Just some pictures about the last couple of weeks:
In November we were invited to speak in a conference of Call2all
The conference was held in the convention center of Long Beach CA. Almost 30 years ago we lived in the neighborhood when we worked on the Anastasis, one of YWAM’s mercy ships which was docked at San Pedro Harbor. It brought back wonderful memories!
In the afternoon we gave a seminar and participated in the Global Compassion Network. We are both part of the international steering group. The main focus is to strengthen partnerships between different organizations, churches etc.
Besides seminars and plenary sessions, there were many information booths. World Vision had built a whole African village where you could take a digital tour to learn more about the children in need in Africa.
With instructions and explanations through a head phone you were able to follow the story of one African child of this village.
You could choose from 4 different stories. Mine was about a little girl from Uganda.
You enter her house
Learn about her problems,
Hear about her mother who becomes sick and has to leave her,
And then find out that she becomes sick herself and needs to do an AIDS test.
I have never seen such a powerful display on any mission conference!
In a little chapel you were invited to pray for the children
and you could chose to adopt one of those children financially.
Wow, I hope that many of these kids will be adopted financially!
Another display was about a flying car for missionaries in remote areas. It can be built by missionaries themselves, and will help to get to places where the gospel still hasn’t come because of difficult access.
I loved the "FLY" button...Can you imagine just hitting that switch?
It really works. Wow, wouldn’t you love such a car? You can click on the link to know more about it:
There were many very informative presentations about unreached and unengaged people groups. It was great to get a clear picture and to see then how many leaders of churches and mission agencies committed to send team to those people groups that have never had an opportunity to know about Christ.
A good thing of such a congress is that you see very clearly that you cannot finish the job of world missions alone, but that through unity it will be possible. The biggest take away of such a congress is the opportunity for networking. Wonderful to see so many friends who work in different parts of the world, and to get to know more people with the same calling as us: reaching children at risk. It was great to be able to make plans with them for the coming years.
One of the highlights was the visit of Aubry Beauchamp.
Aubrey translated my book “A cry from the streets” into English, and is a longtime friend. She lives in the L.A. area. It was great to meet her again. Thanks for taking the effort Aubrey, we enjoyed it so much!
Afterwards we were able to stay the weekend with Joe and Wanda Parker. We are so thankful for such hospitable friends. Thank you so much, Joe and Wanda!
Straight after this we flew back to Brazil for a week long leadership meeting with about 50 Brazilian YWAM leaders, which was following by our by-annual staff conference. It was a great celebration with about 600 participants.
Johan was one of the speakers
An immense world map was laid out on the floor, where you could walk around and pray for the nations…..
Johanneke and Jonathan were there with their three daughters, Iara wanted to sit on my lap on a beautiful island...
And during the afternoons we had plenty of opportunities to jump into the swimming pool with the (grand) kids.
After three weeks on the road and three different conferences it was great to be home again!
The next job was baking Christmas cookies!
With the expert help of our grandkids that was a piece of cake!
