Personal update June 2014

Tuesday 17 June 2014|Personal

Dear Family & Friends,

Thank you so much for the birthday wishes! I had a great and special day with my family yesterday. My husband took us out for breakfast and then we did some birthday shopping and ended the day with a home baked pizza. It was such a beautiful day with the 3 people I love most in the world. As a special gift to me REJoyce took her first 10 steps on my birthday. That was so thrilling!

I also had a special pre-birthday celebration when Darlene and Dawn took me out for a birthday coffee. I was under the impression I was going to the office to work with Darlene when I was mysteriously driven to a restaurant in town by Dawn. I had no clue… Those who know me know that it is hard to surprise me as I often “suspect” something is going on, but this time it was so well orchestrated and played I had no idea. My husband was in on it too. He had to use some odd persuasion to get me to change from my every day dress to something a bit more colorful- the same shirt in the morning he really liked, all of a sudden he didn’t like it anymore in the afternoon… haha . All he wanted was for me to look my best as he knew there was a surprise coming. It was so special and I loved it!!

Now we are all preparing for REJoyce Zoe’s 1st birthday on June 14th! Can you believe it, she will be a year old already. Time flies!! She is rapidly adding to her vocabulary and uses the first letter of words so “m“ is “more”, “b” is bird and when she calls mamamama for many times with no answer, she will switch to dada! Hahahah.

We just got back from our trip to the Netherlands where we had a precious time with my family. My brother’s wedding was a beautiful day and it was so special that all of us got to be part of that special occasion. We had Judith- the world’s best baby sitter- who visited us in Hawaii with my sister last year. She took great care of our girls and watched them when they were napping so we got to be part of everything. Hope carried in the rings in the church service and that was a big highlight for her. She sat through the entire sermon patiently waiting for her turn. We ate delicious food and it was also fun to see a lot of our relatives and friends in one go. My new sister in law- Maaike- was a beautiful bride shining all day and my brother had a very handsome blue suit.
After their honeymoon we also got to spend some quality time with them which was really nice.

My sister moved into her own place which we got to visit. She has such a great taste for interior design it was so cozy. We also had a fun movie night while my parents baby-sat the girls.

Our girls loved being with their grandparents and this love was mutual. Every day they went to feed the ducks as if they were their own pets, they visited the animals in the children’s farm and grandma had bought a sandbox to play in which made our Hawaiian girls feel really very much at home. My dad said that when I was young I would make him play every song on the piano out of the Dutch children’s song book, well.. now 3 decades later the same thing is happening with Hope. She would make him play each song every night and now that we are back in Kona she happily sings all those songs she apparently memorized. Sometimes there is a slight variation of the lyrics and you get stuff like “Klein, klein kleutertje wat doe je in mijn hart?” (little toddler what are you doing in my heart ..instead of garden)

One of the highlights of the trip for us as a family was the vacation we received in the woods in the Netherlands. It was a free standing bungalow in the most beautiful part of the Netherlands. We had bicycles with children’s seats and so we would cycle a lot or take a walk in the woods. There were lots of playgrounds and farms in the area so the children enjoyed the outdoors a lot. All of us slept for hours and we returned refreshed and strengthened. Even though we “travel the world” we had never had a vacation like this and we are so grateful for our friends to making this possible!

For Jackson one of his highlights was the trip to Germany. Visiting the new YWAM campus in Bad Blankenburg was so thrilling and exciting. He got to share the Bible, teach and preach and returned full of testimonies of God’s faithfulness and the Lord ministered through him in very special ways during this trip. Things are now being put together for a longer visit next year.

At the moment we are preparing the arrival of my cousin Debora who will visit us on vacation from the Netherlands. We are thrilled to have her here on the campus and show her all that we do here. It’s also special she will be part of REJoyce’s birthday celebration as well!

Thank you so much for your love, prayers and support.

Jackson & Anneke, Hope and REJoyce

Personal update April 2014

Friday 18 April 2014|General

Dear Family & Friends,

It’s the final countdown! May 9th my brother will be getting married to his fiancé and Hope Shekinah will be carrying in the rings. She talks about this everyday and we are so excited to be a part of this as a family. I remember the first wedding I attended when I was 7 years old. I was surprised that I wasn’t allowed to wear a “wedding dress” until I realized that that kind of dress is only for the bride 🙂 But my mum bought me a really nice Jeans and pink material skirt and jacket with matching shoes, amazing
what you remember. So we are really excited for Hope to get this opportunity and we will get her a nice dress to wear too 🙂

Regarding our trip to the Netherlands we have an amazing testimony. Jackson got his visa back from the Dutch embassy and he received a multiple entry visa! This is amazing because we had heard at our previous visit that the Dutch embassy only gives single entries. So we had applied for a 1 month single entry. Then they responded that our 1 year visa was denied (we never replied for a year visa!), but that they did grant 45 days multiple entry!! Isn’t that amazing?

It’s really special because as we are considering our itinerary for this period we felt to make it more a vacation trip and take time to rest as a family. Jackson had felt the impression last week to contact a YWAM friend in England and that leader invited Jackson to speak at a conference which would be within that same period. So now with his Multiple Entry visa we would be able to go to England and come back!

Anyway we are so encouraged by this visa and looking forward to the time.

The past few weeks have been busy, but in a good- not too stressful-way. The church Sunday school has taken off and we had 8 children last Sunday. It is so exciting to see their anticipation when they comein and they love hearing the stories. As we are preparing for Easter Hope one day said she doesn’t like the fact that Jesus has so many “auwies” on the cross. That it was so painful. So much so that she didn’t want to read the story for a while.
What a depth of understanding at her age to be so concerned for our Lord and Savior. How quickly we read that story without fully grasping “how much” he paid. And what do we do with His price for our lives?
As I reflect on that for Easter I am reminded of a word that one of our leaders spoke last week at the Moms meeting. She said “no complaining”. It breaks God’s heart when we complain. And what does it do to us? Well it puts us in a bad and ungrateful mood for sure. She said when He gives us challenges, He also gives us the ability and the creativity to face those challenges. After that meeting I made up my mind to really work on this attitude and one of the first challenges that came was REJoyce getting up almost every hour of the night of Sunday. We were feeding her pap at 2am, rocking her at 3am, nursing her at 4am and then finally by 5 am she slept till about 7am. Most likely her teeth were disturbing her, but what was the challenge was our attitude in the morning. I woke up at 8am (Jackson had taken her at 7am) by the worship music coming from our community gathering. It was my FAVORITE Song! I was lying there with a smile on my face just worshipping the Lord. Then my husband came to me and he said
“We made it!” He too was completely in the opposite spirit to what had just happened. So together we rejoiced and thanked the Lord for the new day and His grace carried us through!

Happy Easter!

Blessings,

The Ndecheck Family

Personal update March 2014

Wednesday 12 March 2014|General, Personal

Dear Family & Friends,

We are already wrapping up the second month of Jackson’s Word by Heart continued studies and he is having a special time doing 3 focus groups where he is using the Word by Heart method to train these various focus groups. In parallel he is also memorizing the Gospel of Luke along with the regular class. Yes, he is busy, but not too busy! It really feels this quarter we are in such a balance between work, study and family life and we are not over stressed and the children are doing good.

I started working as an assistant for Loren & Darlene’s scheduling and correspondence since January. I mainly use the hours where the girls are in bed or Jackson is with them. I feel privileged to be able to work while being a full time mom as well. I am learning so much from this experience and the wisdom and experience Loren & Darlene have is just incredible. What a blessing!

Hope is entering the 8th week of Keiki Corner and she absolutely loves it. She has so many friends there now, knows all the songs by heart and comes home with various crafts. She prays for all of her 8 Keiki Corner classmates almost every day and the prayers range from “so and so.. had an auwi” to “so and so.. did not have an Auwi”. She is also eagerly protecting her little sister when she comes to Keiki Corner once a week with me. The other day she ran to one of her friends and said “so and so can you share with REJoyce? Or do you want a Time-out?”. So it sounds like we have a little mother in the making. REJoyce has started crawling and pulling up to standing now. The other day we found her inside the coffee table where she had climbed into. So we are back to baby proofing the house and forgot that she is able to spot every tiny thing on the floor including a morsel of Chocolate that had fallen down. So then I found her with a chocolate mustache… Those of you who know us well know we try to avoid sugar as much as possible for the first two years of our children’s lives and especially chocolate. Oh well, I guess in a few days times she will have forgotten what she enjoyed today ..

Then we are busy preparing the Word by Heart Global Track. At this point 5 of Jackson’s classmates have already showed a serious interest and the plans are unfolding more clearly. The start of the track will be this October when Jackson will run the Word by Heart School in Kona. The year of 2015 will then be the around the world period doing seminars and trainings, presentations, outreaches and studies of the Bible around the world at the diverse locations. More and more locations are unfolding and this makes it all really exciting for all of us.

In the shorter term we are now preparing for our trip to the Netherlands in May. In May my brother and his fiancé will be getting married. This is an occasion we do not want to miss! So this means that in March/April Jackson will have to get his Dutch Visa in the mainland USA and then we can fly together end of April and stay for the wedding on the 9th. Then Jackson is planning to visit his family and do a short medical and water outreach in the village to continue last year’s efforts. If there are any among you that are interested and available the last two weeks of May, do let us know and we will give you the details!

Blessings,

Jackson & Anneke, Hope and REJoyce 

Personal update January 2014

Monday 6 January 2014|General, Personal

God is Faithful

Dear Family and friends,

As I sit here writing this it is January 3d, our 5th Wedding Anniversary! What a beautiful time to reflect and look back and see just how much the Lord has been faithful to us. We have been able to live in 4 different nations, 8 different homes and so far we have been able to give birth to two beautiful girls. It is a wonderful season and an adventurous future that lies ahead. At the beginning of the New Year we also would like to appreciate you as our friends and family for your love and support. It has been such an incredible journey of God’s faithfulness. Every time we get discouraged or worried about the circumstances of life, we are at the brim of another miracle as we continue to walk with Him. This past trip especially was a big step of faith and the Lord provided. We were able to have our own home in the Netherlands which made the time despite the busy schedule a restful time as well. We want to thank all of you who participated in lending furniture etc to this home.

Now we are back in Kona. It was quite a long journey but our girls did great. When we arrived here we had a beautiful place on campus waiting for us which now has 2 bedrooms. This is an answer to prayer as our previous home on campus was all in one room. I am eager to unpack all our stored boxes and make this our home. The jet lag is affecting us a little bit, but that is normal. Jackson has resumed his studies and I will be catching up next week. It is so good to see our friends over here. It really makes me realize just how much this really is home for us and we are very grateful. Hope consistently talks about the trip and her grandparents and aunts and uncles and REJoyce is just excited to smile at all the new people that are here.

Wishing you a year full of the Lord’s faithfulness!

Blessings.