Serving: Southern Methodist University, and universities in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming

Steve and Betsy encourage, serve and disciple faculty at SMU.  During the course of an academic year they partner with members of the Christian Faculty Fellowship and University Departments to host events on the SMU campus. Programs have included Faculty-Alumni luncheons, debates such as "Does God Exist" co-sponsored with the SMU Philosophy Department, Faculty Appreciation luncheons, an Athletic Department Appreciation breakfast, and faculty workshops and forums. In 1992, they co-hosted "Darwinism: Scientific Inference or Philosophical Preference," the first academic symposium and exchange between Darwinist and ID scholars, described by participants as "historic."  In February 2009, their efforts led to the first SMU Veritas Forum, “Exclusivist Religion in a Pluralistic World” (see: www.veritas.org/smu), which was hosted and sponsored by the SMU Office of the Chaplain and Religious Life and 19 of 24 student Christian ministries at the University.  In addition, the Sternbergs lead and encourage the Faculty Commons staff in Texas and Oklahoma . Steve periodically travels in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana to encourage other faculty and faculty groups by providing counsel and resources as they live out their faith in the academic world.

Steve joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ in 1966 and served with the Campus Ministry at Oklahoma University , Arizona State University and the University of Texas . In 1969, he and Betsy were married and from 1970-72 they directed the campus ministry at SMU, while completing his seminary studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. From 1973-1988, Steve and Betsy served with Campus Crusade overseas, starting and directing the ministry in Ireland, then assisting in the founding of ministries in Eastern Europe with a focus on the former German Democratic Republic.

The Sternbergs live in Dallas and have three adult children and three grandchildren.  Their son, Don, his wife, Michiyo, and their children, Sasha Grace and Joshua Ford, live in Osaka, Japan. Their daughter, Amy, her husband, Britton, and their son, Finnon, live in Austin, Texas.  The Sternberg’s second son, Chris, also lives in Austin and works for the University of Texas IT Department.

Steve : B.S., Business Administration, University of California, Berkeley, 1966; Th.M., New Testament Literature and Exegesis, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1973; Post-graduate work in New Testament under Prof. Dr. Juergen Roloff at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen, Germany, 1981-1984.

Betsy: B.S., Mathematics, cum laude, University of Texas, 1969. Betsy earned her Texas state certification as a Chemical Dependency Counselor (LCDC) in 2004.

Steve : Poet and Peasant and Through Peasant's Eyes by Kenneth E. Bailey and Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand.

Betsy: Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis and Anne Perry novels.

Steve : As he sought to enter East Germany to visit and minister with Christians, he was interrogated for two hours by East German border guards for attempting to "smuggle" teaching notes into the country after they were found hidden in his camera case. He gave them the names of East German friends he had met in Hungary and who had nothing to do with our active ministry in the country. On being visited and questioned by the East German 'Stasi' (secret police), his friends laughed at the officials and told them they were friends and, yes, they knew the Sternbergs were Christians.

Betsy: After visiting and ministering with East German Christians, she was directed to board the wrong train by an "experienced" male Campus Crusade for Christ staff member; she survived 12 hours alone in Plauen, East Germany with an expired visa, an invalid train ticket, and without East German currency by going home with an East German family. In addition, she has probably taken more tortillas to missionaries and friends around the world than any individual living person.