April/May 2019 Derksen Update

April/May 2019 Derksen Update

Thank you to each of you for taking time to visit our blog.  We appreciate your interest, your thoughts, your prayers, and your ongoing partnership in so many ways.

April was a bit quieter month for us as we spent much of it in our home and home office.  Michelle had a significant birthday (but we cannot say which one :0).  Murray finished a semester of school at UBC Okanagan.  We enjoyed extra time with family over the Easter weekend (see following pics)…

 

By the end of April we were ramping up for a season of travel once again.  Murray had the opportunity to travel to Dubai where the Global Church for a Global World conference was held.  This was a gathering of about 200 delegates from international churches from every continent (except Antarctica).  International churches have a unique opportunity to reach least reached people groups in the various cities they are located in.  In the Caribbean Sun region we have recently partnered with the Union Evangelical Church in Mexico City, as well as assigned a new team to start another international church in Mexico City, a city with as many as 1 million expatriates and less than a handful of churches reaching them.  The time in Dubai was well spent in networking.  It is also a cool city to visit…

We had a family wedding the first weekend of May, which gave us a unique opportunity to get our family together for a picture.  We love our family very much and they are key stakeholders in all that we are in life…

From the wedding headed south to Mexico City for a Strategic Review.  Every 5 years we take time to listen to our staff and partners to see how we have been doing, and looking into the next 5 years to see what we need to change and adjust.  Mexico City is a key ministry zone for CMA Canada within Latin America.  We are thankful for the full on engagement of the international workers and partners in making this a great week with lots of good listening.  Please pray for the Mexico Leadership Team as they take this information and put it into an action plan…

When we returned from Mexico City we went straight into the Canadian Pacific District Conference in Vernon, BC.  Michelle  co-lead a 90 minute workshop on conflict engagement, and the two days proved to be great days for networking with the pastors from the CPD – which is always a privilege to renew relationships and make new ones (we served in the CPD office from 2001-2004 before heading to Egypt).

Even while that conference was happening we must admit that our minds were on the anticipation of the due date of Mitch & Lauren’s baby.  On May 25, at 10:44pm, at the Vernon Jubilee Hospital, little Emil Stefan Derksen was born, weighing in at 7lbs. 7oz., and 48cms in height (well, length because he doesn’t spend much time upright yet :0).  So, we are grandparents for the first time.  A new journey begins…

Seeing and holding little Emil has already reminded us of how much God just enjoys us as his creation.  We get so caught up with our own brokenness, failures, successes, work, and so many other things.  We are finding it amazing just to sit and stare at little Emil.  How much more does God enjoy watching us as his creation?

Thank you for your prayers for the least reached people in Latin America, pray too that God would raise up many workers for his harvest from within Latin America.  Thank him with us for new life and all the lessons in life to be learned as a new season in our family begins.

For more information about us, please check out our bio page on the CMA Canada website.  To partner with us in prayer you can subscribe to this blog.  We always appreciate financial partnership.  You can click on this link for ways to give, and please send us a note if you are looking for ongoing ways to partner with us and our ministry.

Thanks again for the visit.  We will send another update at the end of June.

Murray & Michelle