Steve Sanderson joined our partner organization The Nazareth Trust in June, following many years working with Baptist Mission Society (BMS). In this newly created role, he will expand The Trust’s presence across the English-speaking world. The following interview with Steve will introduce NPI supporters to his story and mission: 

Where did you grow up, and where did your Christian faith lead you? 

Like a lot of people who grew up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, I left seeking a more peaceful, quiet, and secure future. This was as simple as choosing  to go to university in Scotland to discover a clearer future. My growth in my walk with Jesus owes a great deal to the various people who invested in me during my youth, but the biggest growth spurt occurred during my university years. Life, it turns out, doesn’t need to be a drab journey of work and survival; it can be a bold adventure of mission. If working with students in Dar es Salaam was my first real exposure to the injustice of poverty, it was working with the lawyer’s Christian Fellowship on access to justice projects in Rwanda that opened my eyes to just why justice matters. Standing in the  middle of the remains of 20,000 bodies in a school in south-west Rwanda, just a few years after the genocide ended, I was deeply struck by the anger that God must feel when nobody stands in the gap to confront the oppressor and to show solidarity with the oppressed. Increasingly, Bible verses like ‘the wages of sin is death’ stopped sounding melodramatic and started to make sense. Unchecked prejudice, segregation, and sectarianism, the demonization of the other, they all count as sin. And here, in full horrific illustration right across Rwanda, was how sin leads to death. It moved me to step aside from what would have been a probably tedious (if lucrative) legal career and instead join BMS World Mission to grow access to justice projects in Uganda. At the time, Uganda had its own insidious and cruel civil war. We worked with a local Christian legal network to expand access to justice, represent prisoners, foster community rights awareness groups, advocate for legal reform, and influence public discourse. In four years, the number of beneficiaries grew exponentially. The partner organization has grown to become the most influential access to justice and human rights group in the country. Supreme Court judges are proud to claim membership, and students line up to volunteer their pro bono services. God’s work continues, and we were privileged to play a part in something extraordinary. 

Why did you return to the United Kingdom? 

Somewhere on this journey, I met my wife, Caroline. Caroline is a fellow adventurer in every sense of the word. We have three kids (all in their teenage years). When Bethany (number 2) was born, we were told that she had half a heart. As you might imagine, this was a huge shock which really turned our world upside down. Bethany required a series of complex surgical interventions if she was going to stand a chance of survival. Thereafter, she would need regular expert check-ups and a daily drug regimen. There was no going back to life in Africa.  We had a calling, a job, a home in Gulu, a church, friends, social capital, and momentum, but that all evaporated in an instant. None of this made sense, but God’s presence and love sustained us through some fairly dark times. Bethany did a good job of surviving a series of open-heart surgeries and continues to be a force of nature in her mid-teens! Among the tumult, I was offered a job at the BMS head office just south of Oxford. I have jumped through a few different roles over the last 15 years, including a few years as the Deputy Director for Mission and then a few more as the Director of Strategy. I have had the privilege of working on everything from disaster relief coordination in places like Haiti and Nepal, leading work alongside some amazing people in India, public policy development on sexual violence and religious liberty with the UK government, building multi-agency collaborations within the global Baptist family, developing and coordinating two BMS strategies, working with some amazing church planting groups in South Asia, developing public health projects alongside people in some of the most fragile places on earth, coordinating crisis management teams as well as walking the journey of developing a mission hospital in Chad among other things. 

What brought you to the Nazareth Trust? 

So, here we are at the Nazareth Trust. There are a lot of Christians leaving the Middle East at present. Conflict, exclusion, and poor economic prospects are all big push factors. I can identify with this. However, as followers of Jesus, we are called tobear witness. Nazareth is a unique place with a unique history. The Nazareth Trust has been bearing witness to the transforming power of Jesus in his hometown for several generations. It is the vision of local Arab Christians to continue doing this that inspires me. In a part of the world which has been marked by so much conflict, Christians play a vital role as those who stand in the gap as agents of peace, justice, restoration, and healing. To put it another way, what I couldn’t find in Rwanda, I have found in Nazareth. I want to be on their side, and if I have any shred of experience or skill that might support them, then I am all in. You asked about the future. In truth, Nazareth has become the city on a hill that cannot be hidden (which Jesus talks about in Matthew 5:14). Who knows how the present geo-politics of the Middle East will play out, but I do know that Jesus heals, restores and brings fullness of life. My hope for the future is that the Nazareth Trust continues to partner with the Holy Spirit in this business of healing, restoration, and fullness of life. Yes, principally to the people of Nazareth, but also to the region’s broken generation who have known nothing but conflict, hurt, and uncertainty.  The boldest adventures may yet lie ahead.