We are BACK...

Praise the Lord we have returned safely to Indonesia!! What a joy to arrive and see everyone out here again. As of right now we are trying to get readjusted to life and school. The teachers teaching my classes are relieved that I am able to take my classes back as that was an extra burden that had been placed on them. So thankyou to all those who helped.

Arriving home we had to fix our car, a/c, motorbike, washing machine, clock,.... It just seems like in Indonesia if things do not get used they break down. So we are still working on getting our house back up and running.

The kids are loving school again (only two days in) and really enjoying their friends. Arriving back to Indonesia we suddenly have two independent kids. They are making their beds, getting totally ready for school by themselves, tying their own shoes, helping with supper, setting the table. I just can not believe what is happening! Our kids are growing up. We pray that they continue to grow in the knowledge of Christ as well.

I continue to meditate on John 15 and James 4 where we are supposed to remain in Him and draw close to Him. If we do this we will be fruitful and God will draw close to us. This is my desire to be fruitful and be close to God. May we all be drawing nearer to HIM!

Back to packing

Here is a pick of J and Janna

Well our family is back to packing. We will pack and get ready in Herbert and then we will be packing in BC. Our itinerary right now is to fly to BC on the 10th and then fly back to Indonesia on the 15th. Our family has had a great time in Canada/US so far but are beginning to want to head HOME!

Thank you everyone who was willing to take time to talk with us and encourage us. It was great to see each one of you.

Furlough

Well we are almost done furlough and so much has happened. We continue to be blessed by our supporters here in Canada. Once again I must apologize for the lack of writing in here, (excuse time) but furlough is one crazy time!!

We have been in the provinces of BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and all of the states between here and California. Lots of visiting and sharing the vision that we have of continuing the work of keeping Missionary Children Educated. It is quite a goal and Hillcrest International School is doing a great job at meeting this vision. Janna and I continue to feel called and are excited about returning to Indonesia.

We leave on Sept 15th and will hit the ground running as school has already been underway for almost a month. We are so thankful for the teachers that have been teaching my classes while I took this time to meet with supporters and try to find some time to relax and get rejuvinated for the coming years.

I just continue to be struck by the power that the Bible has in our lives. I am currently reading and studying through James. Wow! While studying James you will be moved to change your life. I am still trying to wrap my mind around James' message, be joyful during the hard times. The Lord has won and we MUST believe that He wants the best for us.

Next post will most likely be from Indonesia!!

Canada, home or visiting...

We have returned to land that Janna and I grew up in and thought that we understood. Living in Indonesia for 7 years has opened our eyes to so many new things and areas in our lives that God would like us to grow in. You are always excited to come to Canada and eat some of the foods that you love (even though your stomach does not like them), to drive on a different side of the road, and to see the country side that you grew up with. But the real reason that a person comes "home" is to meet family members and refresh and take a cultural break.

It is absolutely amazing to see family and hang out again. Family is so important to a support structure whether it be in T.key, Indonesia, or Canada. As I get older I continue to realize that family needs to take time, energy, and genuine care. The idea that because we are family we will just get along, is preposterous. I am so thankful I have been born into a family that really puts effort into relationship and spending time together. I sense this same attitude needed in regards to the community of the church. It takes time and genuine effort to get along and be effective as a family. If we are to support each other as families and as a church body we need to show genuine care and selflessness.

We have now been in Canada for two days and I must say that I have experienced some culture stress as I have returned to the country where everything is supposed to be understandable and customer driven. Shopping has been more difficult than expected and of course the jet lag continues to take hold of our kids. So be it Indonesia or Canada the Bible is the place to go. It just once again makes me realize that where ever I go on earth I am still an alien. I just do not belong here, I am here to glorify, to be used, to give up myself for Christ. Our home is heaven and we each have a purpose and a plan that Jesus through the word will reveal to us.

I came across a quote right at the beginning of a book that have just begun that is powerful to me.
He sustains all, but is himself independent of all. He gives to all, but is enriched by none. Such a God cannot be found out by searching. He can be known only as he is revealed to the heart by the Holy Spirit through the Word. AW Pink

Powerful stuff. We are on this earth for others not for ourselves. God does not need us. We need him. We should not be striving to be great Christians, we should be striving to be grateful Christians.

I'm Back

I had some feedback that there are some people who do read this blog and so I will continue to comment on it at the same very irregular intervals at which I have been lately :-) Sorry about that I will try to be better at putting updates on here. Thank you so much for your response to my last post.

We just finished the easter long weekend and again got to reflect on the huge gift which God has given us. So thankful to be a child of God. Jesus has risen and he is out there, beside you, around you, .... the real question becomes are we seeking Him. Seeking Him is all we really need to concern ourselves with...being in His will is the best place to be.

I have been studying through the book of John lately and have been struck by how John the Baptist really knew what his role was. John's job was to baptise with water and point to Jesus, he knew that this was his job, he also knew that he was NOT the messiah. John knew his role, his God appointed job. Do we know our roles?? Do I know my role in what God is doing? In order to be effective we must know our role. God we need you to be clear with us with our roles in your plan. We want to be in line with that plan.

Another verse I have been contemplating on is found in John 20:30, 31. The bible is written so that we may believe and by believing we can have life in his name. Listening to someone speak on this book he says that he uses these verses as a summary of the bible. I found this interesting.

May we continue to be followers of Christ by loving God and loving others. We can love others by serving. Darren From Papua OUT!

Last time...unless

I think that this will be the last time that I write on this site unless I hear that lots of people are reading it who do not have facebook. It has been difficult for me to write in both places so I have decided that facebook is the way to go.

Please send feedback to my email address if you object. Thanks so much for your support and we think of you all often.

Back from OE....

We have returned from two weeks in Merauke Papua. What a great opportunity to serve others here in Papua. This year we were teamed up with a missionary on the south coast of Papua. The home of swamps, monsoon rains, crocs, kangaroos, snakes, not rocks, and HEAT! At night trying to sleep sweat would be dripping off my forehead. Trying to sleep while you are in a pool of your own sweat is difficult.

God was at work in the lives of our students again this year. Seeing how the students and leaders change on OE is just an amazing experience. This year another teacher and I led OE and it went very well.

Again I am sorry that I do not write on this site more. Facebook is taking over. If you would like to follow us closer please sign into facebook and look for me as a friend.

Thank you so much for praying for my family over these two weeks.

One month...

It has been more than one month since I have written on this site and it seems that it is getting more and more difficult to do, especially with facebook.

We are more than half way done holidays right now and it looks like the rest of my holidays will be spent doing school things. I travel to Merauke tomorrow to scout out our OE location for this year. I will be there for 3 days with another teacher. Then I get back and right away have a board meeting. Our current director has been in the States for the past year with medical conditions and we just found out that he will not be returning. So once again the school must go into flexibility mode. This seems like our lives out here, flexibility. This at times can be extremely difficult for me, as I would like to make some type of plan. Usually you find that all your time planning something comes up as a waste of time as once the time nears nothing works like you thought anyway. One of the lessons I am learning here in Indonesia.

Well our Christmas went well. We had some neighbours to our house along with some Indonesian friends for Christmas morning where we had waffles and talked about Jesus birth. Jesus is often forgot at Christmas time and so we had a little prayer time asking to remember the meaning of Christmas and what that means to us.

A couple days later we had approximately 20 young people into our house to play video games. They are young people from our church that I have coached in basketball and gone to soccer games with etc. One of them had just returned from a 6 month "mission" trip to the south of the island. Great to see him again.

Some of our friends here have been going through some extremely hard family issues lately and so Janna and I decided to take them to the hotel here for 2 nights. Now I do not think that they had ever been to a hotel and one of their children had never been in an elevator, she was petrified the first time it started to go up. We hope that it renewed them to continue on for the Lord and that we love them and are here to help in any way we can. So much pain around us, we feel like if we can walk alongside of people here that we can show the love of Christ to them. Christ does not promise an easy road and that is why we need fellow believers to come along side and be there for us. What we do not need are fellow believers pointing fingers! So often we get into the pointing and not the helping. To think that I am better than anyone else is a dangerous place to be. CS Lewis calls pride the great sin. Lord take this great sin away from us so that we can be used by YOU.

Talk to you in another month. Or catch us on facebook. Janna has pictures of the things that I have been talking about here. See yah! Thank you all for being people who walk along side us in your support.