I normally write articles about websites and internet marketing. However, in this segment, I interviewed Pastor Steve Mathews, the founder of the Shadowland Sojourner blog. I am always fascinated to talk and interview people who have a passion and a mission to bring impact to the community, especially in the mission field.
Here’s the transcript of our conversation:
Dennis Alejo 0:03
Hey guys, welcome to our show today, Pastor Steve is here with us. And we have an interesting news for you. He is launching this amazing blog, a mission blog. Is that right? Mr. Steve? Yes, we’re
Steve 0:19
going to be we’re going to be talking about missions and ministry that’s going on all over the globe.
Dennis Alejo 0:24
Yes. It’s my privilege to ask you some questions today. And yeah, before we start, let’s ask some question about how many nations have you been to?
Steve 0:35
Well, I knew you would ask. And so I wrote them down because I Oh, every time I somebody asked me, I always forget a couple places, but, but I know I’ve been to your homeland, the Philippines. And that was where it all started for me and missions. Yeah. And the journey that I took to the Philippines a couple of times. And then one of those times we went to South Korea did quite a bit of ministry in South Korea, Costa Rica, Colombia, Haiti, number of times in Haiti, Dominican Republic, South Africa, Mozambique, and then one of the newest nations I’ve had a chance to go to is Bangladesh.
Dennis Alejo 1:07
Wow, that’s a lot of places that you have been to. But every nation has their own delicacies. What are the most disgusting thing?
Steve 1:20
The most disgusting? Well, I have to I have to tell you, it’s your homeland. Woe is your homeland of the Philippines. Although I will say this before I get into that, that your homeland also wins for for the most incredibly fruits, fruits and nuts and are just amazing. And but the the one in particular, the one delicacy is called balut. And, of course, you know what it is, but balut is a you know, anywhere from 15. They told us a 21 day old duck egg. That is, of course fertilizes a little duck in there. And then they take and they, they boil it they hard boil it. Yeah. And then you crack it open and eat.
Dennis Alejo 2:01
Yeah, it’s a good protein at the same time. You have plenty of minerals,
Steve 2:06
I guess. I guess. It’s pretty disgusting.
Dennis Alejo 2:10
It smells. It smells like blue cheese for this. For those of you who love blue cheese in your salad, I’m sorry, to
Steve 2:16
have to have to have some blue. And I was told that they do this thing. And I don’t know if you remember this from when you were boy, but they said yeah, they actually sell it. I saw it was like a guy on a cart. Like, like in America, we have ice cream, you know? So these little carts and these guys would drive around these little carts, and they would go buy loot. Yeah. And then people would run out to buy this delicacy.
Dennis Alejo 2:38
Every night. Do you hear that? From six o’clock to eight o’clock at night? You hear that? And then that’s that’s a good delicacies? It’s amazing. Yes. That’s great. Well, let’s dive in to our news for people. Now you are working with a monthly news about missions? And tell us about it.
Steve 3:04
Sure, yeah, one of the things that that, that we’ve noticed, is in the in the past, wow, especially during this year of pandemic and, and we kind of suspected it and knew this before the pandemic, but the American news media, and a lot of the stuff that we can pick up even on the internet is, is is limited to our selves, we’re pretty self absorbed or, and we focus on ourselves. For instance, Mozambique, just within the last four or five weeks had was hit by a major, major hurricanes that came up the coast in the area of Barra came in into the coast and just wreaked havoc. I mean, there’s people that lost their homes and roofs blown off. Flooding was massive. We didn’t hear a thing about it. Same thing is is for instance, going on in in Haiti as they’re going through, again, some political strife. That is just create creates all kinds of havoc in that nation and, and riots and violence. And it’s and that’s, that’s in our neighborhood that’s right here in this hemisphere. It’s, you know, Haiti is not that that far away. But we certainly don’t cover it not in our media.
Dennis Alejo 4:14
Yes. And on top of that, is the pandemic of course, of course, it’s a global disease around
Steve 4:21
all of my friends everywhere around the world, or they have certain restrictions that they’re dealing with, and, and of course, just the pandemic, the disease itself, the COVID-19 itself, and I get pictures of them, and they are wearing masks as well as we do here in the US. So yeah, it’s everywhere. Yes.
Dennis Alejo 4:40
Yeah. And last week, we actually have a 7.2 magnitude of earthquake in the Philippines. And we haven’t heard that one because it’s not our focus, but because of the internet and you know, the ability ability of technology now, we should be on board and this is the purpose of Have the main point of why Pastor Steve is doing this mission blog every month and
Steve 5:10
you know, Dennis, there’s, there’s, and jump ahead maybe a little bit but yeah, but there’s, there’s ways that we want to want to engage people Yes. And we don’t just want to give you news, you know, but we want we want you to engage with with the rest of the church around the world in particular. And the needs that are so prevalent everywhere. Yes. And so we view that, that there’s, there’s three specific ways we’d like to see you engage, and one of those is with, with prayer. And prayer is, is, is the most powerful, but it’s the most basic, and surely, surely, we can take time to, to get to know some of our brothers and sisters around the world and pray for them, and not just pray for them, but pray specifically for them, because we’ll be able to share some very specific needs with you. The other the other leg of that is, is is to give. And so when you connect your heart, then then hopefully that will follow that we will help find ways to to support the ministry that goes on around the globe. And, and, you know, you probably know this, but but the average income is still around the rest of the world is still it’s under $5 a day. In most places. It’s between two and $3. A day is the average income around the world. So we’re really very blessed that way here in the US that that our average income is they just can’t even imagine. Yes. And those lands it is. And of course the last way we hope to engage people is through going. And right now that’s been kind of like squelched, you know, we haven’t been able to go since the pandemic broke out, but but we hope that in the not too distant future, those doors will open back up. And when they do, we’re going to be in line.
Dennis Alejo 6:56
Yes. And this is also a great privilege for you to receive the first news about mission trip. And as I said, Steve is has a form below that. You can just sign up for to receive the news. Yes, yes. And so and so like when we come back to the web to where you said about less than $5 a day to work. Back in the Philippines. I was earning $3 a day. Yeah.
Steve 7:28
And that’s common. That’s like, that’s, that’s not I mean, it is poverty level. But it’s it’s like the average, right?
Dennis Alejo 7:35
Yes. Yeah. So it’s just enough food, actually for, you know, a day or so. years. And so this is a great privilege for us to know, Mission globally. And buzzer Steve, I want you to tell us about what is this all about? Like, what would be the theme? What would be the name of this mission blog?
Steve 7:59
Sure. Yeah, we’ve we’ve given it the title cut. We’re called Shadowland Sojourner. So we’re the shadowland Sojourner. So the words came from I had a not for profit that we were trying to form several years ago, and it was called Shadowland project. We decided to grab that because I liked what it had to say about our purpose here on Earth, you know, we have many times we we kind of miss the point as to our role as to what we’re to be here on Earth, and we talked about it, but then we say things that kind of contradict it. So we say things like, boy, this pandemic I am so out of here. Come Come Lord Jesus. And when we do that, we can miss the point with why we’re here and, and to be the kingdom ambassadors that we’re supposed to be. So the shadow land is a term that came from CS Lewis is where I got it and CS Lewis in his book, called The Last Battle, which is the final book in The Chronicles of Narnia, and Aslan, that the Christ character, if you will, is is speaking with with the four children, and they’ve just passed over into heaven. And heaven is a new place. It’s a remake of the original plan for like Narnia or for us, it’s, it’s beautiful beyond our imagination. And when they get there, he explains to them that they are now they have now the shadow land is behind them. Well, what he’s referring to is life on planet Earth is the Shadow Lands. So this land that we live in is a land of shadows, but it’s a bears reflection to our God or God and what He wants to do in this place when he comes to restore it again. Our role is to is to be proactive in advancing his kingdom and and proclaiming His love and His truth around the world. And being his hands and feet while we’re here and connecting people with the kingdom of God. Yes,
Dennis Alejo 9:56
that’s that’s very interesting words and Have, it’s really significant for people to actually, you know, take action right now while we are here on Earth, because this is the only privilege we have.
Steve 10:12
Yeah. The other the other part of that is, is the sojourner part, of course. And when we when you think of that word, there’s just the word sojourn. It depending on what translation of the Bible you read, that term it fits well with, with Israel moving through the desert, or, or just the journey of a believer and so, so, in particular sojourn when I looked it up was somebody who really doesn’t rest in a certain place very long. At a time. Yes, I keep moving around.
Dennis Alejo 10:42
Yeah. How about that might be relate to book of Acts, when Jesus said, absolutely start from Jerusalem, yes,
Steve 10:51
one, eight, and x one, eight. And that’s our, that’s our mandate, really, you know, I, the final words of Jesus, you know, if you’re looking at a Red Letter Bible, are actually an x. And the final words are actually acts one eight of Jesus himself before He ascended into heaven. And what he said was, is that is that the Holy Spirit is going to come upon you. And when that happens, he’s going to give you power, and he’s going to give you power to be witnesses, witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, and Samaria, and then to the very ends of the earth. So what the mandate is for us, is that we should be soldiers, we should be moving about and we should be moving out into the world. It’s not that we don’t do ministry at home, but there is no or in that, in that command, it’s and every time it’s to Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. So our command is to be ministers here and the near places in the far and hard places as well. We’re told to go
Dennis Alejo 11:56
this. So there’s no word that it says if if you go
Steve 12:01
that’s correct, it’s not if or it’s not Oh, like you have a choice. It’s and
Dennis Alejo 12:05
yes, so it’s, it’s really demanding of everyone. And so you might be working somewhere, then you can use your influence to your workplace.
Steve 12:16
It may be across the aisle. Yes, it may, you know, and yes, it is across the aisle. It’s across the street, it’s across town. It’s across the nation is across the world.
Dennis Alejo 12:25
Yes. And it reminds me of also being sold of the earth. That’s what Jesus said being sold being influence of wherever you are right now. Absolutely. Yeah. And so, yes, so I need to ask you two things right now, subscribe to this channel. And there is a link below that you can click Enter your email address. And then Pastor Steve would gather the information and send you the mission update every month, because we don’t even know that the Lifespring supported 33 nonprofits, ministries, and even you know, missionaries in this church. And so we would like to take the opportunity to you know, let everyone know that this is who we are. Yes,
Steve 13:21
absolutely. Absolutely. Share it with your friends. You know, when you like it and or when you when you subscribe, it allows it to get in front of more eyes and more people. And that’s that’s part of our plan, too, is to help expand out into the world so that people will we get more people will get connected. That’s our goal. Yeah, people connected and engaged in ministry.
Dennis Alejo 13:43
That’s great. Well, I have fun with you today. Pastor Steven green, thank you so much for you know, allowing us allowing me to ask some questions for you so that we especially
Steve 13:54
those hard ones up front, the delicacy yes
Dennis Alejo 13:58
yes, and there’s another one oh, there is yeah, the not Rambo, tan but the Dorian Turia yeah, here we forget about Dorian Dorian is a kind of fruit that has, you know, you know, weird type thorny
Steve 14:14
it is it’s kind of about the size of a coconut I guess. Yeah. But it’s like a coconut it’s it looks like a like a Mad Max coconut. It’s got spikes on it or something. You know, it’s just like something from another planet.
Dennis Alejo 14:25
Can you describe this male? I mean, can you describe the the when I was in
Steve 14:29
the Philippines, we had it we read a restaurant. And a little little Filipino man who was our waiter came out he was he was like, probably five by five kind of guy, little short, stocky guy. And he came out and he had just the broadest smile when we were checking out Jurriaan he said, He’s the dirty on ice is smells like hell tastes like heaven though.
Dennis Alejo 14:51
That is great privilege. And you know, when I was in Walmart last last week, I actually saw durian In a freezer size Walmart in Walmart so you might get taste of Philippines and yeah,
Steve 15:07
yeah it was we had it. There’s so many ways they fix so many things over there but but the reality that I had was actually in ice cream.
Dennis Alejo 15:15
Oh, is that is that your new favorite ice cream now? Thank you guys for watching and if you do please hit the subscribe or sign up right now. Thank you so much.
