Life...

Life is going well and we continue to understand what it means to serve God with our whole lives. I was very touched this past Sunday with what the pastor of our church had said. He talked about not throwing time away on fruitless things. He spoke also on prayer and the fact that we need to pray and something will happen. Before we leave the house each morning pray that God will use you. Then look for those opportunties to be used. So often it is extremely scary to pray that prayer because what if God takes us out of our comfort zone?!? Amazing things can happen outside our comfort zone. If we truely want to be used by God to do His work we need to be asking Him to show us.

Another verse that I had underlined from a while ago and once again is becoming real is found in Luke 3:9, "Kapak sudah tersedia pada akar pohon dan setiap pohon yang tidak menghasilkan buah yang baik, akan ditebang dan dibuang ke dalam api." Wow! If I am not producing good fruit, I will be thrown into the fire. Powerful verse! Am I producing good fruit? How can I tell? Lord use me this week to produce good fruit. Amen

Praise

We are so thankful this week again for electricity. There is a rumor right now that PLN, our power company, has bought some new generators in which they are hoping to power Sentani. This is a huge praise as now we are hoping that some of the power issues will be resolved and some of the stress which this causes will evaporate.

In other news I now have 2 snakes. On Saturday I went to the market and bought a live rat trap to give to our house helper to see if we can catch any rats. Then yesterday morning as I was getting on my motorbike to head to school one of our neighbours came over and said that she had a live rat. SWEET! I love live rats. So yesterday morning the rat went in with my two snakes. Last night was so fun as the snakes are active at night. They knew he was in there and one of them was on the hunt. This morning the rat is still alive, we will see what happens tonight.

That is about all for now.

Friday!!!

Today is Friday. Usually that would mean that I look forward to the day but as it turns out Friday is my busiest day of the week. This week is even crazier than usual. Each class in the high school; Freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, prepare a meal each friday for the community as we watch the volleyball games. SO this week I was in charge of finding the teams and refs for the volleyball, but now I also am the sophomore class sponser and so am in charge of feeding 250 people as well. YEEEHAAA!

So by about 8:30 pm tonight I should be home and ready for a break. Last Friday I was ready by the end of it to rip into something or someone. So please pray as this Friday has the added stress of the meal. Our class is going to serve subs: chicken and beef. So lets hope that everyone has done their jobs and we are ready for this night. Also I hope that the teams and the refs show up. So Saturday is really the day that I look forward to.

Have a great Friday everyone....

A typical Tuesday

Tuesdays begin much like every other day. Smacking the alarm at 6 am and sleeping as long as possible. Our family then gets ready to get to school. I, Darren, am at school by about 6:45 am. Then Jalen leaves our house at 7:15 in a car with one of the teachers that lives near us. 7:15 I am in prayer meeting to begin the day. Jalen is at school until 11:45 at which time he gets in the bus to head home. Jalen has half days for 3 days a week because we just do not have enough teachers for full days.

I teach until 3:00 at which time we have staff meeting until around 4:30 or 5:00. Then it is home for supper and putting the kids in bed around 7pm.

On Tuesdays Janna and Kaya are at home working on the many things that need to be done around the house. Today Janna was going to solve a problem of our house helper and try to find someone that we can depend on.

I am so glad that God gives us families to stand beside, to help, and to be there when we need them. Our last couple of days have been extremely stressful and so we would ask for prayer from you guys, our supporting family. Thanks

Power...

It has been interesting here as we deal with the constant power outages, Kaya beginning school, Janna beginning teaching, and of course KAYA'S BDAY.

Kaya turned 4 and had a great time playing with her friends and getting a minature kitchen set. She likes to have tea parties and play with toy food. We are absolutely amazed that our youngest child is already 4. Unbelievable. We continue to pray that God will work in our children's lives as often we feel so inadequate as parents. God be gracious to us.

The title of this blog is "Power" and it has a two fold meaning. One is that our power is off so often and continues to be a stress in our lives. But two is the power of God. There are always things happening on the mission field to missionaries as well as to the school where it just seems like Satan is working. One of the mission leaders the other day said, "Now we have front row seats to see God work." This mission is going through some difficulties right now and it is amazing to hear these types of sentences coming from people in the midst of struggle. But it is so true, God works when we cry out to Him in times of stress and struggle. I have just been amazed at the attitudes of people here while under extreme stress. Praise God.

Please continue to pray as we live here. Thank you so much for remembering us in emails.

Survived the beach but here comes Monday...

Wow the beach trip went great thanks for all your prayers. Here is a little run down of the beach trip. I left for the beach with 6 students to set up the beach for the rest of the high school on Wednesday at noon. We arrived and began set up at around 4:30 pm. We worked well into the dark and then had to wake up early the next morning to finish it off. The rest of the high school then showed up and we set up camp and had a great couple of days snorkeling, beach soccer, fishing, listening to a speaker, working, and just hanging out. Great way that our high school tries to bond right at the start of the year. I returned home to Janna and the kids Saturday at 4:30 pm. Great to be home with the family again.

Monday. Oh precious Monday. Today here is what is on our plates.
Janna - gets everyone ready for school, teaches preschool, coaches volleyball
Darren - have to find teams for the volleyball teams to play this Friday, teach, find refs

After I write this down it does not seem that bad. Hopefully the day runs smoothly. Please pray for Janna as she begins to teach preschool. She has done tons of work preparing and I just really want it to be a positive experience. Good luck to all. God bless.