By Diane Wheeler
Mark Hamby is founder and President of Cornerstone Family Ministries and editor/publisher of Lamplighter Publishing. He lives in Northeastern Pennsylvania with his wife, Debbie, and their three children. As an author, speaker, and Bible teacher, what Mark enjoys most is helping his audience remove the mask to expose the heart. Unless the heart is reached, there can be no lasting change. Through the genre of storytelling and the life-changing power of God’s Word, Mark’s audiences have learned that the God of all grace is willing and able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think. I appreciate Mark’s candor and hope that you will too.
TOS: How did Cornerstone Family Ministries begin, Mark?
Mark: I spent nine years in Christian education at a church in New York. I had a wonderful time, watching a revival in our congregation. One of the things that I had at the church was a resource ministry (books, pamphlets, etc.). When I left in 1987 to go to seminary, they gave me the ministry as a going away present. I helped students, and a few churches would call me for recommendations. We sold a few hundred books a year.
At seminary I was studying to be a pastor. But, God had another seminary experience for me, and it was the Seminary of Life. We lived on a 2,000-acre estate, and we raised sheep and horses. But my sheep wouldn’t follow me. One year, I had 22 lambs freeze to death in the night. As I was burying them, my daughter came down and said, “Daddy, you are not a good shepherd.” I became so angry at those sheep. All I wanted was a few sheep so I would have lessons to tell when I was a pastor, of them following me; “I am the good shepherd” and all of that.
At the same time my family was falling apart, and I was seriously ill. I became so ill that I had to drop out of seminary. God lowered me to the lowest level. I prayed, “God, why?” He spoke to me with two passages. “Mark, it is not by your strength but by my Spirit.” Then, “Peter, do you love me?” I responded, as I sat in the hay with my nightmare sheep, “Lord, you know that I love you.” But, do you remember what the Lord says? “Feed my lambs!” So, I determined that not one lamb was going to die next lambing season. I stayed in that barn, and not one lamb died. I even gave a lamb mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. After that, my sheep followed me everywhere. When those ewes saw how much I cared for their lambs, they allowed me to be their shepherd.
Once God had brought me to the lowest level, healing took place in my life. My health started to get better, and I finished seminary. I went to interview at churches to be a pastor, but I didn’t sense God leading me. It was almost like the Spirit had left me. A pastor called and asked, “Mark, have you ever considered that God is not calling you to be a pastor? Wherever the Apostle Paul went, he says, ‘make sure you bring the books and the scrolls.’” Paul came aside God’s people to encourage and strengthen them.” I knew that was what God wanted for me: to sell books that would encourage Christians! I called up Focus on the Family, and I bought $33,000 worth of books. Boxes of them. My wife thought, “Oh, dear!” So, I began selling books in Sam’s Club on a concrete floor. I hated every moment of it. But, at the same time, I knew God wanted me to do it. I said, “Lord, if you are really in this, if Christians will get strengthened, I will do it.”
Then I was asked to be a speaker to about 150 people at a New Jersey homeschool conference. But, after speaking for fifteen minutes, every person walked out. I cried all the way home. “Lord, what in the world are You doing?” The very next week I was supposed to speak again on the same subject. I thought, “There is no way I can do this.” So, I stood in front of the people and decided that I would share my story. I told them about my family, what God had done in my life with the sheep, and what God was doing in my life with my son. People were crying, and came forward afterwards to share their stories. Then, all of a sudden, California CHEA called. Apparently, they lost one of their keynote speaker for some 7,000 families, and I told my story again, splicing it together with God’s Word. That birthed Cornerstone Family Ministries. It went from 400 people to 7,000 people in one summer.
TOS: In a recent issue of your newsletter, the topic of joy came up. With the work of homeschooling, a lot of us get tired and discouraged. What is the Lord trying to teach us about joy in the midst of this?
Mark: Well, I think, “Responsibility above relationship” is the key. We feel inundated with the work and we can’t see anything else. We rob ourselves of the joy because we always feel like we have to get “it” done. One of the things I stared to notice with my family was there was no joy in my home. I am a faultfinder, and I always have things that need to be done. I was always asking my children, “Did you get this done?” “After that, help me over here.” It was an environment of work, not grace. But, that started to shift. I stared to change my attitude before I walked in the door. I would make sure that the very first thing my children saw on my face was a smile. It was purposeful. Whenever I go back to my old patterns, the first thing that leaves me is joy.
Let’s look at Ecclesiastes. This is, I believe, a purposefully “deceptive” book. For the shallow reader, life is described as, “Why bother? You do all of this, and then you leave everything to somebody else, and they don’t’ care who you were.” That is the shallow viewpoint of Ecclesiastes.
There is another viewpoint, though. In Chapter 2, verse 24, it says, “There is nothing better for a man than that he eats, drinks, and tells himself that his labor is good. This is what I have seen is from the hand of God."
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