Christmas outreach!

Photo left Yolgnu women and children at Garthalala, photo right people at Birany Birany!

Over the Christmas period the evangelism team Yolngu for Jesus planned a few outreach trips to the homelands, but due to the ex-tropical cyclone Grant we couldn't go untill Thursday.
Initially there would have been an overnight stay, but instead we did an afternoon trip where I took the team to 2 homelands! Because the people didn't expect us to come, it came a bit as a surprise so soon after the cyclone had passed through.
The first homeland we visited was Birany Birany (pronounced Brang Brang) I had to work hard to get landed, first I did a so called runway inspection at 200 feet. Then when I wanted to put the plane on the ground the wind blew me completely off the centerline and I had to go around for a second attempt, which succeeded!
Afterwards Eunice told me she was praying that we could land at Birany Birany because it is her homeland and the people needed to hear the Message about Jesus!
The people you see on the photo was all that was left, the rest were visiting other homelands or went to town.
We would all share our personal testimony about how we celebrated Christmas before we were Christians and the difference after we became Christians.
The Yolgnu people are very open to the Gospel and especially when the 2 Yolgnu ladies Eunice and Faye began to talk in their language they were all very excited and they began to share some miracle stories. One man was taken by a crocodile and another man from his village, named Andrew, rescued him. The man told us he is thankful to God everyday for his life.
Andrew promised Aron to make him a fishing-spear, which indicated that he was really fond of him being around. Kevin also a member of our team, preached the Word to them and told them about how Jesus was born into this world to save them so that they can have eternal life if they put their faith and trust in Him! Because there were 6 men from the village, Kevin warned them about the consequences of the ceremonies the Yolngu have, which are done only by the men!
Our next homeland was Garthalala and also over there were only a few women and children around, almost all the men had gone out. Aron shared some candies with them and also we shared our testimonies. The lady we met at the village is into discipling the children and is strongly related to the Yirrkala church. She told us that she was praying against the cyclone in the name of Jesus for several days! Eunice and Faye shared in Yolngu and Kevin was leading in worship with the guitar! The children were a bit shy but loosened up after we gave them some presents. Tiina Higham our MAF homeschool support teacher received those from her home-church in Finland!
Please pray for more Yolgnu people like Eunice and Faye to participate in evangelising over Arnhemland, they speak the language which opens up so many doors. But they themselves need to be discipelled first. Also that God will open up some funding for outreaches like that to take place more frequently, the next trips we are planning are at Easter, but Yolgnu for Jesus would like to do more in between. Pray for Kevin and Gerard and encourage them to keep going on with this great call to evangelise and disciple among the Yolgnu!

Christmas greetings

For us a Child is born,

to us a Son is given.

And He will be called:

Wonderful Counsellor

Mighty God,

Everlasting Father,

Prince of Peace,

Emmanuel, Jesus.

We want to thank everyone for their support and prayers for this year!

We Wish you a Merry Christmas and a blessed 2012!

Lots of love from Eric & Adriana Naomi, Aron, Hannah, Lois and Ruben Koch

Last weekend, we had to take away the swimmingpool, because it isn't proper fenced. We find it really hard to deal with the rules and regulation as they are made out of fear,we think.But what do you do? listen and obey. And so it's sad to see this efecting the children and the Yolnu children, as they had already lots of fun together.

Eric is into the flying now, and is enjoying it. On Tuesday he had to fly some people from centrelink around and so he had to wait for a few hours in every place. As he had to wait he walked into every village and prayed and met some people with interesting talks.

On Thursday, the kids and I went to the MAF hangar to pick up some letters and parcels. We stood outside to see the planes coming and going. We said to each other: that would be so awesome if daddy was here or fly in...we had just fun watching as one of the pilots came to us and asked what we were looking for...daddy...the pilot thought that dad was washing the plane. So we drove up to the Layna hangar to have a look out there. I parked the car and there Eric was...we were so happy to see him...and he was too! We had morningtea together, it wasn't busy with flying. After having a nice time together, we decided to go on to Nhulunbuy for a swim. So Eric waved us goodbye while I tried to turn the car forwards a little bit then backwards, but as I turn we heard a big bang...what was that?? I had hit a 10 cm iron pole, sticking out of the ground and so the tire had popped...O no...we both hadn't seen this iron pole! But no worries, it went all so smoothly, Richard, another MAF pilot came to see what had happened. So Eric took the spare tire and they started fixing it...pfff with a little sweat it was quickly fixed and we could go again.

Party time

And finally: Lois her 4th birthday! She was looking forward to it already for a long time. She enjoyed the whole day. But at the end she was so tired that she asked herself if she could go to bed.

And eindelijk was het dan Lois haar verjaardag. Wat heeft ze hier naar toe geleefd! Ze heeft de hele dag enorm genoten
maar aan het eind van de dag, vroeg ze zelf of ze naar bed mocht gaan, zo moe was ze.

As every year we celabrate our Dutch Sinterklaas on the 5th of December. This year we did it a little bit later, on the 10th. together with the Paas and Giles family. We had so much fun.And of course with the little gingernut cookies. Aron and Naomi were dressed as Black Piet.

En ook dit jaar was Sint ons niet vergeten. Het was wel wat later, maarja hij moest natuurlijk helemaal van Nederland naar hier toe vliegen.Samen met de familie Paas en Giles hebben we een gezellige Sinterklaas avond gehad. Naomi en Aron verkleed als zwarte Piet. en niet te vergeten de overheerlijke pepernoten. Christie Giles had van haar familie in Nederland een heel pakket met lekkers gehad, wat ze met ons allen had gedeeld. mmmm.





On Sunday we had church on the beach which was great! It seems easier for the Yolnu people to come down to the beachchurch than to the churchbuilding. Praise God, one man gave his heart to the Lord!

Zondag hadden we kerk bij het strand. Echt geweldig. De opkomst was beduidend hoger dan in het kerkgebouw. Prijs de Heer, 1 man gaf zijn hart aan de Heer!

Naomi is so confident in cutting Lois hair, I wasn't as a lot of her curls are gone

Naomi heeft Lois haar haar geknipt. Ze wil kapster worden, het zelfvertrouwen heeft ze al, nu nog de kneepjes van het vak. Ik was er niet zo zeker van, want de meeste krullen zijn er nu af.

On Sunday evening we had our first Christmas dinner with all the MAF staff in Arnhemland. Soo many kids!


Op Zondag zijn we naar ons eerste MAF dinner geweest waar alle MAF werkers van Arnhemland elkaar konden ontmoeten. Er waren zoveel MAF kinderen!

Naomi's birthday party
having a masterchef baking competition with a compliment that the girls have to start a own cafe in Yirrkala named the Shed:)

Naomi's verjaardagsfeestje met een masterchef bakwedstrijd. Met als compliment dat ze een cafeetje moet open hier in Yirrkala: "Eetcafe de Schuur":)

ERIC SOLO WITH LAYNHA AVIATION

After a busy couple of weeks in ICUS (in command under supervision) flying and a full "check to line" day on the 7th of December, Eric has now gone solo to fly over Arnhem-land! We really praise God for this moment and also appreciate all you guys who have been praying!
The challenge is now to face all sorts of decisions alone in regard to loading the planes, passengers and last but not least, the weather! Within the coming months the wet season will start which will involve a lot of flying around thunderstorms!
God has called us to do this work for Him and for spreading the gospel by means of the aircraft.
At the moment Eric needs all his concentration on the flying, but the time will come that he can also be reaching the Yolgnu with the love of Christ!

sowing seeds and on Gods timing they will grow...

We went to kidsclub and picked up some yolnukids in the car!! Tonight they heard the story of Christmas . There were around 30 boys and 30 girls and responding again to the Good news! On the way home there was a woman laying on the side of the road and waved to us. I stopped the car full of children and opened the window. The woman was in a lot of pain because she had fallen and asked if I could drive her to hospital.Naomi complained: do we need to help again, we have already a lot of children with us. But I said: I can't leave this woman here. So I stepped out of the car and immediately called for help from a nearby house. A woman came but was gone quickly as she didn't know this woman. Than I sat beside her and started praying, which she really liked. Than another car stopped which was one of our Maf family that also came from kidsclub. He had a phone with him to call the ambulance. I decided to bring the Yolnu kids home and come back to sit with her and wait. Because the ambulance had to come from Nhulunbuy. The woman asked for sigarettes for the pain. Again we offered to pray for her, we hold hands and prayed together The woman became really calm. We hugged each other and she thanked us. She was so glad we prayed with her. She started telling what had happened. A month ago she had a car accident and went into hospital. She said she was dead and came to life when her family were praying over her. God had saved her life! When we went home, Naomi said that she was glad we had stopped and helped this woman.

A lot of children especially boys responding to the Gospel and accepting Jesus in their hearts, Praise God!
But prayers are needed.The last weeks a lot of children are leaving after kidsclub and going over to the Oval(soccerfield) in Yirrkala and do petrolsniffing. Also the children we took with us, they dissapeared. This is very sad. Pray that the seeds that are sowed at kidsclub will grow on Gods time.

It's not easy...but we know God is in control and we count on our blessings!

The new "casino"in Yirrkala just behind our garden...last thursday at 7 am when I came home from my daily walk our Yolnu family had already gathered around for gambeling, I stopped to see what they were doing but didn't feel really welcome, they went on till late night...

to see this happening so close the whole day makes you sad and makes us wonder what to do...call out to God who is in control over everything.


Also Yirrkala has got a new swimmingpool and not behind our garden but in our garden:)We had to wait five weeks for this before it arrived! But it was worthwhile waiting. It's not that it cools you really down, because of the heat, the water temperature is still around 34 degrees. Eric and I decided to use it as a spa in the evening. These are just moments we enjoy.

Another moment we enjoyed after a big day flying and a busy cleaning day for me, having a meal just the two of us, little ones in bed and the older watching a movie.

Lois and Ruben helping with the dishes

Last week we welcomed the Paas family from Holland at Gove Airport. They come to serve for MAF aswell. Arjan and Aartje have got 2 girls, Rachel and Tamar , nearly 4 and 2 and expecting a baby soon(Christmas).They live 3 houses down from us. Its so special that we just can communicate in our own language.

After a really hot day we went to Shady Beach at 5pm. It was low tide and so there were some rockpools where the kids could swim in. And where the crocodiles not wanted to come.

The kids enjoying the first tropical rain. Catching the rain in a glas, wow that fills up quickly!

Eric, ready to go flying. It's not easy for him but he knows that God is in control. He is still doing ICUS flying(under supervision). Today he came home at 7.30 pm! real flying time:5.5 hours!

This week we have helped another Maf homeschooling family a couple of times, as they are leaving soon to Melbourne. We will gonna mis them although we just know each other, but it was so good to have each other. We will be left alone as homeschoolers as there are not many homeschooling families around. It's so different than back in New-Zealand. Here it feels even more going against the flow.I know for sure God layed it on my heart, so I believe He has got plan for it all.

( But hope that is seen is no hope at all. who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for patiently. Rom. 8:24,25)

At the moment we're slowing down with schoolwork and focus on the Jesse Tree. Advent, a time of waiting...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcravEG2ATE&feature=share

Miracles happening!

Praise God, on Monday the 14th of November Eric got his Australian Licence!!

This means he can start his flight training here in Arnhemland. He had a checkflight yesterday(21 nov), which was really hard again.
Today he is gone to Elcho Island for the rest of the week to do further training ICUS(flying under supervision).
It will not be easy for him but also for us for the coming 6 months. The flying will take probably all his energie. This morning as he was gone I felt really weak, and realized again that I had to rely on God's strenght and not my own.



Last week I had tummy muscle pain, and I really didn't know where I got that from. But than I started to knead the bread again and thought: Oh.. thats where the muscle pain is from...funny.
I'm baking all the bread myself now as bread is really expensive in Nhulunbuy and I love the smell and the taste of warm bread. I found a good internetsite
http://www.uitdekeukenvanarden.blogspot.com/
But another miracle happened: on our way to town we alway have a look at the tip. And there Eric found a breadmaker. We took it home, prayed over it:) and the next morning we had a lovely bread out of the breadmaker...it's working perfectly!!

















Ruben loves to do colouring-in. This was one of his first Dutch words: euen(which means kleuren)

This picture I hang up on the fridge and when dad came home and we had our dinner, Ruben saw his picture on the fridge and started telling dad what he made today!!

Lois loves doing her schoolwork too. She is concentrating on her job and does it needly.At the moment we are she is learning the numbers. She can almost write the numbers 0-10.But also she can bake them!

Shopping and cleaning, how do we all make it work together:

Normally shopping with 5 kids isn't that easy and fun. Especially Nhulunbuy as it is so small. But we have found a fantastic way to do it:

I bought 5 little note books. I first write all my groceries down on my own shoppinglist, than the day before we go shopping I divide them into 4 on the little notebooks. This will be a shoppinglist for each child. When we are in the shop we put 1 trolly in the most quiet ayl. We take 2 shoppingbaskets and the kids will work together. Naomi with Lois, and Aron with Hannah.

They look also for the prices and specials. I go around with Ruben in the stroller and see what else there is and if the kids need some help. I hardly have to help them and they love it too, they are not walking in the way and feel useful.

I really needed someone to help me with cleaning. I thought maybe a cleaner for 2 hours and pay her. But as I thought further I got another idea: once a week we plan a reading and cleaning day. I have made lists for every room in the house how to clean them. I have explained how to clean with our enjo cleaning products. And so every week the kids can choose a room to clean and they get some pocket money as reward. We did it for the first time, but amazing how hard they worked and how clean it all was!!

NAOMI'S BIRTHDAY ON THE 15th OF NOVEMBER

It was sad for Naomi as

half of the family was sick on her birthday, we are planning to give a party on another day.

Naomi loves baking and
cooking, so she was really happy with her presents.
She made her own brownies and also hamburgers.

This is a very brief yet exciting update from Kids Club in Yirrkala.
Over the past few weeks the Kids Club team has been focusing on the topic of the Holy Spirit.
The children have been generally listening very well, answering and asking questions, which has been encouraging.
This past weeks kids club night was one that the team wont forget. The night began as normal with games and dances before gathering into the separate boys and girls groups.
No one really expected that this would be a different night from the others however God had a different agenda.
Near the end of talking the question was asked: Who wants to follow Jesus? Immediately hands shot up.
The question was again asked in both Yolngu Matha and English with the same result. The group then discussed what it meant to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus.
A simply worded sinners prayer was prayed by 17 boys and 13 girls. The boys then huddled in a group, linking arms praying for each other. What a special moment!
Praise God for the miracle of Salvation.
It was an important reminder that these young boys and girls are the future of Yirrkala and surrounding areas. They may be young and beginners in the faith, yet we all once were in the same place.
Please pray for these boys and girls who gave their lives to Jesus. Pray that their hearts would be protected. Pray that they would be able to grow in their faith.
Be encouraged :)