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DTS Update for last month of class

Hello again everyone, for the last time during school!

It’s once again a beautiful 22 degrees outside our window! I have noticed in the last week or so, with papers added to classes, tests, reading, reading and reading, that droopy eyelids grow numerous here. Since I had taken a winter course, I have gone the school year without more than four days off. The books! In 30 days I’m not even going to read the exit sign on my way out of my last exam!

Karin is looking forward to the S.W.I.M. (Seminary Wives in Ministry) weekend she just left for. She is also looking forward to getting her bag with $6000 worth of quilts back. And my passport. Good news! There is a 99% chance that the bag is in the “dead bag” room at DFW airport. This room is like Fort Knox. Only the chosen ones, highly vetted and special airport staff with no spot nor blemish, may go in there and look for lost bags. There are thousands and first lost, first served. By the way, the Canadian government really doesn’t like it when you lose your passport…

After stewing, we have decided that even though I did not get the on campus job, we are not moving to Canada for the summer. We are both happy and sad. One reason is that after 9 months here and proof of economic hardship, I can apply in May for permission to work off campus, maybe as early as June and if economic hardship continues, for the duration of my studies. Our ‘intent to sublease’ deadline for this apartment came up this week, and being worth our while we passed on that, sealing the deal to stay in Dallas. How would you like to move internationally twice in a summer? The decision to stay felt like a heavy burden had been lifted from the both of us.

This whole process was a step of faith. We gave up the quest for Canada and a few thousand dollars we could ‘control’ in the near term in the belief that yes, God really does want us here and is preparing us for some fantastic ministry. So far the first benefit will be that we will be around for the next membership class for our church in May. That will allow me to serve the church in leadership (someday), which is the whole point of my studies. I must tell you that I am actually excited to see how God will provide for us. If God can feed all Israel for nearly 40 years in the desert (which we discussed Wednesday), then he can take care of the two of us. That kind of God quite literally gets me up each morning.

Now, since manna no longer falls from heaven we need to do fund raising. We have sought expert advice on how to approach this and plan on rolling out next year’s strategy/needs next month when I have finished out the year. One bonus: no more raising every penny before starting class! We covet your prayers as we seek to faithfully follow God’s plan this summer.

Even though I wouldn’t call the next few weeks a thrill ride, really the year as a whole, the “much” that has been given me (Luke 12:48) is a special privilege and it really feels that way. I thank God literally each day for something amazing about being here, big or small – including those of you who read this – who through your faithfulness have kept us here all year!

Have a great Easter next weekend!

He is risen,
Dan and Karin

 

Very important prayer requests for Dan and Karin!!!

Very important prayer requests for Dan and Karin!!!

First, please pray for Karin’s suitcase full of quilts. These quilts were lost on her way back from Canada! One lost bag arrived and the one with the quilts is missing. She worked so hard on them and we can’t sell them until we have them back!

Second, please pray for my sudden and upcoming on-campus job interview Tuesday, March 24! It’s in the media center of the library, and it deals with circulation of DVDs and CDs, video and still cameras and projectors, as well as the hard part – being knowledgeable about the software and it’s uses. We have a “media arts in ministry” concentration here at the school, so this isn’t just a few dusty cameras in the corner. It sounds a little daunting. So this is a job, and there’s about 7-10 people going for it (I saw the resume pile). Please pray that I am up to the task and that they pick me!

The bigger deal is that this is the job – the only job I can get. This is the first job since the hiring freeze. The year is almost at a close.

Without this job, our Plan A:
•    sublease the apartment (may still pay part of the rent)
•    drive our clunky car all the way to Canada (pay to fix it up first?)
•    find a place to live (therefore potentially paying 1½  rents)
•    find a summer job
•    quit the job
•    transfer $CDN to $US (lose over 20%)
•    move back to school
•    hope that this whole process produces some savings
•    repeat 3 times

Well, I was just talking to someone in Canada who said that the jobs that only students would take are now going to out of work adults who need to feed the kids and pay the mortgage. There may really not be many summer jobs for us.

With this job – Plan B:
•    keep media center job for three full years (most likely)
•    I can take summer courses!
•    we will not have to move 6 times
•    no subleasing
•    we can get more involved at church (summer missions, etc.)
•    no exchange rates, international moving, or extra rent eating our savings
•    I can see my work out of our apartment window
•    more $$$ than Plan A
•    Fundraising is easier to plan on a fixed income

We do trust the Lord to meet our needs, but without this job we face a difficult task in the job and the fundraising categories, to the point that we’ll either (1) have to raise quite a bit more than last year or (2) not come back to DTS until we save some more money. The Tuesday interview is our only chance at Plan B.

We humbly believe that seminary is the direction in which God wants us to take. Therefore when Jesus promises, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son…” that this applies to our work here. Please pray ‘in His name’ that we might be able to stay here and bring glory to the Father for what he is doing through us. We do want to support ourselves as much as possible and I loathe to press too hard for financial support. Thank you to for taking this to heart and praying just a few times for us. It is a critical time in our lives. On Tuesday it’s all over and we’ll let you know ASAP who is hired.

Love,

Dan and Karin

 

DTS Spring Break Update

Happy Spring to you!

I am sitting here on a balmy 25 degree Saturday, there are pink blooms on the bushes and the big tree outside has green buds on it. People are happy here that ‘the worst’ is behind them. I still can’t get over the fact that I’ve never worn a winter jacket here and I can wear shorts almost daily now.

Although I still miss my family, scattered around the globe as they are, and my old friends, Karin (as ‘her’ half of our mailing list knows) is back home in Ottawa until Wednesday. Besides her cousins wedding, she has been quilting away these past 2 weeks at her Aunt Mary’s house. She is very keen on meeting a big goal; I told her yesterday not to worry if she couldn’t get 14 quilts quilted on her trip! She really wants to get the most out of the quilting machine because there really is no way to finish what she starts here in Dallas.  Well, “Ora et labora” (pray and work) I like to say. As we try to be faithful together to the “labora,” I “ora” each morning early that God might bless Karin’s hand, and all that we do here, so that we might continue here being built up in the knowledge and grace of God, that we may in turn share our faith in ministry to build up others and make Christ known. Sounds kind of biblical, but I am pleased that that’s the whole point. DTS is equal to the challenge of equipping insignificant people like me for just such a mission.

Nothing much has happened here that’s exciting in the last 5 weeks. I just began a two week break so the last month has been all about getting reading and assignments finished/underway, to finish over “break,” which is really just a lull with no classes. I have been tired. In the past month I have: gained a new appreciation and love for Leviticus, learned about the importance of the inter-testamental period as the backdrop for what’s going on in the New Testament, the importance of the Council of Chalcedon in 451 to formulate Trinitarian doctrine – the foundational doctrine of Christian belief, started a paper on homosexuality and studied the history of missions.

We are also gearing up for our World Evangelization Conference this coming week. We suspend regular class for a week to learn all manner of aspects of mission: biblical, historical, cultural and strategic. There is a plenary speaker and oodles of workshop classes, ministry booths, fun events, etc., all designed to get more future pastors, religious educators and counselors who are studying at DTS to think about how they might be a blessing to the nations. I’m proud of my school for shutting down for a week for the sole purpose of promoting mission and I’m happy to be helping out as a volunteer in my own small way.

We are meeting with a professor here in late March who trains people on biblical support raising methods. He has shared with us numerous times in class his 30 years of experience in this matter and understands the challenges and the blessings in undertaking building a team of people up for prayer, financial and emotional support. We are looking forward to the guidance, and pray with thanksgiving that God has already provided for next year, just as we are so thankful for all of you who were so supportive this year.

I am looking forward to getting my wife back *sniffle* (check out my ‘no wife’ pic) and also my parents for a week three days after Karin gets back, from March 14-21. It will be nice to socialize more than study for a little while.

It’s time to get back to those books! I hope this update finds you healthy and happy.

Dan

 

DTS Update January 31st

Howdy Partners (in ministry)!

How y’all doin’? We really miss all our friends, family and supporters…and snow – at least for skiing! We’re trading in our Canadian “eh?” for Texas-speak now. It’s funny that in greek class, when translating the plural form of “you”, English has no equivalent – except in Texas. Look at the end of the update for a “Texas translation” of John 20:21.

The weather right now is a clear blue 20C outside our window right now, but it certainly wasn’t on Wednesday and Thursday. Check out the video on the right to see what it takes to shut down Dallas Theological Seminary for a day. Over 560 fender benders in Dallas alone!

My studies are going along pretty well so far. I received good marks for both my fall semester and the winter course that I took. Taking a one-week winter course is kind of like doing a “ten-paces duel” Bugs Bunny style and getting shot up with 40-50 paintballs. First you get really wound up and start walking. Then you wheel around and endure lots of pain for a short period of time. The welts go away after two weeks. After the initial 8am-5pm classes for a week, and having the homework subside after two weeks, I now face a spring semester with one less class, which was my goal. I am behind right now in my spring courses but it will not be so for long. I enjoy the professors also, they are very good about meeting for coffee and lunch and they usually pay!

After visiting everywhere from Bible Churches, to Baptist, to Chuck Swindoll’s Stonebriar, etc., etc., Karin and I have decided to join Park Cities Presbyterian Church (PCPC) here in Dallas (www.pcpc.org). We have been attending there for a while now. We were also checking out Providence Presbyterian, a small church. We felt that even though we liked the small church for it’s smallness, it was new and did not have developed vision, mission support, types of meetings/studies etc. We are up for being pioneers, but not yet. Park Cities is big and established. It has money. It has been around almost a century. The sanctuary is cathedral-like. At first the many members and big building and the demographic of the members kind of scared us off. But after research and prayer, the picture we have is different. This is a warm, mission minded, faithful church with lots of ways to get involved and be taught how to ‘do church.’ Just last week Sunday night they had the Golden Gate Baptist Gospel choir visiting for a mission conference weekend, and in the words of a middle age white elder, this “award winning” black gospel choir was “rockin’ tonight.” I looked around and saw otherwise stiff folks swaying along with the choir and a lot more “Amen”s and “preach it”s than usual during the sermon.

We are checking out just how many ways we can involve ourselves next weekend on the “Urban Ministries Bus Tour.” A bus is going to take members around to every urban/partner ministry the church is involved in. Prison ministry, outreach centers, pregnancy centers, etc. There are also church classes at church for different ages and purposes. We will join one of those soon. There is a choir. Karin and I are already in “Perspectives” www.perspectives.org, a 16 week mission training course hosted by PCPC and attended by memebers of about 8 different churches. It is an invaluable training program already set up by the U.S. center for World Mission. After finishing we will not only have a solid global perspective on missions, I will be certified to host a Perspectives class if I wish (and I do wish). You can run these classes from anywhere in the world. This event was one of those ‘God moments’ when we realized that the “space” I had in my spring schedule was really God’s way of making sure there was time to do Perspectives. And we have our new church to thank for the scholarship that allowed us to attend for free. We received 500 dollars (250 each) to attend the class and we did not even ask for help – amazing!

Karin is auditing Women in ministry class here and she really enjoys it. It trains the wives of the seminary students how to become effective ministry leaders alongside their husbands. That meets on Friday mornings. Karin is also working away on quilts. Since there is more to show than to tell, the pictures on the right have some of her recent work with descriptive captions. Just click on more photos. In just 24 days, she is headed to Ottawa with these quilts to finish them up, as well as attend her cousin’s wedding February 28th. I will be here all by my lonesome studying away. *sniff* It won’t be so bad as we have my parents visiting the following week after Karin is back! They will be enjoying Dallas with us during my March break (approx Mar 14-21).

God is still so good to us. No real sickness or big trials. We are getting into a church. We got to go to the rodeo last week! (check photos) It’s room temperature outside. We received unsolicited money from the strangest most unexpected places three times in the last two months – even from other students! Just the other day someone delivered 72 containers of strawberries and blueberries to the school lounge; free bread is frequent but not fruit. They were gone in 5 minutes, before I knew they were there. The people who supplied them know us and they saved some blueberries and strawberries just for us, found me walking home and gave them to me. Almost literally a “cherry on top” of our blessings. Things like that happen enough to us that you would think God is right there all the time! And being blessed so richly, we consider it our calling to be a blessing also (as we are learning in Perspectives).

Here’s the Texas translation (true to the greek) of John 20:21: “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending y’all.” That “y’all” is an intentionally plural form meaning all believers.

That “sent” is to those who have not yet heard, “And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?​” (Rom 10:14) Both Karin and I are happy to be in a place where we can become well qualified ’senders & sent ones’ and inspire others to do the same.

From Dallas with Love,

Daniel and Karin

 

Christmas Update

Greetings to you all!

Karin and I are sitting here on this partly cloudy Boxing Day morning in a freezing 23 degrees celsius! (update: 27C!) We get arctic air one day and gulf air the next so we never know if it will be freezing (2 days ago) or like this. I really thought it would be 4-5 degrees out when I woke up. I can do my jog outside today!

Just a few highlights since the last update…

We got to go to a Dallas Mavericks basketball game for free last month! Our seats were nosebleed, so at half time we moved down to 15th row from the court. The last 3 minutes were very exciting! We also went to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra again for free. We dressed up and took our Chinese friends Leo and Ivy. They are not DTS students, or Christians (although Leo is interested in becoming a Christian!) We were 7th row center this time which are the best seats in the house. Sounds like a country club down here doesn’t it? Not so much. They are more like glorified study breaks. Leo and Ivy ran back to homework immediately afterwards, as did I. We are meeting with Leo and Ivy next week and likely discussing Christianity. Please pray that we will have boldness to share the gospel and get them over their objections to the faith.

DTS is right on mile marker 23 for the White Rock Lake marathon, held 2 weeks ago on Sunday. We got there right at the 3 hour mark to start supportive cheering and there were quite a few people going by already. 23 miles in 3 hours. That’s a 3 hour 25 minute marathon – and one young lady was just running too fast. Just before we had arrived our friends watched as paramedics did CPR on this woman, in her mid 20’s, right outside our building for over ten minutes. She never revived. It was kind of a weird feeling for a while as we clapped and cheered for the other runners. I like people-watching and found the look on people’s faces after 23 miles fascinating. There were also many who sincerely thanked us for calling their names and telling them they could do it. It inspired me to push past 3 miles at the gym!

Classes finished up in classic whirlwind style. I believe I did pretty well, given some of the marks I have received back on some assignments. Long faces turned gitty as assignments were handed over and plane tickets wielded for trips home. On the Friday evening that I finished course work, Karin was whipping up a massive Turkey dinner for six. A DTS supporter handed out 125 turkey dinners-in-a-box, all fixings included, even pie for dessert for all those not going home for the holidays. This is traditionally the weekend of the Van Minnen Christmas so we wanted to do something. We had my friend John from my spiritual formation group over so we could meet his wife Natalie and get to know them better, as well as some neighbors from our floor – and two crazy toddlers and a baby! We are still eating turkey daily a week later and are only half way through the leftovers. Karin even made the table runner from scratch. (pictures on the right).

Yesterday John and Natalie returned the Christmas dinner favor by ‘adopting’ us into their family for Christmas day at John’s parents house. Grandparents, children, flown in siblings, and us strangers! Once again we ate like royalty and we were invited back to future events like one of the family. We even got gifts! It was a real blessing to have a family open up their Christmas time to outsiders.

I’ve enjoyed a bunch of free time this week, but since I have enrolled in a winter course I am already back at the homework. Getting one of my spring classes out of the way in winter allows more time to get involved in church and at school, and God willing, a hiring thaw and a chance at campus job. I will have no classes after 10:30 am next semester!

I hope to keep a good standard not just for myself in classes but for our supporters also. We are interested in not only sharing good marks with you, but in building your confidence in us to do what God has called us to, even as we build confidence in ourselves. Although initially I felt inadequate for the task of seminary, I am pleased that after one semester I find myself well prepared intellectually. My understanding level was a real confidence booster. Any fears I had of making it through in other ways are dissolved by patient support from Karin. And some of the character building in class (not just facts!) and by fellow students is supplying growth in all other areas as we learn to serve Him more fully.

We thank all of you who have made this semester possible through your prayers and through your giving. We hope you enjoy the remainder of your holidays and have a very happy New Year in 2009.

P.S. There is a video, but you must be very patient with the hurricane sound! It is a one minute hello to you.

 

Thank You

We just wanted to take a moment on this American Thanksgiving to share a message with all of you, our supporters.

I am so thankful this morning for the great privilege that I have to study here at Dallas Theological Seminary. I went out for a morning walk around the very quiet streets and empty campus and thanked the Lord for all I had learned and all the people we have met as a result of being here. Then I came home and thanked Karin again for coming along with me to Texas to walk with me on this journey. I walked for as long as I had things to be thankful to God for. It took me nearly 20 minutes! You were on the list.

Without supporters like you we would not be here. We are thankful that God has moved many of you to give and pray. We are thankful at the continued interest and support in every way you show it. By this support I will someday, by God’s grace, become the motto we have at DTS to “Teach truth, love well” and inspire others to do the same: in my family, the church and to those who have not yet heard.

I will leave you with the words the apostle Paul used when he was thankful for the very same things to the very same kind of people as you – loving supporters:

“I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received…the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

“To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Love,

Dan and Karin