Green light!

It's all happening now! Eric had his last flight today and Maf has given green light now, Eric is doing really well, is enjoying flying again, Praise the Lord for this.
We are moving to Arnhemland on Thursday evening 18.20. and will be there at 19.40. So we're cleaning the house and packing our bags and buying some last bits and pieces to take with us, that we need (bed and bath linnen,schooling stuff). We are so blessed again with our extra lugage, because next week there is a Maf plane flying from Mareeba to Gove that can take our stuff.
We will be living in Yirkala thats 11 km south from Nhulungbuy/Gove.
We know we will be in a 3 bedroom house in the Maf street.
It's all very exciting.
The build up season is just starting a little bit, so it's getting warmer and more humited. They say it takes a while to get use to it.
Please pray for strength and getting use to it all and for new friends.
We are really thankfull to Maf Cairns and Mareeba what they have done for us!! They encouraged and helped us out amazingly! And thank you to you all who are part of it in prayers and support, this is so important. We missioning together, God blesses you!

Lots of love,

from the Koch family

On Sunday the 25th a new Orientation of MAF started. Kicked of with a barbeque and scenic flights in Mareeba, Maf hangar. We could meet our new MAF family again.Ruben was so excited to see all the planes and to have a flight in it.

To Go to Mareeba You pass Kuranda. We stopped here to have our lunch and see the Barron falls. Because of the end of the dry season there wasn't much water. But still really beautiful. A nice board walk took us up to see it.

Something funny happened:
I saw this hose(slang=dutch word, same as snake=slang) I called the kids and said to them: I see a slang, really carefully guys. So they came to have a look, and than they found out it wasn't a real slang(snake) but a water slang(hose)

We also went to see the beautiful butterflys and learned a lot from the Butterfly Sanctuary. The green with yellow one is the Cairns Birdwing male. The blue one is the Ulysses.The shortest lifespan of any butterfly living a mere two weeks.

We learned the differences between Moths and Butterflies.

This was such a good educational outing trip.The kids loved it.

Saturday the 24th we had a relaxing day:

We went to Palm Cove, beautyful beach to have a picknick.

Then we went to Kuwara resort with a big play ground and a swimmingpool and 2 chairs for Eric and me to put our feet up!

The Deerings house where we're staying at the moment.

Big changes coming up again! Eric's flight training is going so well that Maf has given him green light to go to Arnhemland. So that will gonna happen all this week. At this stage we don't know which date we will leaving. Thurday or Friday. We have to clean the house, pack the bags and do our last things here in Cairns and saying goodbuys again to our new friends!

We really enjoyed this weekend and it was relaxing and catching up with our new MAF family.

Moving again

We could stay in Tree Tops Lodge till the 20th of September. After that we had to move from unit to unit. And 1 night it was fully booked. A Maf family had offered us their house, while they are on holiday from the 18th till the 30th. We decided to take that offer, what a blessing!
When I went into the office from Tree Tops Lodge to tell them, they just got a phone call from someone that said that they would pay our rent from the last week stay! AMAZING, thank you Lord! Another blessing.

We had to pack all our bags again, I wasn't looking forward to this. But it went so smoothly and calm, no stress and the kids helped really well.

Now we are in a 4 bedroom home, its so big!!
The only thing is that the kids have to miss the swimming pool at Tree Tops Lodge. But Aron knew already how to solve this problem. He saw some kids in the street with a swimmingpool and said: Oh..we just have to make some new friends.So funny!

9th of September:
After a week rest Eric still felt tired. He went to a doctor and found out that he had a virus. A brother or sister from the glendular fever. He got antibiotics for it.

Monday the 12th of September:
We went to Andrew and Liz for a barbeque. Andrew is one of Erics instructors. They have four children. The kids had a great time with each other. Our kids hadn't played with others for a long time.
We had a good time too. It really helped for Eric to talk to Andrew, he was like pastoring to him.
He decided to go on with flying, Praise God!

Tuesday the 13th of September:
Eric started flying today. He was looking forward to it, the opposite of last week. What a turn around point.

Wednesday the 14th:
Erics flight went really well! But still doesn't feel on top of it, is really tired.

The kids baked a pavlova specially for Daddy, they did it all by themselves!!
As you can see Eric was really surprised.

September newsletter

Dear family and friends,

For those of you who haven't already heard, here is an update on the latest events with the Koch family.

Last week the instructors really started to put the pressure on the training program and we are getting scenarios as if flying operational in Arnhemland. The problem I started to face straight away was that the jump was too big from my training in NZ in combination with my (low)experience levels.

Also everthing is new, new (turbo)aircraft, new country, new air-law and rules, new maps and radio procedures to name just a few things. This in combination with instructors increasing pressure plus simulated and sometimes even real circumstances were too much to grasp for me in such a short time-frame given!

I was over-tired at the end of last week and even a relaxing weekend didn't bring me on top of things!

After a flight that didn't go well again on Wednesday the instructors informed me that I am not up to the standards of MAF and gave me a couple of options which are really difficult for us at the moment.(from resigning to going back to NZ and get some more experience, or extra 5/10 flighttraining, which I feel is not enough.)

The big "bottleneck"for me is just a lack of experience, which can only come with practise over a longer period of time to become a proffesional operational pilot!

The day we got this news, we sat together as a family and Adriana was sharing about Joseph, always obeying God no matter what circumstances he was in! In prison Joseph must have had times that he was unhappy and wondered what God had in store for him and situations that seemed endless!-Sold as a slave to Egypt-being thrown in prison after he refused Potifars wife-explaining a dream and then being forgotten by the same person for a few years!

We feel the same way right now, like Joseph we obeyed Him in every step, we've come a long way and it seems that God is putting it on hold for us right now! We don't know the reason, but He brought a song into our mind during our time with Him: God will make a way, He works in ways we cannot see, but He will make away for me...

When we got that news from Maf last Wednesday we were quite shocked and emotional for a couple of days. Having lots of questions but every day we feel really blessed by all the prayers and Gods Word.

He encourages us every day with His Word. He is speaking to us He is guiding us, we know God has a plan for us.And it is all part of Gods plan.

We were encouraged by His Word out of James 5:7-11

Be patient and stand firm, don't give up and keep trusting in Him!Perseverence.

Eric has decided, not to do those 5/10 hours, which would have been last week. He also said that he need more time to recover and rest before he goes flying again.

Maf is looking what else they can do. We don't know how it is going on from here, but God knows. We are asking His guidance.

Tree Tops Lodge has arranged that we can stay untill the 20th of September in the same unit and after that it will be in 3 different units.

This week we are taking it easy, Eric is taking time for himself which he really needs. The kids are doing amazingly well. They have a break from their schoolwork. Yesterday they decided to bake a pavlova for daddy, all by themself, and it turned out really beautiful.

As a family we are doing very well and no matter what the outcome will be we have grown into an even more close family towards God.

Could you please pray for us into these things we feel very supported and encouraged by you all!

Eric and Adriana Naomi, Aron, Hannah, Lois and Ruben

homeschooling: Art

Madeleine teached us how to make Swiss buns

The last 2 weeks the kids have been
focussing on animals of Australia

For art they made animal out of clay

Also they have been realy creative in the sand.

How He called us

Is it really God’s call? That’s what I have asked myself a lot. It was when Eric and I had traveled and worked for 7 months in New-Zealand and Australia. Eric wanted to live in one of those countries, but I wasn’t ready yet. I am a real family person. So we settled back in Holland where we both were born and grown up.Eric had a real passion for flying from a young age and he tried to get into flying, but it was too expensive in Holland. God blessed us with 3 children, Naomi, Aron and Hannah.When Hannah was born, Eric started again about living in New-Zealand. This was so dificult for me. I really wanted to know God’s way for us. I prayed and prayed: Lord, your will be done and if it is your will to go, make me ready aswell. And God did. Eric got a joboffer from a friend we met in New-Zealand, Jaap v/d Geest. God gave me the peace and I knew it was allright. It still was all new and unknown and so scary! But because it was God’s will I knew it would be alright. It was all sad to leave our family, but it was God who helped us through.
From that time we were more relying on the Lord than before. Whe only knew that there was a job waiting and 1 family we knew. They had organized a house and everything. When we came in New-Zealand in the house, the fridge was full of food, beds were made up, even little presents for the kids on the beds! Amazing.
Our friends took us to Grace church and their homegroup. God knows us and so He knew excactly were we fitted. In that homegroup we met another family, Mark and Leisa Ferguson. And Marks dad had an airstrip in the backyard and he had his private pilot lisence. So they could share their interests. Eric found out that it was much cheaper to learn to fly in New-Zealand than in Holland. Also we got to meet the director of MAF(Mission Aviation Fellowship).
The next year, we were blessed again with a girl Lois. Eric started the flight school. This again was a step in faith. He gave up his job and there we were with 4 kids and no income. But we really felt God was leading us to this point. And Amazing how the Lord provided!! Sometimes we got a envelope in the post without a name, every week we got given the best bread of Nelson, leftovers from the bakery!! Or there was a box with kiwis on the doorstep. And every day we had more than enough!! We thanked God that He is our provider and knows our needs. My Husband got through the training in a little bit more than a year. We signed up for MAF because we thought God was calling us to go and serve Him and other people in a remote area. and although it was a long road with a lot of waiting and lots of learning. I have often asked the question, Lord is this really you calling us to do this? And especially when it is such a strugle and it is not going straight forward, than I look back on how He is caring for us and giving us the peace. Than I know yes it is You Lord!! He blessed us again with a baby boy Ruben a year ago. Now we are in Australia to do a training and half September we will go to Arnhemland Northern Teritory in Australia working in a remote area to bring hope and love and serve the Aboriginal people.
It is amazing if you listen to Gods call and obey Him and wait upon Him and how He guides you. It is really exciting!!

Today we went to Hartley's Crocodile farm. It was really educational and impressive.
The kids got to see new animals and could even touch them!

We found a huge shell on Green Island



Lois and Ruben enjoying their lollipop

the fish we saw...

Green Island

Ruben eating a sandy rice cracker

Aron and I, Adriana, went snorkeling. But we

saw a stingray and Aron didn't like to carry on.

I decided to go somewhere else and took

Aron hand in hand, suddenly Aron got a big

fright because there was someone else in front
of us, we laughed and laughed.

Naomi and Hannah and Eric on the back of the

boat. back to Cairns, 27 km

Lois playing in the sand at the Lagoon on the

Esplanade in Cairns.

The Lagoon where you can have a free swim!

And free fun at Muddy's playground!

The kids really enjoy this place. The

fountains go on and off and Ruben

is looking where it is gone and then

suddenly the water is popping up, it

is so funny to see his face.