About Me
I started teaching in 1991 (I know I look a lot younger but I am actually rather old). My first teaching job was in Papua New Guinea.
I was living at the end of the road that went out of Port Moresby to the east. About where the 'N' is in range. I was in the Peace Corps and taught for two years. Alotau isn't in the right spot on the map by the way.
After the Peace Corps, I moved to Seattle and taught at Bellevue Christian for 13 years. During that time, I lead trips to China, Vietnam, Thailand and Burma. Also, we went to Mississippi every year during spring break with students.
I have been teaching at Rehoboth Christian for 12 years.
I have been teaching at Rehoboth Christian for 12 years.
I grew up in a baptist church and then went to Calvin College. At Calvin, I was confronted by a challenge to look beyond my own narrow concerns for my own salvation and realize that following Christ meant joining his work in the world. I was not supposed to insulate and isolate myself from the world, I was supposed to work to transform the world. Scripture is full of admonitions to work for the good of the poor, the foreigner, and the outcast. The primary confession of the Christian before the world is the deed that interprets itself. I love teaching at the level I do because I am constantly around students who are beginning to make their faith and their understanding of the world their own. High school students are very much immersed in the problems of this world. Our area also exposes them to very difficult situations as well. Alcoholism, generational poverty and crime are common here and they certainly know about it and experience it all the time. Our community confronts these problems. We learn to think and act as Christians in the world. Our students learn how to use their abilities to serve others. My goal then is to confront ideas and not run from them. For most of our students, this is the one chance they have to confront the difficult problems the world presents and think about them with other Christians in an educational setting. I do not argue that the answers we come up with are perfect. The Christian community is very capable of grievous error. We, then, also learn to forgive. Living under grace means recognizing our own flawed nature. When one starts with that, one then learns to forgive others. Only then can we face the great need of the world, realizing our own great need.
My great concern is that students who study the sciences are sometimes made to feel as though they must make a choice between science and Christianity. This is a false dichotomy and one that we address often at Rehoboth. To often Christian students are short changed into believing that science is somehow intrinsically anti christian. At Rehoboth, we are not afraid of the study of science. T0pics like evolution and reproduction are studied along with the variety of ways that Christians understand them. Students are encouraged to think critically and honestly about the findings of science and how those findings might be integrated into their worldview. I would love to see more Christians in the sciences. Our biology text book is written in part by Ken Miller who is a distinguished scientist and a Christian. The book is used throughout the country in public and private schools. C S Lewis suggested that rather than having Christians write science books for a Christian audience, Christians should become the most distinguished members of their fields and then write the textbooks for everyone.
Such people neither steal, nor murder, nor commit adultery, but do good according to their abilities. But they must close their eyes and ears to the injustice around them. Only at the cost of self-deception can they keep their private blamelessness clean from the stains of responsible action in the world. In all that they do, what they fail to do will not let them rest. They will either be destroyed by this unrest, or they will become the most hypocritical of all Pharisees.
Bonhoeffer
Ethics
I thought I could acquire faith by trying to live a holy life, or something
like it. I discovered later, and am still discovering right up to this
moment, that is only by living completely in this world that one learns
to have faith. One must completely abandon any attempt to make something of
oneself, whether it be a saint, or a converted sinner, or a churchman (a
so-called priestly type!), a righteous man or an unrighteous one, a sick man
or a healthy one. By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly in life's
duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities. In
so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking
seriously not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world-- watching
with Christ in Gethsemane. That, I think, is faith.
Bonhoeffer
I have been married for 10 years to Naomi.
My great concern is that students who study the sciences are sometimes made to feel as though they must make a choice between science and Christianity. This is a false dichotomy and one that we address often at Rehoboth. To often Christian students are short changed into believing that science is somehow intrinsically anti christian. At Rehoboth, we are not afraid of the study of science. T0pics like evolution and reproduction are studied along with the variety of ways that Christians understand them. Students are encouraged to think critically and honestly about the findings of science and how those findings might be integrated into their worldview. I would love to see more Christians in the sciences. Our biology text book is written in part by Ken Miller who is a distinguished scientist and a Christian. The book is used throughout the country in public and private schools. C S Lewis suggested that rather than having Christians write science books for a Christian audience, Christians should become the most distinguished members of their fields and then write the textbooks for everyone.
Such people neither steal, nor murder, nor commit adultery, but do good according to their abilities. But they must close their eyes and ears to the injustice around them. Only at the cost of self-deception can they keep their private blamelessness clean from the stains of responsible action in the world. In all that they do, what they fail to do will not let them rest. They will either be destroyed by this unrest, or they will become the most hypocritical of all Pharisees.
Bonhoeffer
Ethics
I thought I could acquire faith by trying to live a holy life, or something
like it. I discovered later, and am still discovering right up to this
moment, that is only by living completely in this world that one learns
to have faith. One must completely abandon any attempt to make something of
oneself, whether it be a saint, or a converted sinner, or a churchman (a
so-called priestly type!), a righteous man or an unrighteous one, a sick man
or a healthy one. By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly in life's
duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities. In
so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking
seriously not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world-- watching
with Christ in Gethsemane. That, I think, is faith.
Bonhoeffer
I have been married for 10 years to Naomi.
Naomi is a public health nurse at IHS.
I also have a beautiful daughter named Marit Saane and a son Coen Thijs.
I also have a beautiful daughter named Marit Saane and a son Coen Thijs.
I like to climb, mountaineer, mountain bike, cook and travel. I have been to Papua New Guinea, Guam, Canada, Mexico, Indonesia, Korea, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Italy, Germany, Austria, Holland, England, Zambia, Dubai, Columbia, Panama, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia, France, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Ecuador.