Category: Updates

Soooo much is happening! We have to post a short update here, just to let you know about some major things!

1. We had the opening of our YWAM Aruba base! On the 17th of May we had a beautiful gathering with may brothers and sisters from Aruba and even one from Jamaica and one from the US. We worshipped God together, dedicated the base to God and had good fellowship. We did the official opening act, revealing the name plate on the front wall, with all YWAM-ers. All in all it was a tremendous blessing for everyone there!

2. Soon after this event we were able to buy a new car!! It is a 2019 Toyota Rav4 and we feel soo blessed with this car. God has provided every cent for it! If you were one of the people who was faithful and contributed towards this car, may God bless you abundantly! We are blown away and humbled at the same time and cannot drive this car without a big smile on our faces!

3. It didn’t end after this, because I, Hanneke, left Aruba for a week to go to Nevada, USA! We were invited to the wedding of Matthew and Marley. Matt was in our DTS and he is our ‘son’. It was such a wonderful time with awesome people, a beautiful wedding, great experiences and… Chick-Fil-A! 😉

4. We are now in full preparation before going to the Netherlands. Next Thursday, the 19th of June, we will get on a plane and we will spend some time there. We had some really good reasons for going. My parents are celebrating their 50 year anniversary, our dear, long term friends Christiaan en Tineke are celebrating their 25 year anniversary and Ryan is graduating his study! For his final project he made an 8 minute documentary about what goes on inside the head of a person with autism in social situations. It is awesome!
Next to these celebrations we will have a lot of get-togethers with people. We will also have a Meet&Greet on Sunday the 6th of July. Since we will only be in the Netherlands for 2.5 weeks we cannot possibly connect with everyone personally, so we hope to see our Dutch people then. On the 8th of July we hope to celebrate our 26 year anniversary and on that day we plan on driving to France for a 2 week vacation with our little tribe of four before we fly back to Aruba.

And these were just the highlights, people. We have had visitors, a large donation from the Women’s Club Aruba for the La Sala building we want to buy, beautiful meetings and connections with La Sala and the homeless and addicted people in San Nicolas, staffing the Advance Family Studies, setting up a Dutch foundation and more. God is doing sooo much and it is at times overwhelming to see all this happening around us. We are grateful that we can be here and want to ask you for your continued prayer for all that God is doing here. Thank you so much for being a part of this story! We love you all!

Erik & Hanneke

Hi everyone,

A new update for you after a busy season. The Lord has blessed us by allowing us to be a part of several events on the island, some of which we just participated in, and others that we organized ourselves. This is also one of the reasons why it took us a little longer than normal to provide you with a new update. We are grateful for all the blessings that God poured out on the people that we served, and we hope you will rejoice with us when you watch/read this update.

Mission Conference 
In July, one of the churches on the island organized a Mission Conference. Erik was invited to speak about YWAM and its presence in Aruba, and we were invited to participate in a forum together with other YWAM-ers on the island. Meet Jhon and Maria. We met with Jhon several years ago, but we didn’t know Maria before this conference at all. It was really good to connect with them (again). We plan to get to know them both better and see if we can organize things together. 

Creative Kids Camp
In August, we organized a Creative Kids Camp, together with Cas di Oracion, the church of Randy & Quilin. We had Liselle Joslyn, a Creative Psychotherapist from the UK, come over to organize a fitting program with Hanneke. Hanneke did an amazing job in bringing structure to the whole week. With an amazing team we hosted 25 kids and we shared the Gospel in a very creative and relational way. The result was special, several kids were led to the Lord and many got to know God better. We are grateful for the whole team and all those children visiting our Camp.

Volunteers Appreciation Evening
In September, we organized a Volunteers Appreciation Evening for the more than 75 volunteers that help us in the different ministries connected to ONE San Nicolas. More than 35 attended and we had a wonderful evening together with a presentation of our values, a High Tea, gifts, games and much appreciation for everyone. This was the second year that we hosted this event and we plan on organizing this every year. 

Beach Day Ambulanten
Another event we organized in September was the Beach Day for the homeless and addicted people in San Nicolas (Ambulanten). After 3 years of serving them in San Nicolas through our food distribution, we decided to treat this group with an outing. A bus was  rented for a reduced price, food and towels were donated, the fire department was willing to help us create a shower from one of their trucks, a BBQ setup was organized, and we were at the beach very early to claim a good spot. It all worked out amazing. 

In the weeks before this event, God stirred our coordinator Annelies and Erik to speak each Saturday to the group specifically about Gods plan for our lives, salvation, and baptism. Because of this, we knew that He wanted us to create the opportunity for people to get baptized during this event. During the day, three men were baptized, and good follow-up for these men was arranged. It was wonderful to see people enjoy this special day. Some of them told us that they had not been going to the beach for years and that this day made a real difference for them in the hopelessness of their daily life. We are thankful!

Vacation Bible School
In October, the Evangelical Church in San Nicolas organized a VBS. We were invited to teach this whole week to a group of ten children aged 8 and 9. Unfortunately, Hanneke was sick, so Erik taught the children with the help of another volunteer. Although it was certainly not an easy week, everything worked out fine in the end. Throughout the week, several of these children wanted to know more about the gospel and started to ask really good questions. It was amazing to see how hungry these kids were to hear more about God. The VBS was visited by 53 children aged 6 to 12, and the team of volunteers existed of more than 40 people. We felt honored to be part of this event.  

La Sala
The fundraising for La Sala is ongoing. Currently, we have fundraised little over 10% of the total amount for purchasing, renovating and furnishing the building. We have sent in applications for funding to many funds and commercial business, but so far mainly personal donations have come in. Since donations are still being made, we feel that God wants us to trust in Him in this process. We don’t know how, but we believe that God will come with an unexpected way of organizing the additional funds. We hold strong to the believe that it is not about this building or any other facilities that we would need, but that anything we do in or outside this process is about God and His Kingdom. Whatever happens, He deserves all the honor.
We would love it if you would help us raise funds for this project. Please feel free to contact us for information and materials. If you would like to partner with us in this project, you can find more information on https://ywamaruba.com/lasala/.

Our family
As a family we are all doing well. Ryan is in his last year of school, and enjoys his internship with a wonderful organization where he feels at home. He is also enjoying his time with a Christian student group, making new friends. Kai is still preparing for going to the Netherlands. Over time, we had some hiccups in the process, but it looks like they are solved now and he is on course again. Hanneke en Erik are both doing well. For us it is important to stay aware of keeping a good balance between home and work, which is not always easy. But over all we believe we are doing a good job.

In the upcoming months we have quite some events planned. We will post about these events real time in our Just To Let You Know Friends WhatsApp group. Let us know if you want to be part of that group. We are more than happy to welcome you there as well. Of course we will also continue to post overall updates over here.

Blessings from us!