This week on Open House, Steve Gumear shares his story of being a former pothead immersed in the world of witchcraft. Today, Steve works as a pastor and missionary in his mission organisation, Partners in Relief and Development.
Talking of his early life, Steve describes how as a child he always had a strong drive to search for meaning, though he initially took the wrong path, following the Tibetan Book of the Dead and becoming involved in witchcraft; "I was a pothead looking for God in all the wrong places."
It was on one day in 1986, when Steve had spent the day selling drugs, that he had an extraordinary experience; having heard voices and seen apparitions, he came to the conclusion that he could no longer live life in the same way, and prayed a simple prayer for a God to intervene. Immediately feeling the strength of God's love, as well as the revelation of his own sin, Steve was able to connect with a neighbour who took him to church for the first time. Steve also mentions that he had very little trouble disconnecting with the drug scene, as he knew he'd found the thing he'd been looking for.
Steve's interest in foreign issues began when he was invited by a mentor to learn Thai for a year in Thailand. In 1994, he encountered a group of people in a village in Burma who were not just poor, but also ravaged by life in many other ways, as well as heavily affected by war. After hearing a number of the stories of internally displaced people in Burma, Steve was called to found the Partners in Relief and Development missions organisation, whose primary goal is to aid war displaced peoples in material ways, as well as helping them to find sustainable shelter.
Steve also describes the experience of realising that all the orphans under his care should be treated as his own children, just as Jesus would do; it it for this reason that the orginal passion behind the project has never faded, and the love of God is made abundantly clear through the work of the organisation.