Latest / Be the Bison / Walking Toward the Storm: How Steve Teng Became "The Herd That Says Yes"
Transcript
- Andrew Rauch: Hey Steve, good morning. Welcome to Be the Bison Podcast. Happy Thursday to you. Excited that you're with me this morning. And this is an opportunity where we get to share some authentic stories about a time that you've gone into a storm, gone through the storm, and then came out on the other side. But before we do that, why don't we just introduce you to our audience that would be listening and just give us a little snapshot of Steve. where are you today and maybe a little context and background as well. Steve Teng: Yeah, thank you, Andrew. It's a privilege. it's always a privilege to get to chat with you and to be on that this podcast. A little bit about myself. I have been in Austin, Texas, since 2011. came with my wife back then, and since then have three kids. So 14, 12, and seven. I currently have the privilege of Serving at an outfit I started a nonprofit called the Austin Center for Faith and Work, where we laser focus on bringing hope, purpose, and connection to people, right? through every local church. So communities of faith, we come alongside them to activate that for a wide spectrum of of professionals in their daily work. So that's a little bit about me, what keeps me busy and what I do here in our city. I love. Andrew Rauch: Awesome. Yeah, Austin, many cities throughout the country and throughout the world, that sense of hope, connection, and purpose, right, is something that is much needed and what an opportunity to serve. So excited that you're gonna share a little story. And I know you and I had lunch a couple of weeks ago to break some bread. And I'm excited for you and for, the next generation of young leaders and what you're doing and how you're serving in Austin beyond soap. Glad, glad you're here to share a story. So let's jump into it. So tell us about a time that you went into a storm and you know, what was that like? What did it look like? Steve Teng: Well, when you and I, Andrew, discussed this the the concept of the podcast, this imagery of bison and their tendency to walk together into the storm to endure. what immediately came to mind was something I lived here in Austin in twenty twenty one. as most if not all the listeners will know, nearly all of Texas went through its worst winter storm on record. It was in twenty-one February, the collapse of if you w we can think about it this way, three major utilities, water. electricity access to the roads because they were frozen. and so it was a storm where threat of life in community was actually fairly high. If you want to think about the hill country and all the elderly maybe stuck in their homes because they have trees that were frozen. And those frozen branches literally broke in their front yards, enclosing many people in their homes, no AC, right? Because no electricity, things were frozen, no water. And hard to access the roads. so that maybe paints a picture and and brings back even visceral memories for me right now as I'm sharing. but that literal storm for me was the activation of very many things. And among them this this invitation from I I believe God, the divine, to walk towards it and not run from it or j or just look after me and my own, right? In in safe lockdown. We happen to have electricity through that time. I'll never forget the day before it all really kicked off. Just having a divine sense, and maybe this is an invitation. I know we're going to debrief lessons, to listeners to be open to higher powers, right? Interceding kind of in our day-to-day realities, even in work responsibilities. I happen to be stewarding the relief and local mission efforts of a larger church congregation. And the night before just sensed the spirit of God saying, prepare, be ready, be on call. something is coming. And that morning before it was announced on on on media and and through media outlets by our city and state government, I got a phone call from a friend that worked in one of these state agency offices who told me, hey, you know what, Steve, you really need to get whatever the church can do, whatever the community can do to be on standby to help. This is going to be really, really bad. and right after that moment, because I I believe because I was open, it was like a plan downloaded into my my mind of, you know what, we have this large community of faith. We can recruit safe drivers. Right. So I got the message out to about 8,000 people. anybody who has four-wheel drive, has can put chains on their tires, who have trucks and Andrew Rauch: It's Steve Teng: can get safely around ice, signed this form. And so we recruited Andrew Rauch: Mm. Okay. Steve Teng: just under 200 drivers. we had six facilities, right? And so I flipped each of those to be online, to to be storehouses for emergency goods, think toilet paper, microwaves, food, water, this kind of thing. Andrew Rauch: Beautiful. Steve Teng: And and I turned turned our staff to be a dispatch team, right? And so we got the word out. we happened to be online in in in some cases with the fire department, other city entities, and people knew to fill out their intake form. anyone from nurses needing, if memory serves, nurses needing to get to their emergency shift to people stuck on B caves on a hill. Andrew Rauch: Yeah. Steve Teng: to to, you know, the the kind of apex of this for me during that storm was was a foundation serving a hundred and twelve folks with disabilities reaching out to me to say, Steve, we hear you're the group that says yes. We we're going on day three without clean water and electricity and and food, people will start dying. and we hear you're the folks that say yes. And we were able to fortunately say yes and get them several pallets of water, food and and I sent somebody for microwave. So we were able to do this kind of thing in the midst of a storm. so Andrew Rauch: Right. Thanks for sharing that. something that that came to mind and I'm often reminded of when you were talking about readiness and you had the God inspired you know inclination the the day before that about being ready. But what are your thoughts on this? I I think often, you know, we live in a very affluent community here in the Greater Austin area. We're very fortunate, you know, most people. in in com in comparison to the rest of the world are very, very well off, right? But do we really prepare or do we really accept the fact that a storm is gonna come? It's gonna come to everybody, but w what's your sense about that readiness? Steve Teng: Yeah, that it that that that it's important. I I think you know for me at the core and center of my faith is is this command to love God through loving neighbor, right? And because of the times we're in, that that are Tenuous. it's it's it's prudent almost. It's prudent almost to have some way to respond and be ready. Right. and and we can get really rational empirical about this. Like disasters and and weather events and storms and these kinds of things have just ticked up, right? and I I I think by and large we live somewhat, Andrew, in denial of that. When it's just like, well, more storms are happening, more in our community more floods are are threatening you know just the well being of of folks we're called to be neighbors to. And anybody can get behind that, whatever your faith background is, right? but yeah, it's prudent. Andrew Rauch: Yeah. I I think that's I think that's right. Yeah. Yeah, it's prudent. Good, good message. So yeah, I I remember and you you mentioned the nurse, Sabrina's an ER nurse, you know, twenty plus years. And fortunately, she has a little four by four. So she was telling me, yeah, I I she works over in Lakeway, about thirty minutes from from our home and you know, she's from Michigan, so she knows how to drive in in the the storm, so to speak. So She made it just fine and yeah, she helped a couple of people on the side of the road kind of concept as well. But tell us a little bit about so you know, big big storm twenty twenty one. how'd you get through it or what did you do? Steve Teng: It it it's hard to talk about this without actually with taking any taking much credit. you know, I think my sense of connection with God, a higher power coming alongside of me to give me strength, I don't tend to have on my own. So Andrew, very practical examples of this are I I was level headed with about two hours of sleep a night. and you layer on to this, we happen to have, I don't know, we live we live back then in neighborhood track homes, lower end. There's no reason we were the only one of nine homes in the whole neighborhood with electricity, right? But because of that, we were also housing two other families whose ceilings had collapsed, like pipes burst, this kind of thing. And I started a remodeling project, so we were down to one full bathroom. So nineteen square foot home, fourteen people. Right. And not not not the kind of scenario I'm I'm naturally on my own calm, collected, non-anxious presence. But I just had that. And I and I gotta think a higher power provided that for this time. and and as I said, the the plan, it just like it was like a download. It just came to me that hey, this would be a way forward. And one of the worship centers we had was a warming center for the homeless. Many of the others housed essential goods and we were we were the ones able to bring things, deliver people, kinda like Uber during this winter storm. And I I think for for me what was rewarding about it was getting to put on display God's ability to be a refuge, right, in the midst of the storms of life. That was a great Andrew Rauch: Yeah. Steve Teng: privilege. Andrew Rauch: Yeah, I I can see that. And you had mentioned you'd sent out I I think several thousand messages, what I heard, and a couple hundred drivers signed up. wh why do you think those two hundred or so showed up and decided to help? What was what was the no pun intended here, what was the driving factor behind behind that? Steve Teng: Yeah, I I I I like to think the people with one it was just a harrowing time. I'd like to think everybody, a lot of people w they were sort of wondering, how can I help? You know, what w what do I do? I mean, folks who can get around safely like your w like Sabrina, maybe were on their own prerogative just driving around looking to help. But again, it was just this divinely orchestrated circumstance where was able to just play my role in activating what was a sense of hey, what do we do? People need help. People are gonna perish, right? things are being posted on s social media. you know, we've learned since that the grid was you know, possibly an hour away from collapse, which would have taken a month to restore. I mean, awful, awful stuff if that had happened. but yeah, that that's my sense of it were people were looking left and right on is there something to do? And just being provided an outlet, yeah, people stepped up to the point and and it was really an amazing thing to witness. Andrew Rauch: Yeah. And it's one thing that's beautiful about our state, our nation is in in times of challenge or struggle, it's whether you're on one side or the other side of the political thing seems to go Steve Teng: That's right. Andrew Rauch: out the window. And people are genuinely inauthentic, I think, in terms of their desire to serve and help their neighbors. So walk us through a little bit you know, beyond the storm. What are some of the lessons that you've taken from that? And kind of give us a little bit of an update on what you what you learned and what you Steve Teng: Yep. Andrew Rauch: took from that. Steve Teng: Yep, Andrew, I I I I can point to other storms in my life that weren't mine to walk in, and choosing to walk in them anyways resulted in a great deal of pain and less lessons learned, all that kind of stuff. I some of some many storms in life are inevitable. but that that that would be a lesson learned. Was this one was very much a discern. This is my storm to walk in. Right. second key thing would be if it is if it is yours, the reward is great. Right. I got told many, many times, Andrew, on the other side of this, that Steve, what you endured, Because in that crisis scenario, people are radically open to new ideas, new faces, where they may not even kind of pick up the phone for you during status quo because things are just too busy, right? If somebody's offering a solution during a storm, right, or a willingness to help, those relationships are going to form fast and anything, when you weather something like that together, no pun intended. The Andrew Rauch: Yeah, yeah. Steve Teng: trust is just built. Andrew Rauch: Yeah. been waiting for the storm. It's been spring, right? Got lots of grass in my belly and things are good. But all of a sudden the weather starts to change, Steve Teng: Mm. Mm. Andrew Rauch: go. And I'm gonna answer Steve Teng: Yeah. Andrew Rauch: the call and I'm gonna walk through it. So Steve Teng: Yeah, yeah. Andrew Rauch: any any final thoughts or any final comments for our audience? Steve Teng: Because when your eternal security is locked, that's your starting point. Right. You can you can go into any storm with a sense of hope and optimism right? To kind of go like, hey, to really believe in a guttural way that the higher powers got this unlock, upon. Andrew Rauch: Yeah. No, I appreciate that because again, the storm is going to come, but are are you ready? So Steve, great to have the conversation with you today. If they want to know some more about some aspirational next generation leaders like yourself, how do they how do they get connected to you? Steve Teng: Yeah, my my work and contact information are are at our website, Austin CFW dot org. So Austin Center for Faith and Work dot org and yeah, glad to chat with anybody curious about what we're doing and and how we might partner. Andrew Rauch: Awesome. Steve, thank you. And for those that are listening, want to hear some more, you can go to any of the the the podcast channels and listen to this episode of Be the Bison, or you can go to our website, venture and philanthropy dot com as well and go be the bison podcast. So Steve, thanks for being with us this morning. Hope you have an amazing Thursday and good rest of the week ahead. Steve Teng: Yeah, you too, Andrew. Thank you. Andrew Rauch: Thanks for being with us. Steve Teng: Thank you.