Mark

Stratmann

Well, it’s no surprise to most people that I’m an inquisitive person who is always ready to take something apart to simply figure out how it worked.  Growing up I was always fiddling with things, “fixing” my bike up, learning about computers, building things out of scrap lumbar my dad brought home, it was and still is my escape from the world to get lost in some project of building or fixing something.  I think a portion of this I got from my grandfather, though as I see more and more now, it’s hereditary as I see my dad now trying to improve things in some strange yet interestingly ingenious ways.  I see that it’s a trait that must be built into my system from generations upon generations.

I notice a trend that runs deep in my roots, I come from 2 lines of families that produce things in life.  My grandfather on my mom’s side was a farmer, paid in life to produce crops all is life.  I don’t remember him so much working in the fields as I remember him knee deep in tools tinkering and working to fix or improve something in his barn.  At any given time he would have some project that needed his attention.

My grandfather on my dad’s side was a carpenter, well known in his prime for the work he did building homes and roofing barns.  He was paid in life to produce an end product as well, and to this day much of the work he did still stands, money well spent by his customers.  By the time I was old enough to really have memories of him he was retired, but my memories of him include many days of him fixing or trying to improve things, often times in some rather strange ways, but he definitely had an inquisitive nature.

My dad took over the business after my grandfather retired, growing and expanding the business to be a well known home builder and remodeling contractor.  I worked for him throughout college, a job that fed into my inquisitive nature, and produced easily measurable results…at the end of the day you could stand back and see what you did with your day.  In fact, still today when I’m around town I drive past homes that I helped build or remodel.

After college I transitioned into being a middle school teacher.  Yeah.  A job that was a stark difference from building homes or working at a bicycle shop.  I unknowingly went through a time of figuring out how I was going to measure how successful I was, at the end of the day there was nothing to prove what I had accomplished that day.  Sure, there were some middle-school projects, and a few kids proudly showing their projects off, but what did I have to show for my day?  I suppose there was a way of measuring my success there, but it was no longer through material items.  I had to simply find satisfaction through non-material results.

Then there was my time as a World Racer.  How could I ever define success on a trip like The World Race?  Sure, there were some months where there was an actual physical project that we accomplished, but what about the year as a whole?  There are some kids living in an orphanage in Bolivia, there is a pastor and his family in Peru that are living in their house that I helped rebuild in Peru, there are kids enjoying some ceiling fans and operational lights in India, there’s a church with a fresh paint job in Thailand…but how do you define success the other months?  The months where lives were impacted simply by me being me, and by me helping impart Christian principles and God’s Kingdom living?  Is there a rubric for that?  Any way to measure success in that?

Clearly I find extreme value in all of it.  Why else would I quit a good paying job of teaching to give a year to missions?  Better yet, why have I spent the past year working for next to nothing financially for this?  Clearly I find value in it all, or I wouldn’t do it!  I consider my start in working with the World Race and Adventures in Missions when they asked me to explore Ireland finding ministries that we could partner with last March.  Now, nearly a year later, I’m continuing to work on staff with The World Race taking a large roll in setting up ministry sites for the 250+ people we have out in the nations today.  It’s a large task in a role that needs done, though I always try to find the end result of what I’m accomplishing with my life.  At the end of the day what do I measure up to?  Well, with 250+ people on the field at any given moment (with another 150 to launch in June and July) in any one of the 64 countries we are currently involved in, I have to start finding success in the fact that churches are being planted, orphans are being loved, the sick is being healed, the poor are being fed, the untouchables are being held, the red-light districts are being impacted, slaves are being set free, people are walking into their destiny…the list can go on and on, and I directly have an important part in helping get people connected through it all.