On January 30, 2018, I was having a quiet time. After a hectic few weeks at the beginning of our Discipleship Training School (DTS), I had found time to drive to the back of the YWAM Orlando campus in our Toyota Camry. The Camry was a beat-up, but it ran and we could get around as a family, so that was enough.
As I sat there, I asked God to make it clear to me whether He had a calling for me. He did. Out of nowhere the thoughts came to me that He wanted us to go to Aruba and pioneer a YWAM base there. He also wanted us to work with families. He gave me the explicit instruction that I was not to talk about it with Hanneke. Although I found that assignment very strange, I chose to obey. I wrote everything down for myself and kept quiet about it with Hanneke. At the end of that week I asked God if I could talk about it with Hanneke. I was allowed to. Reluctantly I went to Hanneke and told her that I wanted to talk about something crazy with her. When I told her the story, it turned out that one day after me she had received the word ‘Aruba’ from God. So she was not surprised at all and I was.
A few weeks later we were on outreach in Barbados. There we had a conversation with two leaders, one of whom was also involved in the leadership of YWAM Caribbean. We told them our story and asked them if they could confirm our calling. It turned out that they could. They told us that they had been praying for ten years for a Dutch couple to come to Aruba to work with families there.
About that same time, I asked God when I would be in Aruba. As soon as I asked that question I got the thought: “Orange above! When the king is there, you are there too.” Now, you have to know that “Orange above” (in Dutch: Oranje boven) is a saying that we use to honor the king and the kingdom of the Netherlands. So, I wrote it down and I have thought about it a lot in the past years. When we came to Aruba, the king was not there. And in the following years there was no sign that He would come to Aruba. Until the end of last year the announcement came that he would come this way. At that moment I did not really know what to do with this fact. I decided to let it go. If God wanted to make something clear to me, it would come naturally.
On January 30, 2023, exactly five years to the day after God had given me the calling to go to Aruba, the king landed in Aruba. When I told this to various pastors, they said separately: “Five is the number of God’s grace. God confirms your stay here.” It was as if God said to me: “Now you have actually landed in Aruba. You are here, this is where you need to be, and I am with you.” What a blessing and what a grace that we are allowed to be here and to help build His kingdom. To top it all off, on the same afternoon I also received the message that the application for my fifth residence permit had been approved.
With the arrival of the king, our stay here was further confirmed. Orange above, the king came. But before the king came, He had already been here for a long time. Long live the King!
Image by Marjan via Pixabay