M&M Derksen

Derksen PrayerNet February 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

Greetings to you from Costa Rica.  Since our return from a good rest at the beginning of the year (see previous post) we have had a full schedule.  We had some of our team here with us for a long weekend.  Curtis & Tricia and their boys work in the Caribbean doing micro enterprise work and related ministries.  It was a joy to have them with us for a few days.

Curtis & Tricia with boys and our adopted cat

We travelled to Aruba at the end of January to visit Gabriel & Iris Li.  They planted the Aruba Alliance Church there and have just returned from 6 months in Canada.  It was great to get caught up with them and to spend lots of time chatting about many different aspects of the work there and their personal lives.

Murray & Michelle in Aruba (Caribbean Sea behind us

This month is a month of people coming our way.  We have had Bryon Butler of CAMA Services stay with us already.  The regional director from the U.S. CMA as well as the Assistant VP will be coming for a few days next week.  At the end of the month we have a pastor from Alberta coming to stay for a few days as well.  We enjoy having the guest house active and meeting many new people.

One of our highlights every week is our “gathering” or house church.  We have such amazing conversations focused around the person of Jesus and his teachings and the core values that he taught that are so applicable to life today.

Gathering Sunday Morning - having some fun after discussion

We will be in the Toronto area for meetings with our other global leaders from February 28 to March 8.  We always look forward to time with our colleagues (and boss ).  It is always a challenge to go from Costa Rica summer to Ontario winter but it is only for 10 days a winter.

Please remember these prayer items:

1. Pray for really good meetings with our U.S. partners February 21-23.  This will be our first face to face with the new U.S. CMA regional director.  We will discuss the many partnerships we have together throughout the region.
2. Pray for our Sunday morning house church – that it will continue to be alive and that Jesus will make himself known every time.
3. Pray for our trip to Toronto and the time spent with our colleagues.  Pray for our girls who will stay here in Costa with Curtis & Linda Doell.
4. Pray for our Chinese workers and churches in Panama City.  Last week three youth who were on their way to the annual English camp were in an accident.  Two died and the third is still bleeding internally.  Pray for their families as most of them are not believers.

We really appreciate your faithful prayers for us, your friendship, and the ongoing relationship we have with you.

Murray & Michelle, Mikaela & Mattea Derksen

Canadian Regional Developers

Caribbean Sun Region (Latin America & the Caribbean)

CMA Canada

Dear Family & Friends,

New Years greetings to you from Costa Rica.  We had the privilege this January to begin the year with some rest and relaxation.  Our son Myles joined the four of us and we spent 2 weeks resting and exploring this amazing country we live in (one of the many perks of living internationally).  Here are some pics of our break.

Typical Secluded Beach - We like to explore and find these beaches that don't have any commercialization.

Not the kind of sign you want to find on a secluded beach area

Myles was able to enjoy some surfing while here.

Mattea Myles Mikaela

So, we are feeling refreshed, rested, and ready to jump into 2012.  This is going to be an exciting year for us and for the ministry that we have the privilege to help coordinate with various Canadian workers throughout Latin America and the Caribbean (Caribbean Sun Region).  Here are some specific ways you can remember us in prayer:

• Our Sunday morning gatherings start up again this Sunday (Jan 22).  Pray for God’s presence and guidance.
• Co-workers Curtis & Tricia Peters (and boys) from an Island in the Caribbean are coming to spend the weekend with us (Jan 19-23).  Pray for great conversations and prayer times together.
• We travel to Aruba Jan 27-31 to visit our co-workers Gabriel & Iris Li.  We also plan to touch base with some of our Venezuela team members, Chris & Angela Hiebert (and boys), who will be there on a visa turn around trip.  Pray for great conversations and prayer times.
• Our girls started school this week and are full into Middle School events and homework.
• Pray with us that 2012 will be a season of deepened relationships with our co-workers and the many others we will discover and develop this year.

We really appreciate your interest in our lives.  It is a privilege for us to serve our regional CMA team here in Latin America and the Caribbean.  The reason we can be out here is because people partner with us in giving.  If you give regularly to the Global Advance Fund (GAF) – thank you so much!  If you do not but would like to, you can give through your CMA church (GAF/Support of Murray & Michelle Derksen) or ONLINE at Canada Helps and put Support of Murray & Michelle Derksen in the Message Box.

Thank you for remembering us before Father.

Murray & Michelle, Mikaela & Mattea

Living in Costa Rica and serving throughout Latin America and the Caribbean

CMA Canada

Dear Friends & Family,
We feel like we need to apologize for the length of time that it has been seen our last post. We have had a very full Fall and are only now slowing down enough to do some reflecting. We have had many great face to face contacts with co-workers all over Latin America and colleagues in Canada. A significant gathering was last week’s meeting of key leaders from various countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. We have the privilege of working with such high quality people!

Front Row: Michelle, Murray, Lisa Clarke, Richard & Hope Reichert, Kathy & Blake Penson, Helen & Joseph Lee, Elisa Brown, Linda Doell; Back Row: Cindy & Paul Ens, Rich Brown, Curtis Doell. Like

On the family side of things we are happy to say that our son Myles is now engaged to Meagan Ritz of Kelowna, BC.  They are planning their wedding for July 21, 2012.  We look forward to that event as a family.

Meagan Ritz and Myles Derksen - ENGAGED!

We continue to meet on Sunday mornings with a great group of people.  We enjoy deep spiritual conversations and just doing life together.

Another big event this fall was Murray’s graduation from the Ken Blanchard School of Business with an MBA in Leadership.  This journey began in 2007 and culminated in October with a party to celebrate the finish line.

Graduation Party for Murray

We have Michelle’s Mom (Marianne Petrescue) here for the month of December.  We look forward to time with her.  Myles will join us on December 31 for a couple weeks of holiday.

It is a privilege for us to serve our regional CMA team here in Latin America and the Caribbean.  The reason we can be out here is because people partner with us in giving.  If you give regularly to the Global Advance Fund (GAF) – thank you so much!  If you do not but would like to, you can give through your CMA church (GAF/Support of Murray & Michelle Derksen) or ONLINE at Canada Helps and put Support of Murray & Michelle Derksen in the Message Box.

Thank you for remembering us before Father.

Murray & Michelle, Mikaela & Mattea

Living in Costa Rica and serving throughout Latin America and the Caribbean

CMA Canada

Well, it has been quite a trek for us this summer.  We left Costa Rica on June 22 only to take 30 hours to get to Kelowna as opposed to the scheduled 13.  We dropped our girls off with family and headed to Calgary to spend time with the Chinese workers from our region.  We spent a wonderful few days at King’s Fold Retreat Center just outside of Cochrane, Alberta.  The following picture lets you see some of our friends there.

Caribbean Chinese Retreat

From the retreat we went to the Joint Missions Conference at Ambrose University and had a great time networking with many of the CMA Chinese churches in the west.

Family Wedding 2011

After a good chunk of visiting and networking we were ready for some down time and took 2 weeks of holidays with our family (our boys and their girls) in Kelowna.  It was a time of lots of family visits and a family wedding.  Here is a pic of that family wedding.

As mentioned we had some fun times with our immediate family too and really enjoyed time with our children.

See other pictures below.

Family Pool Shot

Derksen Family 2011

From Kelowna we made our way south into Mexico.  We spent a few days in Mexico City with our team there.  We then traveled to Queretaro for the annual retreat for our Mexico workers.  We had a great time with the team.  We then headed back to Mexico City and off to Guadalajara to speak in a couple churches there and to reintroduce our girls to their birth city.  We had a wonderful time with their God-parents as well as taking a bit of time one day to explore the downtown area of the city.

Hernandez

Rivadeneyra

As you can see this has been an eventful summer with some great family connections.

Murray also went to Brazil as soon as we got home to Costa Rica and had a great time in Sao Paulo with CMA contacts there.

We ask that you would remember us in the following ways:

Michelle travels with an intercessory prayer team through some of our works where the focus is on the Chinese diaspora (El Salvador, Panama, Venezuela).  She will travel from September 1-9.

Murray will visit the CMA national church in Venezuela and our new team in Caracas from Sept 9-15.

Murray will be with the CMA Central America leaders in El Salvador Sept 19-23.

Murray & Michelle will be in Mexico City with the CMA team there Sept 26 – Oct 1.

As you can see, we have a full month ahead of us.  We are looking forward to the time with various people.  Pray for protection as we travel, for our girls as they stay in Costa Rica with very capable people (Curtis & Linda Doell), and for success in the various purposes of these trips.

Murray & Michelle

P.S.  All of our funding comes through CMA Canada.  If you would like to donate towards our support, please go to the Canada Helps website and donate to the Global Advance Fund (adding “Support of Murray & Michelle Derksen” into the Message/Instructions box).

Road to Matanilla

The road to Matanilla (or it could be Emmaus, or Bernard, or 22nd Ave., or …) is one we take often.  It is the road to sanity.   Not that Matanilla is a sane place. It is the last pueblito (village) on our constantly climbing road.  3km from the house the paved road ends and 4X4′ing begins (well, if your 4X4 low works and even then it can be a challenge).  No, the road to sanity is our exercise road.  We go up this road regularly as we power walk our way to sanity with our Nordic walking poles in hand.  Taking a walk up this road opens our pores, our blood vessels, our minds, our hearts, and our perspective.

We don’t know what road or path you take to regain your sanity in life but think about it for a second…

So, I’m walking sanity’s path one day and a man I have seen a few times comes by on his bike.  In fact the steep incline of this road is such that I was walking fast and he was riding up the hill at the same speed.  So, between huffing and puffing, we started to chat.  I love people’s stories so I start asking Javier his story – unemployed, divorced, living with a woman, unsure of life’s purpose, etc.  In my mind I could only think of Jesus talking to the woman at the well.  So I started to challenge Javier about his choices and where he was going.  We opened up a dialogue that day and it opened up a prayer road in my heart for this man.  He is now part of my daily intercession time and I look for him every time I am out regaining sanity.

So the other day Michelle and I ran into Javier on a back road coming back down the mountain.  Within a minute of conversation we were back to deep things.  I was amazed how a few questions about the other person and some understanding nods and uh-huh’s can start a relationship.

We are all on a path to sanity (well, some are further along than others of us ).  On that path we WILL encounter people and if we are willing to take the time to talk with those people, to give them the time of day, we may just find ourselves at the edge of an ancient well talking with someone whose life is broken and can only be healed by Jesus.

We have the privilege of giving leadership to 50 people who are willing to walk the challenging roads in 10 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.  They are Canadians who have left the comfortable streets of Canada for the unknown, constantly inclining roads of the Sun region.  Please pray for them as they walk the roads, streets, sidewalks, and paths of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Venezuela, Aruba, Jamaica (ooh I wanna to take ya), and another significant island in the Caribbean Sea.

And pray for us.  We have invited some of our key leaders from this region to our home/regional office/guest house in Costa Rica from May 30 to June 3.  Together we want to discover how to continue to create transformational movements in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Murray & Michelle

Mattea Michelle Mikaela

I often joke that I am living in a girls dorm.  When our sons were born in ’89 and ’91 guys “ruled” in the house until the birth of girls in ’98 and ’99 when the score became even.  When Mitch got married last year the delicate balance in our family was altered again as Lauren tipped the scale the other way.  Now the guys are outnumbered.  And, when we moved to Costa Rica in 2009 it was Murray and these three pretty ladies.  I often long for contact with my boys just because I need some “guy” time.  I make an effort to have male interaction and that helps me to live in a semblance of hormonal balance

As you can clearly see I have NOTHING to complain about.  I am surrounded by beauty and get more affection than any man deserves.  Aren’t we like that sometimes?  We judge our current world/circumstances by what we don’t have instead of seeing the incredible blessings that we do have.  Look at this passage from Ephesians 1:

“3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.”

I don’t think we can even fathom what “every spiritual blessing” includes, but my guess is that it is a lot.  Paul goes on to talk about being chosen and adopted – in advance of our decisions.  This past Sunday, Easter Sunday, we started a “gathering” in our home of people at different places in their spiritual journey.  It was an exciting event that continues again this Sunday.  We love a spiritual journey that allows us to intersect with others who are also in search of the risen Jesus.

Please pray for us on Sunday mornings as we gather to meet up with Jesus.

Pray for our Chinese teams as they are doing the same thing among the Chinese diaspora of Aruba, Jamaica, Panama, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

Pray for our teams in Mexico, Venezuela, and on a Caribbean island who gather seekers together.

Thanks for reading.  You are already blessed with every kind of spiritual blessing.  Enjoy it.

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Our daughters are at the age when their teeth need a little extra help to get straightened out.  So, we have made the many trips to the orthodontist and the dentists and now have at least one set of railroad tracks on Mikaela’s upper teeth (lower set yet to come).  In the picture below you’ll see Mikaela (on right) with one of her best friends (they are at a Middle School Olympics events – thus the hair color . . .

Mikaela on right

Sometimes we too need outside help to get straightened out.  As many of you know we took a 6 month health leave (like a Sabbatical) this year from mid February to mid August.  We had experienced a number of years of significant trauma and changes but had not taken the time to stop and unravel it all.  We needed emotional braces for a time.  We spent the whole time under the care of a doctor and he helped us unpack 4 years of stuff that had accumulated in our souls’ backpack.

We now sense that we are back on “track”.  We feel healthy and emotionally whole.  We feel energized and are loving our work.  Various aspects of our lives have come back into focus.  Sometimes, no matter how strong we think we are, we need an “orthodontist” to come alongside of us and help us get lined up again.

Thank you to all who stood with us while we took the time off.

M&M