Doug and Lil come and gone...

Doug and Lil have come and gone and our hearts are so happy for the visit. We had a great time showing my parents where we live and work here in Indonesia. It is always such a blessing to show people where our hearts are at, and now we can talk with them on a much deeper level of what our lives are like here. My parents arrived safely in Bali on Sunday and will now have a week relaxing before they head home.

Connecting as a family over Christmas and New Years was an awesome time for our family as Christmas is usually the most lonely time of the year.

Also many of you have heard of the earthquake in the bird's head of Papua. Some of our mission friends have been affected by this large quake but for the most part no mission personel have been injured. We felt some tremors here but had no idea that the earthquake was as big as it was until we had some updates from our mission leaders. MAF will be responding as usual to disasters and trying to help the interior in any way that we can. It sounds as though there were 4 earthquakes in the same area measuring 7.6, 5.6, 7.5, 6.0. I am reminded of a song that says if God is on our side whom then shall I fear. We want to be in the middle of the Will of God, that is the safest place to be.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone. May we walk closer to God during this new year.

First Semester

Incredible to think that first semester is almost over. Tomorrow begins finals here and my parents arrive tomorrow as well. It seems like just a little while ago that we were dreaming about company and here it comes. Should be a great Christmas time.

We continue to be so thankful for Christ and what He has meant to our lives. We continue to seek Him. May God enrich this season of Christ's birth. May we remember why He came this crazy place called earth.

Joy

Joy! What a joy it was to walk back into our house after a week in Hong Kong and see the posters on the wall, "Welcome Home Dad", "Jalen loves Dad", "Kaya loves Dad", "Mom loves Dad". What a joy it is to have a family that loves and supports that work that we together do.

As Janna and I shared stories of the past week one topic continued to come up and that is the topic of Joy. Listening to the speakers at the conference and realizing that we need that Joy in our lives that comes through Christ and knowing that we are Christians that already have our future mapped out for us. How do we live with the Joy that Paul talks about in 1 Thes?? Rejoice always! you have got to be kidding me. Well that must have been written by a man who did not have any trials in his life. After a quick look through Acts you realize that wait a minute Paul had lots of trials and yet he writes be joyful. As I talked to Janna about this topic she too shared that she had been wrestling with the same thing. Joy is something that should come from inside, it should not be something that we struggle to achieve. If God is the center and is truly in control then we have much to be joyful about. This is something that we are now working through, how do we have joy in the challenging times?

I am now home and working once again. I am extremely glad to be home and glad that our family is "normal" again after 3 weeks. I put the word normal in quotations marks because I do not want to have a "normal" family, I want us to be the most abnormal, loving, on fire for God family that we can be. One of the presenters used the words "misfits for Christ". Well that is where we are at this week, continuing to stuggle, but loving, the biblical truths which we try to make applicable in our lives. Lets show people that Christians are the most joyful people because Christ died for us and the Holy Spirit lives in us!!!

Darren Back Home in Papua OUT

From Hong Kong

Darren here in Hong Kong continuing to learn what God is doing in the area of teaching and education. I have been really blessed here listening to speakers like Gary Chapman and Phil Callaway to mention a couple. The speakers are good and just the reminder is good to continue to grow in the knowledge of Christ because this is what will impact the students. I think that so far this is the general message that I have received from this conference, your own personal relationship with Christ will determine how well you are impacting students.

Janna and the kids seem to be doing alright in my absence although it feels alittle long to have been an incomplete family for 3 weeks. I thank God each second for the wonderful family that He has blessed me with. I look forward to getting back there in a couple of days.

Happy thanksgiving to all my American friends out there, i hope that you sat and watched some NFL for me on thanksgiving day. I missed all the games but were following them on Yahoo stattracker.

My God continue to bless you all.