Mahalo (thank you in Hawaiian) to all who prayed for our round of deputation meetings in Hawaii! A few months back God orchestrated a trip to the Hawaiian islands. I had always joked about missionaries having deputation meetings there until one day when I decided to make some calls. As the weeks unfolded, the month long trip came together. Have you ever been led somewhere by God and experienced an unusual orchestration of events? If that makes any sense, this was our experience in Hawaii. I’m serious; it was really like God Himself was opening doors, providing needs, and putting us in contact with just the right people! So as I attempt to give an update of our trip, I’d like to give a few snapshots of our God’s blessings.

*Free air mileage travel
*Local aviation Christian contact for inter-island flights
*Church on Kaua’i where the pastor’s wife is from the same area in S. Missouri as my mom’s side of family
*Church on Kaua’i where the message God led me to preach fit right into their current series
*Church contact on Kaua’i had a Christian family who has a beautiful vacation rental. They enjoy having missionaries stay in it & it just so happened to be available while we were there! Praise the Lord!
*Great meetings (Anahola Baptist and Kaua’i Baptist Temple) on Kaua’i and we look forward to remaining in contact
*Church on Oahu (Lanakila Baptist) also very helpful and we look forward to remaining in contact as well
*God provided a place to stay on Oahu @ a S. Baptist camp. The director grew up in the same area of Missouri as my dad’s side of the family! Crazy stuff! Anyway, he then was a pastor in Alaska for 25 years. Also there was a work team there that week from Soldotna (near one of supporting churches). Turns out we know some of the same people! It was awesome to make contact with some additional churches on Alaska’s road system!

*We also met up with friends from high school on Oahu as well as two other great church contacts on the island!
*It was also on Oahu that God provided a rather nice $11 per day rental car (jet black, brand new Dodge Charger).
*The final stretch of our trip took us to the big island of Hawai’i. Again through a church, God provided another beautiful vacation home! The church & Christian home owners even stocked it with some basic food items! What a blessing!
*We then travelled north on the island for another Sunday meeting on Hawai’i. The pastor here @ Aloha Baptist was in the military in Alaska previously. One of our supporting pastors from Alaska has been here before. There is also a former MAF missionary pilot here, so that was some good discussion. The church put us up here for the night. The people here were also extremely generous and hospitable!

*Our last meeting in Hawaii brought us to Grace Baptist of Hilo. The church was very helpful in helping us with housing and fellowshipping with them throughout the weekend. The pastor’s family is related to some Chicago area contacts of ours. We really enjoyed the time with the joyful believers here in Hilo and it was a great way to end our round of deputation meetings in Hawaii!
*Finally, lodging for the last night back on Oahu (before our flight home) was provided through one of the Oahu contacts from the previous week. Maili Bible Church graciously put us up for the night in their prophet’s chamber. We enjoyed briefly seeing this ministry and discussing ours with the pastor!
*God met our needs through the very generous giving of each church! We truly look forward to remaining in contact with each church as we continue on for service in Alaska!

I hope you can see God’s orchestrating hand amidst all of these snapshots! I think there are probably many times when God orchestrates our lives and we often just miss it. Obviously God is always sovereignly in control, but there are sometimes when He allows to actually see it more visually. I would encourage you to ponder His great sovereign reign in your own life and then praise Him for it!

So thank you for praying for us and our ministry! Please continue to pray that God will now give us the right long-term partners from the Hawaii trip! From here, we have a quick 1-week break over Easter at home, before heading to the West coast for another month of meetings in Oregon, possibly Washington, and then Montana.

In His Grace,
- Derek