Vakantietijd is begonnen!

Vandaag is de vakantie voor ons begonnen:-) Op naar de zon en warmere temperaturen hopen wij! Vanochtend voor vertrek voor de laatste keer de auto sneeuwvrij gemaakt want op de valreep hebben we de auto deze ochtend voor een zacht prijsje verkocht! We wensen de nieuwe eigenaar een drum bun! (goede reis) en dan kan nu het zoeken naar een andere, betere en hogere auto beginnen! Iemand nog iets in de aanbieding? Tips zijn van harte welkom!

X-mas in Huzun

Today I went with a team from the USA to the village Huzun to help with handing out presents the team had brought for the children from the village. It was for the first time that the building was used to gather people. After a short sharing and explanation why the building was made (for people to have a place to worship God and for the children to receive daily warm meals), we prayed altogether that God would use this building as a shelter for many people and children who are in need of a place where they can find peace, comfort and experience love. After the prayer it was time for presents and with the snow outside, the new hat, hand gloves and ski-socks were a really nice present! And of course the candy and the small toys were happily received too!

Winterclothes

Today the first snow came to Moldova! And while I was working on a report with pictures and stories about the 950 children who received warm winter clothes in the last weeks, I looked outside and saw how the snow was coming down. I am very happy and praise God that He provided for all these children to have some nice, warm and good clothes just in the right time! Below you will find a link of the report if you like to read some stories of the children that were helped.

Report Winter clothes

But here are some very cute pictures I found: (and as you can see my favorite pictures are of the smaller kids!)

Kleine Maxim

In april was ik op bezoek bij het dagcentrum voor kinderen uit arme families in het stadje Bender. 1 van de kinderen die zo nu en dan naar dit dacgcentrum komt is Maxim. Het verhaal wat ik toen te horen kreeg was dat Maxim 6 jaar oud was en meer op straat woonde dan thuis. Maxim zijn ouders zijn alcoholisten en vergeten vaak dat ze een zoontje hebben waar ze zorg voor dragen. Hij bedelde vaak eten bij elkaar op straat en toen hij het dagcentrum ontdekte, kwam hij zo vaak hij kon naar het dagcentrum om een warme maaltijd te ontvangen. Soms kwam hij een paar dagen niet opdagen en als iemand dan vroeg waar hij was geweest, dan vertelde hij zachtjes dat het hem speet dat hij niet had kunnen komen omdat zijn moeder hem had opgesloten in huis en dan kon hij verschillende dagen niet naar buiten. Of vaak gebeurde het ook andersom, zijn ouders deden de deur op slot en hij kon niet naar binnen, met als resultaat dat hij dan verschillende dagen op straat moest zien te overleven. Een hard leven voor Maxim. Maar hij genoot van aandacht en liefde die hij kreeg tijdens zijn bezoekjes aan het dagcentrum.

Vandaag hoorde ik het trieste nieuws dat Maxim, nadat hij de afgelopen 2 maanden in het ziekenhuis heeft gelegen omdat hij tbc heeft, er besloten is door de autoriteiten dat Maxim uit huis wordt gehaald. Dus vandaag is hij naar een kindertehuis gebracht en daar is hij achtergelaten. 
Misschien denk je, triest nieuws? Dit is vast beter voor Maxim dan rondzwerven op straat of opgesloten zijn in huis en ouders die niet voor je zorgen? Maar het leven in een kindertehuis in Moldavie is zeker geen pretje en het recht van de sterkste geldt. Dus in mijn ogen is dit triest nieuws. Voor Maxim blijft het leven hard en moeilijk. 

Na het horen over hoe het Maxim is vergaan tot nu toe, bid ik dat hem en hoop ik dat hij niet zal vergeten dat er een Hemelse Vader is die hem kent en om hem geeft. Ik bid voor een wonder dat Maxim een warm thuis zal vinden waar hij kan opgroeien met liefde en aandacht van mensen die van hem houden.
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At home...

Yesterday we set again foot on Moldovan earth. We left with snow from Munich but arrived in MD and here the weather is much warmer....
Our last days in Germany we spend with some friends and we had a blessed time of rest, fellowship and some sightseeing. But now the time has come to work again until the next holiday....X-mas!

Traveling in the tram together

Checking out a sofa at Ikea

Visiting a X-mas market

Duitsland/ Germany

Na een kleine blogstilte dan nu even een berichtje uit Duitsland. Op maandga zijn we veilig aangekomen in Mosbach waar het hoofdkantoor van OM Duitsland is. Op dinsdagochtend zijn we begonnen met de vervolg conferentie van onze Joshua Journey training. Het was goed om de andere studiegenoten te zien en hun studie ervaringen te horen. Tijdens de verschillende studiesessies hebben we opnieuw gekeken naar leiderschap, hoe ben je een goede leider, wat wordt er van je verwacht en welke kwaliteiten zijn belangrijk.

Om even de benen te strekken en evn wat anders te zien dan het klaslokaal, hebben we vanmiddag een wandeling gemaakt en een kasteel bezocht. Even wat anders....en zoals je kunt zien, hebben we ons best vermaakt. Op zaterdagmiddag reizen we richting munchen en gaan we nog 4 dagen Al en Lillli bezoeken (een stel dat ook bij OM MD heeft gewerkt en waar we goede vrienden mee zijn). Tot zover dus alles oke en hopelijk weer tot snel blogs!

Building in Huzun nearly finished

Last weekend we were in Micleuseni and on Sunday afternoon we went to the village Huzun to see how the building project was going. As you can see on the pictures, the building is nearly finished. Also while talking with brother Nicu, we hope that before the winter really starts, we can start using the building to feed the children of this village.
Every week they come and ask when their Day Centre is going to be opened so they can receive a hot meal, enjoy some warmth and enjoy an atmosphere of love and respect. They want to receive attention and education from an adult who is not drunk or shouts at them.
Also the elderly in the village are waiting for the building to be opened so they can come on Sunday's to the church service and hear about God (and enjoy the heat too because in their houses often they don't have wood to make a fire).
We hope and pray that also with the finances it will all be oke. As it looks like there might be still a bit more needed...Please pray with us that God will provide in everything that is needed to finish the building so the poor children and elderly after waiting so long now finally can be blessed this winter and many winters after that....

Bedankt Alida!

Van een heeeeele lieve vriendin ontvingen we vandaag een pakketje met de post. En zoals je kan zien, zat er een variatie aan lekkere, leuke en zeer praktische verassingen in!
Super leuk!! Bedankt Alida!

A new newsletter - Een nieuwe nieuwsbrief

If you would like to read some up-to-date news about what we have been busy with in Moldova, click on the below link. If you would like to receive our newsletter by email, let us know and we will put you on the list.

New newsletter - November 2012

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Onze nieuwe nieuwsbrief is klaar. Als je nieuwsgierig bent wat we in de afgelopen weken hebben gedaan, klik dan op de link hieronder. Als je onze nieuwsbrief in het vervolg graag per email wilt ontvangen, laat het weten en we zetten je op de lijst.

Nieuw nieuwsbrief - November 2012

Een avondje uit...

Vanavond een avondje uitgeweest en wel naar een Christelijk concert. Dat is natuurlijk een heel verantwoord avondje uit. Het was soms wel een beetje hard aan de oren maar over het algemeen was het een mooi concert met zowel Roemeense als Russchische liederen. En ook nog een broeder een deuntje op de panfluit deed. Voor de liefhebber hier nog een klein video clipje:

Bus4Life is back in Moldova

This week the Bus4Life arrived again in Moldova. It will be with us for about 1 month and so this means a lot of work for Spiridon since he is responsible and overseeing this ministry. May God bless him and give him and lot of wisdom and a drum bun (good journey)!
Let's also pray that God will use the bus and that many people in Moldova will turn to Him!



Click on the below link if you would like to see a short video about the work with Bus4Life:

Bus4Life video

Warm winter clothes for Sergei

Last weekend we visited Spiridon's home village and bought for 10 children winter clothes. One of the children was Sergei. He is 8 years old and just started school in September. He lives with his grandparents and when we went to invite him to come with us, his grandmother said that she couldn't come but that she was happy for us to take Sergei with us to the market. Sergei's mother died 6 months ago and after the death of his mom, his stepfather disappeared (his mother got divorced with his first father). Nobody heard from him or knows where he is. So since the death of his mother, his grandparents try to take care of Sergei but with a small pension it is often a struggle to provide in the different needs of the family.
So on Saturday morning Sergei got in the car and we took him to the market to buy warm winter clothes. Already the 6 km ride in the car was a big adventure and his shinning eyes said more than a 100 words, on how he enjoyed the trip. When we arrived at the market we asked him what kind of clothes he needed and yes, he came up with a whole list: shoes, jacket, hat, trousers, socks and sweater, etc. First we went to a part of the market where the second-hand clothes are sold. Often much better quality and cheaper. We were lucky (or probably better to say blessed...) cause we found from the beginning a nice warm jacket and a hat. After he tried on the jacket and the hat, he didn't want to take them off again so he kept the jacket and hat on. Than we went to look for some trousers and Sergei got quite enthusiastic. Every pile of trousers he saw, he would start pulling out trousers and without really looking at them, he would declare that these were fitting him perfectly! Gently we guided him towards two pair of trousers and after he tried them on, we bought both of them. Also we found a nice sweater and 2 pair of thick socks!

Now only some shoes were missing! In order to find some good fitting and whole-winter-lasting shoes for Sergei we went to the part of the market where they sell new stuff and there a lady was selling nice shoes with fur inside but she asked a bit more than they money we had left but guess what? She made a discount when she found out what we were doing. And so at the end Sergei got two bags full of good winter clothes! And as a bonus he got another ride in the car all the way home! What a day! When he came home he struggled a bit on how to open his gate cause in each hand, he had a bag full of clothes!

Praise God that Sergei could feel and see God's love for him in such a practical way! Let us keep praying for all the 10 families that were blessed, that they will understand that God is interested in them, He did not forget them and He wants to bring new hope in their lives!

The result is there!!

Today Spiridon got his Romanian passport so we can now start to travel much easier to NL and other countries in Europe...Starting next month with Germany! Thank you for praying with us. May God bless you!

Visiting different projects

This week two dutch guest from the organisation Mensenkinderen came to visit us and together with them we traveled to different projects, mainly in the North of Moldova. A couple of busy days but very blessed days. On monday we visited a Challenge-Into-Mission team who were just doing an evangelistic children program in a village nearby Chisinau.

On Tuesday we traveled to the North and visited an Elderly Care project, a Day Centre for children from social vulnerable families and a at the end of the afternoon we visited a family who started a microbusiness in growing tomatoes.

On wednesday we traveled again to the North and visited one of the local ministry teams of OM, handed out some winter clothes for children from poor families and as you can see on the picture, Maxim was happy with his new red jacket, new hat and also new winter trousers.





After that we went to visit a rehabilitation centre for people who are addicted to alcohol, drugs, smoking etc. A very impressive project that is struggling to survive with just a little money.

Today was the last day and our guest left back to Holland. Praise God for the good time and for the many projects through which the people of Moldova get blessed and see and feel God's Love!

Weekend in Micleuseni.

On Saturday afternoon we traveled to Micleuseni. When we arrived we started with a practice for the worship time with the teenagers in the church.

After that it was time for fun...Although many Christians in MD still don't agree with playing cards as Christians, we played in the church cards and had a lot of fun!

On Sunday morning we went to church and together with the teenagers and the church, we sung the songs we practiced before and praised God for His faithfulness and care for us. In the afternoon it was the harvest festival and as you can see many beautiful and delicious fruits and vegetables were brought to church. After the service everybody enjoyed a plate of food and many people again realized that we are blessed here in Moldova. Maybe we do not have everything or plenty of what we would like to have, but still.... we have enough and God blesses Moldova!

De automarkt

Vanmorgen de automarkt bezocht. Altijd weer een uitdaging....100-den auto's en welke kies je dan en natuurlijk is er nog een belangrijkere  vraag: wie gaat jouw auto kopen??? We zullen zien...Voorlopig rijden we nog even met deze auto maar misschien in de nabije toekomst hebben we wat anders??

A rainy sunday....

Despite the fact that outside it was rainy and muddy, the children in Micleuseni came to sundayschool with happiness and joy!
Today we started a book with 5 lessons about prayer. We talked this time about how we can pray and ask for God's help in any situation. God never sleeps so He is always ready to listen to us! A good lesson to learn for everybody but the thing that hit me while teaching the kids was something else...



During the handcraft time, normally there is a lot of chatting and laughter but this time it was much more quiet and when I looked at how the children were working on their coloring paper I realized that it was so quiet only for one reason: the children were deeply concentrated!
Everybody was aiming to do their very best and a question popped up in my head: how will I work this coming week in the office? Doing my very best or will I just do good??

At the end of our time together we made a circle and prayed together, asking the Lord Jesus to help us in school this week to do our very best and at home to be obedient and to help where needed.

The verse for next week to learn is from psalm 57:1b
For in you I take refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.