We have a change of address, but not of our mission

 

Our tiny livingroom-office in Brazil

We thoroughly enjoy being at home in our cozy apartment in Belo Horizonte during the intervals between teaching in other cities and countries.

With one of the walls of the living room painted light green and comfortable pillows on the couch, it is simply a wonderful little corner where we feel at home. We know that we are blessed! However, I have some mixed feelings... Because we are going to move!

Move?!?

We have lived in Brazil in the city of Belo Horizonte for 35 years. During the first 29 years, we started and led a YWAM base there with all kinds of ministries targeting children at risk—street children, deaf children, and those affected by HIV/AIDS. But during the last 6 years we have mostly been teaching in Belo Horizonte and other cities in Brazil and around the world on the subject of reaching vulnerable children. There is a great need for this on YWAM bases worldwide.

  

Next year: Asia, Africa and the Middle East

We like to encourage, stimulate, teach and train young missionaries and hope to continue doing this for many years to come. Next year we have on our agenda to teach about children at risk in the Philippines, Macau, Thailand, Cambodia, Angola and Turkey.

                          

Our cabin in Holland

So, on December 20th we are traveling to Holland, where we will register for residency again, and will live in our little holiday cabin in the city of Ermelo. This will make it easier to spend extra time with our adopted children Dilma and Davi during Christmas seasons and summer holidays. Both have special needs and have some mental challenges as well. They live in a therapeutic community in a neighboring city where they are very well taken care of and love living and working. But it will be nice and important to be with them during their holidays.

Our other three children with their spouses and our grandchildren now live in England, the US and Brasil, which makes visiting a little more complicated😊


                          

But you guys are ours!

“You guys are ours, here in Brazil, much more than any other country in the world,” said one of the Brazilian YWAM leaders to me. “We miss you a lot when you are away!”

Of course, we still plan to be in Brazil regularly to teach in the different Children at Risk schools, and to spend time with our daughter, son-in-law and our grandchildren. But for the next two years we will mostly be teaching in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

                                           

Going to the Philippines
Two years ago, we gave a seminar on the YWAM base in Cebu, the Philippines, which was a great success! The base is full of enthusiastic young people and is surrounded by nine different slum communities; in other words, plenty of needy children close by.

There is a great desire to help these children and their families and to see these sad slums transformed into vibrant places, full of people who treat each other with love and integrity, bristling with hope and joy. Where the houses will be secure, with running water and electricity and roofs that don´t leak. Where children will go to school and young people can find jobs. Where there will be supermarkets, health clinics and churches. Where people will know God and His love for them and for the people around them and where they will honor Him with their lives.

                                  


Please help us promote this school

On this base in the Philippines we were invited to run the three-month Children at Risk (CAR) School to equip their staff and students. We are really looking forward to this. If you know anyone who is interested in this school, can you please forward the information to them? All lectures will be in English, which makes it easy for international students to participate alongside the nationals.

The dates: 6th of April to 26th of June 2020. The cost is US$500 per month including room and board. After the lecture phase, there is the possibility to do a practicum of 3 to 12 months with children at risk.

For more information, please visit our new comprehensive website: www.childrenatriskschools.com, but you can also write directly to the base: ywamcebu@yahoo.com

                                        

Christmas

Outside it´s cold, dark and maybe it snows. Inside warm and comfortable, maybe a candlelight dinner...

Or like in Brazil: It is hot outside, bare feet, thin t-shirts, fans or AC at full blast, maybe a barbeque in the yard...

                                 

Whatever it’s like where you are, cold or hot, the message doesn´t change:

Isaiah 9: 6,7 For a child has been born - for us! the gift of a son - for us! He'll take over the running of the world. His names will be: Amazing Counselor, Strong God, Eternal Father, Prince of Wholeness. His ruling authority will grow, and there'll be no limits to the wholeness he brings. He'll rule from the historic David throne over that promised kingdom. He'll put that kingdom on a firm footing and keep it going with fair dealing and right living, beginning now and lasting always.

At Christmas we celebrate that the Lord Jesus was born for us, to be the Savior and Lord of our lives. This continues to be our prayer: that He will be known by more children and families as their Savior and Lord and that many lives will be transformed.

We wish everyone a very blessed Christmas and a new year of fullness in the presence of the Lord!

                                         

Prayer points

• We thank God for all the classes we have been able to give over recent years. Please pray that the experiences and lessons we shared will be of great blessing for the young people as they start their ministries with children, families and communities at risk.
• Thank the Lord for our cabin in Holland. Please pray for a smooth transition.
• Give thanks for YWAM Cebu in the Philippines. Pray that the right students will come to the Children at Risk School in April 2020.

                                                      

"Yes, that's why we do it!"

Here is another short photo update from us, about our trip to Peru, where we were invited to give a seminar. We started this trip with a short visit to our niece Karina, her husband Yojan and their daughter Gabriella, who live there and have a horse ranch. It was so nice to be able to visit them.

After that stopover, we gave a week long seminar in a church in downtown Lima in the evenings, while during the mornings and afternoons we taught the employees of a community center in a slum.

After a number of teachings about working with children, a practical day with children of two community centers was scheduled, so all the material had to be prepared. Our students are pretty busy with this in the next picture.

On the practical day, large groups of children came to the different community centers. The children were then divided into small groups, and were offered a super fun program.

Even the pastor of the church, where we held our seminar, came to participate. "Yes, even though I am in 84 years old, I can always learn something new isn't it?" She told us radiantly.

The children adored all the attention.

And our students also enjoyed it. "I didn't know that working with children could be so much fun and so relaxed!" One of the young women sighed.

It was so encouraging to hear afterwards all the enthusiastic stories of how the students had experienced the practical day.

Trips like this, to Peru, are always big endeavors for Johan and me, which of course cost quite an extra amount of energy. But when you see the wonderful and grateful people, some of whom even traveled 2 hours to and 2 hours back every day to attend the seminar, and faithfully maintained that schedule for the whole duration of the week, because they learned so many new things; then we keep saying to each other: "Yes, that's why we do it!"

We are very grateful to God that we can do this, and also to you for making this possible by praying for us and supporting us financially. Thank you so much for standing with us!

Warm greetings and God's rich blessings!

Prayer points

• Pray that the students of the seminar will reach many children in need with God's love.
• Pray for the various community centers in the slums, that are run by young missionaries from Youth with a Mission. Pray that they will always perceive the right strategies from the Lord to help the children and families.
• Pray for energy and health for us as we hope to give a couple more seminars in different cities in Brazil for the rest of this year.

 

Adventures during our long trip through South America

Ana* called us in panic: “The whole camp is underwater, everything is soaked, pray for the rain to stop and please come and help us!”

Ana is a young doctor who is a refugee from Venezuela, together with her 2 children, 3 sisters, 2 brothers-in-law and 5 nephews and nieces. They have now lived for 6 months in the city of Boa Vista in northern Brazil, where thousands of refugees have fled into UN camps.

But all the official camps were full when they arrived. The only option was to invade an old abandoned country club where they made some temporary shelters with tarps and sheets of plywood. Together with 400 other refugees, they took up this challenge—it was their only viable option.

Leading a refugee camp together with 4 Indian chiefs
It is a very mixed group, because in addition to a group of Venezuelans, there are also indigenous people from 4 different tribes that were among the first groups to flee Venezuela. Ana is a leader of the camp, together with the four tribal chiefs. Next to the entrance gates, in an attempt to maintain law and order, they posted a sign that says: “Welcome, but here drugs and alcohol are forbidden, and after 10:00 it should be quiet, etc.”

In contrast to the refugees in the regular UN camps, they don´t receive food, clothing or electricity…. They must fend for themselves.

During our time in Boa Vista we and our students have been able to help in two non-UN camps, through practical assistance and children’s programs. Both camps have a population of about 400 adults and 150 children.

Assisting in Ana´s camp was more complicated, as the refugees not only spoke Spanish, but also the four different tribal languages. Each of the 5 groups had taken possession of a separate part of the former country club. Using tents, tarps and discarded construction materials, each claimed their territory.

Ana’s family of 6 adults and 7 children slept on the floor of an improvised cabin that had only three walls made of tarps. The front was totally open. During the hot dry season with temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), this worked reasonably well, but now the rainy season has started!

A tropical rainstorm
“All our clothes are soaked and there is a river gushing through our cabin!” Ana cried on the phone.

Together with our students we made an emergency plan, and within a few hours we were able to help. Equipped with hammers, shovels, cords, tarps and garbage bags, we went to work. The family had already raised the floor of their cabin with some sand, and quickly our handy students helped them stretch out a big blue tarp in front of the cabin to fend off the worst of the rain.

Two of the tribal groups hadn´t suffered too much from the rain, as they had been able to camp under the roof of the old structure. But most hadn´t been so lucky. One of the tribes had put up their hammocks without any tarps covering them from the rain. For them and some of the other worst-hit families, we were able to put up some tarps for protection. Of course, it was only a temporary solution, but it was touching to see how grateful they were for our effort. And when we came back a few days later to do a program for the children, we were received with open arms.

150 children in groups on the floor
A program for the children in an open space with no tables, no chairs and kids that speak 5 different languages—how do you do that? Well, it is always amazing to see the flexibility of our students😊.

Eight big tablecloths were bought for the kids to sit on, and when they arrived, each received a sticky label with their name and age. They were divided into 6 age groups, with the oldest kids divided into boy’s and girl’s groups. Then the program could begin!

Johan and I had already been teaching the students for a few weeks, and they had prepared a wonderful attractive program adapted for different age groups. It was great to see how easily the kids from 5 different ethnic backgrounds mixed. Time flew and before we knew it, three hours had passed.

The students were enthused and inspired:
“I didn’t know it could be so much fun! I always thought that a program for children consisted of loud singing and jumping around with a whole big group. But dividing the children in small groups is so much nicer—I even got to learn all the names of the children in my group!”

The YWAM base in Boa Vista is just starting. They have a strong commitment to work with tribal peoples and with refugees. It was a great privilege to be able to conduct a seminar there for a whole month.

170 students in our Children at Risk Seminar
We were also invited by the YWAM base in São Luis, a big city in the poor northeast of Brazil, to give a seminar. They have lots of contacts with local churches, and when they sent out the invitation, 170 students showed up to learn more about working with vulnerable children. It was wonderful to be able to teach such a big group of eager students on how to reach out to children and families who are the poorest of the poor.

After nine weeks on the road teaching in 5 different cities, we are finally back in Belo Horizonte for some quality time with our daughter Michele and her family before we travel to Peru next week for a seminar in Lima. The remainder of the year, we will be busy teaching in different cities around Brazil.

Next year: Children at Risk School in the Philippines
In the meantime, preparations are in full swing for the three-month Children at Risk School (taught in English) we will be giving in Cebu in the Philippines next year from April through June. Two years ago, we gave a two-week seminar there at the YWAM base.

If you know young people who would like to learn how to start a ministry for children in need, including the “why” and important issues for transformation, then please click here to receive more info and application forms. The cost of this school including room and board is US$1,500.00 for the three-month lecture phase.

Grateful
Thanks to those of you who have stood with us through all these years. Your prayers have carried us, your encouragement has motivated us, and your gifts have sustained us in our needs. We are so thankful that we can reach out together with you to needy children and their families. We remember you in our prayers and wish you God´s richest blessings,

Much love from Johan and Jeannette
*Ana’s name has been changed to protect her identity.

Prayer points

• Let us pray for the millions of Venezuelans who have fled their country. Pray that the churches in neighboring countries will not look the other way but reach out with helping hands.
• Pray for those two refugee camps in Boa Vista that are not under UN control, where there is great need.
• Pray for Ana and her family. That her doctor’s certificate will be recognized in Brazil and that she and the adult members of her family will be able to find good jobs and housing.
• Pray for the classes we will be giving throughout 2019 in Peru and Brazil.
• Pray for preparations for the Children at Risk School next year in the Philippines.
• Give thanks for sustained health.
• Give thanks for the students we’ve been able to train and motivate for work with vulnerable children.
• Please pray for my sister and her family. My brother-in-law passed away very recently.

Short news update - June

Here is a short news update from us, about a little of our work with the refugee camps close to the border of Venezuela.

We were invited by the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) base here in the city of Boa Vista. During the mornings we teach sessions for the YWAM staff right on the veranda of the ministry house. In the evenings, we give lectures in a hired classroom for people from churches, other mission organizations, and schools that are already working with refugee children and want to learn more about it.

On some afternoons and Saturday mornings we take our students on outreach to some of the refugee camps to put in practice several of the classes we have been teaching; for example: “How to organize a children program for the children of the refugees?”

There are thirteen camps in the city, eleven are under the administration of the UN. There the refugees have at least some kind of roof above their heads and three meals a day. However, the other two camps were formed informally because the UN camps were full. So, some refugees invaded a piece of empty land and some buildings to make temporary shelters. We have directed most of our activities to these two informal camps.

In these camps there is lack of just about everything: food, shelter, mattresses, dry clothing, (it is rainy season here), electricity …

But it is beautiful to see the flexibility of our students and the love they have for the children. One of these camps is called “Criança Feliz” (Happy Child). For a few afternoons we were able to transform the sad and hopeless situations into an atmosphere of love and hope in the Lord Jesus.

Here is a picture from us at the beautiful river that cuts through the city of Boa Vista. Next weekend we plan to travel to the city of Manaus for another seminar on how to work with children in need.

Thanks to all who are standing with us and we wish you God´s richest blessings!

• Please pray for the families that have fled from their country and are still passing through great difficulties. Especially for the families that live in the camps with so few facilities.
• Pray for the people who are taking the seminars. That this will result in the transformation of many children, teenagers, young people, and families.
• Pray for the last few days and classes here in Boa Vista, and for the seminar next week in Manaus. That the Lord may use us to encourage many.
• Pray for my brother-in-law who is still very sick. For grace for my sister and their family.

While we are (still) in Brasil...

Somewhere close to the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, there is a walled neighborhood with only one entrance. Across that street lies a big, heavy log. If you want to enter this place, you need to negotiate permission with the gang in charge. Armed teenagers stand next to the log and will drag it away with thick iron chains if you have permission to enter or leave. Even if you want to enter this community on foot, you must be invited by someone living there, who will then meet you at the log and walk with you through the neighborhood. If you go inside without a member of the community, you run the risk of being shot…

A few years ago, we were invited to visit this community. YWAM had worked there in the past, but the work had stopped. Would it be possible for our students from the Children at Risk School to revive this work?
 

The Children at Risk School in Rio de Janeiro

The good guys

A pastor who had been leading a church in the middle of this neighborhood for over 20 years, invited and met us at the “logged” entrance. The distance from the log to the YWAM house can be covered in about 5 minutes, but it took us 45 minutes that first time. He stopped at every street corner and took time to introduce us to all the local gang members, emphasizing that we were “good guys”.

We walked through small alleys and through some wider, nicely swept streets. I saw some characteristic slum sheds, but also some big mansions with walls around them. One even had a huge circular waterslide sticking out above the wall—it splashed into a private swimming pool. Cars were parked on the side of the road, in contrast with the rest of Brazil where cars are put in garages to avoid being stolen overnight. “In this neighborhood, nothing gets stolen”, the pastor explained, “even though the police aren’t allowed to enter this neighborhood. The local gang maintains ‘justice’ here!”

War

Many people who live here were born and have lived all their lives here. But life expectation is far lower than in the rest of Brazil. Last year, a bloody war was fought with the gang from another neighborhood. Many young people died. But now there is peace again, as all the drug-selling locations have come under the control of just one gang.
 

Another slum in Rio de Janeiro where YWAM has a wonderful ministry 

Christian drug dealers?

I was so surprised to see painting and writing on the walls in happy yellows, pinks, purples and greens, with big clear Bible verses. Yes, they told me, the leaders of this gang are Christians… They claimed that God was on their side, so whoever would turn against them, “would fight against God”, according to their theology. It seems to work. They are holding the people in their power with an unhealthy fear of God. What a strange, twisted world, right in the middle of a world-class city like Rio de Janeiro!

The long haul

A group of our students restarted the work with the children and teenagers in that community, and last month we were able to visit them to see how they are doing. How do you explain to children in such an environment what it means to be a true Christian? Who God really is? That a whole other real world exists outside those walls? Our former students, now staff with YWAM, had beautiful stories about the kids who had participated in their camps, who were deeply touched by the Lord. But work like this is really for the long haul. We were so happy to see the hearts these missionaries have for this community, for the children and their families.
 

On the YWAM base in Fortaleza

300 teenagers in Fortaleza

After coming home from Rio, I started building a website for International Children at Risk Schools, while Johan traveled to Fortaleza. The YWAM base there is doing a great job discipling more than 300 adolescents through sports ministry. In August, the Fortaleza base is planning to run their first Children at Risk school, so more staff and students can be trained in working with children and teens.
 

An adventure with God awaits: Children at Risk School!

Street children in Recife

After this, Johan will go to Recife. Our good friends Mati and Julie Gali are leading the YWAM base there. They got to know each other some 25 years ago on the base here in Belo Horizonte. I wrote about Mati in my book “A Cry from the Streets”, about how he was abducted by the police, tortured and almost killed because they thought he was the leader of a street kids’ gang.
 

Julie and Mati, the leaders of the YWAM base in Recife

Mati and Julie have led the base in Recife for many years, and the Children at Risk school has been running there for more than 20 years to train staff and students. The base has a large, beautiful location. Besides lecture halls and apartments for staff and students, it has a reintegration house for ex-street children, plus a preschool/primary school for children of the surrounding communities. Johan will teach in the current Children at Risk School. While there, he will have the joy of processing new plans and dreams with staff, students and other ministry leaders.
 

Staff and students from the YWAM base in Recife

Soon after this trip, we will start our long trip to the very north of Brazil, close to the border with Venezuela, where we will work with refugees and conduct some seminars. We will cover that in our next newsletter😊.

Our kids will live in 4 different countries

When we took the difficult decision to obey God and become missionaries 40 years ago, one of the hardest things was leaving behind friends and family. For our parents, brothers, sisters and friends it was equally difficult, and of course, we did miss each other a lot.

Now we have lived in Brazil for 35 years—in Belo Horizonte, the city where our kids grew up and which we call “home”.

We find ourselves in the same position our did parents so many years ago, with our kids not just leaving home, but also the country where they grew up… Pieter, our oldest son, is on the verge of moving with his family to the USA. Dilma lives in Holland, while Johanneke and her family live in England. Michele is the only one of our kids who still lives in Brazil with her family, and Davi, our youngest, also lives in Holland.

A bit complicated? Certainly! 

We haven´t been able to all be together as a family since 2011. I hope and pray that we will be able to gather with our entire family sometime in the near future! When we are in Brazil, we miss those who live in other countries, and when we are in Holland it is the same! Besides that, we ourselves travel for months at a time to different countries around the world to teach.

Even so, we have been able to spend some quality time with each of our kids almost every year. Sometimes it’s very brief and it doesn’t happen as often as we would like, but God is faithful! Nowadays we have the great advantage of the internet with WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook, emails and all, to stay in touch with each other. Still, it’s not the same as seeing each other face to face and hugging one another! Maybe I do suffer from a bit of the empty nest syndrome? 😊
 

Thank God, Johan and I enjoy being together very much, serving the Lord together. We know God is faithful in His care for all of us, including our kids, family and friends, whether they are close or far away.

We want to thank all of you who have been in touch through WhatsApp or email, who have prayed for us or financially supported us. We are so grateful! We wish you all God’s richest blessings!

Prayer points:

• Please pray for the work among the children in Rio, Fortaleza and Recife. That God will guide the leaders and staff with the right strategies and provide the needed staff, volunteers and finances for all these initiatives.
• Pray for all the lectures we are planning to give during the trip to the northeast and north of Brazil. That it will be a blessing and encouragement for all those students.
• Pray for us, our kids and grandkids. That God will help us to find time to be together even though we may not be an average family and live far apart.
• Please continue to pray for my sister and brother-in-law Sieb who is very sick. Also, for their children and grandchildren, that they will experience God’s presence in a very special way during this difficult time.

Quick short update

Last week we lectured in Rio de Janeiro about Biblical principles in working with children at risk.
   

It was great to meet some of the students and staff from the Children at Risk School we led in 2016 and celebrate a little get together with some of them over an ice cold coconut drink at the beach of Copacabana! :)

We´re so proud of those ex staff and students who continue to listen to God and to obey Him.

The previous week was the famous carnival festival in Brazil. In Belo Horizonte literally millions of people were dancing and drinking in the streets. The teams from the local YWAM base seized the opportunity to proclaim the gospel in many creative ways.

What a privilege to be able to work with young people and be involved in training them!

"I´ll go down, if you hold the cord,” said William Carey to his friend in England when he left as one of the first missionaries to India. That friend became responsible for raising prayer and financial support, while Carey was on the field.

To all who are holding our rope, a big thank you, and we wish you God´s richest blessings!

Prayer points

Please pray for my sister Carla and my brother in law, Sieb. He is very sick. In February we were able to visit them for 3 weeks in Holland. That was very nice, but saying good bye was extremely difficult. Please continue to uphold them and their family in prayer.

Pray for the people in the very criminal slums in Rio de Janeiro where control is in the hands of te drug cartels. Pray for hope in often hopeless situations and for real justice and peace instead of the false peace these factions offer.

Pray for the different trips we are planning this year to 9 different YWAM locations in South America. Pray that the classes and seminars will be of great encouragement tot the local people and will result in help for many children at risk.