I can't believe how fast a month goes! We are now back from Guatemala. We spent the last 30 days in a village in North Guatemala called Pacux (Pakush is how you pronounce it). We lived there in the village with the local Achi people. They are native descendants of the Mayan culture. Here is a picture of the family that allowed us to live in their home. We grew to know and love them. They were one of the best parts of our trip...amazing, loving, giving people.

The people we lived with are known as the "People of the Rio Negro". Back in 1982, when Guatemala was politically unstable, these people lived in a region known as the Rio Negro. But the government forced them to move so that a hydro-electric dam could be built in place of their village. Naturally they didn't want to leave, so there was resistance and in the end hundreds were killed in several massacres. This memorial below is in the center of Pacux and it serves as a memorial to those that died. So there is a history of being rejected and mistreated and holding onto animosity. The people still have pictures of their "home" and often note in conversation that Rio Negro is their home. Even now in the village there are very few older men because they were killed back in the 80's.

Below is a picture of our street that we lived on. First on the left are two houses that allowed our team leaders and the girls on our team to live. The house we lived in is the third one down the road. Then the real small hut on the right of the road (with the big red bucket) was the team's makeshift shower. It was quite interesting to shower with little kids walking by saying "HOLA DAVID!!" but that is where the water source and drain were. The locals were very open about their bodies, so they would often wash outside near their homes.


Here is a picture of the family when we hiked up above Pacux. You can actually see the village in the background. Up on this mountain were a few Mayan ruins. It took only an hour to hike up, but it was an amazingly steep climb.


Here is a picture of a few of us hanging gutters on a family's home. They would get flooded every time it rained, so we were able to redirect the water and keep their yard dry. They were amazing and very thankful. The grandpa that lived there was the oldest looking man I had ever seen. I tried to get a picture of him but it didn't work out.


Here is Ruth with our hosts Elena and Juliana. Notice how monstrously tall Ruth is! (she is 5'3"). The Achi people are on the shorter side. Here they dressed Ruth up in their traditional clothing. It was ladies like these that frequented the medical clinics that we held twice a week. They brought their families and babies and the team was able to bless them with anything from medical advice and medicine to even delivering a baby! The people were very grateful that we were there and able to give them teaching to help them with health and nutrition.

Here are a few of the wonderful girls from our host family. They are riding one of the bikes that we fixed up for them. The family had 7 bikes and none of them could be ridden. We were praying about a way that we could bless them in return for loving us and allowing us to live in their home for a month. So we felt like we should repair popped tires and broken cables and other miscellaneous bike parts for them. They were very appreciative and excited.

Here is Ruth making tortillas. The locals eat tortillas at least twice a day. They taste awesome, but they are so much work.



This is just a common occurrence. A sad little girl sitting alone. We did our best to love the people and really get to know them. They are a very loving and kind and giving people group. They definitely grabbed our hearts in the short time that we were with them.


Below is the children's Sunday school service that we ran each Sunday. There were over 50 kids that would come sing and play and learn from our team.


Here is a picture of our team as we are all traveling on a bus. Old school buses are everywhere in Guatemala and are the most common mode of transportation. We described the three hour drive from Guatemala city to San Miguel as "The longest roller coaster EVER". They drive these buses as fast as they can possibly go... up and down steep mountains with no guard rails...passing trucks...slamming on breaks...it was crazy driving.



This is our family with our host family. We all cried when we had to part ways. God was amazing in allowing us to connect with this family. We were able to sit around in the evenings and get to know each other (despite our limited Spanish). They truly blessed us with friendship and their home and their family. We will miss our friends in Pacux!

Thank you to everyone who covered our trip with prayer. As most of you know it was a physically challenging trip for all of us . . . especially Ruth. But God's grace was with us because of your prayers! Thank you! And to those of you who supported us financially, you know who you are, thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Your generosity allowed us to touch lives and hearts with God's love. We can't say it enough . . . THANK YOU!
God bless ~ Dave, Ruth, Jessika & Jonathan ~

GUATEMALA!

As you know, Ruth is currently a student in the IPHC class (Introduction to Primary Health Care). The school is planning on going on outreach to Guatemala for the summer. We've been praying like crazy and we feel we are to go to Guatemala for the month of July!

We are excited, nervous and excited (and nervous). We'll be roughing it in a pretty big way. We will be camping in tents
in villages for most of the time. The main goal of the team is to bring hope and healing to the people by teaching them about health care and Jesus. We are just praying to be a blessing to those that are hurting. God has awesome plans and he loves them and we want to be the tool in his hands that brings healing.

We need about $3500 total for the entire trip. That includes airfare, food....everything for all four of us. We will be there for about 1 month. Please pray if God would have you support us on this exciting journey. I know times are tight, so just pray.

I would ask that you consider praying for us. Life has been REALLY busy these past few months. In fact I'm leaving Tuesday morning to teach the book of Daniel at the YWAM Ozarks base. It's been full on, and we really feel like we need a rest. So please pray for God's rest as we finish up this school year with the Bible School and Ruth finishes her class....and the kids finish their school... Pray that this Guatemala outreach would be refreshing and restful...not in a vacation sort of way, but in a fulfilling and awesome way!

If you would like to support us financially you can do it as follows...
send a check to
David Diepersloot
PO Box 1094
Lakeside, MT 59922 (make check payable to YWAM)

or you can email or send credit card info and we can process that.
you will get a tax deductible reciept.

Love,
Dave, Ruth, Jessika and Jonny
(enjoy this picture of the family taken a week ago...)
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jer 29:11

Wow I can't believe it's already April! It still feels like January here in Montana...in fact it is snowing as I type this. But we know that Spring is coming because new students are arriving for the Spring schools here on the base. Ruth has decided to take the Introduction to Primary Health Care (IPHC) class as a student this year. She's really looking forward to learning even more and hopefully going on the outreach as a family with the school. She is taking the class so she will be able to teach the school anywhere within YWAM.

The School of Biblical Studies(SBS) has been going great! The students are currently on spring break having a well deserved rest from their studies (they just finished the first 1/3 of the Old Testament). I am teaching Nehemiah and Ezra in the next few weeks, so I'm studying a bunch to prepare. Already we are accepting students and beginning planning for next year...hard to believe. I think I told you already, but we have committed to be on staff next year again. I felt like God was saying I wasn't finished yet. It was an interesting decision making process, but it did make us think a little more about what God has for us in the future. And to be honest, at this point there are a lot of exciting possibilities, but we're not real sure what might happen after next year....we'll see! I think God might have some good plans for us.

Jessika is enjoying 4th grade. She won first place with her science project at the county level. She was very proud of that. Here is a picture of her with her project. She experimented with adding salt to water to make an egg float. We also floated her in the bathtub by adding 50 pounds of salt!

Jonny enjoyed his eighth birthday and has been sick for the last week. He is anxious for the weather to get better so he can jump on the trampoline and ride bikes and get crazy outside. Actually I think the whole family is anxious for that! Here is a picture of him and his friends celebrating his birthday with 3D glasses watching the movie "Monsters vs Aliens".

Prayer
-for sunshine...this has been a looong winter :)
-for balance, especially with Ruth taking the health school full time.
-that God would clearly show us if our family should go on outreach with the IPHC.
Praise
-Ruth is really enjoying her job working a day a week as a nurse at the local hospital.

Love & blessings from us to you!
Dave and Ruth and kids

PS
I've been writing down some thoughts I wanted to share...see what you think...

Have you ever had the perfect moment with someone else? The moment when you connect with them so completely and you wish that it would never end. I just had one of these moments with my boy. He's nearly eight years old and taking his first guitar lessons. He had to be coerced into going to his lesson tonight, but in the end he loved it and now he knows four chords! On the way home we were rockin' out to some worship by Phil Wickam. We just kept singing louder and turning the music up. We were both rockin' out worshiping God in our minivan for the 15 miles toward home. I even reached back and grabbed his hand because I won't have very many more years to do that. It was awesome. I wish every ride in the car could be like that moment.



I have often thought of God's relationship with us as that of a Parent to a Child. Funny thing is that I've always thought of it from the negative, discipline side of things. When you study the Old Testament it is so clear that God disciplines Israel as a Father would a Son. He even calls them his “son” or his “firstborn” many times. God gives them every chance at an awesome relationship. He sets up rules to guide them to Him. He sets up a place where he can live with them. He teaches them how to come close to Him. But they blow it. Just like my kids have missed out on icecream at Dairy Queen. They only had to do what I was asking them, whether it be chores on Saturday or homework for school. But they hear what I ask of them and they turn around and choose something different...creating a rift between us...testing to see if I'll really stick to what I said. So discipline comes and I wish I could be having ice cream with my kid.



But the relationship is so much better than the discipline side of things! There are those times when we draw so close to God that we can feel his heartbeat. Sometimes it's during a quiet moment when we realize the depth of his love for us. Sometimes it's while we roll up the windows in the car and sing songs to him as loud as we can. Maybe the quiet moment at the top of a mountain when we realize the awe of our creator...that he made us in his image to love him with all we've got. He's just reaching his hand back from the front seat of the minivan. He's smiling at us, loving us, rocking out to some great music with us because we are his kids and he wants to share life with us deeper than we've ever dreamed.

PS- here's a picture of the snow today... flakes were at least 2 inches around!

Life has been full-on for the past few months! We are now about a month and a half into this school year.

The latest news is that last weekend Jonny broke his ankle. He is pretty proud of his green cast. At first he had a lot of trouble with the crutches, but now he's getting really fast!

In the words of Jonny...."I went right, and my bike went left!"

Of course, he broke the ankle the same night Ruth and I had a big date planned. We got to spend the evening running him to the doctor. We decided that his punishment is that he isn't allowed to date until he is 37. He was OK with it.







Here is a picture of the Bible School classroom. There are 51 students this year. They range from age 17 to 72. It's quite a class! They are having a lot of fun learning God's word. Some of the nations represented are: India, UK, Kyrgyzstan, Thailand, Switzerland, Canada, US, Norway...I think a few more too.

My big challenge in the last month was teaching the Gospel of Luke. Here is a picture of me up in front teaching. It was a ton of work to really study that part of the Bible enough to feel confident in teaching it. Luke is an amazing book all about the Kingdom of God being for Everyone. It was amazing to teach, but for now I am glad to be done with it so I can focus more time on the individual students. I think my favorite part of teaching is the one-on-one stuff where I get to help the students work through things.







Jessika turned 10 last month! Here is a picture of Jessika's birthday party. She had a bunch of friends over for fun and games. She was also blessed with a horse ride from our friend, Kylann. So the day before her birthday she went riding and grooming horses...a dream come true for her!















Here are the kids at "Montana night"...a night when we welcome students to our state and culture. The cowboy in the middle is Finny. He is from India and here with his parents and sister for the year.

The last picture here is one of the new "Taiwan Room" on the base. The Hospitality Dept, that Ruth helps in, is able to house guests & speakers in rooms decorated in the themes of our five Target Nations (India, Thailand, Nepal, Ukraine & Taiwan). Taiwan just became a new target nation and Ruth had the privilege of helping to decorate the new room!

No seriously...this is the last picture. Ruth spends a huge amount of time taking care of guests and guestrooms here on the base. It's basically like running a small hotel. This pic is of her and her friend Tammy working hard. They are both a huge blessing to a lot of people as they visit the base.

Thanks for taking some time to share in our lives here in Montana!

Please remember to pray for us!

Prayer Requests

- Wisdom in mentoring/teaching students
-Finances- It's been a tight year with a few broken bones and surprises!
-Direction- we made a two year commitment to do what we are doing here in YWAM Montana. We are praying about what God has for us next...it could be here...it could be the same...it could be elsewhere and different. We want to serve God the best way we possibly can!


If you would like us to pray for you in any way, PLEASE email us so that we can. Prayer is an amazing connection that God gives us...Let's use it!

We are finishing up summer and students are arriving to start off a great new year here at YWAM Montana!

We had the privilege this summer of heading out to California and seeing a lot of great friends and family. Thank you so much to each of you that welcomed us into your home! We were so blessed!

This nice sandy pic is a taste of what happens when crazy people from Montana come to visit the beach!

Here's a picture of Jess and Jonny with their favorite Santa Cruz cousins...


I wanted to show you a picture of our class from last year. There were 43 students that graduated from the School of Biblical Studies. A good portion of them are going into various countries to teach the Bible to those that don't have access to decent Bible teaching. It was an awesome year and a privilege to teach and befriend each one of them.

In only a week we will have 51 new students come here to learn God's Word and let it change their lives! I can't wait to meet them all, but right now I am busy trying to study and prepare for them. I am teaching the book of Luke in just over a month and it is a LOT to study! Please pray that God prepares me for it.
Here is a picture Jessika took of the rest of us at a theme park in Idaho....on the way to California.

The kids have started school just over a week ago. Below is a picture of them on their first day. ("thanks Grandma for the new outfits!") Jess is now in 4th grade and Jonny is in 2nd. Lots of attitude!

I had a fun time golfing in the YWAM scramble a few weeks ago. Together we raised nearly $20,000 for the building projects here on the missions base. I would include some pictures but it was raining so hard that there were whitecaps on our lake. Luckily it wasn't stormy like that all day. We had a lot of fun. Thank you to those of you that generously supported YWAM.


Prayer Requests:
---Ruth and I have an opportunity to go to Thailand for 6 weeks in February! Ruth would teach with the Health Care school in Thailand and most likely I would be able to teach in the Bible School there. We are very excited about the idea of taking the family to Thailand but we are praying to make sure that it is God's will. It would cost over $5,000 just to get there for all four of us. So please pray with us. If you feel led to partner financially with us that'd be amazing as well.

--Also pray for our family in this next month. We are very excited to have students show up, but the first month of class requires more than 60 hours a week from me (Dave). Pray for balance with time and family and school. As well as relationship with students.

--Pray for Dave's teaching (early October) on the book of Luke.

--Praise God! We were given all the parts to install a wood stove in our house. It was amazing as the total cost is easily a couple thousand dollars. We just had 3 random friends that had the stove, the chimney and the hearth lying around! So after a bit of work we will be able to save over $100/month on heat during this winter! God is good! We weren't even looking for a wood stove and He just provided it!

Thank you each for your support and prayers and just for being friends. We feel so blessed to have the friends and family that we have. We are constantly overwhelmed by God's blessing through each of you.

PS. Tonite we had Indian food with our new friends from India. The smell was so powerful that an hour later a friend came into our house and her eyes were watering from the air. But it tasted great and we had a great time with Raju, Grace, Anmol and Finny. God is good.

I had an amazing trip to Israel. I know I won't be able to capture it all in this one update, but I'll do my best.

Big picture: Israel with my dad and a few friends and about 40 of us total. Most were students from Evangel University. We went to as many biblical sites as possible in 18 days in Israel and Sinai.

My profound one sentence impression of the trip: Awesome, I'd do it again or recommend it for anyone. I grew to appreciate the flavor of Israel in a whole new way. I loved it. (ok, 3 sentences)

This is the view from our place in En Gev. The view is across the Sea of Galilee toward the city of Tiberias. We saw it a lot at night because every day we hit the road from breakfast until dinner.

I was amazed at how small the Sea of Galilee is. only 33 miles around. Yet it has bigger waves than our huge Flathead Lake here in Montana, which is several times bigger. We had one afternoon to swim in it and we also took a boat ride across.

Most of our first 5 days of the trip were spent around the Sea of Galilee or North of it in places like Dan and Caesarea Philipi

We then drove down to Eilat, at the very southern tip of Israel on the Read Sea. On the way we stopped at Masada, Ein Gev, did a Dead Sea swim...
...swimming in the Dead Sea is the most amazing thing. You can feel the buoyancy as you walk in. you can float with all four limbs sticking out in the air. Just weird, but cool.

We did a day trip down to Egypt so we could hike up Mt Sinai. Actually we took camels up about 2/3 of the way. The top is amazing. Here is a picture of my dad and I. We were proud to have made it up there. We spent some time with our whole group on top and had a bible study. We did this often in key places along the trip. It is so awesome to be able to learn about a place while you are sitting there. Our guides were amazing as they walked us through the Bible and the Holy Land at the same time.

In Eilat we had some time to snorkel in the Red Sea (this was one of our rare afternoons off, when we weren't traveling and studying). We also went to Timneh to see the copper mines of ancient Egypt, and we toured a scale replica of the tabernacle!

Then we drove up north and went through Hebron. We were able to go to many places in the West Bank that were under Palestinian control. Thanks to our guides having lots of good connections. We saw Nabilus, Shechem, Bethlehem, Jericho, and Hebron.

Here is a picture of me and dad on the edge of a few hundred foot cliff that drops off into Machtesh Ramon.

Now we are in the Jerusalem area. Here is a picture of most of our group, on the southern steps of the temple mount. It was so amazing to be able to sit here and realize that Jesus taught in this very place with a view of the City of David to the South, a view of Mt of Olives to the East. So surreal to be there.

We went all over Jerusalem. Below is another pic of our group having a bible study in the "upper room" where Jesus and his disciples had the last supper. It was so cool to just look around and take in the reality of all of these places. We often talked about how some of it sort of becomes cartoonish because we heard the stories so often. But every place you read about in the Bible is real! The people, the trees, the smells...it really happened.
We stopped by one of the few tombs still in existence that resembles the tomb of Jesus. This picture shows the stone that rolls away. This was a pretty small one, and I actually climbed in the tomb and closed myself in... but don't worry, I got out.

We followed a lot of Jesus' steps around Jerusalem, particularly of his last week before his death and resurrection. Here is an Olive tree that is about 1500 years old from the garden of Gethsemane. Like many things on this trip, it just wasn't what I had pictured in my head.

Then we went to the Holy Sepulcher church. This is believed to be the tomb where Christ was buried. I must admit that I loved the history of the place, and what it represents, but I didn't really like how every holy site in Israel had a church built over it. But still, it was so amazing to just be there and realize that this is where it happened...WOW.

We ended by going to the Garden Tomb. This another site where some think Christ was buried. This was a beautiful garden that actually had tour guides to walk you through and it was the first time in all of Israel that we were actually presented with the Gospel Message. It was a great place to take some time and just appreciate God and who he is and what he's done.

So my short summary from Israel is to report to you that it is real. Those places you read about really exist. It is amazing to realize how geographically accurate the Bible is. It's fun to walk through these amazing places where Elijah, Moses, David, Jesus, Paul all walked. It was an amazing trip that I'll never forget.

Greetings Friends & Family ~

Wow! Can't believe it has taken a month and a half to get you another update! Life has been a bit busy with teachings, visitors, a broken wrist & travel plans!

First things first, let's update you on our teachings. Ruth taught twice (two 5 hour lectures) in the Primary Health Care School in January. Both went great for first time teaching and Ruth realized she is "energized" by teaching!

Dave taught 2 days on the book of Exodus (6 hours total) in the School of Biblical Studies. He felt a lot more comfortable teaching this time and did a great job! He really enjoyed studying and teaching the miracles in the book of Exodus (plagues, parting the Red Sea). What an awesome book to remind us what a miraculous God we serve! His next teaching is on the book of Nehemiah.

Next on the list . . . visitors! Garrett, Ruth's nephew, came and stayed with us for a few weeks in January. He was fortunate to sit in on lectures for the books of Revelation & John! He liked it so much, he is planning on coming back in the Fall as a student! Next, Ruth was blessed with a trip to see her twin sister in Southern California! To add to the blessing . . . Ruth was able to see some of her girlfriends too!

Most recently, we were visited by Dave's brother Rodney who came for the snow.


This also brings us to the broken bones . . . Rodney gifted Dave with a great day of skiing that ended up in the ER. The bill is in the mail Rodney (just kidding - Dave says it was worth it just to see you!).

An answer to prayer: Dave was told he would most likely need surgery for his wrist and there would be a slight chance that setting the bone in a cast would work. As we prayed about it we really felt like we were to try the cast (in hopes to bypass a $5000 surgery). We stepped in faith and many of you have prayed. Praise God! Dave doesn't need surgery! We are thankful for your prayers and for God's quiet voice that guides and directs us.

Lastly, we wanted to update you on our travel plans. Many of you know that Ruth is going to Tanzania the end of March (for 3 weeks). She will be working with a team that is going to Arusha to do Primary Health Care (give shots, medicine, deliver babies, suture wounds, etc.). They will be acting as "doctors" in areas where there are none. A huge THANK YOU to all of you who have contributed to her trip funds. You are a blessing! She has all the money needed for the trip and her ticket has been booked!

On a side note, please keep on praying for our African friends, David & Catherine. We have sent them the money they needed for their trip to come to Montana to study at the YWAM base. They have an appointment Friday for their visas. Please stand with us in prayer that they will be granted visas - for all their trip is funded!. Thank you to all of you who gave generously to help David & Catherine! They are forever grateful.

Lastly, Dave is planning a trip to Israel in May. This will be an educational trip with his school leader. He is excited to see the places that Jesus traveled in his ministry and to bring this information back to enhance his teaching to his students. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for him! Praise God, we were blessed with some frequent flyer miles to purchase his trip! We are still needing to raise about $1000 more for trip expenses.

Here is a picture of the SBS classroom where Dave teaches. Upfront teaching is Colonel Hansen who will be leading Dave's education trip in the Holy Land. He is a retired Army Colonel, bible teacher, geography teacher, archaeologist and more. He will be an awesome hands on teacher in Israel!

What God has been teaching us: He holds us in His hands! When we listen to His voice He is faithful to guide us and to provide for our needs! He is our maker & our healer! He has taken care of our daily needs. Sometimes we get so far ahead and focus on the future rather than seeing his awesome provision and guidance for that very day!

Here is a picture of Dave with his small group, from left to right....Terry, dave, Victor and Sam.

Terry plans to be going to Africa full time soon. Victor is from Mozambique and plans to do full time missions work there. And Sam is on fire to go wherever and do whatever God tells him!