ISKL David Kenney

I was born in 1956 in Soap Lake in Washington State. Soap Lake is the future home of the world’s largest lava lamp, but in those days it had a hospital and the town where my parents lived, Quincy, WA, didn’t have a hospital, so Dad drove Mom to the hospital in Soap Lake to deliver me.

When I was one years old, my parents moved to Auburn, WA and when I was two they moved to Bacolod City in the central Philippines. My parents were missionaries with the Assemblies of God churches in the USA. We lived in Bacolod for 4 years, and then back to Auburn for another year.

Next we moved to Cebu City in the Philippines, for four years and there I attended the Cebu American School. One year back in America followed, again in the city of Auburn, WA.

Our next move took us to Kuala Lumpur, in 1968 in time to finish part of 6th grade. My sister Joy went into 9th grade in the school, which at that time was only 3 years old. At that time, as I remember it, the juniors and seniors did all of their work by correspondence under the partial supervision of some of the teachers.

I was at ISKL until I graduated, with the exception of 11th Grade spent in the USA, in the city of Bellevue, WA. Bellevue is the hometown of Bill Gates, and I always tell people that he and I went to different schools at the same time.

After graduation in 1974, I moved with my parents to Hong Kong and after being there with them for 6 weeks, I went on to Northwest College (now University) in Kirkland, WA. I was graduated there in three years (1977), and had a terrible time adjusting to life in America. Talk about culture shock!

Straight out of college I went to live in Majuro in the Marshall Islands (Micronesia), where I taught in a Christian High School. It was an amazing place and an interesting year. Majuro, a coral atoll, is 33 miles long and only 1.6 square miles in area. The highest point of land is 18 feet above sea level!

After one year in Majuro it was back to Bellevue and looking for another place to go live. I ended up in Suva, Fiji for one year, teaching at a high school and very heavily involved in the Suva Basketball Association, where I player, coached and refereed a lot of games.

After one year in Fiji, I moved to Hong Kong where I discovered my life’s calling, which is pastoring. I pastored there in an International church for two year and left in 1982.

From 1982 through 1984 I pastored a very small church in a very small town in Washington State, the town of Napavine, population <300! It was a very interesting experience and I learned to get over my 3rd culture identity and act like a real American when necessary.

I moved to Manila in 1985 and shortly after that met Gigi, who is now my wife. As it turned out, I have since discovered that Marc Ness, who was my best friend back in KL in grade 8, lived in Manila some of those same years. I wonder how we missed each other in a city of 10 million. Gigi and I married in 1989 and moved to the USA for one year, and then here to Jakarta, where we have been for the last 14 ½ years, with the exception of a few trips to the USA for a few months at a time, with one trip lasting a little over one year. I have been pastoring churches the whole time. My current church is called International English Service and has a website at www.iesjakarta.org.

Gigi and I are very happy together and have a wonderful daughter named Isabel, who will be 8 in March. Gigi was a child star in the Philippines and worked in movies and TV, and traveled as a singer. When I first met her she had been living in Singapore and Malaysia for about five years, and so that was what we had in common when we first met.

7/19/06

I turned 50 last month! My church made a big fuss for me all weekend after my birthday. It was very kind of them, In the biggest service, fans were passed out with a picture on it (almost life size) of my face in a picture taken when I was 16 years old. At the close of the pastoral prayer (when we pray for the people who have different kinds of needs and issues together in the service) when I said “Amen” I opened my eyes and looked up and all of the people had their faces covered with the fans. It was pretty cool. Attaching a photo.