Paul and Tania Steer

Ministry Focus

Paul and Tania's heart desires that every man, woman, and child have repeated opportunities to see, hear and touch the gospel of Jesus Christ in a living and relational way, understanding that baptism is an identity in Jesus Christ. They work through the method of saturation evangelism; this is an intentional process that moves the gospel through the different relationships in their different circles of life. They want to see many homes in Comayagua come to Jesus and open their doors to the gospel. Their method of evangelism is to create various social contribution projects with the intention of creating repeated opportunities for people to know Jesus as their Savior.

Within their church planting plan, they aim to work in high schools and universities. They work with young people and their teachers with the purpose of providing personal development talks based on the values in the Bible. They offer different types of topics through workshops and conferences in seven universities in the city and in different locations around the country. One of their essential resources is to provide training and mentoring to young people. The Steer's focus a lot on the development of healthy leaders, basing their strategy on 2 Timothy 2:2; trying to get leaders to multiply themselves and teach others. Their goal in leadership is to develop four generations of interdependent, natural, and decentralized leadership.

Paul and Tania reside in the city of Comayagua, they use their house as a missionary training center. They host young people to help them in their emotional, intellectual, relational, spiritual, and physical development. The province of Comayagua is located in the center of the country, and from there, they work diligently to bring the gospel to the central region of Honduras. They passionately bring the Word of God to the unreached, regardless of place, climate, or ethnic group. Their goal is to plant 25 new churches or communities of faith in the next 15 years. Tania leads a large network of women in the region. She provides training to women to develop their intellect and their potential to start small businesses from their homes. Through the Women's Ministry, they have RUTH workshops, which focuses on caring for and developing the lives of poor women in their region. Paul and Tania also work with children and have developed three different approaches to reach as many children as possible.

One approach is that they teach English to girls from 7 to 14 years old. In their second approach, they have developed academic programs, training children through basic Biblical education, working with ages 6 to 12 years old. Paul and Tania encourage them to attend elementary school by giving them notebooks and backpacks since they do not have the support of their parents to go to school. They also have the comprehensive development method provided by the Montessori technique. In this class, they have children from the ages of 3 to 9 and 10 to 14 years old. Within their programs they develop three seasons of VBS to which they invite volunteers from another country to be part of this. These special activities keep the spirit of the children alive and connected with new children in their ministry. Paul and Tania have developed the soccer academy as well. This school is free and aims to get boys away from drugs and alcohol, and to instill in them the dream of being someone in life. Children in these mountains do not have dreams. The culture of the region makes children 12 years and older seek to become women and start forming families while still children. The Steer's work hard in the midst of the culture to change this harsh social reality.

The Steers have accepted the challenge of entering communities where the gospel is not accepted; they’ve been threatened with death on several occasions. They have managed to cross that barrier by creating healthy relationships between local leaders and creating social support agreements helping in the construction of houses, supporting widows and elderly people abandoned by their families. Among their many projects, they support the repair of water lines in 22 mountain villages. They also provide training in agricultural development, using part of Paul's experience in this area as an Engineer. In this way, they can reach their families with the restorative message of Jesus Christ. The rural areas where they work are some of the poorest in Honduras and many children only eat once a day. Through the school for children on Fridays and Saturdays, Paul and Tania work diligently to bring snacks to the children and thus improve the nutrition of many boys and girls.

Faith Story

Tania accepted the Lord as a child in 1981, through the church. She recommitted herself to Christ in 2006 in the city of Comayagua. At that time, she was going through a serious illness that was never diagnosed. This illness almost took her life. She visited doctors for six years and they never found the reason for her illness, but it was a tool that helped her reconciliation with Christ and her decision to leave her job and dedicate herself to serving the Lord full time.

In 2004, Paul encountered the Lord while listening to a preacher on the radio while driving on his way to work. The message impacted him so much that he stopped on the side of the road and prayed, right there, to receive Jesus into his heart. Since then, Paul only wants to grow with other believers and learn to live a closer relationship with Christ.

In 2006, God called Paul and Tania to full-time ministry. Since then, he has been immersed in the development of the Catracho Missionary Movement and has created networks that develop new ministries and communities of faith that later become planted churches. In their first ministry experiences Paul and Tania served as Sunday school teachers to children from 9 to 13 years old, adults, and served as a youth pastor in a church in the city to later start their own ministry and dedicate themselves as full-time missionaries. Paul has also been president of the regional board of Baptist churches in Comayagua, La Paz, Francisco Morazán, Intibucá and Danlí.

Education

Paul

• Bachelor of Industrial and Labor Engineering - Autonomous University of Honduras. He has specialties in Process Development, He is an Expert in Occupational Safety in the Industrial Sector and with a Diploma in Health and Food Safety. He was also a Manager of Multinational Companies in the country, and has a diploma in Missiology.

Tania

• Bachelor of Law with a specialty in Labor and Civil Law - Autonomous University of Honduras, and has a specialty in Community Social Development.