the missing stone

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

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