Category: Blog

After four months of living together with two other families in one house, our house is now empty again. We had ten extra people in the house for most of that time. It’s special to see that this went so well. Yes, we had to give up some privacy and that was not always easy to do. And it was often very busy to take so many people into account. But it was also a blessing that there were people who helped in what was not an easy time for us. Now the house is empty again and it is especially quiet here. What a change, we could hardly imagine what it was like to be with the three of us. We enjoy it and at the same time we are grateful for the time we had and the extra seeds that could be planted by the presence of these families in Aruba. Are we going to do this again for four months? No, we can say with near certainty that it is not good for us as a family to do this in the same way again. Not because we do not want to be so hospitable again, but simply because good self-care is essential in this 7×24 hour work. Yet gratitude for living together with thirteen people in recent times prevails. God has given us all enough peace, grace, wisdom, strength, service, humor, and perseverance (read: love) to do this together in a good way.
How good it is, how wonderful to live together as brothers! There the Lord gives His blessing: life forever.

When mama Sandra passed away (see my blog no. 009), the ministries she left behind were continued on an ad hoc basis. Annelies coordinated everything well, but not everyone was available every week. So it was a search. There was quite a bit of uncertainty among the volunteers involved about how to proceed. Would everyone continue to help? Who would want to do what was needed to be done? Questions that none of us had the answers to at that time. Especially because the ministry involved three groups of people; the women, the homeless and the families.
Fortunately, Annelies organized a meeting. Miraculously, there were seven different parties at the table, all willing to take a piece. The schedule for the homeless shelter on Saturday morning had already been created and filled. There are four teams that have a turn every four weeks. There were also people present who would like to further build contact with the women. Mama Sandra did this with passion and these women were actually the core of her ministry. She saw them almost every week. I am pleased that this work will continue and that the women will continue to have a point of contact.
We can focus (together with others) on the families in the Village (San Nicolas). This work fits in seamlessly with our personal mission and I am grateful that we can actually step into this naturally.
After the meeting, we chatted for a while and were amazed at how mom Sandra still did everything by herself at the beginning of the summer. Well, alone, with God then. How special is it that God has given her ministry a home in the Hub after that time and has brought all kinds of people on her path who can now take over the work. In this way we can continue to build together what God started with just mama Sandra.

Last Friday, I was reading the Bible in the morning. God had drawn my attention to the book of John. And as I read through the chapters in John, my thoughts were drawn to specific parts of scripture. It was about, among other things, how Jesus is in the Father and we are in Jesus and Jesus is in us (John 14:20). As I thought about what a blessing it is that Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit to us and that He is still with us, I thought I could preach on this Bible passage. But wanting to read further, I put the thought of this aside. 
Less than five minutes later, I received a call from a pastor friend here on the island. He told me that he had become ill and that he and his entire family had to be quarantined. Would I like to preach at his church? I burst out laughing and could say with certainty that God had already made it clear to me that I could say ‘yes’ and that I even knew what it was supposed to be about. How wonderful it is when God is so close that we can live with Him every day. Although it is often the case that I feel like I do not hear Him, or do not hear Him in time, I sincerely hope that this is a harbinger of how close God wants to be with all of us. That He surprisingly often makes us fishers of men because He works with His Spirit in us every day.

Hanneke and I have friends somewhere in a not so obvious country in Asia. We became friends this year after a digital meeting with YWAM Family Ministries. We were linked together to pray for each other. We started talking and discovered that they run a Restoration House for couples in their country. They do this together with another couple. They invite couples to stay in this house for a week. During that week they guide these couples with education and counseling through their marital problems. Fantastic and so necessary! Hanneke and I would also like to eventually start a restoration house in Aruba and so we took the opportunity to learn from these friends how they approach everything. What they do is very inspiring, but also dangerous. What they are doing is not allowed in that country and the government actively intervenes when they discover that this is happening. Our friends constantly live with the risk of being arrested. Yet they continue. What heroes of faith!
Because not everyone has the opportunity to come their way, our friends also travel across the country to “inaccessible” places. Until recently, they used their own car for this purpose. A month ago, while traveling back from one of the meetings where they had spoken, they had a serious car accident along the way. And so it could happen that they were prayed for from all over the world through their contacts at YWAM Family Ministries.
Fortunately, they are doing well physically. They still need some processing time, and of course another car, but they are in good spirits and grateful that God has spared them. Will you pray that they can continue their mission in good health?

On Mondays and Thursdays I^[1] go swimming very early in the morning at Baby Beach, at the very southern tip of the island. Today a Coast Guard helicopter flew over and continued to circle the area around us. My fellow athletes and I thought it was a beautiful sight and we waved. We did wonder why the helicopter kept circling in this area. That became clear a little later.

A friend of ours had gone for a walk while we were swimming and at a beach a little further away he saw an empty boat on the sand with some empty jerry cans next to it. Footsteps could be seen from the boat, inland. They were the footsteps of refugees from Venezuela.

While I swam in the water and enjoyed the sunrise, they were chased by the coast guard. We later learned that at least three had been arrested and jailed. The others must have hidden in the desolate landscape of southern Aruba. They made a crossing of 26 kilometers in the dark, in a small boat, over a rough sea. They then walked, partly in the dark, through an unknown area with all kinds of cacti and spiny forests, chased by the searchlight of the coast guard. And even before that, they left everything behind in the hope of surviving.

Now when I see a helicopter I don’t wave anymore. I then fold my hands and my heart cries.

^[1] This blog was written by Hanneke.
Photo: Wikipedia.

In Aruba, ayaca’s are made every year in November and December. These are small packages of cornmeal, chicken and vegetables, wrapped in banana leaves, a traditional Venezuelan and Antillean Christmas dish. Congregants of one of the churches we are in contact with make this together. This is necessary, because the church building, which is an old house that has been adapted several times, is bursting at the seams and is in need of a makeover. This church also organizes a youth club every Saturday evening, picks up children from San Nicolas every Sunday morning and plans to start an after-school care center so that single mothers can go or continue to work.
On Sunday mornings during the service, more than 25 children with supervisors are crammed into a room that is half the size of our living room. Everything is working out so far, but let’s be honest, it is definitely not ideal. And so, a number of adults in the congregation have stepped up to help raise funds. It’s really heart-warming to see how this is done. A beautiful example of being each other’s hands and feet. Everyone does something. 
Hanneke and I were invited to come and help make ayaca’s. We had already tasted them and were excited to learn more about making them. When we arrived at the church, the worship music was already playing loudly and we were pushed into a conveyor belt of people. Everyone performed their own task. This is how I learned exactly how big a ball of cornmeal should be and how it should be crushed. My neighbor then rolled it out even more precisely. Her neighbor put an exact amount of seasoned chicken on the dough and Hanneke, who was sitting next to her, pushed cashew nuts, capers and olives between the chicken in specific places. The package of dough was then neatly folded and wrapped in two banana leaves, after which it was tied with string into a nice package. One hundred and ninety pieces was the score at the end of the evening. Working hard on Sunday evening. But so cozy!

As a YWAM base we worship every week on Tuesdays, and intercession on Fridays. Those moments are special to us. We sit together in the living room with everyone and together we give God the glory that He deserves. We also pray for individual people, groups, areas and countries. We often notice that the topics for which we may pray are very specifically designated by God. In this way we can also be a blessing to others from a distance.

Last week it was Emilia’s turn to organize intercession. She thought that we could ask God to point out people for whom we could make a Christmas star or card. While the worship music sounded through the room, we were all busy doing crafts and praying in our own way. The children were helped in between and occasionally fun new ideas came along that we were able to implement immediately. How wonderfully relaxing to be able to pray, sing and do crafts together for God’s glory and for the blessing of the people around us. Now that was some great crafts worship!

Sometimes you meet people of whom you immediately know that they follow Jesus with all their heart. So special! Francis is such a man. He once wanted to do a Discipleship Training School at YWAM in Amsterdam, but due to circumstances he was unable to do so. So he decided to establish “Lean On Me Aruba Foundation” and go and help people hands-on. That worked and in addition to God bringing him into contact with all kinds of people, he also continued to listen to the ideas that God gave him in the process of developing his foundation. One day he heard God say to him: “shower on wheels”, so he arranged a trailer, a toilet cabin, a water tank and a generator. A friend helped him to neatly build everything onto the trailer, and behold: Shower on wheels was born. Now Francis drives past different places where homeless people go every week. They can then shower, get clean clothes and even have their hair cut. I’ve seen him at work and it’s a treat. The people are so happy. What a good idea and what obedience to implement this idea immediately. I hope to see him do more of this special mission work soon. He has already indicated that he enjoys working with us and not only enjoys offering something practical, but also enjoys talking to people to tell them about Jesus. I can only wholeheartedly agree with that.

Last Saturday, I went out with Pastora Sandra, or Mama Sandra as she is called, to deliver food to the Village. She is in her late 70s and has been continuously caring for the less fortunate for ten years. For the first seven years she could be found in Rancho, a deprived neighborhood in Oranjestad. For the past three years she has been doing ministry work in San Nicolas, first on a street corner, now in the Hub. 
With her words “you come” I was chosen to go with her this time. I had no choice whether it suited me or not, it was decided and would be carried out. I arranged for my guests, who had driven with me, to be returned by Sean and piled into mama Sandra’s fully loaded car. Her not very large car was packed with pan (bread), sòpi (soup), cuminda cayente (a hot meal) in cardboard containers and juice (much too sweet ice tea). 
Once on the road, I ask her some questions. In short sentences she tries to give the clearest answer possible in the little English she knows. She speaks mainly Spanish and Papiamento. Not too convenient for me, because although I do my best to learn Papiamento and Spanish, I still am stuck to English and Dutch for a normal conversation. But she does not give up and says that she is in contact with 34 women who work in prostitution. Every week she eats with these women and listens to their stories.
When we arrive at the first houses, she asks me to bring in some of the food and drinks and to pray for the residents. I do it with love. The houses can rightly be called small and some are barely habitable. But the people are friendly and very grateful, both for the food and the prayer. In one of the houses a few people are bedridden. I take a little more time for them. When I come back outside, mama Sandra has disappeared, so I decide to take a chance and look a street further. I find the car there, but no trace of mama Sandra herself. A nice neighbor shows me the way, I find her with a grandmother with a small child in her arm. While we are still talking, a young woman comes to pick us up. She asks if we have food for her and her five children. Unfortunately, all the food is gone. Mama Sandra turns out to know her and walks with her to her house to greet the children. I follow. When they arrive at the house, all the children come out into the street. Mama Sandra asks if I can pray for her and the family. It is necessary, they have no food and mama Sandra does not have enough money to buy food for the family. She would like to take care of them, but that is not possible right now. Father is addicted and beats his wife and children when he is at home. I ask the children to come close to us. So, in the middle of the street, I pray for them all. Mother and one of the little children cry silent tears. 
We’re done. With a broken heart for this family I get back in the car. On the way back we pray some words out loud. When we have returned I give mama Sandra a big hug. I drive back home crying.

He walks into the Hub smiling; “Goede morgen, good morning, bonjour, gute morgen”, immediately followed by a couple of stories. About how proud he is to be Dutch and how that has often led to problems in his life. About how he doesn’t understand why so many of his compatriots criticize the Netherlands. He has the appearance of a Venezuelan and an English surname. At 68 years young, he speaks Dutch, English, Spanish, German and French. And of course Papiamento, “but that’s a little bit of everything,” he explains. He has been a croupier and has lived in Rotterdam, but also in St. Maarten, Bonaire, Curaçao and Miami. For five years he sailed around the Caribbean on a cruise ship, enjoying a free life, making fun with everyone he met. He had been almost blind after accidentally cutting his own retina while taking out his lenses. But luckily he was living in Aruba again at the time, they had transported him to the Netherlands and helped him well. “Life is beautiful!” 
Today he stops by the Hub to pick up some food for his neighbor. He also wants some food for himself, but because they don’t trust him, he only asks for food for his neighbor. He will manage himself. 
He missed the bus home. If I can give him a ride to his friend. I do so with pleasure. He still has all kinds of tips and stories in the car. When we arrive at his destination and he is standing outside the car, he leans in through the window to show me the route to the main road. He says goodbye with a broad smile and a wave.