Travels with Dick and Brenda

CREATION. DAY TWO. WATER, AIR, HEAVEN

Mon, 6 Sep 2010 22:49:28 -0700

A Creator’s Recipe...

Split earth's soggy surface into four layers - wet, dry, wet, and empty. Fill the dry space with air - invisible, breezy, and sweet - permeable enough for water to pour through, hard enough to form sand dunes, and perfect for hanging rainbows. Structure the wet layers into fresh and salt water.

For fresh water take two atoms of Hydrogen and bond them with one of Oxygen. Test for hot/steam and cold/freeze. For ocean water add a dollop of NaCl and a blend of other elements customized for coral, tuna, orcas, and starfish. Check for reflective surfaces.

Reserve the empty layer above for yourself. Call it "Heaven." Place your Holy Spirit there calling for humans to "look up!"

Dick and Brenda Duerksen
Storytellers
Maranatha Volunteers International
dduerksen@maranatha.org

CREATION. DAY ONE. LIGHT.

Sun, 5 Sep 2010 00:09:18 -0700

When God showed up on Day One, His presence instantly filled earth's void with spectral displays far more awesome than Icelandic Northern Lights, Disney World fireworks, and space shuttle lift-offs. Throughout the day He adjusted the electromagnetic spectrum and tweaked the atmosphere so that sky would be bluest at noon, so the greens of trees and grass would help Adam and Eve feel peaceful, and so the ultraviolet spectrum would help bees find the sweetest flowers. He made certain the visible spectrum wavelengths would provide violet, blue, cyan, green, yellow, orange, and red.

"Light," God smiled. "It's Good!" Then He promised to stay here, so we could enjoy the color's of Salvador's fishing boat.

Dick and Brenda Duerksen
Storytellers
Maranatha Volunteers International
dduerksen@maranatha.org

Visiting the Boobies

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 19:39:42 -0700

Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique - and now requests for more than 30,000 school buildings in West Central Africa. All the way to Timbuktu.

Then there’s the rest of the world. Honduras, Ecuador, Mexico, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Haiti, Peru, Brazil, Dominican Republic, and... Many more needs than funding or volunteers. But we’re going after them all. Right now we have building teams in Chiapas, Haiti, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Vanuatu and Honduras. On January 13 more than a hundred volunteers will arrive in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe to build 56 buildings - four school campuses, two large churches, 98 smaller churches, and a bunch of kids activity centers. Whew.

This year’s Christmas Family Project takes us to Choluteca, Honduras where we’ll be the first of 6 volunteer groups who will be building a new school campus and holding clinics in the mountains around the school. Check out our website, www.maranatha.org for more information. We’d love to have you come along.

Today’s picture is “for the memories.” Punta Pinta is in Ecuador’s Galapagos islands, several hours form the main city of Puerto Ayorra. We were there because the stone island you see in the top right of the photo is home to a large colony of red-footed boobies - a hard bird to find and photograph anywhere else in the world. Since we were building a new school in the Galapagos we played hooky for a few hours to visit the boobies. Got some OK photos, but mainly loved the trip and the awesome beach at Punta Pinta.

Mission trips are not all work. :)

Dick and Brenda Duerksen
Storytellers
Maranatha Volunteers International
dduerksen@maranatha.org

Orlando ASI

Sat, 7 Aug 2010 16:24:14 -0700

It’s been HOT this week in Orlando. But in comparison to Chiapas, this has been a balmy Spring week. We’re attending the yearly ASI convention (Adventist Laymen’s Services & Industry) where hundreds of ministries come together for inspiration, conversations, and energetic sharing of stories. We’ve heard some amazing tales of grace.

Since Maranatha’s an ASI member we have a booth in the exhibit area - but not just a normal booth. Our space includes a full-size One Day Church and a full-size One Day School. A donation of $3,000 buys one of the churches. The schools go for $7,500. During the convention we’ve received numerous donations for both, making it possible for us to move ahead with several projects in Africa, India, and Honduras.

Maranatha also built a small model of the One Day Church beside the convention stage where it served as a constant reminder of ministry needs and possibilities around the world. Today’s offering, a portion of which is designated for “One Day buildings,” amounted to just over $1.8 million.

The convention is being held at the Rosen Shingle Springs Resort - “The headwaters of the Everglades.” It’s fairly new and quite lovely, sporting a central fountain where four bronze Sandhill Cranes spray several hundred gallons of water on each other every hour.

Brenda and I took a few hours off yesterday to visit a 90-year-old friend who now lives in a nearby nursing home - and couldn’t resist stopping to photograph the giraffe and flamingo atop one of the gift shops on I-Drive. Orlando is still one of the craziest places on earth.

Dick and Brenda Duerksen
Storytellers
Maranatha Volunteers International
dduerksen@maranatha.org

Hoy es Lunes

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:34:03 -0700

“Hoy es Lunes.” Three simple words that mask an encyclopedia of adventure. “Today is Monday. Yesterday a squad of camo-clad weapon-wielding soldados invited me to descend back down the mountain and procure photos of the volunteers building the new San Pedro church “from a lower angle.” Seems they had chosen the hill above the church as the perfect bivouac this week. Protection for us. Great practice for them. “No fotos!” “OK.”

The San Pedro team was about to install windows yesterday afternoon, but chose to go up-over-around-down-around again and then more down to the open market in San Juan Chamula where they’ll have purchased embroidered tablecloths, crocheted giraffes with polka dot spots made from cotton puff-balls, wooden masks of animals God chose not to create, and vests made of very wooly sheep. Black vest if you’re common. White vest if you’re important.

The clinic team treated scores of village folks in San Pedro, including the community “Alcalde” who came in his white shirt and skirt. Too hot for the vest. The docs have a portable sonogram machine and have kept busy confirming pregnancies and showing middle-aged men how their hearts are aging faster than their desires. “If you plan to live,” I heard one doctor say, (all translated into the local Tsotxil dialect) “you’ll need to give up smoking and drinking, and start eating a healthy diet.” Wish we could leave a health educator in San Pedro!

The San Pedro church congregation exists because of Maximino El Adventista. Someone dropped a stack of Watchtower magazines in the prison where he was serving a 14-yr term. He threw his in the trash…but a couple days later sat down and began reading one that lay on the cell table. Five hours later, “I felt like God had given me a new shirt, pants, and shoes,” Max says. A cell mate, seeing Max reading spiritual stuff, offered him a Bible that someone had given him a couple years earlier. “I don’t want anything to do with it, but now that you’ve Gone Christian you’ll need one of these to figure out what you believe.”

“But I don’t know where to start,” Max said. So the unbelieving, disinterested prisoner taught Max how to read the Bible and learn more about the God he had found in the Watchtower.

Max changed so much they let him out early. He immediately went home to his wife and seven children in San Pedro, excited to tell them about God. That’s where the story gets complicated – including Alpha & Omega sermons, radio evangelists, lay evangelism, and Maranatha. Max married his wife, gave Bible Studies, to his kids and neighbors and started the church where UW20 is installing windows this morning.

The video team is trucking 5 hours North to Solo Dios. Heavy rain has washed out the bridge to the project so the UW20 team has to ford the river, climb the far bank, and carry all their gear to the building site. Someone told us they’re using camels, but we won’t believe that till we see humps.

Jetja’s church is rising. San Pedro is only a few blocks behind. Solo Dios is caught in the rain and fog. Neighbors at the Malpaso site have sued to stop the church construction, but have now fallen in love with the teens and are happily helping with VBS. In Union Progresso all is progressing along nicely. The teens are building like hungry contractors, making music like Las Trompetas de Jehova, and falling in love…sometimes with ministry. Only a few Imodium used. Other than that, please do not pray for rain.

Dick and Brenda Duerksen
Storytellers
Maranatha Volunteers International
dduerksen@maranatha.org