The Van Dykes

Greetings from Guatemala City. We are way, way overdue in sending an update on our lives and work but that is not for a lack of activity and things to report on. Believe us when we say it is quite the opposite. So, without making any excuses, here is an update of a few of the things that we’d love to share with you. We are VERY excited about our upcoming time in the United States and are thrilled to know we’ll be able to see many of you face to face and share in a persona way.

Ministry Update

Joel recently returned from a trip to Nicaragua, where he lead a training called, “Image is Everything:  Finding God’s Breath in Man’s Dust.”  Go here if you want to get a little feel of what that was about. It was in Nicaragua that we started all of our grassroots leadership training in 2003 and it was incredible to have had the chance to engage in this more recent training where we celebrated the participants from 3 different generations of training cohorts in three different cities (Chinandega, León and Estelí).

Joel also just returned from Lima, Peru last week where he was able to serve as a key note speaker at a congress for 125 church planters from 16 different countries in Latin America (www.reddemultiplicacion.com). This network of key mobilizers and denominational leaders is projecting to plant upwards of 8.000 new churches in the next 10 years throughout Latin America and they have asked us to design some incarnational, urban mission training that all church planters will receive.

The book “Geography of Grace: Doing Theology from Below” that Joel has co-authored with his colleague, Kris Rocke, is finally done after more than two years of work. The book has birthed a new publishing company called “Street Psalms Press” which we are very excited about and thankful for. Go here if you want to learn more about this.

Joel was been able to meet last month with a leader who is developing a series of masters programs for Latin America called “CETI” (Center for Interdisciplinary Theological Studies). We are exploring the possibility of designing a master’s degree for CETI in Global Urban Missions.  This would be a combined degree with some of the work being done on-line (meaning anyone from anywhere in Latin America can access the training) and two-week residence components in Guatemala City and Buenos Aires, Argentina. There are many details to work out if this indeed would be launched in the next few years but it would be the first degree offering of it’s kind in Latin America so we are very excited to explore the possibilities.

As a family we have been hosting different ministry leaders and their families from our training network in our home once a week as well as visiting their churches, ministries and homes. Although it has been challenging with schedules, it has provided more windows into peoples’ lives and hearts and we have been really blessed doing this as a family. Primarily what has surfaced is some major marital issues for many key leaders here in Guatemala. Please pray for Marilyn and I that we can hear from God what he would have us to do in such challenging circumstances as well as for our own marriage that we might be fortified as a couple in order to enter the struggles of those around us.

The production work on the Becoming Fools film project focusing on the street youth is in full swing right now with a huge emphasis pushing towards the week of June 11-16. Please be in prayer for Scott Moore from Athentikos and his team as he is now in Guatemala for 2 months pulling all of the production activities together.

Personal Update

We will be in Philadelphia for Marilyn’s brother’s wedding on May 26th and plan on staying for a short visit.  Joel will return to Guatemala for the month of June to wrap up some things while Marilyn and the kids will remain stateside.  Once Joel rejoins the rest of the family, we will begin the first part of our 7 month home service time, based mostly in Michigan.  The first two months (July and August) will be organized around a special time of sabbatical rest and prayer for discernment. We will be returning to Guatemala in January and need much discernment for decisions we need to make while we are here.

Joel (Joeito) continues to love baseball and enjoys having Joel coach his team at school.  He has maintained an excellent GPA in school and has many friendships there.  Marilyn pulled out of many areas as she focused much of her time in homeschooling Sofia this past year, which was an unexpected challenge.  We found it necessary to work with her at home for 3rd grade and are seeing many positive results.

Please be in prayer for both kids as they have not attended school in the States before and we are discerning the best schooling option for the semester they will be here.

Thank you for your continued support and prayers for our family and for the different ministries we are involved in.  We look forward to visiting with you again very soon!

For the past two weeks we have been sharing news about the “soon to be released” Geography of Grace text that Kris and I set out to write as a theological primer behind the conversations that have animated our lives for the past decade or so. We did not set out to do so alone as the book seeks to capture the collective voice of the Street Psalms Community that we are both privileged to be a part.

If we would have known all that it would take to bring this project to completion since the initial idea of “simply organizing what we had already written into our two doctoral dissertations” into a readable book, we likely never would have set out to tackle what we thought to be a relatively easy venture.

Perhaps that is why we can relate so well to the words of George Orwell:

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We wish you a very blessed and Merry Christmas!

Come back for our year in review in the next week…

I got up one morning in Philadelphia hoping to have some quiet time to myself. It was the morning before Christmas actually and all through the house it seemed not a creature was stirring except for—Sofia?? She awoke earlier than what I expected and came down downstairs where I was just setting in for what I had hoped would be some quiet solitude, which according to mystic Brennan Manning, is nothing less than the “forge of true speech.”

But no, a little 7 year-old power keg of energy was threatening to interrupt my cherished and well deserved “time to myself.” She was hungry and wanted some cereal. I grudgingly got out of the comfortable armchair whose seat cushion had just molded itself nicely around my posterior region and moped over to the kitchen where I got a big hug and a “Good Morning Papi.”

I got out the Honey Nut Cheerios (the only option of the morning but a good one as it turned out) and poured a bowl for my little princess. As I watched her gently filling her little spoon with the cereal in the bowl, something suddenly tenderized my heart. I felt ashamed of my feeing of frustration just a few minutes prior and was lead to pull up a chair and settle in to this precious early morning moment between father and princess.

I just watched her slowly shovel the cereal into her mouth. She pretended not to notice while actually breathing in my silent but undivided attention. I was filled with an emotion of affection that the good Lord reserves for just such unique father princess encounters. I wondered if my little girl would remember special little moments like this with any of the fondness and adulation that is permanently etched in my minds eye. Continue reading →