Five loaves of bread and two fish online

“I loved doing this course... I loved learning new things... I loved the information and explanations. I was really hungry for new, solid food.” (Student in the online Children at Risk seminar)

We just completed another 2-week online course on working with children in need. We are always amazed that there is such great enthusiasm for taking this course online. This time we had more than fifty students. Overall, this was our sixth seminar, for which a total of 482 (!) students have registered.
 

Five loaves of bread and two fish

One of our leaders at the University of the Nations calls this “feeding the five thousand”.

While the Lord Jesus spent three years with a group of twelve disciples and taught them everything, there were also moments where he taught much larger groups, such as when he multiplied five loaves of bread and two fish to feed five thousand people. Likewise, we pray that the Lord God will multiply these teachings, our five loaves and two fish, and they will be a blessing to many missionaries working with children in need, often in extremely poor countries and under difficult circumstances. We are not yet at five thousand students, but we are almost at five hundred with these online courses.

Homework is fun!

“Thanks again for the great lessons on Zoom, everything was relevant, I also enjoyed the homework on the Google Classroom with all the links to videos and articles, this added a new dimension to the training.” (Student from Eastern Europe)

“The assignments and additional resources kept me sharp.” (Student from Africa)

It is always nice to see that the students, most of whom have never used Google Classroom, are enthusiastic about this platform and about their homework! And to see how user-friendly it is. But at one point I had more than six hundred emails in my inbox, because you not only see the homework and comments from all students in Classroom automatically, but also receive them as an email--an extra service from Google😊

International

This time we had students from twenty-four countries, especially many students from different countries in Africa. But countries from Asia and from Eastern and Southern Europe were also represented.

“I loved that we could interact after class in the small group sessions with students from all over the world.” (Student from Southern Europe)

“I loved how the seminar staff member led our group session, hats off!” (Student from Asia)

This time we had only five facilitators, from the Netherlands, India, and Ukraine. Normally we have more, but this time almost everyone who had participated in previous seminars was busy with other things. Fortunately, it all went well, and we were also able to have personal conversations and pray with a large number of students via WhatsApp.
 

During the course I turned 65!

Using principles and passing them on again

“I plan to incorporate most of this teaching and material into training courses I offer at a local Bible seminar.” (Student from Africa)

“I will certainly put many of the practical tips for working with children into practice in my pastoral ministry at a local children’s hospital.” (Student from Africa)

“I'm super excited because my husband and I are moving to a new island where we can start using everything we've learned about working with children.” (Student from Asia)

“My projects are with street children and with children with war traumas, especially in the refugee camps in my region. These tools will help me a lot.” (Student from Africa)

Students who work with children in need in many different projects, countries and situations are enthusiastic about the classes. They are often students who do not have the financial means to physically travel somewhere to do a course, or students who simply would not get a visa to leave their country to study. So you see that a lot can be achieved with online seminars that could not happen any other way.
 

We put a lot of time into this!

It usually takes Johan and me two months of full-time preparation for each seminar, and then the 2 weeks of classes are very intensive. The week after the seminar is also quite busy, when homework must be checked, there is an evaluation meeting to conduct, all the notes must be sent to the University of the Nations and the official certificates must be sent out to each student. But when we read all the comments of the students again, we are happy and grateful that we can do this.

"It's a wealth of resources we've been given in this class." (Student from North America)

“I found the lessons very interesting and will definitely share them with my team.” (Student from Eastern Europe)

And of course, it is wonderful if they pass on our lessons to their teams and the people they work with. In this way we indirectly reach even more people and help even more children in need.

Teamwork

We are therefore incredibly grateful that you, our supporters, who stand with us with prayer and financial help, continue to make this possible. In this way, we are partnered together to ensure that many more missionaries receive short training courses about working with children. We are not doing this alone, but together. 

During the 35 years we worked in Brazil with children in need, we learned so much, and now we can share this with students online. But through all those years in Brazil, there have been people like you who read our newsletters, who believed in us and supported us. Now that our work is primarily online from our little home in Holland, you have continued with your support. Thank you very much for that!
 

Davi is playing wheelchair basketbal here in Holland, and here the family was invited to play with them. That was quite a challenge!

Back to Brazil again

However, we are very excited that now, at the end of this year, we are able go back to Brazil for a period of 6 weeks. We were invited to give lectures, and we will also participate in a large national Youth with a Mission conference. Of course, we will also spend time with Michele and Romeu and the grandchildren while we’re there. In the previous letter we had asked for prayers for Michele, who had hip replacement surgery and was still in a lot of pain. We can now say that things are going much better for her, and we are thankful to God for that! Just before Christmas we hope to be home in Holland again, so that Dilma and Davi can come celebrate the holidays with us.
 

We want to wish everyone a merry and meaningful Christmas, as we again celebrate that the God who created heaven and earth, the great I AM, compassionate and gracious; chose to come to us as a little vulnerable child, to offer us salvation, forgiveness of our sins, and redemption! May His Spirit of peace, love, faith, grace, and hope fill you!

Kind regards and God's blessings!

Prayer Points

• Thank the Lord for allowing us to successfully complete another online seminar with so many international missionary students.
• Pray that they will be able to put what they have learned into practice and, in turn, pass it on to their co-workers.
• Thank the Lord allowing us to go to Brazil again, to teach in a real classroom. We had missed it!
• Pray for this world where there is so much need; that this Christmas season will be a time when many will seek God and be able to find Him.

New challenges in South and Eastern Europe

Dear Friends,

At the beginning of the year, we had several students in our Children at Risk Online Seminar who were working with an organization called “Bulgaria without Orphans”. As a result, they had translated the trauma booklet into Bulgarian and now asked us to give an online lesson especially for a group of their staff. A translator was found, and so the students did not hear us, but the simultaneous Bulgarian translation. What wonderful possibilities have arisen with Zoom and all kinds of other online platforms!

Afterwards we received an enthusiastic email from the organization:

“Thank you again for collaborating with us and providing this fantastic training! It really was such an excellent quality; and it was personal, practical, and inspiring.”

How nice to be able to do this, and incredibly special to have so many students from Eastern European countries lately.
 

Repetition of the online introduction module

We are already busy preparing our next online seminar. It will be a repeat of the introduction module for working with children at risk and will take place at the end of September. The information for these online seminars we give is on the website: 

https://www.childrenatriskschools.com/online-seminar

Maybe you would like to participate in this online training, or you know someone for whom this training would be a valuable experience. You can always e-mail us or, better yet, register directly via the website. Registration is open through September 14.
 

An adapted wheelchair van

This summer we were able to buy a nice second-hand wheelchair van, which has been adapted for Davi with a lift. A few years ago, a friend gave us her car which is now 24 years old, so it was time for another one. 

 

We were able to pick up the van just before our summer holidays, so we could use it when Davi and Dilma came to stay with us for a few weeks. How wonderful that was! We were able to have a great day at the beach in Noordwijk and another day in Drachten in Friesland for our son-in-law Jonathan’s birthday, which we all enjoyed!
 

Invasion from England

Johanneke and Jonathan, along with their three daughters, came from England to stay with us for three weeks this summer. It was a superspecial time all together in our little cabin! 

 

Fortunately, the weather was beautiful the entire time, and Johan was able to teach a bunch of our grandchildren to sail and windsurf at a beach nearby our home. 

 

We also cycled together a lot together. That was a very “Dutch” thing to do, just like eating oliebollen (fried rolls, normally a treat for New Year’s Eve, now in mid-summer!) and pancakes. So precious, to have a few weeks together!
 

And further?

Now we are busy preparing for the September online seminar. A trip to Brazil is also planned before the end of the year. We hope to teach in person there again.

But beyond that, we don't know exactly what the future holds. Normally we would have fully booked agendas for one or two years in advance. That is no longer the case. We do not really know yet what God's plans are. Thanks to our online seminars, we now have many more contacts in Eastern and Southern Europe. Maybe this will enable us to do a combination of teaching online as well as in person, on the spot.

We just do not know yet, which sometimes makes us feel insecure. But we can look back and see that God has guided us all our lives and, knowing He is loving and faithful, we can trust that He will continue to do so!
 

Michele and Romeu

Just an extra point of prayer for our children and grandchildren in Brazil. Romeu's mother recently passed away suddenly. That was a huge shock for the whole family, and especially for Romeu's father, of course. Will you pray for all of them? That God will comfort them in this great loss?

Also, Michele is scheduled for surgery this week and hopes to get a new hip. She has been walking with great pain for years, and we hope this major surgery will help and bring relief. Will you pray for that too?
 

Eva, Igor, Romeu and Michele

Grateful

We are so grateful to everyone who is standing with us! Grateful for your prayers that carry us, for your emails that encourage us, for your donations and finances that support us. Thank you very much! We wish you all God's rich blessings!

Prayer Points

*Please pray for the students who have already attended our online seminars, that they may feel supported in their work with children in need.

*Also, for the upcoming seminar in September, that the preparations for this will go smoothly, that we will have enough facilitators again and a nice group of students. And that the internet will work well for all of them.

*Thank the Lord for the van we could buy, and for the fun time with family.

*Will you pray with us for Romeu's father and the whole family, who are having such a tough time after the loss of Romeu's mother?

*And for the surgery Michele must undergo for a new hip. That it will all heal quickly and really be a solution to the severe pain she has had.

Short news June 2022

After giving some more online teachings, including for a group in Bulgaria that takes care of children from Ukraine, we are looking forward to our holidays. 

 

Next week we will have our daughter Johanneke and family from England to stay with us, and after that Davi and Dilma are both coming for another 2 weeks.

The last few times they came we couldn't get away with them much, because Davi was very limited with his wheelchair. But now we have been able to buy a good second-hand van with a wheelchair lift, which suddenly offers a lot of new perspectives! In the meantime we have also learned how we can support him with other medical procedures, and so we could even go to a big evangelical Dutch conference with him! That was super fun!
 

Davi was allowed to sit at the front of the Sing In, during the conference, where 60,000 people took part, and Dilma also had a nice spot with translation for the deaf.

 

We had rented a camper and had also taken three of our grandchildren to the conference. We all enjoyed it so much!

Wishing you all His blessings and protection during the next months!

Finally we can go back to Brazil!

We are back in Brazil for a month! After more than two years away, it is wonderful to be here again, to meet with friends, to encourage each other, to visit the different homes & projects that work with children in need, to give Bible studies and of course to be with our children and grandchildren again! That is soooo good!
 

First to our kids in England

We traveled via England, where we visited Johanneke and Jonathan (our middle daughter and son-in-law), and their daughters for more than a week, and so got a taste of their life at the Youth with a Mission base in Harpenden. We are so proud of them and their beautiful, sweet girls!
 

After another wonderful day staying with good friends whom we have known since 1975, we flew on to Brazil—the country where we lived for 35 years! And how wonderful it is to be back!
 

Outdoor Adventure Kids Camp

Last weekend we went with Michele and Romeu (our youngest daughter and son-in-law) to a children's camp operated by their organization Lamalma. 

 

This time 11 boys were allowed to come. They had been prepared for this camp weeks ago through the work of Luzeiro (a community center run by YWAM Belo Horizonte, Brazil). These children live in one of the largest favelas (slums) of Belo Horizonte, banned from school for the last two years because of Covid. Some are nine years old and can't read yet; they run and play late at night in the narrow alleys of the favela because there is no one at home to watch them, in grave danger of being “adopted” by one of the local gangs. The missionaries of the Luzeiro Community Center are doing their best to prevent this, and the Lamalma Camp is a great support in that regard.
 

Jurassic Park Scenes

The camp is only an hour outside of Belo Horizonte, but on a mountain range so beautiful that I always compare it with Jurassic Park: tropical dense rainforest, impressive toucans and bright green, loudly screaming parrots flying overhead, roaring waterfalls, sparkling streams, breathtaking views of valleys and ridges. In the camp, there is a natural swimming pool, a football field, and an individual tent for each child with a mattress, sleeping bag, head lamp and children's Bible to use during the camp. There are a playroom, age-appropriate books, hammocks, and delicious meals and snacks Michele provides throughout the camp. The children are really pampered for a weekend, and it is wonderful to see their big, surprised eyes.
 

Memories for life

The purpose behind all this is to show them, in addition to telling them during Bible studies, in the evening by the campfire and in the morning around the big table, that God loves them so dearly, has them in mind, sees and knows them, is and will be with them, in all circumstances. Michele and Romeu pray that these weekends will be so special for the children that they will remember this message for the rest of their lives.

Snakes and spiders

There are 15 such camps planned for this year, and Michele and Romeu are quite busy with all the preparations: planning, communicating, buying all the food, etc. Johan went with Romeu a day before the camp to clear the trail to the waterfall again, so that it would be a little less likely to step on a dangerous snake or large spider… It's not a very long trail, but working together, it took them more than 10 hours to clear it. Having a camp in this beautiful tropical rainforest requires a lot of maintenance!

After the camp

And then there is the follow-up work after a camp, where they visit the groups of children, to encourage them and give them personal photos taken during the camp, so that they have a physical memory.

They are doing a great job, and what a great connection they have with the children. What a privilege to see our children, and our grandchildren who also help, doing so well in their ministry!

Another online course

In March, we were able to give another online Children at Risk course to a large group of mainly young missionaries with YWAM. It was a very international group representing more than 20 different countries. It is so nice to be able to pass on the basic principles of working with children at risk in this manner.

Gold in our hands

I wasn’t really looking forward to it—giving Zoom lessons for a couple of weeks, sitting inside looking at a screen again, after 2 years of Covid quarantine... Like most people, I was tired of being limited to a laptop screen.

But when I prayed about it, I felt God was saying we had gold in our hands: lessons and principles we had learned in our 35 years of ministry, that we could now pass on to young missionaries who are just starting their careers. And it became one of the best online seminars yet!

We had a great team of facilitators and had great times with the students online after classes, discussing the teachings, answering questions, and praying for each other. What an encouragement!
 

Trauma booklet for children in Ukrainian

We had students and staff for the online course from Eastern European countries and Ukraine. The trauma processing booklet, which we have used a lot with refugee children in Iraq and other countries, has been translated into Ukrainian. We are planning, along with some of our students, to offer online training on how to use this booklet or maybe offer in-person training in Bulgaria, Poland and perhaps in other countries too. (The trauma processing booklet can be downloaded for free here!)

Meetings and encouragements

But before we fly back to Europe, we hope to be in Brazil for another two weeks. We are still part of the Brazil Youth with a Mission national leadership group. Next week we will have a weeklong meeting with more than 70 of those leaders, most of whom we have known for many years, and we are very much looking forward to seeing each of them in person.

During the last week of our time in Brazil, we hope to visit some of the projects of the YWAM base here in Belo Horizonte, meet old and new missionaries, give Bible studies, and encourage each other.
 

 

Thank you!

We want to thank you all for your support, in finances and in prayer. And for those who are going on holiday in the coming months, we wish you very happy days, and a safe journey!

Prayer Points

• Pray for the children in the favelas who, due to Covid, could not go to school for almost 2 years and did not have an online option. They are now very far behind in their education and face the temptation to not go back to school but instead get involved in gang life and the drug scene.
• Pray that the Lamalma Camps will leave a lifelong deep impression of God's love and faithfulness with the children.
• Give thanks to the Lord for the privilege of seeing and holding our children and grandchildren again in our arms.
• Pray for the hundreds of students we have trained through the online Children at Risk courses in the past 2 years, that the principles they have learned will be applied in their work.

Help for (Ukrainian) children

Do you remember the interactive workbooks we introduced for trauma processing with refugee children in Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, and Haiti, a few years ago, where we trained the parents, educators, and caregivers of refugee children? They have now been translated into Ukrainian! We are very happy, and hope that they will also be a blessing for the Ukrainian refugee children!

They can be downloaded for free on our Children at Risk Schools webpage, with an explanation of how to use them: https://www.childrenatriskschools.com/there-is-hope

 

(I just found out that the website is not working well on mobile phones, only on laptops, sorry about that, we will try to fix this as soon as possible)

If you help Ukrainian children or families, or if you know someone who does, these booklets are recommended! As I explained on the website: The power of these booklets lies in inviting the Lord Jesus to come and heal their trauma.

We may spend a few hours listening to the children's stories, holding their hands and hugging them, but Jesus can always be with them!

It is not about us and our help, but about Jesus. When bad dreams or sad days come, He always wants to be with them. We teach the children to put their hands in the hands of Jesus. And then miracles happen!
 

I took this picture in 2009 when I was in Kyiv

Online course

Last month we also gave another 2-week online course to 40 students from almost 20 different countries, together with a group of international online facilitators. It was great, went very well, and we received a lot of positive feed back.

Most of our students are missionaries with Youth With A Mission, and already work with children in need. This seminar gives them some extra tools to do their often difficult work. For many of them it is also important that the course is accredited by the University of the Nations, so they receive a diploma at the end.

These are often very intense weeks for Johan and me, after a few months of preparations, but we finished with a very satisfied feeling!

We wish you many blessings in the coming weeks and months and are grateful for such a loyal circle of friends who stand around us in prayer and with financial help.

Back on the road

Johan bumps his head everywhere, sometimes several times a day: on the tailgate of the car, on a low door frame in our shed… luckily, he usually does not get hurt too badly, sometimes just a small wound. 

But when I hit my forehead on a lamp which hung low above the table in a cozy dark coffee restaurant in Copenhagen, I got a high fever that evening, and it became a big red spot the next day.
 

Erysipelas

After searching on Google, taking a corona self-test because you never know (it was negative) and digging up some almost lost knowledge from my nursing years (that was a looong time ago), we went to a hospital the next evening, and yes, my own diagnosis was correct: erysipelas on my forehead!

I was glad we caught it quickly, and after prayer and antibiotics I recovered rapidly. This was great, because the next day our son texted an encouraging message: 

“Mom, did you know that a lot of famous Dutch people have died of Erysipelas!?! Michiel de Ruyter for example…”

No, I didn't know that! 😊
 

Teaching in the heart of Copenhagen

Our week in Copenhagen was fantastic. It was really nice to be back on a YWAM base, tutoring the students “in real life”. How we had missed that! It was also so lovely to eat and chat with the students and staff–just wonderful. 

They have a terrific location for their base, right in the city center, and we felt completely at home. We were the last speakers for their school; the following weekend the students left to work with children in need in the Ukraine on the border with Russia, and then later they went to Moldova. An exciting journey!

A few of our grandchildren now live close; we love it!

We went to Denmark after our online seminar in November, which was a remarkable success, and just before our son Pieter and his family suddenly had to move back to the Netherlands from the United States at the beginning of December, due to the Corona rules there. That was very unexpected, but now two months later, they have a house, a new job, the children are back in school, and–the best thing of all for us–they now live close by! 😊
 

It was a real blessing, to celebrate Christmas and New Year's Eve together, to let the grandchildren stay over and eat the famous Dutch “oliebollen” (a Dutch fried treat) with us! We enjoyed it so much😊and so did Davi and Dilma, who stayed with us over the Christmas weeks.
 

Coming up in March: The Second Module

In January we immediately started preparing for the next online seminar, the second module. We gave this seminar last year as well. We plan to have it in early March. For more information about the teachings we will give, and the schedule, you can have a look at the website: https://www.childrenatriskschools.com/online-seminar

Hopefully we will add a third module later in the year. Our students are generally missionaries who work with Youth With A Mission, and they mostly live in poorer countries, where many children are in need. Most of them already have a ministry with these kids, so it's great to be able to teach them some basic principles and encourage them in this way.
 

Face-to-face teaching at Heidebeek

In January the Children at Risk School at Heidebeek in the Netherlands was able to begin “in person” classes again. Despite all the uncertainties, it did really happen. Johan taught in the first week of the school. It is so good to see that, slowly but surely, the YWAM locations are starting their schools again. It is wonderful as well to see that the Corona epidemic is also coming to an end! How we long for this, together with the entire world!
 

Positive

Last week we tested positive for Covid ourselves and had flu symptoms for a few days. Fortunately, we had no other serious complaints. We pray for all the people where the Corona infection has had grave consequences, where it has caused a lot of grief and loss, that God may comfort and help them.

I read an article by a professor at Oxford University who wrote that there are five million children worldwide who have lost at least one of their parents to Covid… What indescribable suffering!

“Oh, Lord Jesus, let them know that they are not alone–that You, Immanuel, are with them, holding them, comforting and guiding them.”

Thank you!

We are so grateful for your prayers, for your financial donations, and for your encouragement, whether through social media, emails, or any other way. This is how God shows us his care and love through your investments and involvement in our lives.

Thank you for walking with us on this path of obeying God together, discovering His plans together, following Him together. We are so happy to be able to do this with you. THANK YOU!

We wish you God's rich blessings!
 

Prayer Points

• Give thanks for our health, that the erysipelas healed quickly, and that we did not have any nasty side effects from Covid.
• Give thanks for the two groups of students that we were allowed to teach in person, but also for the students who follow our seminars online.
• Pray that they will learn much from it and be encouraged by it in their often-arduous work.
• Pray for the protection of the students, as they often work in dangerous places.
• Pray for protection of their health: physical, mental, emotional, and financial.
• Would you also pray for all the children who have lost one or two of their parents worldwide? That the church will step up to provide an answer to this need?
• Give thanks along with us that God is good, a God of compassion and love!