Monday, September 23, 2019

"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.