The Story of Jeff Rauwerdink

Jeff Rauwerdink:

            Jeff & his wife Felecia with their daughter Jadyn came to Kona for the Crossroads Discipleship Training School (CDTS) in April, 2011.  After their outreach, they returned to the base to serve on staff at the University.  I watched Jeff go through the DTS and noticed him struggling and tolerating the class.  Then the other day, I saw him working the lunch line and Jeff was just glowing.  I wanted to hear his story and share it with others on the condition that Jeff would give me permission.  He granted me permission.    

            Jeff stands out because he has an artificial foot.  On June 30,2010, Jeff was riding his motorcycle and he was broadsided by another vehicle.  As a result of the accident, he lost his left leg. 

            After two weeks in the hospital and one week in rehabilitation, Jeff returned home.  One day in late July, while he was watching Harvest Show on TV, he was inspired by Jan Conway as she shared about her work in missions.  Jeff promptly ordered her book on Amazon.  When Felecia came home from work, they watched the show together as they had it streamed on their computer.  Felecia noticed the advertisement for the book and asked Jeff “Are you going to order the book?”  He said “I already ordered it.”  Once it arrived, Jeff read the book once and Felecia read it twice.  Jeff says “That was our call from God to do a Crossroads DTS in Kona, Hawaii.”

             Felecia wanted to go out on medical missions and was looking for a field assignment.  She has been trained as a registered nurse and wanted to use her gifts on the mission field.  Crossroads appeared to be the door through which the Rauwerdinks could take to enter into missions.    

            They ordered plane tickets in November to do their Crossroads in Hawaii in April.  Then Jeff discovered that he would need to have his right hip joint replaced.  At first it was put off because of a yeast infection.  He was finally able to have the operation four weeks before their departure to Kona, Hawaii.  This caused a little stress in the Rauwedink home as to whether Jeff would be able to navigate a campus that is built on the side of a volcano.  By the grace of God, the Rauwedink’s living unit, the cafeteria, classroom and large gatherings were all close together.  They did not have to buy a scooter for Jeff to get around on the campus. 

            During the DTS, Jeff was uncomfortable sitting and would move around the classroom during the lectures.  He also struggled with doing his journal.  The assignment was to read books of the Bible and write two or three sentence summarizing each chapter.  Jeff, being a perfectionist by his own acknowledgement, found writing a two or three sentence summary as being very difficult.  With a little coaching from his staff person, Jeff forced himself to do the assignment as was expected.  Jeff enjoyed the DTS, but he was not glowing. 

            They went on outreach to Cambodia and their daughter Jadyn really shone.  Jeff described their experience as being very positive.    

            The question I asked Jeff was “Why are you glowing now?”  He responded by saying, “I am enjoying and sensing all that God is doing here with students and staff as they get to know God better.  It is exhilarating to see the people here from God’s point of view and reflect on what is happening in the spirit of the people.  I enjoy that part of the environment with lives being changed.  I am awed by awesomeness of what is happening in lives of people.  It is exhilarating!”

            Jeff was transformed and the transformation continues to go forward and it is exciting!  Thank you Father, Son and Holy Spirit! 

SURFING

Today I went surfing.

My goodness, I wish someone had a video camera.

It wasn't that I didn't catch any waves, and just sat out there lookin' cool on a surfboard, it was because I caught waves that made it a pity no one brought the video camera along.

Picture the scene. Josh Kuperus on a surfboard. (Lookin' pretty spiffy I might add.)

A few waves come by, nothing worth catching, and he still manages to stay in that ultra-cool position of being on top of a surfboard. A few more waves pass. Repeat in the ultra-cool position department. A few more waves ... you get the picture. And then the wave comes. The wave.

"Party wave!" a surfer calls. (For those poor people out there who prefer sitting on a sofa instead of a surfboard, a party wave means a wave everyone can catch.)

Josh starts paddlin' like crazy. Arms a' flyin', muscles a' workin', water a' splashin', and the wave creeps and creeps up on him. And then it catches him! The surfboard starts going all by itself! All you can hear is Josh yelling, "YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!" like a maniac. He gets to his knees. He's still on the board! He gets to his feet. HE GETS TO HIS FEET! For a split second his head is actually above the wave! And then, with a tremendous flop backwards, the surfboard springs forward without a surfer on board, and Josh Kuperus is officially down.

The same thing happened about every fourth good wave; the "YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!", the split second standing, and the final flop.

I had a few close calls with running over people but no one got hurt. At least that's what they said.

And yes, I have a few gnarly cuts from the reef to prove I actually did go out there. (Yeah, you wish you had those battle scars.)

Winning a Car ~ John Kuperus

One of the ways God has blessed us is with the winning of a car at the Bradley Caldwell show.  Every year this company has two trade shows where they treat their dealers royally.  This show we are served great food for the 2 ½ days and the entertainment was Sarah Evans, a country and western singer.  In addition, dealers are offered great prices from about 200 vendors displaying their products.  Collectively sales of about $15 million took place over 2 ½ days. 

            To add to the attraction of the show, prizes are awarded at the end of the show.  This year’s awards were a 2011 Chevy Avalanche SUV, 2011 Chevrolet convertible Camaro and an iPad.  As dealers place orders at different vendors, they were given tickets for every $100 worth of orders.  Dealers would tear the ticket in half and one half is entered into a plexi-glass tub that spins and the other half the dealer keeps.  Both halves have identical numbers so at the end of the show, when the tub is loaded with tickets; one ticket is drawn to determine who the winner of the prize is. 

            Our store manager, Wende Clausen, placed all the orders.  I was busy buying booths where vendors were selling their products at the show at exceptional prices.  Wende had her eye on the truck because that would be more practical for our business.  I suggested we spread them out between the different prizes.  As they drew out the ticket for the car, I heard “Wende Clausen” over the loud speaker.  We had won the 2011 yellow with black stripes, convertible; Chevrolet Camaro.  It was like one of those surreal moments that are too good to be true.  Wende first words to me were “God has blessed us” and I wholeheartedly agreed. 

            Wende’s daughter Erika was holding the winning ticket.  Then we had to address who was going to drive the car home.  I had the Farmside delivery truck, Wende had her vehicle and Erika was free.  Wende decided she was going to drive it home and Erika was going to drive her vehicle.  Later Wende told me that she drove white knuckled all the way to Seaside Heights, which is about 1 ½ hours away.  The next day she was able to enjoy the vehicle driving it in the sunshine to work. 

            Even though we enjoy the sports car, we decided to sell it.  We hope it finds a good home.  Wende will be rewarded and we are planning on using the cash in the business for improvements.  

September Update

It's bad. I know.

Failing to post a blog post for about a month is decidedly an all-time low for me. I even stopped visiting the blog to look at the page views. (A constant source of pride for me.)

I apologize.

Anyway ... here's how things have been going in the last month or so:

We took a little trip to the mainland  and tied up some loose ends and business matters there (remember The Yard Sale?). We got to hang out with our friends and family (David Amels - that would be you) for a while , and my dad preached in a few churches. Then we hopped aboard our twelve-seater van (which we fondly call 'the bus') and drove across the US.

After days of inaction and far too much McDonalds, after waving bye-bye to a six-pack, and having some roadside accidents (which I had planned to blog about but never got to), we finally pulled into Redlands, California, which was our destination.

From there we boarded a plane.

And here we are now in Hawaii. School has started and I'm pretty busy with class and should probably not be blogging at this moment. (I'm in high school now.) My parents are busy preparing the campus for the new students coming in. My sisters are supposed to be busy doing homework.

And I am very happy that I can finally settle down into the wonderful bliss of a normal life.

As that goes.

At the moment, I'm staring in several directions at once. I am, of course, staring blankly at the computer screen and wondering what else to say. I am looking inside my brain at the idea of spending the next two years in Hawaii -- and am grinning from ear to ear. I am, of course, definitely not looking in the direction of my geography homework.

Oh, and best of all -- OUR HOUSE IS NOT INFESTED BY TERMITES!! Man, am I pumped.

What low standards, you think.

I know. I know.

We are staying in one of the newer apartments on campus, which is furnished with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a nice big living space with a refrigerator, dinner table, sink -- and a lack of termites.

Finally, I have a room with a proper lock on the door, and I only have to share it with my brother.

It's beautiful.

The Road Trip By John Kuperus

Miracles:

Financial provisions: 

We did our Crossroads Discipleship Training School with the Outreach to India from September 2010 until February 2011.  The cost of this training for our family was $50,000.  This was a big number and I wrestled with God on how to move forward in this mission.  One morning I sensed God speaking to me and he said “Has my arm grown weak?”  I responded by saying “If your arm is not weak, I am willing to test your arm.” 

We moved forward and ventured off to Hawaii.  As we went through the training, we were so blessed.  Financially we were able to miraculously pay for the training by those who sponsored us and some of our own funds.  Then we needed to come up with another $25,000 for the outreach to India.  This is when we would be implementing what was taught.  The cost of outreach was $25,000 and we had to borrow $21,000. 

The outreach was very interesting in India. 

The challenge we faced is how do we repay this loan?  At first I thought I would have to add this to a mortgage we had, but God had other plans.  We returned to Ontario to visit, to share with our friends and to have a moving sale of our household goods.  We were so blessed in Canada with the Wiersmas providing their house as a place to stay, the Blyth CRC offering us a lot to have the moving sale and many offers of food. 

By God’s grace the money we received from supporters, tax return and money we received from the moving sale, we were able to pay back the $21,000 that we borrowed.   God’s arm is indeed strong. 

Miracle #2

We made a commitment to serve in missions with YWAM at the University of the Nations in Kone, Hawaii.  Hawaii is a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and we wanted to have our vehicle with us.  We were in Hawaii for six months without a vehicle and being we had made a long term commitment, we wanted to have a means of transportation on the island.    

We decided to ship our van to Hawaii.  We could have it picked up and delivered to a port, but I had decided we would deliver it to a port ourselves.  So we ventured on a cross country trip again. 

Helen returned to Hawaii to be part of the preparation for the schooling for our children.  They are enrolled in the International Christian School, which is a collective home school. 

I asked Uncle Marv if he would be willing to travel with us across the USA again.  Uncle Marv is my brother-in-law Jack Datema’s uncle and we met him when we came back from California in February.  Uncle Marv said “Yes.” 

We were traveling along and making good time.  Suddenly in the state of Utah, the van began to sway like it was out of control.  Uncle Marv pulled over and Brianna was the first to spot that we had a flat tire on the driver’s rear side.  Joshua and I proceeded to change the flat tire. 

We were able to jack up the van and get the tire off, but then we were unable to get the spare tire lose from underneath.  I thought we needed to turn the part in the center of the tire and it would come down.  I was hitting it with the wrench and it was moving slowly.  My arm got tired, so I decided to take a break and climbed out from underneath the van.  Just as I was out, the van began to move and fell off the jack.  I observed the place where I was laying and was in awe.  That would have crushed me and I would have been sent to the hospital with broken ribs or sent home in a coffin.  I came around to the front door and Uncle Marv said “Thank you Lord,” as he noticed I was unhurt. 

We were able to jack up the van again but still we were not able to get the tire out.  I called Tire King in Sussex, NJ to get advice on how to get the tire off.  We were still unsuccessful.  Finally I called 911 and ½ hour later a man with roadside service stopped by.  He too was unable to get the spare tire off, so he repaired the broken tire. 

Thank you Lord for sparing my life.