Steve Schneiter spent thirty years helping young people become who they were made to be.

At Virginia Tech he advised student government, designed leadership curricula, led a study abroad to Kenya, and taught undergraduate courses on citizen leadership. He also co-taught an undergraduate seminar on theories of tragedy and the enlightenment — a course that would take on different weight after April 16, 2007.

That night broke something open that never closed again.

Before Virginia Tech there was Case Western Reserve — undergraduate research in cancer biology, published in scientific journals before most people have declared a major. Before that there was a porch in Ohio and a grandfather figure who told stories about the kids around him and made a small boy feel important enough to be in one.

After Virginia Tech there was Indiana University. Kettering. Grinnell. Kansas City. A theater in Sugarcreek Ohio that reached two million dollars in gross sales for the first time. A Christian academy stabilized and stewarded through responsible closure. A presentation at a disaster recovery symposium in Davos, Switzerland. A publication in SAGE.

And now — Berlin, Ohio. The overnight shift. The quiet hours between 2am and 6am when the books get written and the frameworks get built and the ministry takes shape.

Hope, it turned out, was not a concept. It was what happened when a man finally stopped building and started receiving.

PhD ABD in Educational Leadership from Virginia Tech. Franklin Covey certified facilitator. Husband. Father of three. A man who has spent his whole life trying to give others what a grandfather figure gave a small boy on a porch in Ohio.

The experience of being important enough to be in a story.