Men's Help Ministries - Meet the Pastor

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Welcome to Men's Help Ministries.

I am Steve Lattier, this ministry and its mission was placed
on my heart in late 1999, though the seeds were planted in 1996.
Wait let me back up a bit and give you the whole story...

Well folks, I am going to write my testimony down here with the hopes that some passerby will read it and, with God's help, be able to avoid or get out of some of the pitfalls that I was in. I started out in life as a God loving child, raised in the Episcopal church. I had a better concept of God as a young child than I did when I finished the public school system. Oh, let me start all the way at the beginning. My mother had the german flu or something (it was almost an epidemic) while pregnant with me in the early sixties, as a result of that illness I was brought into this world five weeks early at the whopping weight of five pounds NO ounces, prognosis-not good! My mother was told by the delivering MD. that I would not live through the night because of my under-developed lungs and other problems (asthma, allergies) that I was experiencing right out of the womb! Neo-natal care was just beginning then and the medical profession was still using a lot of hit-and-miss medicine. My mother prepared for the worst, then prayed for me, needless to say her prayers were answered. I spent the first three weeks of life in an incubator, with a humidifier and oxygen tent over me. I was able to go home after the new year, my family had to make HUGE adjustments right away. Most of the baby gifts that bought for me had to be thrown away, due to my asthma. My mother was able to keep up with things for a while but in a couple of months she wore down, she had lost over thirty or so pounds and was not sleeping, you see she had to drain my lungs every two hours around the clock so I wouldn't develop bronchitis or pneumonia. One day, shaking, she collapsed by her bed, she told God that day, on the floor that she was sorry for asking for my life in the hospital. She told God that she couldn't do it, that my brother and sister were getting neglected. Weeping she gave me back to God right then and there and said "if he is to live then you are going to have to do it" she laid me down to nap and then she slept for something like twelve hours. She knew when she awoke that it was Gods' will that I lived! I still had an extremely sickly childhood and knew God personally. I remember one instance I was sick and house-ridden. (keeping me in the bed was next to impossible) I looked out of my bedroom window and saw a turtle lumbering up our driveway. The turtle didn't waver as it came straight as an arrow right up the driveway. I was so excited God himself had sent that turtle to me because I was so sick and He wanted to cheer me up! I ran around the house exclaiming this fact, needless to say the turtle got to stay ha ha ha !!!! With all the time I spent indoors sick, on those occasions when I finally got well enough to play outside I went hog-wild, I loved it!!

God has performed uncountable miracles in my life, to this day even, they have not stopped. Aside from just surviving the first night against all odds, God saved me again when I was just three. I had been riding my tricycle in the back yard, it was next to the forest. I came in from riding around for dinner. Mom noticed that my left leg was horribly swollen and purple. Naturally she asked me what happened and not wanting any trouble, I lied. I told her a mosquito bit me, see I thought it would work. She rushed me off to the Dr's to find out what was wrong, once we were in the office it became painfully clear. I saw a picture in a magazine and let the cat out of the bag. "There it is, that is what bit me!" I was pointing to the deadliest of all snakes in North America, the coral snake. It had rolled up and bitten me on the inside of my left ankle as I drove over it on my trusty tricycle, I was just trying to be good and get it out of my yard! There was no antidote available in the Houston area at that time. If God had not intervened I would have died that night. It seemed that the snake had bitten the bony part of the ankle and since it is a "fang-less" snake it could not get enough of a purchase to inject enough poison to kill me. I really was the original nature boy. I climbed trees and ran every single step that I took. God moved again when I was in Kindergarten. My best friend and I had convinced another to give us her parents matches while her mom was busy in the other room. We walked across the street and tried to make a camp fire. We did. We tried desperately to put out the roaring inferno by stomping on the flames. It rapidly became a bona-fide forest fire and we ran! I walked in to the scowl of my mother who had been called by that girls mother, after seeing us stamping around in ten foot high flames. God delivered me and my friends that day from almost certain death. The shoes I was wearing were charred and the rubber soles were melted from the heat, the nylon jacket I had been wearing was singed in several places from the flames, and my friends and I without a scratch.

I took many risks that would cause great concern for my parents and later my friends. One instance has my mother glancing up through the back window to see her first grader tearing along the roof of the family camper and launching himself into space trying desperately to clear the clothes line some six or seven feet behind the camper. Another was that same little fella trying out his new bicycle. Hurtling as fast as those little first grade legs could peddle I slammed head-first into the front of the camper. As Mom, in a panic, dutifully rushed over to rescue me as I nonchalantly extricated myself from the wreckage, she had to know, why? I simply replied I needed to know how fast I could stop. The stories go on. While, I couldn't understand it then I really knew my Heavenly Father and I could feel His protection around me. I had no fear of the things of this earth, I was God's little boy. I was raised in the church, I regularly attended the local Episcopal services every Sunday. I became an "acolyte" for the church. For those of you who do not know an acolyte is the ministers assistant, they light the candles handle the sacraments and carry the symbols of faith during the service. In times past the acolytes were the future priests, the word acolyte actually means "student." I genuinely loved the work and the pageantry, the hushed reverence in which the services were held. The spring after I turned 13 I gave my life to Jesus Christ in a formal ceremony called "confirmation."

I had the basics down at that point It really was a no-frills acceptance. I was also involved in sports at the time. I was a pretty good swimmer for the local amateur team. God moved in my life during the winter of my sixth grade year. Being exceptionally fit, because of the swimming, I did not notice that i had become ill, very ill to be exact. I had contracted Mononeucleosis and instead of bed rest I was at practice. I was crossing the deep end as part of the laps we were doing and simply passed out cold. The illness had taken its toll on me and I was completely unaware of it at the time. I drowned. The coaches and some others pulled me from the pool, I am told and I started breathing again! No cpr had to be performed. Once again God had performed and I did not notice. I had amassed a box full of ribbons and medals from swimming and rapidly my life became more about me and what I could do as opposed to a relationship with God. There were many positive speakers and Positive mental attitude learnings. I even was fortunate enough to meet the famed PMA speaker Zig Ziglar. The lines of my faith rapidly grayed and vanished entirely, I was lord of my world and master of my own destiny. I still was a decent swimmer through out my career, the teams I was on were always number one or two. My high school was actually rated first in the state of Texas for nine consecutive years and third in the nation for a couple. They taught me teamwork skills that I still use today, but at that point it was all about me.

At the same time as my swimming I was still an acolyte and regular church attender. I knew at this point in my life that God was the creator and the ruler of the universe but I mistakenly thought that I was supposed to be my own boss. This would be the start of my decline. The over confidence and lack of perspective on the events of my childhood led to some very poor decisions. I was on a trip to the national swim competition as a guest in 1977. At a gas station me and a friend stole my first pack of cigarettes. I didn't like them much but they rapidly became attractive. I started dipping snuff and launched myself headlong into the drug culture of the late seventies. Keep in mind that at this point I was still serving in the church and swimming. I remember vividly in high school the day a junior died in class from a drug overdose. I was mystified and curious but really unaffected. My world was getting smaller and less about God every day. It was almost ironic that here this teenager would torture his body to its physical limits every day for up to six hours, then tear it down with drugs and alcohol almost nightly at one point. Not to miss a beat I would be there bright and early every Sunday even if I had just gotten in only an hour before breakfast! I had become an icon of extreem opposites, it couldn't last. Yet our merciful Lord delivered my life one more time. In swimming, you are good or not based on your cardio-pulmonary systems. So almost all effort is given to develop these two, to the limits of the human body. One day in practice we were holding a bit of competition to see how may laps we could go under water without breathing. I was a freshman. I came in second to a senior. I passed out cold underwater. It was almost a full minute before that the others realized there was trouble and Steve was not floating anymore. I was fished from the pool by friends and coaches. Naturally I was not breathing, I regained consciousness twice and faded again. God brought me back once more from the brink. I vividly remember that day, it was a warm spring afternoon. I remember the whole time I was on the bottom of the pool, the sensations I had. I have never before or since been so comfortable. If I had to put it in words I would say that it was kind of like sleeping in with the sheets pulled up to your chin, guilt free and dreaming. But my words cannot do justice to what I felt that day. That is because I was in the hand of God, on the bottom of that pool, that day. God was to shake my clueless tree one more time before I got out of high school. It was summer before my senior year and we were relaxing at Lake Travis in Austin. I had go down to fish for a while, to get to the fishing spot you either had to swim or step gingerly along a ledge in the cliff face about twenty feet up. Yep that is what Steve did. I had been back and forth on that ledge several times that day. I hadn't caught anything by supper and went to head back heeding the call to come back up. I made it about halfway across when my wet shoe slipped on the smooth rock surface. Mom, of course, shrieked as I fell, I can still remember her voice to this day. I landed flat on my back in about three to six inches of water, tackle box and fishing poles still in hand. It hurt! After much more reaction from my mother, I hadn't moved yet I was still doing a "body check", A man came down to the end of the swim stairs and just looked at me. I, satisfied that nothing was broken, kinda limped and floated to the stairs and climbed or flopped up on them. I was terribly sore that evening but the only injury I received was a bruise about the size of a dime on my backside. I honestly missed God entirely that time I really was so self absorbed at this point I thought it was because of my intense physical conditioning and my athletic prowess. I hadn't only fallen off a cliff....

Out of high school, swimming and the acolytes. My life ran headlong into sin and desperation. I tried to climb to the top of the heap in the sin culture. I thought it was much more important to do drugs and shoot pool than to attend the classes I was taking at the local college. I dropped out. I puttered from job to job just trying so maintain my lifestyle. In 1984 the bottom fell out of the oil industry and I was suddenly jobless and because of my drug abusing/alcoholic lifestyle, fixing to be homeless.

I grabbed my best friend at the time and we cooked up a scheme. We joined the army on the buddy system. Much to our chagrin he received an injury in Army jump school (remember the risks?) I excelled at anything physical or demanding that the Army could throw at me. My ego was unaproachable and I was a truly scary individual. I was the farthest I have ever been from God at this point in my life. Yet even hung over and about to jump out of an airplane at 2:00am over a foggy drop zone I still quietly asked God to preserve me. I did not feel worthy enough to ask for more than simply my life each of those jumps. I spun completely out of control I did drugs to stay awake and I drank myself to sleep almost every night. Now looking backward I can see I was trying to drown out that still small voice that was, because of my upbringing, tearing me apart with conviction. I will not glorify the individual sins I committed but suffice it to say there were many. I should mention that for the season that I was in the army I was searching for power, real power. I was hungry for it and would stop at nothing to attain it. I knew that satan had been tossed out on his ear for trying to usurp God's power, so I settled for earth. I really thought that, OK I justified that it would be ok for God to be in charge of the universe and I could have earth. Having a religious background I started searching I found some stuff that actually pre-dated Christ's birth. Boy was I excited. It was witchcraft. I dove into it with zeal. Here was power. Power to wield, not wait on, like the church people do. I convinced myself that I was doing good with all of that. Sadly my life was in shambles. I had all but broken ties with my family and almost been kicked out of the service because of my drug use. There was a bright spot in the darkness though. A young Pentecostal sergeant who lived in the barracks decided that I was to be his personal mission field. He would come by and share a scripture or two and I would debate those scriptures with him. I knew Scripture well enough to be dangerous to someone like him. I could use the Bible against him, and did. I thank God that He protected that young man from my influences. That sergeant asked if he could pray for me, sure I said, smug in my disparate self righteousness. I had all but forgotten God.

When my tour was over I left the Army like a cat out from under a starting car. I was still the same person just no longer a soldier. I came back to Houston to start over. I worked for a while for a friends dad as a general contractor and looked for a real job. I wasn't very motivated and put in one application. Lo and behold I got the job. I was certainly less qualified than many of the other 1500 or so applicants. I knew it was more than a coincidence that I beat those others out for the job, though I wasn't quite ready to give God the credit yet. I started attending a church again for the first time in about nine years, God started working on me. I still was involved with the drugs and alcohol but the witchcraft accoutrements got pushed aside and drifted into the trash. I started learning about having an intimate relationship with God. I had never really realized that aspect of it before.

I met a fantastic young woman and vowed to my best friend that I would marry her! I had not even asked her out yet! There had been a change inside me and I did not even know it. Within a week I had all but stopped drinking and carousing. From the day we went out for coffee the first time I have been faithful to her, that of itself was a miracle. Anyone familiar with my sinful past would have told you it was impossible, God was at work in me and in my life. God, unbeknownst to me was straightening me out enough to become an acceptable husband. I went through several ego bruising trials that let me know that I was not first, God was. Dena and I married about nine months later, due to a conflict with the religiosity of a couple of churches we were married by a judge in a simple family ceremony. I was on a slow deliberate track back to God, not of a conscious choice but just listening more to the urgings of the Holy Spirit. I was blessed enough to get involved in the Promise Keepers conferences in the early nineties. At the event in the Astrodome in 1993 I was restored and the conviction of my past took hold. I became hungry for God like I had never been before, but still anemic in my faith. My wife gave birth to our son, fatherhood hit me like a ton of bricks. I loved it and it put a picture of God's love for me into my mind.

I knew in the back of my mind what was happening. I was in abject denial though, God was leading me toward the ministry. I wasn't ready to give up my secular chase of riches yet though. I could hear God chuckle at me in my spirit when I came up with some of the preposterous reasons why I wasn't/couldn't go into the ministry. I knew then that it was His hand that had moved so mightily in my life, even unto keeping me alive all those years. I conceded for God to have his will in my life not matter what the cost no matter what it was. I did go on the record and tell God that I was in fact scared to death of the future for the first time in my life. I struggled for the largest portion of the last decade with my past. I knew that God had forgiven me, but I had not forgiven myself. Every time I turned around I repented to God for the hell I had wrought in, not just mine but many other lives. It was just a few short years ago that I felt a release in my spirit and was able to let my past go. I became the men's minister for my church in 1996 and God accelerated my learning. I knew then that I was in for one wild ride, as if my life to that point hadn't been. Seeds were planted about this ministry even though I was still partly in denial about where my life was headed. I don't know what day it was but one day I came to my family and admitted that I believe God was proving me for the ministry and they all got a good laugh and said, "you finally noticed?"

I can now look back on where I have been and see God's ever present hand on my life. I can see the mercy of a loving God that would take and restore the wreckage of a sinful life and form it to use to spread His word. God is truly awesome. To God be the Glory!

I was moved by the Holy Spirit to write my testimony in song in 1999. While it is a freshman attempt and needs polish it truly has my heart and story in each and every verse. I have never before written lyrics before and don't type fast. This piece was finished as you read it in about twenty minutes..... I pray this blesses everyone who reads it.

MY SONG

I WASN’T S’POSED TO MAKE IT
THROUGH THE FIRST
NIGHT OF MY LIFE
MY MOTHER, IN TEARS, BESEECHED YOU
"DON’T LET MY BABY DIE.”

YOU GRANTED HER PRAYER
YOU HAD A PLAN
ONE DAY THAT BABY
WOULD BE A MAN

I KNEW YOU AS A YOUNG BOY
I LOVED AND UNDERSTOOD YOU
YOU FILLED MY LIFE WITH JOY
WITH YOU MY LIFE WAS GOOD

ONE SPRINGTIME SUNDAY MORNING
I ASKED YOU IN MY HEART
YOU GAVE ME MY SALVATION
BUT SOON OUR WAYS DID PART

(CHORUS)
I MESSED UP MY LIFE
AND BROUGHT TEARS TO YOUR EYES
THOUGHT I COULD DO IT ALL ON MY OWN
THROUGH THE HAZE MY FAMILY PAID THE PRICE
I LED YOU THROUGH HELL AND YOU STAYED BY MY SIDE
I WALKED AWAY……AND YOU FOLLOWED

THE FOLLOWING YEARS
WERE SPENT FORGING ALONE
MY PRIDE QUASHED THE FEARS
AND CRUMBLED MY HOME
THE BOOZE AND THE DRUGS
WERE INTENSE, NO DOUBT
YOU WERE TRYING TO REACH ME
BUT I SHUT YOU OUT

THROUGH THE FOG OF MY LIFE
I STILL KNEW YOU WERE KING
I WAS TRYING TO PROVE
THAT I GRABBED THE RING

I HURT YOUR HEART GOD
THROUGH ALL THOSE LONG YEARS
MUCH TO PROUD TO ADMIT
I CAUSED THE TEARS

ONE DAY I WOKE UP
YOU HAD SENT ME A WIFE
YOU WERE DRAWING ME CLOSE UP
AND SAVING MY LIFE
YOU OPENED MY EYES LORD
TO ALL OF MY WRONG
I AM DESPERATLY SORRY
THAT I TOOK SO LONG

THAT YOU STILL LOVE
IS AWESOME ENOUGH
ALL I CAN SAY LORD
IS YOU ARE REALLY LOVE

I’VE BEEN BACK SOME TEN YEARS NOW
IN YOUR SERVICE TO STAY
DRAW ME CLOSE EVERY MORNING
MAKE ME NEW EVERY DAY