Q&A: The First 5 Cards (anonymous, Jayme, Karen, Austin, and James)

While we were in the states over the holidays, we were able to share at our church (Renewal City Church in Longview, WA - we love it there!).  We set out 3x5 inch note cards and invited church members to write questions that they would like us to answer on the cards.  We decided we'd use this format to respond to the questions!

So, without further ado:

#1: How many times have you been to Mordor? - anonymous
We've driven past it several times, but so far we haven't stopped - do you blame us?! :)

In Lord of the Rings, the land of Mordor was filmed on the North Island of New Zealand at a place called Tongariro National Park.  It is in the middle of the North Island, it is a dry, rather barren area.  There isn't a lot of people in that part of New Zealand, so it was a terrific filming location for Mordor in the movies.  Mount Nauruhoe was the perfectly shaped volcanic cone that becomes Mount Doom in the movies.

Tongariro National Park is about a 4 or 5 hour drive from our home, I believe.  On our base's October DTS, the Pilgrimage Stream always do a hike in Tongariro National Park.

Source: https://www.visitruapehu.com/explore/tongariro-national-park/

#2: What is the worst or most dangerous bug/creepy crawly/animal you have to deal with on base or outreach? - Jayme R.
On base: the most dangerous thing in New Zealand is two types of spiders.  The White Tail spider is the spider we see frequently - apparently originally native to Australia.  This species of spiders likes to come in our dining room window and hang out.  They get to be about the size of a quarter in diameter (that is counting the legs), and they have a distinctive white pattern on their backs.    Rumor has it that their bites can cause cavernous, gross holes in your skin from the poison - but a quick search on google (which is, of course, super reliable ;)) indicates they aren't actually all that (if at all) poisonous to humans.  I still try to kill them and keep them away from my baby!

There is one venomous spider that is native to New Zealand I've never seen - it's called the katipo.  Only the female is poisonous.

On outreach, the worst creepy crawly we've had to deal with are centipedes - not your friendly, PNW 1-2 inch long centipedes, these are large, fast, aggressive red centipedes.  Commonly known as Vietnamese centipedes, I believe, they can live for up to 10 years, and we've seen them 6-10 inches long.  Waking up to having one crawl over you, or when they scuttle around in your shoe when you put your shoes on is not a pleasant experience.  And they are very hard to kill - we've found machetes seem to work best!

Source: http://animal-world.com/encyclo/reptiles/centipedes/VietnameseCentipede.php

#3: Do you have good personal friends there that you can meet with often to pray for you? Or do you feel it is one sided and feel alone? - Karen H.

Being a part of a YWAM community - at least here at Marine Reach - is kind of funny, because often you find yourself getting prayed for and praying for others BEFORE you actually build much of a friendship!  So my first thought in response to that question is, "We have more friends here who pray for us regularly than probably many of our fellow church members back in the states have!" Praying for each other is such an ingrained part of our culture that yes, I feel like I ALWAYS have people who will pray for me - if I ask, they will stop whatever they are doing, put their hands on me or their arms around me, and pray for me right on the spot for whatever my needs are.

So, yes to the prayer, and absolutely yes to having close friends here.  Being on a DTS staff team means that we are working shoulder to shoulder alongside one or two dozen people who all have a similar goal to what we have, are experiencing a similar life to what we're experiencing, and are in the same "faith boat" that we're in, too.  We still have to be intentional about building friendship, and there can develop a level of "comfortableness" that makes us feel like we know someone really well without actually taking time to get to know them (probably part of the spiritually intense day-to-day life), but we have been able to build friendships and some of the people we first met 2 1/2 years ago when we came as students are still living life with us every day - eating meals together, cleaning together, organizing together, worshipping alongside, praying with, and conversing with.  I think that our friendships and the very real element of community are two of our favorite parts of being in YWAM.

Our July 2018 DTS staff team. Source: Marine Reach Media Team

#4: Why did you not pass out pens and is it warm in New Zealand? - Austin P.
I don't know why we didn't pass out pens!  I'll see if we can do that next time - that would be far more useful than notecards!

And yes, right now it is delightfully warm.  Since the seasons are reversed, here in February we are experiencing the height of summer.  We have two plum trees in our backyard which are bursting with flavor! In the winter, it does get cold - usually not down all the way to freezing, but it will regularly be down to 10 degrees C (about 50 degrees F), and since New Zealand homes are not insulated that much, that is the temperature both inside and outside.  So it FEELS cold because you feel like you never warm up from about June through August - but then sometimes the sun breaks through and you find yourself sitting outside during lunch and you realize you are, momentarily, warm!

New Zealand lifestyle culture involves a lot more fluid movement between indoors and outdoors - so even in the dead of winter, unless it is down pouring rain, windows are left open, sliding doors are left open, people eat outside, etc.  We have a front porch area that is under cover, which is where we hang our laundry to dry (clothes dryers are rarely used here), and we spend a LOT of time out there, regardless of the outside temperature.

Our laundry drying in our outdoor space while Mara gets some sunshine!

#5: What does "Samara" mean? - James D.
It has three main meanings - all of them are related: "Protected by God," "Covered by God" and "Guardian." We loved the idea of instilling in her identity that God is with her and watching over her - but also giving her a name that speaks to empowering her to guard and protect others.

At the end of our pregnancy with her, there was some concern that she hadn't developed as she needed to and that her health could be compromised.  Just before finding out about that, we had finally decided that if we had a girl, her name would be Samara. Over those several weeks when we were waiting for pregnancy to end, hoping our baby would be OK, I just felt more and more confident that our baby was a girl (we opted to not find out at the ultrasounds), and that this would be a specific example in her life of God covering her and covering her situation and circumstance.  Sure enough, she was born perfectly formed, perfectly healthy, and our midwife later came back and said she thought there had been a mistake in the ultrasounds that indicated she was at risk.  I don't know if it was a mistake or a miraculous healing, but either way, we give God the credit for protecting and covering over that little girl.

Source: Gabe K.

Washington - Christmas with the Families

We have been able to be home for Christmas (plus some weeks afterward!), and it has been GREAT!

Here are some photos of our time with our people!

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Christmas Eve - after opening presents with the Kirkwood side

Our nephew, Noah, reading the Christmas story.

Mara got a lot of books for Christmas!  YAY!

Christmas with the Shulke side.

Mara with her Great-Grandma, Sonel.

A walker loan from Auntie Heather was a big hit with our wanna-be walker!

We went to Ferncrest tree farm a few days before Christmas and this reindeer was posing for my camera.

Gabe and his girl.

Mara having a little hand's on nature experience.

Mara and Mama.

On the move!

We've been so blessed to get to see many friends and family during these weeks home.  Here at the end of our time in the USA, we have to admit, we are pretty exhausted, but we feel like we set out what we intended to do, which was to spend some quality time with the people who love us and have sent us out so well.  Sadly, we didn't get to spend time with EVERYONE we wanted to - there always seems to be a limit to what we can fit in - but know that even if our time with you was short or just in passing, it meant a lot to us to see your face, hear your voice, and share a moment.

New Zealand - The Kombucha Shelf

We've gotten REALLY into kombucha making in the past year.  Gabe has perfected several flavor combinations, and we not only drink liters of the stuff, but we also sell it at the base and have a pretty faithful consumer following.

As a result, in our utility/office/storage/bonus room, we have a bit of a Kombucha Production shelf.  We keep our empty bottles on the bottom shelves, and let the Kombucha ferment on the top shelf in large vats.

The other day, Mara was wanting to be near me, so when I needed to rinse out some diapers, I put her on the floor behind me - between the Kombucha Production Station and an empty laundry basket.  She loves the laundry basket - primarily unloading things OUT of the laundry basket - so I pulled it over next to her and told her she could play with it.

She seemed relatively happy behind me (i.e.: she wasn't crying), so I rinsed diapers for several minutes. Then I heard some bottles fall, so I turned around to see what she was doing.  As you can see in the photo above, she had either gotten tired of the laundry basket or just ignored it, and she went for the kombucha shelf instead.

I chuckled and said something to the effects of, "Good job, Mara!  Well done exploring your world.  If you want to play with the bottles on the kombucha shelf, you go for it. You were made to explore, and you are doing exactly what you are supposed to do." Then I turned back to finish the diapers.

If the Lord had tapped on my shoulder, it couldn't have been any more obvious; I felt a strong confirmation with my words over Mara - but over me instead: "Danielle - why do you think my heart for you is any different than your heart for your daughter? If you want to explore the kombucha shelf, you can do that."

I think it is easy for me to sometimes feel like there is ONE thing I have to do with my life in order for me to be doing what I'm "supposed" to be doing.  I forget that sometimes God is perfectly fine with me exploring either the laundry basket OR the kombucha shelf (and probably some other options exist, too, that I just wasn't aware of!).  It's more about my heart than it is about my actions - if I believe I am confined to just exploring the laundry basket and I begrudge him for that or believe that is the only way to make him happy, I've got an inaccurate perspective of him in my heart.  And just like I wouldn't want Mara to be forced to play with the laundry basket when the kombucha shelf was more interesting to her - since neither was OUTSIDE my will for her, I'm equally happy with either choice she chooses as long as she knows she's free to choose.  I think that's how God feels about some of our choices, too.

New Zealand - Reaching

It's funny how there are some things that take on a new meaning after becoming a parent.  I don't subscribe to the idea that people who aren't parents do not have these same revelations, but I certainly have gained some interesting insight into spiritual things in this process of parenting.

A recent revelation I had was about my posture during worship.

I haven't always been comfortable being expressive in worship - I worry about if people are watching, if I'm doing something "right" or "wrong," if I've pitted out my shirt, if my face looks weird if I close my eyes, what to DO with my hands, etc.  For some people, worshiping expressively seems to be so natural, but for me, I don't feel natural!

So for a lot of my life, either from church culture background or those fear-of-man/insecurity thoughts, or just passivity, I have worshipped with my hands in my pockets or clasped in front of me.

But I had this thought the other day when I bent over to pick up Mara.  She was sitting on the floor, and as I leaned down to pick her up, her little arms came up and her hands started clasping and unclasping like she was trying to grab me.  She reached for me as I was reaching for her - and it wasn't just a floppy arms in the air kind of reach, it was with eagerness and yearning.

Something about her gesture - and realizing how often that happens - caused me to have this moment of recognizing a parallel between my daughter's response to me and my response to the Lord.

Mara reaches for me when she sees me.  Sometimes she reaches out to me to fulfill a need, but she also reaches for me simply because she wants me.

In fact, throughout her day, my daughter repeatedly reaches out to me.  And her desire or need for me is not a passive, self-conscious, afraid-of-what-people-will-think-of-her expression toward me.  She is open and public about her desire for my touch.

And I realized that I want to respond to God like Mara responds to me.  When I worship,  I don't want God to have any doubts about whether he is desired.  I want my body, which he has made and given for me to use, to express to him - in as clear of a manner as I can express - that I want him, I need him.

I am reaching for him.

New Zealand - Today's Whisper

Gabe and I have been thinking a lot and talking a lot and praying (maybe not a LOT but certainly we've had several different occasions) about the future.  Our commitment to staffing DTS's is up in December, and we plan to be home for Christmas, but at this point 2019 has a great big question mark over it.

We have several options we are considering and seeking more information about and asking the Lord to speak about and give clear direction.

But this has been a bit heavy on my heart for a few months now.  As the weeks tick by getting closer to outreach, closer to the end of this school, closer to our plane tickets home (which God provided a good deal on - thank you, Father!), I find myself feeling like something is a getting strung a bit tighter inside my spirit, and that tightness is increasing and the tension is mounting.

This morning I was having my quiet time and, although I started out intending to ask the Lord to speak into our future, I ended up repenting my fears to the Lord.  I realize I have a lot of them:

- I've been afraid that God won't speak to us at all about what comes next;
- I've been afraid that God will speak something but it'll be undesirable to hear;
- I've been afraid that God will speak something but we'll miss it;
- I've been afraid that God will speak something that makes us look foolish to obey it;
- I've been afraid that God will speak and give us direction, but then his goodness will run out - he won't help us follow through on what he says - and with that comes a spiraling fear that Gabe and I will end up homeless, job-less, being a burden to our families or living in a cardboard box with our baby and stuck in a circumstance that we didn't choose.

As I brought these fears to the Lord, repented for them, received his forgiveness for entertaining them, and started replacing them with truth (He says, "My sheep hear my voice" - God is a communicating God, and he DOES speak; He never leaves us or forsakes us; His eyes are on the righteous; He inclines his ear toward our prayers; He looks out of the children of the righteous; it is WISDOM to obey the Lord, etc), I felt like the Lord just whispered to me:

"What about if the best is yet to come, Dani?"

I had to repeat it to myself a couple times:

What about if THE BEST is YET to COME?

Last night Gabe and I were just recounting fondly memories from our early years of marriage - memories from living in our little white apartment on 21st Ave - opening the door and walking into our home, arranging our space to accommodate our desires, working on our little projects stemming from passions within us - for me, spending hours sitting in our comfy chair editing wedding photos, and for Gabe, spending hours with all kinds of crazy contraptions acid etching knives and ionizing titanium and stone tumbling his creations.

And we were saying how good and sweet those memories are, and how we treasure them, but we wouldn't go back because our life has just gotten richer and richer since them - going to Thailand and meeting all our precious students and growing and partnering together to teach, traveling into Burma and through Europe and seeing things and doing things we only dreamed of doing, coming to DTS and being so well loved and supported and invested into this community and gaining so many dear, sweet friendships in our lives, and welcoming sweet Mara into our family and getting to sit in the front row of watching her learn and grow and seeking to invest the best of what we have into her.

I wouldn't go back - God has truly brought us from a glorious place into subsequently more glorious places!

So what makes me think that such a growth and development is going to stop?!  I think that's the challenge God gave me this morning - His character is the same, his promises hold true, his faithfulness endures through a thousand generations.  And just as I am reading about in Deuteronomy and Joshua right now, God sent his people up into a land flowing with milk and honey, to possess houses they didn't build and eat fruit from vineyards they didn't plant - he is a GENEROUS God who loves to lavish abundantly on his children.

What if the best is yet to come, Dani?

I want to live believing he's capable of that.

New Zealand - Family Photos and the Start of a New School

We had some family photos taken in April by one of our students here at the base - she was able to get them to us today and we'd love to share a few! See below :)

Also, we're finishing up the last few days of staff training before we head into our third school staffing. The other two schools we've staffed have been very different from each other, so we're excited to see what this one ends up being like!

We've had the opportunity to join a weekly leadership training class that the base here is offering (it is called Habitudes) and we're looking forward to completing the course over the next several months.

Mara continues to grow and she is SUCH a delight! I'll post a few pictures I took of her this week in honor of her reaching her 6-month birthday! She's been eating solid foods (well, mostly puréed stuff!) daily for a few weeks now - although the interest and some occasional "snacks" have been there for a few months. It is fun to get to see her enjoying new things - mostly enjoying, that is!

Life feels like it is gearing up to be BUSY, but full and good and beautiful.  And going in to this school, my desire is to put my heart and soul in to it in such a way that when graduation comes in December and I am saying goodbye to these students and this season with them, I have no regrets.  I want to know I gave it my all!


- Dani

And some 6-month photos of this sweet girl!

New Zealand - Baby Kirkwood has arrived!

Hello friends!
We have added a family member, started a new DTS, are tackling breastfeeding and sleep deprivation, and falling in love with our little girl - it has been a busy couple of weeks!

Samara Louisa-Faith was born January 8th - she was scheduled to be induced out of the womb that day, but she got labor started about 12 hours before we were to report to the hospital. Dani was very grateful for the timing of that! Her birth didn't go exactly as we'd hoped (what's the saying? "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, it'll probably be somewhere in between..." - that held true for us!), but we were still able to go home from the hospital a few hours after she was born, which was a blessing - and a cost saver!

We welcomed 65 students 5 days later, and started the process of memorizing names (Dani's still working on that!) and figuring out how to have an infant in community! So far it has been great - lots of very willing baby holders allow for afternoon nap opportunities! For the first two weeks, our friend Jasmine was on Kirkwood care duty - bringing us meals, holding little Mara, running errands, picking up supplies, and generally just serving and blessing us. It REALLY helped our transition to parenthood to have her support!

This week is our second week of lectures, so we are getting back into the groove of spending mornings in the classroom - since lectures are happening off site this school, it takes a little more organizing, but the huge blessing of having our own car really helps with the logistics and provides us with freedom to be able to come late or leave early.

We've gotten our one-on-one assignments and we're excited to start working with these precious guys and gals. Dani will be working with three young ladies - Solvar, from Norway, Alyssa, from the USA, and Elinor, from Sweden.  Gabe'll get to spend time with Tobias, from Germany, and Jonas, from Denmark. We're really looking forward to seeing all that this school holds and getting to know these students!

Gabe in lectures with Mara.

Dani and Jasmine (center) and our friends Nat (left) and Jess (right).

Our little girl - we think she's just beautiful!