Steve’s testimony: God seeks us out!

Mom was Canadian, raised in Australia. At age 17 she fell in love with her Silver Star decorated Marine Captain, who was recovering from malaria in Melbourne, a survivor of Guadal Canal. Mom crossed the ocean to marry dad in Ft. Lauderdale the next year. He was a good, honest, hard working man, but the horrors of war had wounded his soul and he felt only alcohol could numb the painful memories.

My brother was born right away and Mom didn’t want another boy. When I came along 4 years later, she divorced dad, and we moved in with my Aunt and Uncle in Jacksonville, FL. Mom worked hard to support us, not having a high school education. She’d sell vacuum cleaners and anything else during the day, and worked tables as a bar waitress at night. There were lots of parties, but I was alone. I’d only visit dad in the summer for a couple weeks a year. Bobby (my brother) was killed in a car accident on Christmas Eve when I was 13.

I began working around age seven, selling flower seeds door to door, coke bottles, newspapers, Christmas trees, mowing lawns, and anything to make a dime. In Junior High, I noticed a lot of cute girls went to an Episcopal Church in the wealthy section of town across the river. Mom and I were poor but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from meeting one of those cute girls, so I went to that church. I received confirmation, became an acolyte, sang in the choir, and did everything I could to get respect. But I was always in trouble. After various appearances before the Juvenile Judge, I went to a Military reform school at age 15. The abuse was incredible, but I figured I deserved it and just stuck it out.

MILITARY SERVICE

I tried college after Military school but felt too confused to be able to concentrate on studies, so I volunteered for the Army and Vietnam. I told the recruiter I wanted to help people, so he signed me up for medical corpsman school. I became a paratrooper and went into Special Forces, but flunked out of S.F. for partying too much.

In Nam I was awarded two purple hearts and the bronze star twice for valor in combat as a corpsman with the 1st of the 4th Cavalry. The next six months I spent in the field with a mortar platoon of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. I didn’t like myself. I had gone to Nam, thinking that if I died I wouldn’t loose anything, and if I survived, perhaps I’d have some sense of value to my existence. But when a person doesn’t know the love of his Creator, how can he have any true sense of value? I didn’t believe God existed.

I should have died a number of times in Vietnam. Once I was blown into the air when our APC ran over a forty pound land mine and I got up with hardly a scratch on me. As a medical corpsman I didn’t have to go on ambush patrol, but I went anyway three times a week. I figured if anybody was going to get hurt it would be one of my buddies, so I went out to be with them.

NEW LIFE

For me, real life began at age twenty two, when I walked to the ocean two blocks from my apartment at Cocoa Beach, FL. At 2 o’clock that morning a thought was causing me deep shame and depression. It was October 12, 1971, and I was alone again. I wanted to find a woman to make a life with, but I realized I was totally ignorant of how to be a husband and a father. Who would teach me to be a father? What would I be able to teach a child? I would only ruin their lives. I felt that if life and marriage were what I had seen in my family, it wasn’t for me. I didn’t want my heart broken and to break the hearts of others, over and over again. So I decided to end my life by swimming to the other side of the ocean.

As I got about knee deep in the water, a soft, quiet thought seemed to just float up into my mind and arrest me. The thought said, “Steve, I’m what you’ve been looking for. Give me your life and I’ll make it new.” Where could a thought like that be coming from? Instantly I knew, for the first time, that God was real and that I had been rejecting him all my life. The thought of rejecting a person so loving and kind broke my heart and I fell to my knees crying and asking His forgiveness. I remember every moment and sensation of that night as if it were only yesterday.

It must have been around 5am, when I found myself being washed up on the beach like a dead fish. I had been in the water for hours. As I sat up on the beach, I realized nothing had changed outwardly. The world was just the same. The only thing different was that Steve Cobb knew God is real. I was disappointed and began to complain. Why hadn’t God taken me out of here as I had begged him to do? He must have a reason. So I prayed my first prayer. “Lord, if you want me to be happy, you’re going to have to put your hand on my shoulder and put me where you want me to be every day for the rest of my life.” I sensed He would do just that. Then I prayed again, “Lord, teach me what real love is. Just do those two things and I think that’s all I’ll need.” Strong assurance flooded my soul and I literally jumped up and did cartwheels down the beach, while laughing and jumping and praising God.

SPIRITUAL FATHERS

From the outset, I felt like I wanted to teach others what real life is, but I had so much to lean myself. My first Pastor, Dr. Adrian Rogers, taught us that true followers of Jesus are people who love the Bible and apply His Word to their daily life. He said you can read the entire Bible in a year by reading three chapters a day, a Psalm and a chapter in Proverbs. It was the first book I ever read from cover to cover. And I’ve been reading it through every year since. I moved back to Jacksonville to live with my mother and Jesus came into her life and the lives of my Aunt and my cousin.

God began to bring men of the Church into my life who took me under their wing to mentor me. Russell and Barbara Linenkohl of Beaches Chapel in Jacksonville, Ken Sumrall and Bob Bishop of Liberty Church and Globe Missionary Evangelism in Pensacola, and Ed King in Honduras. I learned from them and from the Scripture, what it is to be a man, a husband, a father and a servant. Thirty seven years later, they are still among our closest friends. Ed has graduated to his heavenly reward. He died bringing aid to survivors of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras.

I started studying in college again and found that I had the peace I needed to concentrate. After Junior College I was accepted at Oral Roberts University, but my destiny was kept in line when I met “Papa” Ken Sumrall speaking at a meeting in Jacksonville. He had a student from his Bible College with him that he was mentoring, and I said to myself, “That’s what I need!” So instead of going to ORU, I enrolled in Liberty Bible College.

My first year there, Papa Ken asked me if I would go on a summer “boot-camp trip” to take pictures of the missionaries that the Church supported in Mexico and Guatemala. In Mexico, accompanying Paul Koehler on his visits to the ranches, my destiny was once again kept in line, as I was drawn to the needs of Latin Americans. I knew I would be living somewhere in the Spanish speaking world the rest of my life.

I became a Deacon in Liberty Church in Pensacola and enrolled in the Spanish Studies program at the University of West Florida, while studying at Bible College. Helen and I married and we began teaching Sunday School together. When Ed King visited from Honduras, Bob Bishop, the Director of Globe Missionary Evangelism, asked us to meet with him. Ed needed someone who could raise up a Bible College for his young Church in Tegucigalpa.

HONDURAS and ECUADOR (20 yrs.)

After a year in Costa Rica to learn Spanish, we settled in Honduras where I founded the Living Word Bible College from 1977 to 1986. The “Living Love Church” of about a hundred young people and 20 adults became 9 churches before we left. Today they are more than 50 churches throughout the Americas. Many are pastored by the men and women we trained there.

In 1986 we were invited to join a team of missionaries from Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas, TX, to raise up a Bible College in Quito, Ecuador. We trained many wonderful men and women in Ecuador, traveling all over the country. The small congregation of VERBO Ministries we were members of became 10 congregations by the time we left.

In Ecuador I enrolled in a Master’s degree program in Christian Leadership through Azusa Pacific University. But we moved to Guatemala before I could graduate. In Guatemala I enrolled in the Institute of Theology by Extension (INSTE), a program in which I became the National Director. I also studied and graduated from a local Guatemalan University. I wanted to experience first hand, the traditional theological classroom formation offered in Universities, taught by the best trained Guatemalan pastors, to be able to compare it to the holistic model of mentoring that INSTE offers Pastors in their churches. INSTE increases a pastors ministerial ability while giving him the tools to multiply himself by personally fathering and training his own church leaders.

GUATEMALA (12 yrs.)

God in giving us a tremendous opportunity to impact Guatemala and turn the tide of evil in Latin America. Jesus did four things with His disciples that transformed their lives forever. 1) He gave them His authentic friendship; 2) He developed in them the daily spiritual habits of connecting with God; 3) He imparted life to them through His relevant, practical theology; and 4) He imparted to them God’s mission and heart for others. The training program we direct in Guatemala (INSTE) is designed to integrate spiritual fathering with solid theological formation. The testimony of the three dimensional growth of Churches in each of the 30+ nations that are using this program is evidence of its effectiveness. The members grow in their intimacy with God, the church grows in membership as they become active in God’s mission, and the church multiplies by raising up solid leaders to plant new churches.

This year Helen and I celebrate 33 years of marriage. Our four children love Jesus and follow Him. Cristina and her husband Stephen serve in Ecuador. Stephen is the Principal of the Christian High School that Cristina and Philip graduated from. Cristina is a Ph.D. candidate in communications at Regent University. She enjoys writing novels for young people. Philip is a Ph.D. Chemical Engineer for Golder Associates and his wife is a Master Nurse at the VA hospital in Gainesville, FL. Anita is an Elementary school teacher and has her M.A. in Pastoral Ministry. She and her husband Nick live in Gainesville and desire to become missionaries in China. Our youngest son Tim is serving in Iraq with the armed forces. We lived a year in Costa Rica, nine years in Honduras, 10 years in Ecuador, and now 12 years in Guatemala developing leaders for minsitry.

OUR LIFE THEME VERSE

“For the love of Christ compels us, knowing this: that if One died for all, then all died; and he died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” 2 Cor.5:14

ADDING VALUE TO THE LIVES OF OTHERS

Jesus’ Bride in Latin America is huge in number, as it is in Asia and Africa. But most are not followers of the Lord. They do not seek His will in order to determine their daily decisions. Most who attend church do so for enjoyment or out of religious duty. They’re not growing spiritually because they don’t eat and they don’t flow with God’s mission of love to those around them because their worldview does not come from their own study of Scripture applied to their own social context.

Of the 20,000 “evangelical churches” in Guatemala, only 10% of the pastors have a high school education or better. Thousands long for training by don’t know it’s available in their area and in a practicle way that will transform their lives. The Holy Spirit is working to lead them out of darkness and into His glorious light, but it can only be done as each one does his part in helping.

God has given us special gifts and opportunities to turn the tide in Guatemala. Our ministry tools have been: Restoring the Foundations inner healing ministry (Chet and Betsy Kylstra); 12 Step Christian recovery ministry in Ecuador; Feurstein’s Instrumental Enrichment therapy program; Ed Smith’s Theophostic Prayer Ministry; Karl Lehman’s Immanuel Encounter Prayer ministry; James Wilder’s Life Model process; Family Dynamics “A New Beginning” seminar for growing love in marriage, and Joe Beam’s “Dynamic Marriage” training.

For the past 11 years Steve has served as National Director of INSTE Guatemala. Steve is  a Ph.D. candidate in Missiology, of the Latin American Doctoral Program (PRODOLA) in Costa Rica, an extension of the School of Leadership and World Mission of Fuller Seminary. We have so much to give and need your team support to keep doing it. Together, you can make a huge difference in the lives of the poor.

“Here am I and the children whom the Lord has given me! We are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts, who dwells in Mount Zion.” Isaiah 8:18

“I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt (Guatemala); I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt (Guatemala).” Acts 7:34

Father, we offer ourselves to You for the strengthening of your Bride. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Steve and Helen Cobb
Globe International
PO Box 3040
Pensacola, FL 32516
(850) 453-3453

Be part of our team: Please pray and consider being a part of our team, transforming Guatemala by restoring spiritual fathering/mothering through biblical discipling. We need your help.

2003 studies show that Guatemala has the highest rate of homicide in Latin America with 70 murders for every 100k population, followed by Colombia with 65, Venezuela with 35, Brazil with 27 and Mexico with 12.5 per 100k. 40% of the murders are children between 10 and 19 years old. Also 33% of Guatemalan girls enter into free union (common law) relationships before they reach 18. 40% before reaching 22. 30% of them commit suicide. Jesus’ mentoring Church is their only hope for restoring the foundations of this society. We need your help.

Make a contribution by clicking here http://www.gme.org/missionaries/view_missionary.php?mid=11

Thank you!