Here is a bit of an update from the Derksens in the last couple months.
Winter in the Okanagan is short, but it sure is beautiful where we get to base ourselves these days.
Some special guests came in for Miki’s 18th birthday in January. It is pretty hard to get a straight-faced photo from this family.
We get to work with some pretty special people in the Leadership Matters Course (wetrainleaders.org). The Spanish trainer team spent 5 days together in January to finalize the details of the translation. We go to Lima, Peru in May to offer the first full LMC in Spanish!
As a bonus, while in Florida for LMC, we got to spend time with the Bernie Petrescue clan. What a great re-connection with dear family.
For Valentine’s Day Michelle was in Cuba with a teammate there and Murray was with the girls at home. This was the girls’ gift to Murray. Pretty special gift from Purdys.
Michelle got to spend some time on the island of Cuba where she was able to help do some leadership training for key women.
She also got to spend time in Mexico City with some of our projects there, and time with the Alliance Pray Team that was there doing some significant intercession.
Our son Mitch (wife Lauren) moved to Doha, Qatar in January and we were able to go and see their new place and new world in February for a holiday. Our first full evening was spent at the Souk (market) and it made us feel like we were back in Egypt.
In fact our first meal was Egyptian – kosheri, falafel, and chicken schwarma.
The architecture in Doha is stunning, and more construction cranes in one city that we have seen ever.
There is even a Tim Hortons in Doha.
The newer Katara Cultural area of Doha is like being in Rome when it was first built.
It was wonderful to hang with our son and daughters (Lauren is there for a visit now but moves there this June with Mitch – she has some music teaching contracts to fulfill first).
There are many mosques, but this one by the souk was pretty spectacular, especially with a full moon as the backdrop.
Even the malls are like mini cities inside air conditioned buildings.
Mitch’s office name plate at his office.
The trip to the Islamic Museum of the Arts was pretty special. See our Facebook page for many more images.
We spent half a day at the Singing Sand Dunes – it was pretty spectacular!
Once again, the architecture is very creative.
March always includes a trip to Toronto where we meet with many Alliance leaders from across Canada and around the world. This is our global team, the one we get to do life with. What a great group of people to work with.
We enjoy sitting at the table with these leaders from the Alliance in Canada.
Thanks for walking through these last couple months with us.
The Derksens 
Hi Folks, WOW! Yes, this was my first response to your wonderful pictoral update, thank you so much for putting that together so we not only read just what you have been doing but we can see it too. As I think you know, you are in our regular prayers so it’s good to ‘see’ how they are answered. Wow again, is Miki really 18 now, wherever did those years go? I know, I know , as we get older the years go be faster, I was told that when I was kid but now I know it’s true!!Thanks again, Blessings, Myrtle and Bernard.