A Season of Change and an Invitation

This is Executive Director Betsy Stalcup’s talk from our recent Christmas Tea Fundraiser.

Today I’ll be sharing about a shift in direction God is orchestrating at HCI. God has been talking to me about this shift for over a year. In July of 2022 he said, “Welcome to your new life!” I had no idea what he meant, but now it is becoming more apparent and we are bravely, confidently embarking on this new path that is opening before us. But first a little history.

Most of you probably already know that this year—2023—is our 20-year anniversary as a ministry.

Whoo hoo!

At the beginning of this year, the staff asked me to write a history of the last 20 years. We’ve been posting the history in installments in this newsletter. If you’ve missed it, you can binge read it on this blog. I’m only halfway through the task but reflecting on what God has done has made my heart swell with gratitude.

I am seeing it all afresh. This is his ministry! He initiated it. I never had any desire to lead a ministry. I was quite happy as a geologist. I never expected God to call me to this vocation. I committed to three years and spent a lot of time trying to figure out who could replace me. But at the end of the three years, God told me that quitting was my idea, not his. He had called me and he had not released me from his call. That was seventeen years ago. I am still here!

Those of you who know me well know that this year has been a difficult one. I confess there were times when I thought, I can’t do this anymore. And yet I have never been more certain than I am right now that God has called me to this ministry—his ministry. He not only called me, but I believe he has called each of you to partner with him in his ministry. He has led us every step of the way. We started with the Listening class and were so pleased to discover that when we listened, our teenaged children wanted to talk to us. Then we noticed that we were getting triggered. God brought Theophostic prayer to our attention. Then the Life Model and the Immanuel Approach. We learned HeartSync and developed a way to process grief that was so freeing. We learned to quiet our bodies and hear God clearly.

Over and over again, we took complicated methods and made them understandable. During the last 20 years, we’ve developed healthy community--so vital to healing. Now our hard work to recover is being rewarded because we see it being transferred to others through modeling. The way God intended.

What we are doing is unique. As I reflect on the last 20 years, I see that it is the combination of approaches that is so powerful. Learn new skills, new concepts, become more aware, but often that awareness of, for example, our maturity deficits, is so triggering it’s nearly debilitating. So we also need a reliable way to be in the presence of God, letting him love us, to become like him and have the strength to suffer well. The change does not happen instantly, but over time we have been transformed.

It is not so much what we have learned but who we have become. We are becoming more like Jesus.

The Lord has shown me we needed the first 20 years to grow a healthy community. Note I did not say a perfect community. There is more life and healing to come. We will keep growing the rest of our lives.

But right now, today, we have something of great value. Think of all you have experienced and learned. Now God is calling us to give it away. For the next 20 years, we will be giving to others what God has given to us. The Lord is showing me where to begin. We are to begin by mentoring key leaders, people such as Antony and Miriam in Kenya. I am training them and spending time loving them, listening to them, helping them encounter the Lord. Teaching them about rest and joy and quiet. And they immediately turn around and teach everything I’ve taught them to pastors in Africa—325 this year.

But Miriam and Antony are not the only ones. God is bringing more leaders. All of them strong Christians, people of influence who are hungry for more. We’ve had the joy of ministering to college students through InterVarsity. This January we’ll be taking it up a notch by ministering at the InterVarsity staff retreat in Orlando. We are mentoring a leader in Norway and have been asked to mentor a pastor and his wife from a church populated by Millennials and Gen Zs.

Yes, in the midst of all these exciting opportunities, there have been times when I have been so depleted that I’ve said to myself, I don’t have the strength to keep going. In response to my lament the Lord has drawn me to 2 Kings 19. It’s the story of Hezekiah, king of Judah. The king of Assyria had been conquering nation after nation, including Israel to the north. Jerusalem was surrounded by the Assyrian army who taunted Hezekiah, saying, “How do you think you will stand when all the countries around you have fallen? Were their gods able to save them?”

Hezekiah went before the Lord and laid the letter from Sannacherib, the Assyrian king, on the alter. Hezekiah described the dilemma he faced as a time when children grown in the womb have come to the point where it’s time to be born, but there’s not the strength to deliver them.

When I read these words, I thought they perfectly described how I felt. The fluctuations in Sam’s health coupled with my own high standards and tendency to drive myself had left me dry and depleted.

I could see wonderful changes that were following out of partnering with God for the last 20 years. I could see hundreds of leaders who are now able to model emotional and spiritual health. I could see that transformation is accelerating because we are able to pass on to each other what we have learned by modeling, but I did not have the strength to continue.

At the same time, it was unthinkable to falter right at the moment when God is calling us to give birth, and so I sought the Lord, just like Hezekiah.

I laid my lament before him. I asked him what we needed to launch this new season. I sensed that we needed more intercessors than the 49 we’ve had for year. That used to be enough. When we came under attack, I could write an update, email it to the intercessors, and within several hours everything would begin to come into alignment with the Kingdom of God—including my own heart and mind.

But as we’ve expanded and moved forward, we’ve begun to receive more unwanted attention. We need more intercessors. That is probably our biggest need because I believe with enough prayer, everything else falls into place. 

But we also need more financial support. We need to hire an administrator, because although I’m good at many things, I am not good with the detailed paperwork required to run a non-profit. I also began to see that the load has depleted some of our staff.

Right now, today, we have only two paid staff. Me and Kristin Leahy. And she is part time. We have 5 more volunteer staff members and all sorts of other volunteer teachers, prayer ministers. We are hiring an associate Director, the Rev. Brian Smith. And we are looking for an administrator and executive assistant. Once I had clarity about what we needed, I went to our finance manager (also a volunteer!) who told me what it would cost.

We put those numbers in the proposed budget for 2024. Our budget for last year was $147,000 and next year we need $214,000. It may sound like a big jump, but actually when you consider our impact, our budget is small. We can only provide what we do because we have scores of dedicated volunteers-- far more volunteer staff than paid staff. Much of the work is being done organically as healthy people pass along who they have become to their loved ones and friends. Two of our volunteer staff are pioneering centers of healing in Central Virginia and Florida.

This is the Lord’s ministry. He has not only called me and the staff, but he has called each one of you to partner with him. We cannot do what he is calling us to do without support from the HCI community. We are like Moses who needed his community to hold up his weary hands to win the battle. The question for this hour is this: What is God calling you to do?

The only way we can know: We must seek him. Listen to him. I encourage you, right now, to close your eyes, relax your body, and focus on a positive memory. Ask the Lord to join you in the memory. Let yourself experience the memory with all of your senses. Focus your attention on the one who has brought you out of the darkness and into his marvelous light and ask him,

Lord, how are you calling me to serve? Lord, I surrender. I know I live in times when the dark is getting darker and the light is getting lighter. Lord how are you calling me to shine your light? We believe that you have brought us to a point where we are ready to give birth to a new season. We don’t want to falter and fail to give birth to what you have placed inside of us, Lord. Would you show me my part?

Perhaps he is calling you to begin the journey to becoming more Christlike. Maybe he’s calling you to join our entry-level leadership development program in January.

Perhaps it’s to begin interceding for us.

Perhaps is to partner financially. We would be honored by your support. One-time gifts and monthly support are both crucial.

Here is a LINK or a QR code that you can use to respond.

We are praying for you. There is no joy like partnering with God and watching him move in the Spirit.

We bless you today and pray that God would fill you with wisdom and courage!

We are grateful for each and every one of you.