditional family (just look at our family picture on the Tory & Kara Satter page!) and not even close to what I imagined my family would look like, but I wouldn’t trade them for the world. I am humbled that God would choose me to be a father to these kids. They bring me joy beyond words!

My Wife – No words can completely express my gratitude for my wife. She left her ministry ten years ago to become my wife. God, in His goodness, gave us a ministry where both of our gifts can be used. I am so blessed to walk alongside my incredible wife for this journey.

Our Journey – These past seven years have not been the easiest road, but looking back, I wouldn’t trade this journey for anything. I am thankful for the journey we have been on that has brought us to today. However, I am more thankful for the journey ahead, for what God is going to accomplish as we begin to see that tomorrow can be different.

Our Support Team – One of the toughest parts of stepping into the mission field was not knowing where our next paycheck was coming from. The fear of the unknown has deepened our faith in God, our provider. We could not have been on the mission field for these past 7 years without our support team. Thank you for your sacrificial giving which has allowed us to do what God has called us to do.  I am also humbled that we have over three hundred people receiving our Prayer Warrior Updates and battling with us through prayer.  Thank you!

Our Supporting Churches – We are so thankful for the churches who have supported us from day one as well as our most recent supporting church who began supporting us last month. We are also thankful for the churches who send Short-Term Ministry Teams to partner with us on the front lines. It has been some great partnerships and we are grateful.

The Team of 3:18 Ministries (both present and future) – I am looking at this team God is forming and there is no one else I would rather do life and ministry with than this team. God is building and bringing the right people at the right time. I am excited for the present and future of this team God has called! I know eternity is going to be different because of this team God is forming.

-tory

Christmas Project Update

3:18 Ministries' Christmas party for the San Carlos Youth Home kids and staff is December 17th.  The director and staff are really excited about this event.  To date we have received a little over $500 towards the Christmas project!  We have also received hand-tied fleece blankets and will be receiving handmade quilts.  Please keep praying for this wonderful opportunity to share Jesus with the staff and kids at the Youth Home.

For more information about the Christmas Project read this post.
http://3-18ministries.blogspot.com/2010/10/318-ministries-christmas-project.html

Words Of Wisdom From A Five Year Old

This past Friday at the Youth Home our lesson was on creation. My wife was reading from The Early Reader’s Bible. “God Made Many Things – At one time there was no world. There was no sun. There was no moon. There were no stars. ‘I will make a world,’ God said. So God made our world. Will you thank Him for our world.” And then the kids all said, “Thank you God for our world.” The story continued, “’I will make a sun,’ God said. God made the sun. It helps you see all day long. Will you thank Him for the sun?” And then the kids again said, “Thank you God for the sun.” And in that moment of us enjoying the children’s unison chorus before Kara continued to the creation of the moon and stars, our 5 year old said, “The dark needed the light so God made the sun.”

I am amazed at the profound wisdom in those words. I know he didn’t understand the depth of what came out of his mouth, but I have been unable to shake those words from my head. The dark needed the light. The statistics of the poverty, suicide rate and unemployment of the San Carlos Apache Reservation are overwhelming. They are thrown around all the time and our minds cannot fathom what they really mean. And yet the greatest need is a relationship with Jesus Christ. Across the United States, approximately 1 out of 10 Native American have a relationship with Jesus Christ. The dark needs the light.

In the midst of wrestling with this I was reminded of a story from Frederick Buechner’s book The Magnificent Defeat.

“It is a peculiarly twentieth-century story, and is almost too awful to tell, about a boy of twelve or thirteen who, in a fit of crazy anger and depression, got hold of a gun somewhere and fired it at his father, who died not right away but soon afterward.

"When the authorities asked the boy why he had done it, he said that it was because he could not stand his father, because his father demanded too much of him, because he hated his father. And then later on, after he had been placed in a house of detention, a guard was walking down the corridor late one night when he heard sounds from the boy's room, and he stopped to listen. The words he heard the boy sobbing out in the dark were, 'I want my father, I want my father.'"

I am convinced that if we could really hear the cries on the reservations across the United States, not the physical cries or the superficial cries but the cries from the depths of the souls, that we would hear “I want my Father.” The dark needed the light so God made the sun. The dark needed the light so God gave His Son.

Thank you God for the Son.

-tory

3:18 Ministries Update

We are heading out again this afternoon for our weekly ministry at the San Carlos Apache Youth Home. Our relationships with the kids and the staff continue to deepen. Kara has been asked to provide some training for the Youth Home staff. The first training will happen during the week of the 15th. She also continues to partner with the counselor at the Youth Home to provide training during the San Carlos Social Services Parenting Classes. Anytime Child Protective Services is involved with a family, the parents are required to participate in parenting classes. Kara and the counselor are teaching parts of those classes and have received great feedback.

We already have 2 short-term ministry teams on the calendar for 2011. If you are interested in bringing a team to partner with 3:18 Ministries, please contact us as soon as possible. Dates will begin to fill up quickly!

God is moving and opening doors. Thanks for your prayers and partnership!

tory