Dear Family and Friends,
1,5 more weeks to go, two bible books and then we will have finished the Bible! Our 9 month School of Biblical Studies will have come to an end and we will be doing continuing courses. Time for a more personal update since especially this December month has been and will be a very special one.
1,5 more weeks to go, two bible books and then we will have finished the Bible! Our 9 month School of Biblical Studies will have come to an end and we will be doing continuing courses. Time for a more personal update since especially this December month has been and will be a very special one.
Has been: because apart from our studies we celebrated YWAM’s 50th year of Jubilee with around 3000 other people who were on the Kona campus here in Hawaii. This event started with a torch run around the whole Big Island of Hawaii. During 3 days the distance to be covered (during daytime) was about 400 km. Loren and Darlene lighted the torch and ran the first 10 meters passing the torch on to their son. Symbolizing the theme of the Jubilee “the flame goes forward”. After that school teams took over one after the other. With our SBS colleagues we covered 42 km. Jackson ran about 10 km and Anneke did 5 km. It was an act of thanksgiving to God for what He has done and will do in Hawaii. The last torch runner entered the campus to light the flame of the 50th celebration event. It was very spectacular.
Amongst the people who came were our leaders from Nigeria; Paul & Rachel with their teenage daughters Paula and Victoria. They are our very dear friends and so we had a lot of fun together after having missed them for 9 months. We enjoyed a time at the beach and they both had their birthdays here so we celebrated with them. Since they are so close to us you can understand it was really sad to see them leave.
The 50th program was filled with moments of celebration and gratitude to God for His faithfulness hearing about all that has happened since the start of the mission. 50 years ago Loren and Darlene pioneered the mission movement that today has about 25.000 full time staff working on the Great Commission; to Know God and Make Him Known. Youth With A Mission. It was so amazing to see people from all over the world here on the campus and to hear the testimonies the older generations shared with us as well as look towards all the plans for the future.
After this time of celebration we were able to organize a Dutch Sinterklaas celebration! We had invited all the Dutch people (about 10) on the campus for the “gift-game” (kado dobbel spel voor de Nederlanders). Many of the Dutch had managed to get a hold of some traditional biscuits (kruidnoten) which family or friends had sent and others brought CDs with the traditional Dutch music. It was so much fun to have this taste of Holland together.
After Sinterklaas the Christmas season started and today we had the Children’s Christmas Play in the church. I really enjoyed hearing all the traditional Christmas carols and seeing the joy of the children playing their parts.
Apart from all these celebrations we are back in our daily study routine which is going well for both of us. We really love this bible training and it is transforming our hearts at the same time. Nevertheless, studying for 9 months has been intense physically and so we are really looking forward to the end of this training and the two week break that will follow before we start our next training.
Will be: One of the exciting prospects is the arrival of my parents on December 28th. They will be celebrating the New Year with us and of course all of us will enjoy the time to fellowship and relax as we prepare for the next season of our studies.
We wish you a blessed Christmas!!
Love from Jackson & Anneke
