Dearest family and friends,

We just arrived three weeks ago here in Brazil, in our very warm village of Piratininga! We had a long but good trip, our 3 girls looked forward to it and were very entertained with all the films and games they had on their own screen on the airplane. Our 12 hour flight went by quick enough!

A warm welcome

We received a warm welcome, from the people from our village and also from our friends and colleagues at the base, but were received with a special warmth by the weather! Early in the morning it was already nearing the 30 degrees celsius, quite a difference from the weather in England and in Holland! Our girls went to school pretty much straight away, and although especially Iara, our oldest daughter, wasn’t looking forward to it very much, she decided that she wanted to give the school another chance, and that she would enjoy her friends and her new teacher. We were very relieved when at the end of the schoolday, when we picked the girls up, that they were excited and had had a good day! That was an answer to our prayers. Now, three weeks later we can see, that especially Iara, finds it to be quite a challenge to deal with the way school is done here in Brazil. We will keep on praying that our girls may find a good place at school, but we will also keep looking for ways and possibilities for the girls to keep on developing themselves outside the school moments. The Brazilian school system is a quite old fashioned. Creativity, innovation, playfulness and space for the development of the individual strengths is barely included in the education system in general. That is why Jonathan and I will be searching for other ways we can help them develop in the area of education.

Our work

In the coming months we will be picking up our work here at the base, Jonathan in the area of visual communications, like before and I, well, I will be working alongside Jonathan at the office a lot. I will be translating our project ‘Invisible Heroes’ so we can launch this project here in Brazil as well. I am also looking for someone here at the base to partner with me to continue the work with the pregnant girls here at the village. I discovered that I am someone who needs to work in a team of at least two if I want to be at my best. So hopefully in a next newsletter I will be able to tell you how this is going!

Debriefing

During our time of furlough in Holland, Jonathan and I were able to have a time of debriefing at the YWAM Heidebeek base. For us this was a very precious time where we were able to look back to all that we were able to do and experience in the last 10 years in missions. It was amazing to be able to see how God led us through so many challenges, so beautiful to recognise his faithfulness and love. But it was also a time to come to the realisation that we often lose sight of our boundaries  and that increases the pressure a lot on everything we do. We find it quite difficult to say no, and our own time of rest and leisure would always be at the bottom of our priority list. We noticed that we felt extremely drained. As a family we are also in a busy time with smaller kids, this is something lots of young families experience. But now we have it clear for ourselves that if we want to stay in missions for a very long time, and that is what we want very much, that we will need to take better care of ourselves. This is something you can help us with in prayer, that we will find a good and healthy balans between work and family life.

Bedankt!

During our time of furlough we were able to meet with many of our family and friends, and were encouraged by so many. We have received help in various practical ways, that was such a blessing! We were able to use a car at no extra costs for 8 months, we had a fantastic place to stay, our families have stood beside us and loved us, people have taken care of our girls, schools have accepted them with open arms, and so much more! We were clearly spoiled and we are very grateful for all the people that have loved on us. We wish you Gods blessings in all that you do and this is trusted to you.

Lots of love and many blessings,

Jonathan en Johanneke, Iara, Naiomi & Elina.