The Kuperus Family New Year's Eve Hiking Trip

On New Year's Day, when all the rest of you were partying, the Kuperuses took a walk. A long walk. But it was a good walk.

Here are some pictures I took along the trail.

If you click on one of the photos you can view it full size.

Enjoy.

John Kuperus December Update

Kuperus Family Update

This has been a year full of adventure and travel.  We began this year on an outreach in India with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) where we arrived in Bangalore and traveled to Dharwad, Chichadurga, and Belgaum to name a few.  I will remember the people who treated us very well, sharing the gospel, and the monkey man who climbed walls at the Fort in Chitradurga (Google ‘monkey man of Chitradurga’ and you can see him on Youtube).  

Following our Discipleship Training School we returned to Redlands, California where our van was parked.  We drove across the country with Uncle Marv (my brother-in-law Jack Datema’s uncle) and made a few visits.  One of our visits was to Blyth Christian Reformed Church, where we were able to share with the congregation about our experience in India.  This was wonderful for us and I wanted to honour a request by Henry Exel, who specifically requested, “You need to come back and share with us your experience.”  Unfortunately, Henry was not with us physically.  He was in a tragic car accident while we were in India and died. 

We continued to travel on to New Jersey and spent some time with family and friends.  We were in a place of waiting and not sure what was next.  I applied to a number of churches for pastor position, which did not materialize.  While we were in that place of waiting, the leaders for the Crossroads Discipleship Training School, Bob and Carolyn Hopkins, were looking for staff.  I said, “We are available.”  They said, “Come.”  The Kuperus family was back on an airplane to Hawaii.  Our children filled this time by catching up on their home schooling work.

The three months of lecture phase were over and our school went on outreach, while our family returned to New Jersey and Ontario to spend the summer.  

In August we returned to Hawaii which will be our home for at least two years.  

After living on campus for three quarters, we are now in the process of finding housing off campus.  It is very convenient to have housing on campus, although it is good to have a break from YWAM.  In addition, the University is short of housing and is encouraging us to find housing off campus.  For me this search began by asking God for a house on Oni Oni Street on the left hand side going up the hill.  This was attractive to me because it is within walking distance of the campus. The back of these houses connects with a 65 acre undeveloped field that belongs to YWAM.    I figured if we could get one of those houses, we could cut a path across the over grown field.  This was my jogging route and so I paid close attention to those houses.  I discovered in time that one house had a van and a truck parked out front but they never moved.  I began to ask some questions to the neighbours and discovered who owned it.  The owner had a diving business and went bankrupt.  After some research, we discovered the bankruptcy officer, who asked us to make an offer on the house.   We have made an offer for the 3 bedroom/1 bath, 1307 square foot house.  This will be tight for our family, although the neighbor told us that it has an additional room that is not on the town’s records.  (Presently we are living in a 2,000 square foot, 4 bedroom/2 bath flat.)  The house is in the Hillcrest neighborhood with a unique clientele.  Please join us in prayer that God would open up housing for us and that the funds would be available.  

Our Family Trip to Waipio Valley

On Friday, December 23, 2011, my family visited Waipio Valley where some people say Jurassic Park was filmed. 

So now we've seen the site of the Jurassic Park film, and yet we've never seen Jurassic Park ... go figure.

This picture shows Waipio Valley from the look-out point, which any ordinary tourist can visit by car.

Boxing Day

I hope you all had a great Christmas yesterday. I know I did.

Some Christmas day highlights: going to church and attempting to sing "Silent Night" in Hawaiian, unwrapping presents around our Christmas tree, acting out the person we were Secret Santa for, watching Kung Fu Panda 2 (without having seen Kung Fu Panda 1 first) at a friend's house until 9:30, and then afterward roof hopping all over the university campus with some other friends until 11 o'clock.

Then coming home late after being near people roasting chestnuts and having my mom ask me if I had been smoking.

 (She's still suspicious.)

Back to unwrapping of presents around the tree:  my presents were new pajamas and shorts (thanks Grandma), the movie Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides (thanks Brianna), Da Jesus Book which is the New Testament in Hawaiian pidgin and is absolutely hilarious (thanks Grandma), and best of all: a camera (thanks Abba).

There really is no comparison between the two by the way.

Here is the very first picture I took with my camera: a nice little picture of the back of our apartment. I snapped the picture a few moments before a small party we held started.

The lighted window to the right of the porch is the window of my room. The darkened window on the left is the window of my parent's room. The two glass doors beneath the porch lead into our living room where there are two sinks, a dining table, a couch, a refrigerator crammed with food, and two computers -- one of which I'm typing on right now.

Now since all the burglars know the layout of our house and where the computers are, I might as well tell you the location of the spare key. (Under the welcome rug.) Just kidding.

Anyway, have a great Boxing Day!

December 17: First Day of Christmas Vacation!

The first day of Christmas vacation has finally arrived. The day I've been waiting for since the beginning of the school year.

And I am bored stiff.

JUST KIDDING! (Picture me sticking my tongue out at the computer screen imagining all those people who actually believed that.)

(Albert Einstein at his best.)

I am the very opposite of bored. I'm pumped. Excited. Stoked. Wired, exhilarated, intoxicated (wait, skip that one), adrenalized, enthusiastic, and thrilled. In fact, in the time it is taking me to write this post, only half of it is spent typing.

The other half I'm jumping all over the place, pumping my hands in the air in victory.

Why am I so excited about Christmas this year? To make up for last year I guess.

Last year's Christmas was simply depressing. 

I was in India during the first few weeks of my outreach. My team was a few white souls surrounded by a sea of brown Indian people whose native dialect was several thousand languages other than English.  I was jet lagged from flying halfway around the world.

I was tired.

And there was no snow.

To sum my miseries up:

I think we had rice for supper. 

For a teenager whose heart is found in his stomach, this was a deeply traumatizing experience. 

The way to a man's heart is through his stomach, they say.

(Taken from freeiconsweb.com.)

Christmas is not about those brightly coloured, gaudy decorations.

Or about that pine tree wilting needles in the corner of your living room.

Or the frenzied shopping done the midnight before.

Or even in the giving and getting of the presents.

The Christmas tree we all wish was ours

(Taken from rubberstamping.about.com)

For a teenage male, Christmas is all about the food.

And the fun.

And, umm, maybe the family too.

A December Update: House-hunting

A quick update so you know where our family is:

First of all, we're all in Hawaii.

(Just making sure we're all on the same page here.)

Our family spent our first Christmas in Hawaii yesterday with the unhappy absence of snow. However, as a Canadian, I am proud to announce that, believe it or not, the temperature chilled down. About 2 degrees anyway.

Anyway, the second quarter my parents have staffed has finished, and the DTS students have left for outreach. (I wonder how their Christmas went? Poor souls.) The staff people still left on campus (that's us!) are getting a short Christmas break before the next quarter starts on January 2nd.

In a desperate effort to make room, staff people living on campus (us again) are being asked to find some place off campus. By the first of February, we have to leave. Somehow. Some way.

Why?

Because the campus is rapidly walking out of room to put all the people. (I'm sorry: clichés always drove me insane ... )

Nonetheless, having too little room is a much better problem than having too much room.

Although I've liked living on campus (I can walk to my classroom, and break in in the middle of the night if I've forgotten any textbooks) my family knew we would leave the campus sometime. So it's not a shock.

THIS is a shock.

(Taken from Shockinglighters.net)

Right now, my family is leaving the campus to go house hunting.

Wish us luck!

Testimonial by Sasibai

This is a testimonial by Sasibai Kimis from Malaysia.  She attended our Crossroads Discipleship Training in April.  I share this on our blog to help give insight into what other people experience as they go through Crossroads.  

Sasi says:

Where do I start.........? I could say my desire to do something more for the Lord started perhaps 4 years ago while I was working in London. But now when I look back, I think my journey with the Lord began from the day I was conceived and most likely even before, just like in Psalms 139:15-16.

During my childhood, my father had taken us as a family to India during our holidays, and those days had brought about a sense of how blessed I was and am; in the sense that even the basic things I had were a luxury to many others on this earth. So even while I travelled the world to study, explore new cultures, or work; issues of social justice and giving back were often on my mind. I just had a keen sense that God has blessed me with so much, a wonderful family, friends, great education and opportunities to experience living and working all over the world. Was I going to keep all this for myself? When I moved back to Malaysia from London at the end of 2008, I knew that the desire to really spend some ‘real’ time with God and focus my time on him was coming soon. For everything that I had wanted to learn in my life, I pursued the best I could - studying at Wharton & Cambridge, working in Wall Street in New York etc; and I thought, why is that when it comes to God, I haven’t decided to pursue the best I can with God?, spend time with Him, learn about Him? My knowledge of the Bible was paltry and while I felt that God was my best friend, I had often veered away from Him in my actions and the decisions I had made in my life. I had grown up as a Christian, I was a born-again Christian, but I felt that my relationship with God should and could be like the way it was in the Bible. In my teenage years I used to think, “Lord, how come You don’t speak to us the way You did in the Old Testament or why wasn’t I born during a time when miracles and healings were commonplace like in the New Testament?”

I decided then that no job, money or circumstance should take me away from spending some time with my Maker and learning more about Him. Not just during my quiet time, not just in cell group, not just in church. That I should spend undistracted time with the God who died for me. I wanted God to use me. Use me. Use all of my experiences, my pain, my joy, my intelligence, all of me, for His purpose. And I didn’t think I was going to discover that purpose if I continued my life in the same trajectory of where I was. I decided in June 2010 that I was going to quit my job at Khazanah Nasional - I spoke to my bosses and informed them of my decision to pursue some time with God. They asked me to stay on to finish a transaction I had started, which I did and left Khazanah end of March 2011. I arrived in Hawaii on April 4 th, 2011. During the first few weeks of my Crossroads Discipleship Training course, I thought I had made a mistake of coming to Hawaii. I thought, “What else am I going to learn about God that I don’t already know? I have heard God speaking to me and I have a good relationship with Him”. I had no idea what God had in store for me.

Now when I look back at the last few months, I wish I had done this sooner. This has been the best decision I have made in my life thus far. I understand that as a Christian, miracles should be commonplace, because that is the authority that Christ has given to every Christian, Mark 16:17 “And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

I have seen spirits driven out of people in Jesus’ name, I experienced physical healing personally and I saw my course mates being instantly healed. I had no idea of the power and authority that Christ has given to us as Christians. We can pray for and heal the sick. Spirit-filled born again believers can drive out demons!

We spent 11 weeks learning about: God’s love, hearing God’s voice, reversing the misunderstandings we have about God, getting into the right Plumbline with God, spiritual warfare, what the Kingdom of God really means, developing faith in God, missionary work, building simple churches, challenging cultures with love and the Holy Spirit.

My faith has increased in ways I never imagined. I realised how little I actually knew about God. And even now, with all that I know, someone told me this story: a man stood on a beach wondering what was left to know about God, God asked him to pick up a grain of sand and said to him, “Even this single grain of sand is more than what you know about me”. I realised how much I had underestimated God in my life and in my thinking.

God has spoken to me in ways I never imagined possible. I now understand who the Holy Spirit is. I now rely on the Holy Spirit in my life. I understand that God has been speaking to me through dreams and visions. I understand what spiritual warfare is. The list could go on and on.

I am a transformed person. Never can I live and I hope I never will, live my life with only a paltry taste of God. I look at life now with so much expectancy. Expectancy of God’s Hands in my life and the life of others.

God has placed desires in our hearts and my desire is to honour Him in all that I do, especially with my desire to start a business one day soon.

This verse motivates me, Acts 17:28 “For IN HIM we Live and Move and have our BEING”.

Christmas Dodgeball Tournament!

Music pounds. People cheer. Balls whiz through the air.

In some universities football is a religion.

In the University of the Nations, dodgeball is.

(Note: that may be an exaggeration.)

While this campus does not glorify the air they breathe, or treasure the sweat that drips off from their foreheads, or blood that falls (as some universities and high schools are known to do - if you don't believe me read John Grisham's Bleachers) there are a few famous people out there on the court, some somebodies every dodgeball fan should know. 

Kenny Jackson. Fondly named "the voice of dodgeball" a YWAM dodgeball tournament wouldn't be the same without this guy commentating.

David Jackson. His son. Easy to recognize because of his afro, David's known for his trademark spinning throw. Although a few people have caught it, the best thing to do is to stay out of the ball's way, as I learned the hard way.

Dwayne Klahr. Not as easy to recognize as other people mentioned here, Dwayne is a behind-the-scenes person. He's the organizer of the dodgeball tournaments, and makes the lists of which team should play another. He also sets up the chairs and tables before the event, and even referees every now and then.

Josh Kuperus. Not yet well known, Josh has great potential (and an ego to match it) and is known for a fairly hard throw and good dodging skills. Last seen playing with a white shirt and golden halo 'round his head in a team simply known as "Da Old Guys".

Anyway, yesterday night the first Christmas dodgeball tournament was held. The Ohana court had a few decorations, and instead of the usual rock and roll music, Christmas music was blasted over the speakers instead. Imagine "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" being sung by Alvin and the Chipmunks, and you have an idea what our night was like.

It was a good night though. Excitement was up. Hype was high. Adrenaline was runnin'. People were cheering themselves hoarse.

And, all in all, my team did well. We won two games, and lost two games to the teams that made it into the finals. A good night. And that's not too shabby because the same team didn't win a single game in the last tournament we played in. I'm convinced it's the name that did it. 

Those "Old Guys" decided to show them whippersnappers how it's done.