This update will be full of flashbacks, and no, I’m not talking about something from the sixties. It’s been a long time since we’ve written an update (October 2008 – almost 4 months ago!) so we have a lot to catch up on.
This update will be full of flashbacks, and no, I’m not talking about something from the sixties. It’s been a long time since we’ve written an update (October 2008 – almost 4 months ago!) so we have a lot to catch up on.
Arizona
As most of you may know (or may have figured out), we spent two months in the US from November 23rd until January 22nd. We failed to write an update informing you all of this, so my apologies for that.
Rodney's birthday cake
Our house
The main reason for our visit to the US, was so that we could help my parents out in the church they are pastoring. As you will remember, my Dad was very sick at the end of August and the beginning of September last year. I am happy to report that he is recovering nicely, but there were just a few administrative things my parents had asked me to come and help out with.
While we were there, I spoke in Sunday services three times and also facilitated two leadership meetings, besides helping my parents out with some advice and moral support.
I also continued working on EuroCom things, since most of that happens via internet anyway. It was a blessing to have an intern, Priscilla, working with us for a few months (two of which, while we were gone), but I will share more about that in a bit.
Our House
When we arrived in November, we moved right into our very own house. It was graciously provided by one of the church members, Vicki Peace, and her family. Much work had been done to get it furnished and ready for us to move in. Our thanks to all of you who helped out, especially to Caryl Fuller and my parents who put a lot of work into it.
It was quite a blessing to have our own place and we even had our own van, provided by the church. Since we have always stayed with my parents when we were in the US, It was fun to live in the US for two months and experience how “normal” life would be with our own house, etc. It was enjoyable to have my parents over for dinner, or to be able to visit them. I even had the honor of hosting Christmas dinner at my own house for my family for the first time in my life.
Lisa & Sarah
The girls did really well, in spite of the fact that it took them a while to get used to the different food in the US. They loved living in a big house, the relatively warm weather, spending time with Grandpa and Grandma, church friends, playing dress-up, dolls, Wii and taking baths at Grandma’s house. Lisa actually got quite good at Wii Bowling.
Lisa also went to an American school while we were there. She was in Kindergarten, so we didn’t send her full-time, only a few days per week. Some things she had to get used to were, school lunches and that everything was in English. We did see her English improving by leaps and bounds while we were there. In fact, it has taken her some time to get used to speaking Dutch again at school.
EuroCom
As I (Rodney) mentioned earlier, I was able to continue working on YWAM Europe things while we were in the US. Also, while I was away, our intern, Priscilla from Germany was hard at work conducting an e-mail survey.
She sent out emails to more than 130 locations in Europe posing as a young lady interested in becoming staff on their base. We gave them three weeks to respond and then scored the locations based on how quickly and how well they responded as well as how easy it was to find their contact information on their website.
Judging from the fact that an overwhelming %40 of the locations didn’t even respond within the – in our estimation generous – three week timeframe, we as EuroCom have our work cut out for us here in Europe.
European Leadership Forum Berlin
From February 2nd until the 6th, about 75 European leaders gathered together in Berlin, Germany. The purpose was to meet together to hear from each other and what God is doing throughout Europe. We also heard several challenging messages, encouraging us to not forget the plight of children, God’s heart for cities, and His continued calling upon YWAM to work with ships.
I was there along with several others from EuroCom. We were given one of the main sessions to share about the state of communication in Europe. Needless to say, we shocked and awed them with the results from our email survey. We didn’t leave them hopeless, though, but we went forward painting a picture of what communication in Europe could be. We then broke up into small discussion groups to discuss how we can get there and what the needs are.
All in all, it was a fruitful time for us as well as for the leaders, I hope. We gave them some food for thought, but we also came away with a better picture of what their struggles and needs are in the area of communication.
One of the services we offered them was to film them sharing their stories and compile them into four short videos. We’ve put three of them up on YouTube (the first one contained information of a sensitive nature, so we didn’t put it on YouTube) and you can see them here: http://www.youtube.com/user/ywameurocom
Another fun thing I got to do in Berlin was visit Danny & Hermine and their two kids Julian & Shina who are good friends and missionaries sent out by the same church as us. They took me out for Greek food and we had a good visit. Danny & Hermine are the ones who recruited me into YWAM back in 1990.
Sadly, when I came back from Berlin, I had to say good-bye to our intern Priscilla. We will miss her around the office, and we will also miss her work. She was really sent by God to us for this time.
This update has become way too long already, so I will end it here.
Thank you for reading our news and also for your continued support and prayers in our behalf.
Blessings,
Rodney, Jolanda, Lisa and Sarah