Fall 2014 Newsletter

During the last twelve months, three new Trustees have been elected to the Stewards Foundation Board. They have willingly agreed to assume the mantle of leadership passed on to them.  No amount of explanation will fully prepare these men for the task before them.  The reality is, that while there are many complex issues for them to address in leading Stewards Foundation, the work only moves forward according to the Lord’s direction.  As they come to mind, please pray for the new Trustees as they begin their Board service and take up the responsibility to serve as good stewards.

Our newly elected Vice President is Scott Leach from Prattville, Alabama.  I trust that Scott’s bio will be both informative and a reminder to pray for him in his new leadership role.

Scott was elected to the Board of Trustees on September 21, 2013.  He currently serves as Vice President of Stewards Foundation and on the Health Care, Loan Policy, Public Relations and Executive Committees.

Scott was born on October 5, 1960 in North Miami Beach, Florida, to believing parents who were actively involved in assembly fellowship at the Central Gospel Chapel.  At the age of six, he understood the need to personally trust Christ as Savior, and gladly claimed the promise that “whosoever believes in Him…has everlasting life.”   Growing up, Scott’s family moved around the southeast and was in fellowship at different local assemblies where he was privileged to sit under the preaching of many godly men.

In the late 1970s, Scott began his career in sales in the construction industry with his family-owned business, then later with large corporations.  He is presently employed as Regional Sales Manager for Southern Paver Systems an Alabama-based hardscape company, which he enjoys.

In 1980, Scott married the love of his life, Kathy Darby.  When work moved them to Georgia in 1982, they came into fellowship at Marietta Bible Chapel.  These were encouraging and formative years for Scott and Kathy as they were discipled by Bob and Frances Haddon and others in leadership at the Chapel in Marietta.  In 1985, they moved to Prattville, Alabama where they have lived ever since.   Scott and Kathy immediately identified with Central Bible Chapel, in nearby Millbrook.  For more than 28 years, they have faithfully served the Lord and His people through this assembly where Scott was recognized as an elder in 1996.  Seeing this meeting built up and encouraging assemblies in the Deep South has been their passion.  The chapel annually hosts the Deep South Co-Laborers Conference and a Ladies Conference, both of which the Leach’s have helped develop for the benefit of area assemblies.  Scott and Kathy enjoy practicing hospitality and ministering to the Lord’s people.

Scott has been a convener of the Deep South Family Bible Camp since 1992, and has served as a board member of Truth & Praise hymnbooks.  He has been privileged to preach the Word regularly in assemblies in Georgia, Alabama & Louisiana.

Scott and Kathy have been blessed with four believing children and have the joy of having six grandchildren.

This Newsletter, and a place to sign up for future editions can be found on our web site, www.stewardsfoundation.org.

In 1962, a group of about 30 Christians began conducting Sunday School in the Littleton, Colorado YMCA on Sunday mornings.  On Sunday nights, several of the men met for prayer at the home of Herb and Alice Banks to seek the Lord’s will regarding starting a local church with a full schedule of services.  The group incorporated as Littleton Bible Chapel later that year.

For approximately six years, the church met at the Littleton YMCA and Mark Hopkins Elementary School on Sundays and assembled mid-week in the basement of the Banks’ home.  The church continued to grow, until the current property was purchased in 1968.  The original building was opened in 1969.  At that time, the fellowship consisted of approximately 125 people.

A lower level was added under the east gymnasium in 1976.  The large addition on the northwest side of the original building was completed in May 1985.  This addition more than doubled the total space and provided room for sports activities, an office, Sunday School space, two gymnasiums and an enlarged auditorium with seating for 325.  A foyer expansion to alleviate congestion between services was completed in 1999.  Approximately 650 people (children and adults) attend services each week.

Littleton Bible Chapel believes that the normal means of, and result of, the Great Commission is the reproduction of more churches.  In 2014, a second site was opened just off of Orchard Road.  This was the first step toward planting a second church in Littleton, allowing for greater growth of the church and the gospel.  The new church plant currently shares everything (preaching, budget, ministries, etc) with the original church, but the intention is that this second location will eventually stand on it’s own.  A loan from Stewards Foundation allowed us to purchase the new building for this church plant.  The loan process was handled in a very professional and gracious manner by the staff at Stewards Foundation.  We are extremely grateful for the assistance provided by this loan.

We have ongoing activities designed to encourage those of every age and situation in life that are a part of the fellowship at Littleton Bible Chapel.  Junior and Senior High Schoolers meet Sunday evenings; singles in College and Careers meet Thursday evenings; Young Married Couples and Parents of Preschoolers meet at various times on Thursday evenings; Older Families / Singles meet in homes for Bible studies; Retired Seniors meet on Wednesday mornings for Bible study and prayer.  In addition, Adult Christian classes are held in the Spring and Fall.

Local outreach includes a Wednesday evening AWANA program for children, work at nearby Camp Elim and gospel ministry to those in prison through Set Free Prison Ministry.  Littleton Bible Chapel has several missionaries commend to the foreign mission field, including Dan and Paola Paquale, and is actively engaged in short-term mission trips.

I was born in New Jersey, where I was saved as a boy, but wandered from the Lord living a selfish and worldly life as a teenager.  The Lord turned my life around as a result of two years of military service in Texas.  After my discharge, I studied at Emmaus Bible School, in Oak Park, Illinois at the time, and Rockmont College (presently Colorado Christian University) in Denver, Colorado.  I spent a year and several summers in Italy with Operation Mobilization before being commended to the Lord’s work in 1975 by Littleton Bible Chapel in Littleton, Colorado.  Paola was born and raised in Rome, where she was saved as a teenager.  She worked with two Christian organizations and had secular employment before our marriage.  I have served on various conference and evangelistic committees, and with work groups.  We both were involved in, and then responsible for, a visual media ministry for fifteen years.

We have been married for forty years and have three grown children, all born in Italy.  Our oldest daughter, Luisa, is presently serving the Lord with GBU (the Italian branch of International Fellowship of Evangelical Students) and living in Florence.  Our oldest son, Daniele, and his wife are presently serving with the Rome Bible Institute and are commended from their home assembly in Littleton, Colorado.  Our youngest son, Marco, his wife and two young daughters live and work in Bologna.

In 1978, I underwent back surgery to remove a ruptured disc in my spinal column and received much appreciated assistance and care at the then Stewards Foundation ‘Bethany Hospital’ in Evanston (Chicago), Illinois.  In recent years, contributions from Stewards Foundation for medical care through our commending assembly have been of great help and benefit to us, for which we are most grateful.

For six years, we served in the historic assembly in Rome, then worked for twelve years in an assembly on the north side of Rome.  Following this, we moved to Nettuno in the province of Rome where we spent thirteen years working in that city.  The Lord used us to plant a local assembly in Nettuno where we worked with another missionary couple.  By the Lord’s grace, that assembly continues to function with the help of a resident missionary couple and local elder.

Next, we moved to the provincial mountain town of Campobasso in the Molise region where we worked full-time for more than eight years.  Our work was that of seeking to establish the assembly we planted in Campobasso with the help of brothers from Termoli and two other missionaries.  For over five years, we served alone at the assembly.  My work was in teaching and preaching at the assembly as well as general oversight.  I also had a weekly evangelistic tract and book table at one of the city’s open-air markets.  Paola taught Sunday School, worked with the women, did translation work and provided excellent hospitality.  The ministry was difficult at first, with only two professions of faith and one of these progressing slowly.  Then, about a year and a half ago several interested young people came to the assembly; most of them were saved and baptized.  Outreach work continues as the assembly regularly shows evangelistic films and has fellowship meals.  From the time the rented location was first opened eight years ago to the present several families continue to meet as an assembly.

Presently, we live in Monte Porzio Catone in the province of Rome where we have recently moved to work with our son and daughter-in-law, and a small team of missionaries in planting and forming a new assembly.  At this time, we all attend the mother assembly in Finocchio about eight kms from Monte Porzio.