Traveling together

With Dilma and Davi

Shivering greetings from us in a biting cold and very wet climate! It was a sudden change from the hot summer in Brazil to the freezing winter in Holland. But we are already adapting quite well and love being here again for a couple of months. 😊

Our last week in Brazil

The last week in Brazil we participated, together with Dilma, Michele, Romeu and our grandchildren Igor and Eva, in YWAM’s national staff conference. It was a family celebration with more than 350 people in a wonderful setting with great worship and fascinating speakers. It is so good to recharge our batteries like this every now and then.
 

Igor did a beautiful drawing for us, where he puts us travelling on the wing of an airplane 😊! 

The translation is: Love is...teaching around the world, how to reach children at risk.

Where are our suitcases?

Right after the conference we went straight to Holland. But what a shock when on arrival in Amsterdam, four days before Christmas, there was no trace of our three suitcases. One of them contained our photo albums that contained 35 years of our memories and history in Brazil. So, we had a few tense days, but happily they were delivered to us one day before Christmas.

Christmas, children and grandchildren

Dilma and Davi live in a therapeutic community in a neighboring town. During their Christmas vacation they came to stay with us. It was a really relaxing time with long walks in the woods, delicious food and movies at night. But of course, during those holidays, we miss our other children and grandchildren.

The last time we were all able to be together was 2011. But we all plan to meet in one place again next Christmas at the YWAM base in England where Johanneke and Jonathan live with their three daughters. It will be a logistical challenge for Pieter and Melissa and their three children to come from the US, and Michele and Romeu with two kids from Brazil. But we still have some time to plan and save money 😊.
 

Back to where it all started

In January we stayed for a week at the YWAM base of Heidebeek in the north of Holland, to teach in the Children at Risk (CAR) school. We did our DTS (Discipleship Training School) on this same base forty years ago! It is always a pleasure to see how this place is still attracting young people to be challenged and trained to put their lives and future in the hands of God.

 

It is wonderful to see how a young Dutch lady called Joke, with whom we led the first CAR school at Heidebeek in 2018, continues to lead the school with great enthusiasm. With staff and students from Indonesia, India, Uganda, the US and Holland, it is quite an international school. After the lecture phase they plan to go on outreach to South Africa.

Dare to ask

In Cape Town in South Africa, the CAR school has been functioning for several years under the leadership of Toby and Aukje Brouwer, a wonderful Dutch couple that has been working with Children at Risk for almost 30 years. Aukje has written a book, “Dare to Ask”, where she tells how God took them from a small village in the north of Holland to an adventure in missions in Africa. The book deals with some honest questions of life and is highly recommended.

Australia

We also received some positive news from the CAR school in the city of Perth in Australia. It is great to see how well the school is doing in various places around the world, as well as in several cities in Brazil—all with the goal to train people who have a desire to reach out to children, families and communities at risk.
 

Students during the Children at Risk seminar

A school for fundamental education in India

“Do you still have contact with your ex-students?”, people ask us sometimes. Yes, we have students working in many countries around the world, and it is always encouraging to receive news from them.

Last week we received a newsletter from Peter who did his CAR school some years ago in Brazil. Afterwards he went to India to offer education to children from very poor families in order to prepare them for better job opportunities in the future. He built a school there, trains the teachers and has had great results. We are thankful for good reports like that from around the world.
 

March to June

Currently we are preparing ourselves for a trip from the 20th of March till the end of June. We are planning a seminar in Macau, and from there we go straight to Cebu in the Philippines to lead the first Children at Risk (CAR) school there. We have great expectations!
 

Disasters in Belo Horizonte

Over the last couple of days, we have received disturbing news about the city of Belo Horizonte, our home city for over 35 years. They have had two downpours of over 170 millimeters (6.7 inches) in just a few hours. This has caused landslides and terrible flooding in several places in the city and the state. 53 people have died already.
 

The second time that it rained over 170 mm, which is equivalent to 170 liters per square meter (45 gallons per 10 square feet), the water had nowhere to go because of the previous flooding and saturation of the soil. This caused severe flooding and destruction in the downtown area of Belo Horizonte. Whole streets and avenues were destroyed as asphalt broke up and landed in big piles—it looked like a war zone or the landscape after an earthquake. The mayor even cried during an interview with the press. And lots more rain is still expected for the next few weeks (until rainy season ends).
 

YWAM buildings received relatively little damage, compared to what happened in the rest of the city and some of the slums around town. All the staff is safe including Michele and Romeu and their children. Now they are trying to help people who lost their homes with mattresses and basic necessities and help others whose homes are full of mud because of the flooding.

Could you please pray for this situation? For the people who lost their loved ones? For those who lost houses and possessions? For the people still in areas that are at risk of flooding and landslides? And that the rains will subside?
 

Traveling together

We would like to thank all of you who have been with us in our travels through prayer, encouragement and giving. We recognize how blessed we are to be able to do this kind of work.

We wish you all the richest blessings of our heavenly Father!

Prayer points

• Gives thanks to the Lord for our suitcases and photo albums that were returned to us. And for the wonderful time we had with Dilma and Davi over the Christmas holidays.
• Thank God for the various CAR schools around the world that are functioning well and for all the students that are being trained.
• Please pray for our trip to Macau, via Hong Kong, as we are hearing more and more about problems with traveling, due to the Coronavirus.
• Please pray for the students from our upcoming seminars and schools.
• Thank the Lord for his protection over our children and the YWAM base in Belo Horizonte.
• Please pray for the people who are still at risk from the rains in Belo Horizonte and surroundings.

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.