The Chastains came to The Netherlands in August 2004 as a family of four

and left in August 2009 a family of six.

We will treasure so much about this past five years: precious fellowship with the MCYM staff family and our local leadership team; trusting God through Steve’s cancer and chemotherapy; the birth of Zachary and Laurel; our Dutch Christian school and later home schooling; so many friends in a wonderful chapel community; witnessing God’s work in teens’ lives at service projects, beach breaks, and other Club Beyond events; and seeing ourselves and people around us transformed by God’s love.

THANK YOU! We have been truly honored to serve the teens and families of the Brunssum / Geilenkirchen Military Community!

The Chastains final MCYM Newsletter is available HERE.

We hope you recall our December 2008 newsletter that we are returning to the United States this year. Preparing for this complex transition has been a significant factor in consuming our hours and days in the past few months. Our time in the Netherlands is now truly growing short. (And it truly feels real now that we’ve bought our plane tickets–at an amazing price, Praise the Lord!!!) Here’s a quick timeline of our final few weeks in Europe:

1 May – Started advertising our vehicles for sale
29 May -  Last day of homeschool!
10 Jun – Final local Club Beyond event
19 Jun – 4 Jul – Beach Break (meanwhile Shannon and her parents prepare our home for moving)
7-9 Jul – Movers pack up our household goods
9-13 Jul – Clean/repair house and yard – turn in keys on the 13th
16-23 Jul – MCYM Welcome/Goodbye conference
1 Aug – Fly home! (Frankfurt to Dallas)
2-8 Aug – Buy a van
9-14 Aug – Family Reunion in Missouri
17 Aug (TBD) – Move into our student apartment at Princeton Theological Seminary
16 Sep – Orientation begins for three-year Masters in Divinity program

We will be leaving Young Life staff at the end of July. If you are donating monthly to our Young Life account, thank you for continuing to give through July. In addition to our regular monthly expenses, we anticipate our moving costs to be approximately $25,000. Due to the faithful, generous support we’ve received throughout our years in Europe, our account already has nearly enough funds to cover these expenses: THANK YOU!! We are SO grateful to every one of our support team members. Your steadfastness and stewardship has made our ministry in the Netherlands possible, and we could not possibly thank you enough. We hope you will continue to give to the needs and opportunities within the body of Christ as the Lord would lead you.

If you would like to continue to support the Chastain family, please keep in touch! We do not know at this point what the Lord has in store for us beyond seminary. Although we are pretty sure our season with MCYM is at an end, we are confident that our time at Princeton will be preparing us to continue the mission of MCYM Europe (“Build the Church”) in some other capacity. If you are interested in continuing to invest in our small corner of that big mission, whatever and wherever that “building” may be, please let us know (email chastain.family@mac.com).

If you would like to make a tax-deductible gift (one-time or recurring) toward our immediate transition and settling-in expenses, please send checks to: Northminster Presbyterian Church, 4324 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, San Diego, CA 92117 (make checks payable to Northminster and note “Chastains” in the memo line).

We are grateful for our five years of ministry here in the Netherlands, and also excited for the next chapter of our life. There are so many other details over the next two months that we need to turn over to the Lord: pray for us as we schedule our last round of doctors appointments before our insurance transitions, retrieve our medical records from our Dutch doctors, and for that insurance transition to go without a hitch.  Pray for all the details of closing out our house and rental contract to go smoothly and for our relationship with our landlord to end well; it has been somewhat strained at times.  Pray for our vehicles to sell and for us to find just the right vehicle when we return in August; we will be going from 2 cars to 1. Pray for our household goods to get on the right boat that goes just the right speed and arrives in New Jersey AFTER we do so that we don’t incur hefty storage fees.

Steve and Shannon Chastain
chastain.family@mac.com

Northminster, as part of its mission activities, supports Steve Chastain who is on staff with Young Life and serves with Military Community Youth Ministries (MCYM) in Europe. Steve is primarily working with the children of US and NATO personnel assigned to the Allied Joint Forces Command Brunssum (JFC HQ Brunssum). JFC HQ Brussum is located in Brunssum Netherlands.

The Spring 2009 edition of the Chastain’s newsletter may be downloaded from their web page on this site or by clicking — HERE.

Northminster, as part of its mission activities, supports Steve Chastain who is on staff with Young Life and serves with Military Community Youth Ministries (MCYM) in Europe. Steve is primarily working with the children of US and NATO personnel assigned to the Allied Joint Forces Command Brunssum (JFC HQ Brunssum). JFC HQ Brussum is located in Brunssum Netherlands.

Every year during spring break, a service opportunity is made available which is a growth opportunity for those that are regular participants in the MCYM or Club Beyond program. It is also as an outreach opportunity to unchurched or disinterested kids at the International School in Brunssum Netherlands and a significant outreach to the communities in which the service projects take place.

From March 23rd through March 30th, the service project took place in Presov, Slovakia. The following is a video consisting of scenes from Slovakia 208.

Steve also now has a blog called Logomanikos which is listed in the links section of this web site. Please check it out to see what Steve is up to.