School is done

School is done and Jalen is sick. Of course once all the action is done everyone gets sick. We had a great last week of school and we are sad to see friends leaving. Friends that are grads and also friends that have decided to leave the field. This morning I brought our good friends to the airport and then went to our other friends house to help them pack their house never to return. Sad times. Last night was grad and that also was emotional as this years seniors were a very special group.

God is directing people both to the field and away from it. It is exciting to watch people following after God's direction for their lives. Here on earth we do wish that good friends could stay in our lives forever, but we have to say goodbye.

Kaya and Jalen finished their classes well. Jalen will be entering grade 3 and Kaya will enter grade 1 next year. Kaya is a little artist and really enjoys drawing with chalk, pastels, pencil crayons, or whatever she can get her hands on. Jalen is active and is really enjoying rollerblading. We bought rollerblades from our friends that are leaving and Jalen is learning at an incredible rate. I also bought some and have been trying to teach Jalen some good Canadian things on skates: crossovers, how to stop, how to accelerate quickly, how to jump...

I am so proud of our children. Paul and Karen Juneau have just arrived here and are now hoping that their crate from Salitiga will get here soon so that they can move out of the guesthouse and into their home on the MAF base. What a treat to be reunited with our friends.

May God continue to bless you all as your school years draw to a close.

May has arrived..

May has arrived and basketball is over (final party tonight). Janna is painting our house with the help of Kaya (after she gets home from School at noon). Jalen is doing well in school and is currently working hard on a book report for his class.

Not sure if you have heard but there were some problems in Sentani this past week in which some military personel were fighting against themselves. Just please continue to pray for this island of Papua. There are so many things that are going on here that only God will be able to heal and deal with. Thanks for your prayers.

Kids continuing to grow up

Janna and I continue to be amazed at how quickly our children are growing up. The other morning Kaya got dressed and brushed her teeth by the time we had got up. Amazing! The other day Janna and I were arguing a little about something and Jalen came up to me and said "Dad I think you need to apologize to mom." I said why do you say that? "Because what you said was not nice to mom and God wants us to be a close family." Wow talk about a hit in the teeth. So I had to apologize to Janna, Jalen and Kaya and of course then ask God for forgiveness as well.

Then last night we watched an excellent movie called Fireproof. Now if you have not seen this movie you really need to. It is written by the same people who made Facing the Giants. A Christian based film company that is making movies that touch on issues in our society. Fireproof touches on the fact that marriage is a covenant and that it needs to be taken seriously. Powerful movie. Switching from a selfish culture to a selfless marriage can only be done once we understand Love. The only way to understand love is to realize how Jesus loves us. Without this realization of what Love actually is it is difficult for our marriages to survive. Over Easter we realize that Jesus gave his life for us. Doing nothing wrong he paid the ultimate price for our sins.

Love others as you love yourself. May we learn to do this by studying the love Jesus has.

To live is....

To live is _________. A speaker this morning challenged us with this question. To live is Basketball?? To live is wealth? To live is paying off my mortgage? To live is safety? To live is justice? What would you fill into the blank? TO live is _________.

We know the Bible says to live is Christ and to die is gain. Now we can not say the second part without the first. If to live is athletics then dying is not gain because we are taken from that which we live for. If to live is Christ then to die is gain. What a thought! Who/What am I living for?

Another interesting thing he said was that he distinguished between "Call" and "the Lord's leading". God calls us to present ourselves as living sacrifices Holy and acceptable to Him for this is our spiritual act of worship. That is the call that He gives us. After we have wholly given ourselves to him then we are led by Him to where He can use us. But the call on our lives is to sacrific our own desires and give in to what He wants.

To live is Christ and to die is gain. Serve Christ by serving others. Love the Lord and your neighbour. Powerful statements that we can choose this day to do.