"Will
you come to my high school graduation?" asked Igor, our eighteen-year-old grandson
from Brazil.
It is so
precious to be able to attend such a celebration. With our married children and
grandchildren, almost all living in different countries, we often miss out on
these occasions. So, it was all the more enjoyable when we were able to
celebrate special moments together in Brazil in December.
An even bigger family
Another special event was the large "family gathering" of Youth With a Mission in Brazil, where we enjoyed being with more than 800 coworkers.
We were there with our daughter and son-in-law, Michele and Romeu, and their children, Igor and Eva. We enjoyed seeing how many young people have given their lives to the Lord and are eager to be used by Him. God is doing great things among young people in Brazil and around the world.
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| Teaching in Brazil |
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| With Romeu, Michele, Igor and Eva |
This became even more evident a few weeks later when five soccer stadiums were filled with 250,000 young people who spent 12 hours praising God and dedicating their lives to him in prayer! Oh, how wonderful!
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| Teaching in YWAM Heidebeek, Netherlands |
Back home together
Back in the Netherlands, we celebrated a wonderful Christmas with Davi and Dilma, who stayed with us for a few weeks, as well as with Hannah, our eldest granddaughter, who lives with us. We are so grateful to God for such beautiful days together! We had to adjust to the temperature change from Brazil to the Netherlands, but we also enjoyed the snow, which made everything beautiful.
Working with full commitment
Then, it was suddenly time to start working hard on the three online seminars planned for this year. What makes it especially busy is that we hope to offer them in six languages. Everything has to be in English and Portuguese as well as French, Spanish, and Korean. The sixth language is Brazilian Sign Language. The first hundred students have already registered, but registration is still open, so there will probably be more.
A moment of shock...
Last week, we received a startling text message from Brazil. Igor had felt called to do a DTS (Discipleship Training School) during the meeting in December, and he had just started a week ago. However, he had an allergic reaction to a large poisonous caterpillar that fell on his arm, so he was in the hospital! It made us feel even more how far away we live from our children and grandchildren.
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| AI made it into a scary picture!:) |
Tests indicated that Igor's muscles were dying, but his "spiritual muscles" were growing stronger as he learned to trust God more deeply (as were those of his parents, us, and the rest of the family and friends!). It's hard to wait from so far away.
Carried by prayer
But what a blessing to have such a large family and group of friends gathered around him in prayer! We are so grateful for that. Everything ended well, and he is feeling much better and after three days in the hospital he is back at the DTS. God is good.
Johan and I are working hard on the preparations and translations so that the first module of the online seminar will be ready in April. Would you pray for that, too? Pray that we will have the right students, those who work or plan to work with children in need and could use some help. They are often missionaries from YWAM, Youth With a Mission, or other mission movements and churches who work in places of great need.
Grateful to be connected with you
Thank you so much for your involvement and prayers! Much love and God's rich blessings!
