Newsletter reformatted... Thanks for the praying...

What is going on now?

But God...
ll so she can be closer to us here in Texas. Please pray for a good transition from Canada to Texas!

But God.... Depending on the inflection with which you say these two words changes everything. Throughout this journey that the Lord has led us on we have said it whining to Him and we have said it in awe of Him. There is actually a new book with that title. IT is a book that shows how when things seem to be at the worst possible scenario and the then Scriptures say “but God...” and it shows how God showed His glory and His wonder in the midst of a horrible time (humanly speaking).
We, too, have such amazing “but God” moments. David has been diagnosed with Stage 4 Kidney Cancer with metastases to the bone (knee) and to his lungs and lymph nodes. He had surgery on his knee to remove the cancer and later had radiation to kill of cancer cells that grew back post surgery. He had surgery

to remove the kidney that contained the tumor. He was in so much pain. But God, showed His glory in giving both of us wisdom and peace to take each next step rationally. We have been told that the average life expectancy with treatment for this cancer is 2-3 years. But God, has given us His peace to take one day at a time. We had to leave our home and our ministry and return to the USA. We were scared because we loved our home and ministry in Indonesia. But God, showed up big and showed us that we have a wonderful family of supporters here in the USA and lots and lots of ministry opportunities with TCKs here! There are many more “but God” moments in our journey...
We are so blessed to serve a Sovereign and good God!! Jehovah Jireh has been our provider.

We are still with NICS
Folks have asked and yes, we are still with NICS. We continue to love and support this mission organization and all they are doing to minister to and educate Third Culture Kids and International Students. They are an organization that strives to glorify the Lord in all they do through their work with students!
Our school in Bandung has graciously offered to continue our insurance coverage in full until the end of

June 2012 and at 50% of the premium until June 2013. July 2012, they will pay 50% of our yearly premium and we will pay the other 50%. NICS has kept our support account open to help us with the part of the premium and for paying some of our medical expenses. If you would like to continue with your support of this purpose our account remains open for donations. We have been so blessed by all of you for all these years. We are unbelievably grateful for all the prayers and support, financially and otherwise!

Update on David...

Amazing! ... That’s really the only way I can describe how we’ve seen God work in and amongst this road on which He is leading us. God led us to Singapore to have my knee pain examined. He knew that was exactly where I needed to be when I was diagnosed with cancer. In every step we took, we could see that He had prepared us for exactly what was happening.
When I was in Singapore, my oncologist started me on a medicine for my cancer. It is called ‘targeted therapy’ because it does two specific things: it stops cells that are dividing and it prevents new blood vessels from being produced. So, the tumors have a difficult time growing if their cells can’t divide and if they can’t build new blood vessels to expand their size. When I was in Houston in late January, I had another CT scan; this scan revealed that the tumors in my lungs and lymph nodes in my chest had gotten smaller. We consider this a miracle because the medicine is only supposed to stop the growth of the tumors! We’re praising God for His provision and graciousness! I recently went to see an oncologist here in Longview at the Texas Oncology Center. It was a great appointment; she was glad to get all of my medical records from Singapore. She has continued the treatment that I started in Singapore. Please pray that God will continue to reduce the size of my tumors, that the medicine will continue to work, and that I’ll be able to endure the side effects of the medicine. 

Kim’s New Job
Kim is loving her new position as secretary/receptionist at LeTourneau University. It is an amazing workplace filled with encouragement, humour, and godly character. What a blessing! We are also grateful for the income and tuition benefits. God has been so gracious to supply a job that Kim very much enjoys!


MORE NEWS
Grace is coming back to Texas towards the end of April. She is hoping to attend LeTourneau majoring in Psychology or Counseling. We are so excited about having the whole family in Texas! Please pray for her admittance to LeTourneau and her transition back “home”. 


Thanks so much for all the prayers you have been praying.  Please keep praying for David and for the kids as the transition to life here in the US.  They are all processing at different levels leaving Indonesia and David's cancer diagnosis.  We are so humbled by them and their hearts for the Lord through all this.  They have each drawn closer to their Father.  Please pray for them to continue in this.  Also, pray for wisdom for us as Abi asks questions that are so hard. She is our one who is still crying daily over her sadness of leaving her home and friends in Indonesia and her daddy. 


On a brighter side...

Hope you enjoy the photos of Daddy and his kids :-) 

Hello Precious friends and supporters,

We say precious because we believe you are. You have all been so incredibly faithful and supportive of us throughout these many years. You have buoyed us in so many ways. We were able to stay on the field all these many years because of each of you. Your financial gifts were a great part of our ministry. We were able to do much with international students and Third Culture Kids because of each of you. But, more than the finances, your prayers have been the sustenance that we have needed to hold close to God for all these years. We cannot even begin to tell you all the times that we were feeling defeated, down or discouraged and we would receive a note from one of you telling us of how you were praying for us! It was amazing the peace that would come in knowing we were not alone.


We would like to apologize to those of you who have not heard from us. Over the years we have lost contact due to dropped email addresses and problems with mail in Indonesia. Many times letters were never arrived to the states and many times letters never arrived to us. We are so glad to be back in the US so that we can communicate more easily.


We have been overwhelmed by the love our church, Fellowship Bible Church of Longview, has shown to us. They have been so generous. Supporters have provided a home for us, and many supporters and church members furnished and decorated the home as well. We literally walked in and went to bed our first night. So overwhelming. We were led to our knees in thanksgiving to the Lord for the way He allowed us to feel His love through the words and actions of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Letters like these are hard to write. Whether we are saying thank you to all of you who have prayed for these 10-12 years, or to those who have also joined with us financially, or those of you who have also had a part in providing this new home for us, we are virtually speechless. There are truly no words to express the gratitude we are feeling. Every time we begin a letter to tell all of you how much we love and appreciate you, it just seems to not be enough. So, please know that from the depth of all we know regarding gratefulness, we are grateful.


We have also included a newsletter with lots of updates. We will email these and also send it out through the postal service. We cannot wait to hear from you and hopefully spend time with you!




Blessings
David and Kim and Grace, Emma, Jeff and Abi 

Update #8

Hello,

Since we last wrote an update, there have been some changes that being made.  

Last Thursday, we had a hard meeting with our director here at BAIS.  During this meeting, we were told that we would need to return to the states in mid-January.  These guys had such a hard decision to make here, and we believe that they prayed much about it and have only our best interest at heart.  I would hate to have had to been in their shoes in that meeting.  There reasonings are sound, and they are taking good care of us with insurance for the next couple of years. They are providing much assistance and care for us through out our time here as well.  We honestly believe that these guys made a decision for us that we could not have made ourselves.  And, it is a good decision.  Living in Indonesia with this cancer would be difficult and good medical care (and David's oncologist) would be a ~2 hour flight away.  We are very grateful for our administrative team at BAIS.  They are all so faithful to the Lord and pray and dig into the Word.  We are honored to have served under them.  Thank you so much, Pete, Dan and Charity.  We love you guys!

All that said, even good decisions can cause hurt and sadness.  We leave a bit of our hearts here in Indonesia. We will miss our friends, church, work, and the students so very much.  We will spend the next 39 days RAFTing like crazy with people, foods, places and our pets as well.  

RAFT is an acronym for saying good bye well.

R-Reconcile

A-Affirm

F-Farewell

T-Think ahead

We leave for Singapore on Wednesday for follow up appts with the urologist and nephrologist. and we meet with the oncologist as well. We hope that David can begin Chemo at this time, and that the oncologist can have a protocol for David that can be easily transferred to a doctor in Texas or wherever the Lord has us land.  

We are already praying about where God will have us.  We pray that we will be patient and listen to exactly where and what God wants with this move.  This is not an easy move for our kids.  They have loved growing up overseas.  The US is full of scary unknowns for them.  Of course there are happy thoughts like What-a-burger, Taco Bueno, Walmart, drinking from the faucet and other western things.  But, Emma mentioned today how much she will miss the mosque calls, and thinks that we will probably end up missing the things the most that annoy us now.  like loud grocery stores....  They will miss foods that are not in Texas.  They are afraid that people will not understand them.  They are afraid of what it means to live in America.  Their worldview is different.  They are afraid of making mistakes and getting laughed at. and, i thank the Lord, that they are telling me these things.  They are great kids. Praying that they can adapt well to yet another culture; the one that their parents know of but they really don't understand.

David is doing fairly well.  He has begun having knee pain.  This is scary cuz we do not know if it is because of the surgery or because the cancer is eating more of his bone.  Praying even more and learning to have to lean on Jesus for all our fears and doubts.  We go to Singapore at the end of this week and hope to get answers about the knee.

We are still in a strange place with this new idea of David having terminal cancer. Emma, Jeff, Grace and I have all had struggles waking up in the morning and thinking it was all a bad dream. Only to wake up more and find out it did all happen.  Those are the hard moments for me, but God is still there, and He is showing me still how much He loves us.  

I have the funny thing of having little movies play in my head.  

The latest one is of us standing at the entrance to this path.  It is dark, and thorny and ugly with scary trees.  and the road is rocky full of holes.  These holes are more like abysses. None of us want to take one step forward because we are afraid of tripping and falling into an abyss.  We are all standing there looking at each other. Then, Jesus appears from the path.  He has a light, but just enough for the next few steps in front of us.  He reaches out His hand and tells us to walk with Him.  I tell Him the road is rough, dark, scary, and unsure.  He smiles at me gently, and then He tells me that He knows the road and that He planned the road long long ago and He knows how to walk it. The first step is the hardest isnt it.  The one that says, Yes, Lord, I will trust You to take me down this terrible road.  and, yes, Lord, i know that this is a road that was already travelled by you and approved by You.  Once we take that step and faith builds on faith.  It won't necessarily get happier, but it will still be good, because we are walking it with Him.  And, He will lead us to our rest.  This is how i am doing day to day. Having to wake up and take His hand and walk.  Oh i still see the abysses and they still scare me and the road ahead looks darker and darker, but we are walking in the Light.

thanks for "listening" to me talk about the journey...

incredibly therapeutic to write it out.  and, it is keeping me honest. ;-)

Thanks for you prayers and encouragement.

Much love to you guys!

Kim and David

Welcome to the latest on our Blog.

Below there are a series of updates that I posted on Facebook and then realized a lot of you guys are not necessarily on Facebook.

Please read through our journey over the last 2 1/2 weeks.

It is a tough road but we do not walk it alone.  We are amazed by the portions of grace that the Father has poured out on us.  Praising Him for His goodness and His sovereignty.

Thanks for walking with us...

David and Kim and the kiddos

Update on David #1

November 24, 2011

Hello friends, 

Thought i would update you on David so you can have the details.  

We are in the hospital in Singapore.

For those of you who do not know, David has been having increasing R knee pain over the last 4-6 weeks.  He had no injury. Th pain and stiffness stiffness just came on out of the blue.  Over the last 2 weeks the pain and swelling and lack of range of motion started progressing pretty fast.  By Friday of last week David was unable to sustain any pressure on his knee at all and was hobbling around,  He went to bed and stayed there for 3-4 days.  Everytime he let his leg dangle the pain increased to beyond tolerable.

We were referred to the dr. here in Singapore (this is the same dr who did Grace's knee surgery) and after examining him and reading MRIs and X-rays has determined that David has a tumor in his femur.  It is partially in his femur and partially outside his femur.

He is not sure what kind of tumor it is.  

David will have surgery on Friday (tomorrow) 25 Nov 2011 to have the tumor biopsied.  During the surgery they will do a frozen biopsy to determine what kind of tumor it is.  There are three possible scenarios, according to our dr.  (and a bone tumor specialist that he has called in to help him)

1.  It is an infectious tumor: if this is the case then they will scoop of the tumor and clear the margins on the bone and then clean up around the knee to get rid of all infection. Then David will stay in the hospital for several days to get IV antibiotics. Then, he will take oral antibiotics for at least 2 months to make certain all infection is gone.  then after the two months, we will return to singapore to have the hole in his bone reconstructed with bone shavings from his hip. (ouch)

2.  It is a benign tumor: if this is the case then they will scoop out the tumor and clear the margins on the femur and immediately reconstruct the hole in his bone with bone shavings from his hip. (again ouch)

3. It is a malignant tumor:  if this is the case then they will close the incision until they can study the biopsy further to determine what kind of cancer it is.  Then the best treatment options will come 3-4 days later.

Please pray for wisdom for the surgeons in treatment options and the pathologists to see the correct type of cells. 

Please pray for David as his pain is quite unbearable without pain meds.

and for David as he comes out of anesthesia.  the last time he had surgery (22 years ago) he came out of anethesia very badly.  

pray for David and I to have wisdom and peace and a strong witness of God's faithfulness, sovereignty and goodness no matter what the outcome.  we want to be a strong witness to the Father and bring Him glory. We know that He is good no matter what the outcome.  

pray for us to have grace for the day and not try to think and plan for an uncertain future.

pray for the kids as they are in Bandung and Calgary and hearing everything and not being able to hug their daddy.

please pray for and give God thanks for all our friends in Bandung who are really stepping in and helping us with the kids and classwork 

We have seen God so beautifully every step on this journey.  He is SO faithful.

Thanks for praying.

I will update when i can post surgery.

Blessings 

Kim for all of us Durhams ;-)

Update #2 on David

Friday, 25 November 2011 at 21:04

First, thank you all so much for your prayers and support of us through this.  We have been so blessed.  and so encouraged.  even though we are in a city where we dont know anyone really well, we feel loved and supported and cared for.  We have seen God in every single detail.  He is such a good and loving Father.

Also, thanks for your patience.  We wanted to let our family. know about this before we post this for the world to see. :-) 

David's surgery went well.  They found that he did not actually have a fleshy tumor but rather it was a pocket of fluid.  They also discovered that the hole in his femur measures 3cm in diameter.  As they were cleaning out the fluid and scraping the bone to get to the healthy bone tissue, they noticed some "gelatinous tissue" so they stopped and took a section of it and sent it to the lab.  The lab report came back as being highly suspicious for malignancy.  so they cleaned it all out and sent it all to the lab for further study.  We should have those results back on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.  He also scheduled David for a PET scan for Monday.  This will help to see if there is cancer anywhere else in the knee or the rest of his body for that matter.

Our dr. is still holding out some hope that this is just some really strange infectious tissue, but he admits that this is a small chance. He is so kind. And, we are so grateful for him to keep looking at all alternatives.

He gave us two scenarios (i think he likes scenarios) you all should all meet this guy. he is awesome.

1rst scenario.....the frozen biopsy is wrong and it is not cancer, but rather infection.  if this is the case, same as before, iv antibiotics for a while and then 6 months later reconstruct the bone...

2nd scenario.... it is a malignancy and the malignancy is confined to the knee.  this is where david and thought it was pretty cool. they will remove the entire knee... and replace it with a prostethic knee that goes under the skin.  This is called limb salvage.  not too long ago this would have meant an above knee amputation, but now the can save the lower leg and put in a completely artificial knee. is that not cool?

3rd scenario...it is malignant, and there is more cancer other than the knee...if this is the case, well we will deal with that later.

grace for the moment. 

we are trusting God with every step.  we feel such a peace. we really do.  God has been in every single detail.  He has protected our hearts each step of the way.  

He is sovereign and He is good.

love to all of you.  thanks for praying....please don't stop.

praise Him with us for all He is doing.  We are so grateful for our community at BAIS who are praying for us and caring for our kiddos.  We are truly blessed.

More to come when we know more.

 david and kim 

Update on David #3

y Kim Durham on Monday, 28 November 2011 at 20:59

Well,

God is sovereign and God is good.  And He has promised to never leave us and to walk with us through the darkest valley. 

We are about to enter a pretty dark valley. 

David’s PET scan shows a probable primary tumor in the kidney, with a spots on the lungs, and an affected lymph node behind the trachea as well as the knee.

This is all we know.  Our doctor is bringing in a urologist tomorrow. 

We are reeling a bit, but not out of control.  We are constantly reminding each other who holds everything together, whose voice rules the waters and the wind and spoke the world into existence.  He is healer.  He is provider. He is Jehovah, YAWEH,

He is our God. 

We are scared. No hiding that.  But we are confident too in the fact the God knows all of our steps.  He knows our pain, our sadness, our fear, and He is there to hold on to.  He is so incredibly faithful.  We see in Him in everything here. 

My (kim) mind is playing movie reels even as I type this that is kinda like a documentary.  With red arrows pointing “here” and “here” and “here” etc.  I have no cause to run away or be angry or be in despair.  He is there. And He is not silent….

Please pray for our faith to be made strong.  Pray that we glorify His name in every move we make.

That is the desire here.  No matter what, we show God to be sovereign and good.  

Kim and David

Thanks everyone so much for your encouragement

Tuesday, 29 November 2011 at 09:48

You guys have blessed us with your prayers and your words comfort and encouragement.

We are clinging to God like crazy right now.  This is not some amazing act of faith on our part really.  This is survival.  I cannot even begin to imagine how to do this without God.  I was telling MC (for those of you who dont know her; she is a very dear friend who does not let me get way with anything) that Peter comes to mind a lot these last two days.  Like i can see it like on a movie.  The storm is raging, a lot like the storm in The Perfect Storm, and the boat is going kinda crazy and out in the distance they see Him. They see Jesus.  He was walking on the water. Peter without even thinking (i imagine him not even thinking) gets out of the boat and starts walking ON WATER.  So boldly He did this.  But, then, He lost his focus. He looked at the water, the storm, the sky. doesnt really say what he looked at.....He took His eyes off Jesus. and he sunk.  

I know that i know that i know if i take my eyes off Jesus, i am going to sink.  I am a lot like Peter.  I jump first and think later.  (those of you who know us well know that david thinks and thinks and thnks and then he jumps too - Could we be more opposite? ;-) ) I digress. I am petrified of sinking.  I have sunk many times before and just like for Peter, Jesus reaches out and gets me and pulls me back up.  But, i am usually so frustrated with myself, humiliated, discouraged, ashamed.  Yes, by God's grace, i am forgiven and cared for when i fail to trust in Him, but the consequences, or better said. the benefits of not losing focus are far greater.

I have faith right now by God's grace. i literally run to Him about every 10 minutes so far since we got David's PET scan results.  I run to the Word and to His arms.  I cannot imagine the future.  When i do, i break down, because i do not know the future.  Only God does. So, i need your prayers to not put my hope in the future but to my hope in the Father who knows and planned and sovereignly ordained our future.

So, in essence, we are firm in our faith, but we know sinking will occur if we do not focus on Jesus, the perfecter of our faith.  We are not strong.  We cannot do this.  The only way we make it through this and still bring glory to God is by submitting every emotion, thought and fear to Him and letting Him heal.  

i think it is ok to be scared.  just take those scared feelings to Him every time so that it does not get a stronghold and gives way to despair or loss of faith or the loss of a compass to navigate through this.

Kim and David

Update on David #4

Wednesday, 30 November 2011 at 11:09

Hello precious friends and prayer partners!

Today is surgery day. (again)  At 5pm Singapore time (3am CST, 2am Mountain Time) David will go for removal of his left kidney.  It has a tumor of about 6cm that takes up a large portion of the kidney.  It is believed that his kidney has most likely lost it functioning anyways. And, the principle cancer needs to be removed to help prevent further spreading and to study the cancer cells to decide on the absolute best chemo therapy. He will stay in the hospital til Saturday or Sunday.  Then we stay in Singapore til Wednesday and then if all goes according to plan we get to go back to Bandung for about 10 days.  Then we will return to Singapore for a wound check and to begin Chemo.

This is quite the journey.  

God has been so here.  It has been the most amazing experience to almost feeling Him physically here. Each time i think there is no way i can take one more piece of news, i feel His hand reach out and i know that He knows....

I cannot do this. But, God can through me.  I'll say it again. We can trace His steps leading to this moment.  We see Him in the present (great drs, amazing BAIS family, peace that makes no sense whatsoever, "stuck" in a city with awesome restaurants ;-) ) and we see Him waiting fo us and with us on the path that lies ahead.  He knows the path. We just need to walk it with Him.  

As to how to pray, if healing occurs obviously we would be amazed and we know He can do that if He so chooses. But, truly we covet your prayers for faithfulness in the journey.  Our number one desire is to glorify Him in EVERY SINGLE STEP of this journey.  It will not be easy.  We have hard things to decide and to live through.  But, what an amazing outcome to have His name be renowned through this.  We do not want to waste this opportunity to magnify His name.  

In saying that, when we are praising Him and expressing peace and strength, it is so very important to us that no one sees us as strong or peaceful, but that they see God alone.  It is inexplicable what is going on in my heart.  I am a worrier.  I am a doomsday-person.  I have never ever in my life felt this sense of God's presence and had the desire to choose the hard road with Him.  David has always been that kind of person. So, he is ready to take the journey instinctively. But, again this is the Holy Spirit in David.  

thanks so much for your prayers 

Kim and David.

Update on David #5

Wednesday, 30 November 2011 at 20:46

Surgery is over.  Surgeon came and talked to us and the surgery went exactly as according to plan. They did remove his left kidney and surrounding lymph nodes.  There was a tumor that was taking up a large part of the kidney.  So no surprise there, but definite verification.  

They said that David was stable in surgery and should be up in the room in the next 30 minutes to an hour.  

Recovery should go as planned.  

Thanks so much for all the prayers.....keep them coming.. :-)

We are through one checkpoint now on to the next.....

praising God for a great team of doctors.

He has been with us all the way.  

kim 

Update on David #6

Thursday, 1 December 2011 at 10:49

David slept well most of the night, but is in quite a bit of pain. He is trying to move around in bed and hopes to get up in the chair today. Please pray for his pain to managed well so that he can improve and get moving around and heal more quickly. Thanks for all your prayers and support. The next couple of days will be quiet news-wise. But, will be busy trying to get David up walking and moving. We are so encouraged by all of you. Our faith is still strong. We are so amazed at His provision and peace and His grace.

Your prayers and notes have done much to encourage and love on us.  God is everywhere in this.  How fun to see Him in every step of this.

Love you all!

Update on David #7

Tuesday, 6 December 2011 at 21:13

Hello dear friends

i am wanting to update you on David.

We just had our follow up appointments and they all say he is progressing as expected.  Praise God!!! I need to say again how blessed we are to have our doctors here.  Jehovah Jireh!

His right kidney is functioning pretty well considering it is doing the work of two now.  They expect it to continue to do well.  David was referred to a kidney internist because the kidney they removed had some some minor kidney disease.  So, they will monitor the right kidney throughout chemo and such.

We will see the oncologist on Dec 15th, but for now we go home (bandung) tomorrow (Dec 7th). Cannot wait to hug our kids and love on them and see friends and learn how to live a new way of living.  

We are doing well.  Growing and learning.  The shock is wearing off.  The grief is not as raw (at least for now) We are beginning to plan for the next wee bit for Christmas. Changing our plans from the US to staying in Indonesia and bringing Gracie here.  

We are ready to sit as a family and just love on each other.  So happy about this.  

There is much to rejoice about this Christmas. God's fingerprints are everywhere throughout this whole process. Praising Him through grief has been so good. so new.  

i get to feeling out of sorts and i cannot help but just fall into His arms and rest. This is so new for me and i am finding such joy in learning to rest when i want to fight to the end.  now, i fight for a bit...kinda like a baby that is fighting sleep... then i just give up and rest and it feels so good.  pray that i keep resting my hopes in HIM alone.  

Please pray for David to experience continued healing and less and less pain. so far healing is happening really well.

David's peace is inspiring.  He is so content.  He is sad that the end of this means leaving us way to soon (barring a miracle)but, He has such confidence in the Lord.  Love this guy!!!! So blessed to be going through this with him...

You all have been so amazing with your prayers and encouragement.  

We love you all so much.  

Kim and David

Update #8
11 December 2011

Hello,

Since we last wrote an update, there have been some changes that being made.

Last Thursday, we had a hard meeting with our director here at BAIS.  During this meeting, we were told that we would need to return to the states in mid-January.  These guys had such a hard decision to make here, and we believe that they prayed much about it and have only our best interest at heart.  I would hate to have had to been in their shoes in that meeting.  There reasonings are sound, and they are taking good care of us with insurance for the next couple of years. They are providing much assistance and care for us through out our time here as well.  We honestly believe that these guys made a decision for us that we could not have made ourselves.  And, it is a good decision.  Living in Indonesia with this cancer would be difficult and good medical care (and David's oncologist) would be a ~2 hour flight away.  We are very grateful for our administrative team at BAIS.  They are all so faithful to the Lord and pray and dig into the Word.  We are honored to have served under them.  Thank you so much, Pete, Dan and Charity.  We love you guys!

All that said, even good decisions can cause hurt and sadness.  We leave a bit of our hearts here in Indonesia. We will miss our friends, church, work, and the students so very much.  We will spend the next 39 days RAFTing like crazy with people, foods, places and our pets as well.
RAFT is an acronym for saying good bye well.
R-Reconcile
A-Affirm
F-Farewell
T-Think ahead

We leave for Singapore on Wednesday for follow up appts with the urologist and nephrologist. and we meet with the oncologist as well. We hope that David can begin Chemo at this time, and that the oncologist can have a protocol for David that can be easily transferred to a doctor in Texas or wherever the Lord has us land.

We are already praying about where God will have us.  We pray that we will be patient and listen to exactly where and what God wants with this move.  This is not an easy move for our kids.  They have loved growing up overseas.  The US is full of scary unknowns for them.  Of course there are happy thoughts like What-a-burger, Taco Bueno, Walmart, drinking from the faucet and other western things.  But, Emma mentioned today how much she will miss the mosque calls, and thinks that we will probably end up missing the things the most that annoy us now.  like loud grocery stores....  They will miss foods that are not in Texas.  They are afraid that people will not understand them.  They are afraid of what it means to live in America.  Their worldview is different.  They are afraid of making mistakes and getting laughed at. and, i thank the Lord, that they are telling me these things.  They are great kids. Praying that they can adapt well to yet another culture; the one that their parents know of but they really don't understand.

David is doing fairly well.  He has begun having knee pain.  This is scary cuz we do not know if it is because of the surgery or because the cancer is eating more of his bone.  Praying even more and learning to have to lean on Jesus for all our fears and doubts.  We go to Singapore at the end of this week and hope to get answers about the knee.

We are still in a strange place with this new idea of David having terminal cancer. Emma, Jeff, Grace and I have all had struggles waking up in the morning and thinking it was all a bad dream. Only to wake up more and find out it did all happen.  Those are the hard moments for me, but God is still there, and He is showing me still how much He loves us.

I have the funny thing of having little movies play in my head.

The latest one is of us standing at the entrance to this path.  It is dark, and thorny and ugly with scary trees.  and the road is rocky full of holes.  These holes are more like abysses. None of us want to take one step forward because we are afraid of tripping and falling into an abyss.  We are all standing there looking at each other. Then, Jesus appears from the path.  He has a light, but just enough for the next few steps in front of us.  He reaches out His hand and tells us to walk with Him.  I tell Him the road is rough, dark, scary, and unsure.  He smiles at me gently, and then He tells me that He knows the road and that He planned the road long long ago and He knows how to walk it. The first step is the hardest isnt it.  The one that says, Yes, Lord, I will trust You to take me down this terrible road.  and, yes, Lord, i know that this is a road that was already travelled by you and approved by You.  Once we take that step and faith builds on faith.  It won't necessarily get happier, but it will still be good, because we are walking it with Him.  And, He will lead us to our rest.  This is how i am doing day to day. Having to wake up and take His hand and walk.  Oh i still see the abysses and they still scare me and the road ahead looks darker and darker, but we are walking in the Light.

thanks for "listening" to me talk about the journey...
incredibly therapeutic to write it out.  and, it is keeping me honest. ;-)

Thanks for you prayers and encouragement.

Much love to you guys!

Kim and David

Durham's in Indonesia!!

What is the Durham clan learning these days?

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 (ESV)

We are doing a whole lot of learning. We have really committed ourselves this year to growing in His truth and in our likeness of Him. We have also been desiring a different picture of what that means as a family. The book This Momentary Marriage by John Piper has been an amazing catalyst in the way we think about how our family is supposed to reflect the relationship the Father and has children. It has been humbling for us to think through our lives and wonder how we have been perceived. Have we always glorified the Father with our behaviour towards one another. It has been much to think about. We highly recommend the book to you. Also, we have been learning that He is a sovereign Lord: over finances, health, family, and most definitely our future. But, equally important, we are learning that He is good; maybe not always so easily understood, BUT HE IS GOOD!!! We are so loving that He never stops working on, in and through us. So humbling to realized that He chooses to use us, in spite of ourselves. :-)

David is relearning teaching Math and Sciences. He is finding that he missed it terribly, but He still loves teaching His 12th grade Bible class on Biblical Worldview and Transitioning to life post - high school and back to their home countries.

David and Kim are both learning what it must have felt like to our families as we prepared to leave to come overseas, now that this year we are preparing to send our oldest daughter back over the great seas to the United States to attend college. We are learning much about letting go and trusting the Father to care for Grace much more than we could ever do so.

And, we are learning a lot about faith. All of us are learning about living a life where the only thing that really matters is the glory of the One and Only God Who is to be glorified and magnified through our lives. Learning more and more that this life is not about us, but

about Him!

Praises and Prayer Requests

Grace’s Big News

Grace has received and official acceptance letter from Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota. This is her dream school. So, needless to say she is jazzed beyond belief and is

praising God daily for His goodness. Please keep praying for scholarships. We know that Lord will provide according to His will and we rest in His sovereignty and His goodness.

Emma’s Competition

Em has been having a great freshman year in High School. We are so proud of her diligence and commitment level. Please pray for continued growth in her walk with the Lord and pray that she will continue to make good friends.

Jeff and Homeschool.

It is going great. Please continue to pray for wisdom in dealing with learning differences and for

diligence on both Jeff and Kim’s part. They are having fun and learning at the same time. Learning book stuff and more about each other. So much fun!!!

Abi is loving 1st grade

Nothing could be better for Abi. She is thrilled to be in school. She is still by far the best at tearing down walls between cultures and beliefs. She sees no difference between her and anyone. She talks to anyone about anything..no judgements, no hiding, no fear. I pray that she

matures but never changes. She is such a blessing to us. Gotta love God’s surprises.

Fun times with snakes!

The Lord keeps us safe here. We have found three snakes in our back yard: 2 Cobras and a Rat

snake. Our school security is on constant snake patrol at our school looking for snakes and protecting our kids from them as well. They recently found a reticulated Python. The kids were thrilled when we received a phone call telling us we could come and see it. (See photo) There has been a lot of education on what to do if you see a snake. Abi is so fun when she comes home and tells us what we need to do when we see a snake. :-) We are learning that this is part of life here and are adjusting our habits - like looking down before you take a step....

abi loved the snake so much. wishing she had a little more fear
this thing was over 3 meters long!
not loving snakes at the house, but it was kinda pretty!

Check out my facebook acct for more fun pics of our life here in Indonesia!

thanks so very much for all your prayers and support,

david and kim and the rest of the clan

Contact Info:

David and Kim Durham

c/o Bandung Alliance

International School

Jalan Bujanggamanik Kav. 2

Kota Baru Parahyangan

Bandung 40553

Indonesia

EMAIL:

david.kim.durham@gmail.com

INTERNATIONAL PHONE#

903-704-4148

NICS HOME OFFICE:

(PLEASE USE THIS ADDRESS FOR

ANY FINANCIAL GIFTS )

NETWORK OF INTERNATIONAL

CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS

3790 GOODMAN RD E

SOUTHAVEN, MS 38672

U.S.A.

More notes....so sorry that it has been so long

Dearest Friends and Family,

Rainy season is over. Dry season is in its beginning stages. A few rain drops here and a few showers there but all in all, the rain is a bidding us farewell. Many of my friends are happy about this, but I for one, am sad. I love the rainy season. The smell of fresh rain, the clouds helping to hide a fierce, hot sun, the green grass and beautiful flowers (including my wonderful orchids that a student’s parents gave us), and a plethora of other reasons bring me much joy and much comfort. I am in awe of His creation more during the rainy season.

But, the dry season does have its advantages. I can ride my bike without fear of being doused before I get to shelter. I can count on getting my clothes dry by noon on the clothesline and my kids like to get suntans ☺

OK! Enough about weather

We are doing well. Winding down the school year.

David is winding down his responsibilities as chaplain and member care coordinator. He is excited to return to the classroom on a full time basis next year. We have enjoyed the roles he has had the last two years. We have fed new teachers dinner one Tuesday a month for two years now, and helped guide them through their first year overseas. This has been so fulfilling to us. But, it has also drained David as he has found that he definitely loves to minister to folks in this way, but he really does enjoy the administrative side of things. So back to behind the scenes we go!

He will teach Accounting/Statistics, Pre-Calculus, Calculus, Physics, and Grade 12 Bible. He is so glad to be “home” again.

Please pray for the finishing up of the year that he will finish his roles well. And, for next year that he will be able to honor the Father in teaching his classes.

Kim will take on a full time role of homeschooling Jeff. This is NOT a part time job. That has been her new discovery for the year. Jeff has been so patient with her. Love that boy. They are both looking forward to being able to have the whole day to do school and ministry and application of what they have learned.

Please pray for her to have patience with Jeff and herself. Pray for wisdom of when to move on from a lesson and when to stick with it until mastery. Pray for this to be a time for her and Jeff to really make memories (preferably good ones ☺)

The kids are pretty busy themselves

Grace has taken the SAT twice this year and the ACT once. She has had reconstructive knee surgery with the possibility of another surgery next week. She is Eliza Dolittle in Pygmalion this week (two performances) and has her AP US History exam on the same day; then to Singapore for the possible surgery and then back to school for final exams. Aduh!!! Craziness.

Grace is still hoping and praying for an opportunity to go to China this summer to work with children in orphanages or camps. Please pray for the Father’s leading in this. And for Mom who is still learning to let go. Also, please pray for upcoming senior year and wisdom in college choices.

Em is finishing off Middle School and heading to High School. We are glad to see her growing in many ways. She really loves to read. She has been making some good friends as of late and for that we are praising Dad like crazy.

Please pray for the transition into High School to go smoothly and that Em will lean on the Father for EVERYTHING.

Jeff is hoping to add some sports to his schedule next year. He is soooo excited about the World Cup. He has asked me to make sure his allegiance to Brasil is made known to all of you. ☺ That boy loves his World Cup.

Please pray as we said above that home school will be a good experience for him and that he will learn to the best of his ability.

Abi graduates from kindergarten this year. Where did the time go? According to Abi, she is ready to get to 1rst grade so that she can go to 2nd grade. We are telling her to slow down and enjoy the ride, but she feels frustrated being so much younger than her siblings and is feeling the need to catch up. Ha ha.

Please pray for Abi as she is having a hard time focusing at school. And that she will continue to love Jesus and grow in Him.


Thanks so much for praying for us and for supporting us through so many years. Your consistent notes of encouragement and your financial support have humbled us and encouraged us so much.

We are praying for you guys as well!!!

David and Kim for the rest of us Durhams

October Notes

hello to all our prayer warriors and teammates,

all is going pretty good here. we have really learned alot about earthquakes too. we now feel even the smallest ones that we had missed before because now we know what they feel like. although we have experienced no damage or injuries or loss of life, that cannot be said for many in our host country.

please pray for those who have lost family members, homes and health. please be thinking of those who have gone to help with rebuilding and all that goes with that. please pray for us as we have an opportunity to spend 10 days being more sets of hands and able bodies to help with the construction and feeding and aiding many who have nothing left.

david in the groove of teaching, being chaplain, and member care. he has recently added seminary student to that list. he is doing a seminary online degree with asia theological baptist seminary. it is online classes and seminar classes. he is pretty busy with it all. but, so far it is a good busy.

a major praise here is that he got a HUGE break on his tuition. he is paying about $50 US for each credit hour. this makes each class cost about $152. we are praising the Father for this.

grace is keeping busy. her injury to her knee from soccer remains to be a concern. although 2 readings of her mri show no ligament or cartilage damage, she still feels quite a bit of instability and a feeling as though her leg is going to “snap” (her words). the mri did show bone bruising and swollen bone marrow. we are trying to figure out some rehab on our own. she is doing well in school. homework definitely keeping her busy this year. she is planning on some upcoming trips to give her more of a window into what kind of work she might be interested in doing in the future.

please pray for grace that she will continue to follow hard after her King; asking the Father to glorify Himself through her life. she has had some amazing opportunities here to learn that she truly wants to live her life only for Him. the temptation to take the easy road is there though. so please pray that she will always choose the road that He wants for her, not just the path of least resistance.

emma is doing well except for her allergies. she is really struggling with new allergies all the time. she has had a couple of big reactions since we have returned. we are learning to quickly deal with it with some benadryl. her schooling is going well. she has really become an avid reader. (more like rabid) cannot get her enough books. this is a good thing :-). we are also learning so much about emma the last few months. she is so loving and caring and responsible. we praise the Lord for that and also for her love for Him.

please pray for emma that she will be an avid reader of the Word as well. and that she will learn more and more how to put into practice all that she reads so that she can glorify Him in all she does as well. please pray for em to remember all her meds so that she can keep a good base line with her allergies.

jeff is being home-schooled this year. we are having a blast. we really are. i am learning so much about him and his learning styles. and, i am learning about his heart. oh how i love his heart. he is so in love with the Father. he struggles with being frustrated with his learning difficulties, but he is learning more and more everyday that he is to glorify the Lord with the abilities He has given him. we are also excited to see him begin to take responsibility for his own Spiritual growth.

please pray for jeff that he will not compare himself to others and that he will be focussed only on what the Father expects and desires from him. pray for him that He will continue to have a hunger for the Word and learning how to glorify his Father.

abi is still a hoot. she is learning so much too. kindergarden is her favorite thing. she gets so upset when it is the weekend. go figure. she is learning to read and spell. abi continues to struggle with her fine and gross motor skills and this is causing some problems with art and pe. but, she really does not let it slow her down. she has been a joy to us through some rough patches as of late. she is so naturally funny. we thank the Father everyday for our funny little joy!!!!

please pray for abi to even now begin to understand that she is made for the purpose of glorifying her King and that we will be good examples of that for her and all of our kids.

pray for abi to not become frustrated at her inabilities to draw, color, cut or play sports.

we thank you all for your amazingly consistent support and prayers. we are humbled by you all. thanks so much!!!. we lift you up before our Father as well. please let us know how to best do that.

much love to all of you.

serving Him together

the durhams