Dear friends, 24 Januari 2013

Firstly we want to wish you and your family a very Blessed and fruitful year!

This is our belated newsletter with lots of news happy and sad and a big change.

Since we came back from NZ, we were involved in kidsclub again. And because of a

year ago so many kids gave their heart to the Lord, we taught them together with the

Christian Yolngu ladies about baptism. And so many children wanted to be baptized

aswell. So on a Sunday morning we organized a baptism for the children. A lot of

preparations done for that day: together with the Yolngu ladies we made cross

necklesses for the kids, organizing the morning with a sausage sizzle. It was a day

never to forget...beautiful, amazing!

One girl that was baptised told us how she just recently was into petrol sniffing, but since she came to kidsclub and heard about Jesus and the baptisms, she was released from this very destructive addiction, Praise the Lord, Hallelujah!!

Aron was going well after we came back. It started with the coming of a new MAF family. It went really well even though Jack only just turned 8 when we arrived.

Aron was so sweet that he thought to make a birthday-cake for him! Also his Yolngu brother had a surprise; Galimarra made a spear for Aron!

Another big change for the kids: they were allowed 1 day a week to school!

They found this very exciting, but after the first day they were all-right and had good connection with other children. For Ruben and Adriana it was a big change.

She really missed a few extra hands, she found Ruben on Naomi's bedroom with nailpolish on his lips and on his bed...!

While the kids were at school Ruben and Adriana went for a day to Numbulwarto visit Ruben's friend Sam. Numbulwar is about an hours flight from Gove.

Ruben found the flight great and he also played very nice with Sam. Adriana carried lots of stuff: books, baking-gear, balloons to organise some activities with the 2 boys and to relieve Kim, Sam's mum!

But also since we came back from our NZ trip in October, again we had an abnormal

tough time.

We were taking the Christmas period to reflect, pray and think about our future with

MAF.

Also we wanted to go along with God's timing about making a decision!

On the first day of the new year I (Eric) went to one of my favourite spots along the

beach, armed with my favourite Book, the (Dutch) Bible.

While I sat there praying and reading, I started reflecting on the last year as a

family within MAF.

Starting as a pilot for Laynha, then in the hangar helping out the engineers when I

lost my aviation medical and my recent role with Charley in maintenance!

I started reading over some verses and praying for God's leading on some important

decisions regarding work; flying, engineering, reservations or stores?!

Also the family situation; homeschooling, the unsettled situation with especially the

older 2 kids, but also the highlights of last year, the outreach events and

kidsclub resulting in 36 kids being baptized!

Just as I wanted to head back home, the Lord said: "Read Jeremiah 29" of course I

stayed and started reading the whole chapter to see what the Lord had to say!

Now verse 11 through to 14 just jumped of the page:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and

not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon Me andpray to Me, and I will listen to you.

You will seek me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you

from all the nations and places where I have banished you."declares the Lord."and

will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."

Although this passage wasn't new to me it gave an immediate and clear direction! My

Dutch Bible uses the word fatherland instead of "place from which I carried you into exile"!

Fatherland according to my dictionary means; one's native country or country in which

one is born.

So we want to tell you that we will move on and our time within MAF will finish here

in Arnhemland. And we are looking for ways to go to Holland for a longer period of

time, before moving back to New Zealand!

We have been living overseas for a little over 7 years now and we can see why the

Lord thinks it's a good idea to spend a longer time with the grandparents and other

family while they are still around and in good health. Also we hope to be more equiped

for ministry work.

              We hope we have informed you guys well, know that     we didn't take this decision

lightly, but it certainly made it easier when God gave a clear direction!

We are really sad to leave this place, (although it was a hard time) as we have loved

living here and serving and minister and working together with the Yolngu people

through MAF.

We still have a warm place in our hearts for MAF and especially the people of MAF,

we are going to miss them!

We still have a warm place in our hearts for MAF and especially the people of MAF,

we are going to miss them!

We are asking the Lord for further guidance for the next step, we will be leaving on the 17^th of February. We will arrive in Holland on the 26^th.

We thank you so much for all the support we have had: You have been such an

amazing example for how a family of Christ should look like! Caring for one another,

emails, cards, parcels, phonecalls, emotional support, prayer and financial support,etc

Our ministry is not ending by leaving MAF, we would appreciate your ongoing support.

God Bless!

With love from:

Gods Zegen!

Lieve groeten:

Eric & Adriana Koch

Naomi, Aron, Hannah, Lois and Ruben

  

Baptism kidsclub children

 A day never to forget! What a beautiful day

we all had on Sunday the 2nd of December.

From January through to December the Yolngu Christian leaders and MAF staff have been guiding the children through the story of the Bible from Genesis through to Revelation with the help of the Gumatj Good News DVD shown on the big screen.
Each week the children have been gathering in groups to discuss theBible stories and how they can relate it to their life and community.

It has been a special time for the team running Kids Club as relationships have strengthened and the growth of the children has been clearly evident.

“What greater privilege than to be involved with the younger generation, helping and guiding them

to Christ, for they are the future.” says Peter Higham

During November the topic of teaching was the

Great Commission. The children were taught that as Christians they are asked by Jesus to go out and make disciples, baptise them, and teach them (Matthew 28:16-20). This challenged the children,

and at the invitation to be baptised numerous hands shot up to the amazement of the Kids Club leaders.

Over the next few weeks following this lesson, time was spent guiding the children through what

baptism means and why they should consider being baptised. As the discussions continued, those who had made a decision to be baptised kept putting their hands up. They were keen and they knew what it meant!

The 2nd of December saw a special service happen at ‘Beach Camp’ in Yirrkala. Many of the community

were there to celebrate and a total of 36 children were baptised. As the local Christians gathered around

these children and prayed for them there was a growing sense of excitement and awe of what God was

doing in these children’s lives. The children each received a special hand-made cross as a reminder of this

day. Praise God for this special event.

A video has been made and is available for viewing on youtube: http://youtu.be/DnJ5uySzYE8

Make sure you watch to the end as there are some great testimonies of this day!

back in Arnhemland again

We are already back in Arhemland again for 2 weeks. We have had a good trip to New-Zealand. We had a great time spending time with friends. The kids had  an awesome excausting 2 weeks of sleep-overs:)It was so good to be back in Nelson. It really felt home and we loved the cool weather. We could breath fresh air. It was good to see our time in AL from a distance.So we could refocus on the Vision and Goals. Its like a picture that  you have too close to your eyes and you can't see anymore what kind of picture it is.When you hold it with some distance you can see it clearly.

Coming back in Arnhemland was a big challenge again. It started already by opening the door from our house. The smell of mice cought us straightaway! The whole house was full of mice poo and also a dead mouse. Full of cockroaches and by entering the toilet there was a spider as big as my hand!
The heat is another challenging factor. Tiredness and headaches, heatreshes, tummy bugs and grumpyness are all part of our first 2 weeks.

But we don't want to focus on those things, there are so many other things to Thank God for.

We were so thankful with the trip to NZ and that is was so refreshing and that we could spend time with so many people!
We were thankful  we could come back in our own home with our own things, so we could settle in quickly again.
We  were thankful  to meet the local people here( MAF families and Yolngu family)
We are thankful that the children doing really well.
We are thanful to see Aron connecting with 2 new boys from another MAF family and also with some yolngu boys.
His Yolngu brother gave him a spear that he made himself! They had promissed for a long to make a spear for him. Aron was so happy. Time really doesn't excist in their culture.
We are also really excited, because Adriana's Yolngu sister that she taught how to bake bread, is going to bake bread and sell it and she asked Adriana to help her to set it up.

We are thankful for such a turn around with MAF management. There have been 2 big meetings already with us and them.
We have shared our Vision clearly. And we still try to work something out together.
Eric will probably stay in the hangar and is not gonna fly even if he gets his medical back. There are to many things that holds him back from it: the program runned as a business, the pressure from that, the hours and our expectations. The first meeting he got green light to have one ministry day a fourthnight, today is the first one.
Eric wants to have more. He wants to have half half. To help Yolngu for Jesus see www.yolngu4jesus.org
To help encourage them, to help them to organise outreaches and to discipel the Yolngu people.And maybe in the future he can fly them himself.
Our Yolngu family really like to learn more. This week we had them over which was really good and from next week we gonna start a bible study evening with them. We will use the God's story and Simply the story material.

Last week I, Adriana had a meeting with the principle of the Christian School in Nhulunbuy. We have discussed a day a week at school for the children  to meet their social and physical goal. Yesterday we had an apointment again with the children and the principle showed us around.
This week Thursday,  Naomi, Aron, Hannah and Lois are going to school for a try out. See if they fit in the class and also with the work they doing at school.

So all quiet exciting things happening again, Praise God!

What a change in one week!

Months ago we were praying and thinking to go back to NZ to do Eric's tests and the Living Wisdom course and most important for the kids.  This didn't work out as we thought for
different reasons: financial not enough, packing house than aswell, no clear road with the doctor there. So we put that thought aside and Eric went to Sydney for doctors apointment. Because that went really well the thought came back to go to NZ for the course and the kids.
Its a bit of a last minute but everything worked out so well, God blessed us with two enormous gifts which we thank the Lord for to make this trip happen! For the course we will be to late so we have decided not to do that and really try to get a rest!

Tomorrow morning we are starting our trip back to New Zealand!
First we spend a day and night in Cairns to catch the flight to Auckland on Tuesday.
On Wednesday morning 8am we will arrive in Nelson if everything goes according to plan.

Last week Eric got back his bloodtest results from the immunologist in Sydney, they showed abnormal on liver/kidney function values!
So when we get back from New Zealand he has to repeat bloodtests here in Nhulunbuy to see whether those improved.
If that all goes well, the medical can be sent to CASA in order to get his medical back, let's pray it will be fine and get some smooth sailing from now on!

Also Eric had a very good talk with management last week, they are very open to give him a chance in other oppertunities besides flying!
They are willing to look into engineering, ministry or maintenance work in combination with part-time flying!
So praise God for such an openess and positive response!

Outreach

I went to Garrthalala.

Coral, mum and Dipilinga came too.

We went there to to tell the Yolngu people about God.

we went with the plane.

Fabio was the pilot.

When I stepped out of the plane, the children wanted

to play with me.

I was so happy . I didn't know the children liked me,

We sat outside and played  and I read them a biblestory.

We sang worshipsongs and danced.

I sang a song together with Coral(you are my all in all).

I was happy . I wanted to live there.

I just loved that place.

I slept in a classroom with mum and Coral.

I had to wake up at 6 a.m.

I was still sleepy but we had to fly back to Gove.

Daddy, Naomi, Aron, Lois and Ruben were already

waiting for us.

By Hannah Koch

 

Breakthrough

Since 2 weeks Eric is working fulltime again,he is fully recoverd, praises to God alone!


Eric had an apointment planned in Sydney on the 12th of September and tried to get patient travel. Medicare will pay for your trip when you have to travel for medical reasons.But Eric wasn't entitled for it. So last week he decided to just go and  trusting in God to provide the money and that 1 travel would be enough instead of 3.
Yesterday one of our supporters donated a large amount that covers twice as much! Thanks and praises to God alone!

After the apointment, Eric texted me to say that the doctor delited the label of Chronic Fatigue! Only one more bloodtest and he will be finished and can come home!
As we prayed and believed only 1 visit would be enough. What an Awesome God we serve! What a breakthrough after such a difficult time. Thank you Lord!

Waiting

Firstly we appreciate your prayers through this time of uncertainty, it's really making all the difference to have a group of dedicated people backing us up in prayer!
We praise God for having you and caring for us!

Please continue to pray especially for Adriana and the children. Aron has had some troubles with sleeping lately, but is doing better now!
Also Adriana went to the clinic as she didn't feel well, they did a CTG test of the heart , she was fine, but she has to learn to manage her (high) stress-levels better!
We learn a lot through this time and it' amazing to literally experience God's rest and peace even though there's so many things uncertain at the moment.
I'm working in the hanger to help out the engineers for 4 day per week, which goes allright. The fatique is not so extreme as in the beginning, but sometimes pops up still. The Chief engineer said  that it was a great contribution for me to be part of their team, which is of great encouragement!!

Progress here in regard to my aviation medical is slow.
I'm looking into the option to do all tests in New Zealand through the public system and my NZ aviation medical doctor in Nelson is investigating the proper way to go forward with this at the moment!
Also there's the Living wisdom course in Nelson NZ that runs one in the first half of October.

If we decide to go and do all the tests and course in NZ, MAF has said we have to pack house, thats MAFs policy.
Packing house means for us leaving Arnhemland. Because it wouldn't be good for our family to pack house, live for a while in NZ and then come back and live here again.

So I've picked up the option besides going to New Zealand to undergo immunology testing in Sydney, but that doesn't seem so easy either!
It has to be done over 3 different testing dates with several weeks in between for the doctors to wait results and deciding which follow-up tests need to be done.
This means 3 times travel up and down to Sydney, 3 times accommodation, plus testing costs which makes it an expensive and long exercise altogether.

We believe that God has a way.  We believe that God placed us here and that its not finished yet.God is teaching us to wait upon Him His timing is the best.He is teaching to trust only in Him and not to worry.  He is teaching us to rejoyce even in hard times. He is teaching us to stay strong in Him.

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
     whose trust is the Lord.
⁸  He is like a tree planted by water,
    that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
    for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
    for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

My trip to Dhanaya

My Yolngu family invited me to come with them to Dhanaya for hunting and fishing from Wednesday to Saturday.

On Wednesday I was already to go at 10 o'clock. 

At 1 o'clock I was still waiting to get picked up but they didn't turn up.Then they said that they would pick me up on Friday but they had to wait untill the car turned up they could use.I did'nt go untill Saterday. My family took the bush taxi to Dhanaya which will cost about $500 to get there and Dad and mum decided to bring me away, it only takes about 2 hours drive on a graveled road. When we got there, there were a lot of tents and a lot of people sitting by fires and making tea.

We got there before our family got there so we got to sit by other people and have some lunch.When our family got there with the bush taxi they got out and unloaded a lot of food and even a red tv. When we were finished unloading they told us to go to the beach and have a look . The sand was as fine as milk powder and the sea was really blue. We did a little bit of fishing too.

When we got back from the beach it was time for mum and dad, opa and oma and my sisters to leave.

I went and sat with some people I know and I played with some boys who were making a hut. When the hut was finished we all got inside and we made a little fire.

I had no idea what time it was when we started cooking dinner over the fire but it seemed like I had just lunch. It started to get dark and we were still sitting on the ground and now they were boiling water to make tea.

I got my stuff and started to go to the others that were watching a movie.

I sat down to watch the movie when my brother said that they were going to put up a tent for me to sleep in. When they were finished making the tent I went to bed.

The next morning I woke up and I did not know how early it was so I got a book to read.When I heard kids getting up I got up too and went outside where my families tent was.We had to go and get some water but the water runs by sunlight and the sun was behind the clouds so the water was not running so I had to bend the pipe upside down and then a little bit of water started running. When the bucket was full we walked back to camp.The others had already set up breakfast. I ate weetbix with milk powder.

But it tasted just like water with a little bit of sugar and weetbix.

When we were all eating one of them asked me if I wanted to go fishing and I said yes.

But when they had left, I just had to follow my family around and sit down at other people's and wait to go to the next people.

It was not that fun, because I could not understand them.I became sad, because they didn't take me fishing and hunting.

I started to get a bit homesick I went back to the tent.

When one of my family asked what was wrong she rang mum and told her to come and pick me up .

When I talked to mum she said that the car had broken down on the way back and dad and opa were trying to fix it, she said that she would ring us back. There is only one phone at Dhanaya working on solarpower.

When it is ringing anyone who walks past can pick it up. And they will yell out the person who they need.

I was sitting and waiting for mum to call back when one of my Yongu brothers wanted to play with me.We played at the rocks where they had made a hut and we had fun.

We went back to the camp for a drink. A lady came with a bag of raw oysters to eat and they asked me to eat one too, so I did, but I spat it out.One of the family said that my dad and his friend were coming in his friend's car to pick me up.

When we had finished we went to the beach and played for a while and I climbed a coconut tree to get a coconut out so we could drink the juice.

When we got back, I was happy to see my dad and his friend, I got my bag and drove back home.

                                                        By Aron Koch

Journey

Its been a long time I did a post. There is so much happening, so will try to write it down, which I find hard at the moment, because what can you write down and what not. Things have been hard for the last weeks, but amazingly we're constantly filled with His peace!

We are on a journey and this reminded me of the competition 'Are we there yet?', our kids did for the library.They started off with a lot of enthusiasm. Firstly they chose a way(a story or a poem) and started writing.But a little further it became hard and didn't know what to write anymore. I encouraged them and helped them a little further, but it became so hard that they wanted to give up.We put a break in so it took longer than we had planned but finally they finished. We entered their stories and weeks later we got an email that they had won a price because of the best story of Northern Territory in their age group!Yeh...

Because we are on a journey, we have to ask ourselves some questions too:

What was the initial plan?

How is it going? How to deal with the obstackles on the road?

Are we still on the right track?Which road will this go?

Gods call for us is to go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you(Math 28:19-20) ,

Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe.In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well(Mark 16:15-18)

We have been called to do so and the plane will be one of the tools.The road has been hard, and sometimes we nearly want to give up and want to go back.It's not what we had expected but we still believe we are in the place God called us for. There are opstackles on the road that need to be delt with.Which can only  be delt with by His Grace!Only by turning our eyes

on Jesus and rest in Him!

We are already back in Yirrkala for a couple of weeks now from our trip to Cairns. It was so exciting to meet Eric's parents at the airport in Cairns. We had a good time with each other in Cairns, beautiful weather, beautiful places and things we went to and time to rest. They came with us back to Yirrkala and they stayed for another 3 weeks.

Only Eric is not recovered yet, still really tired at times. The plan was to see a doctor in Cairns who is specialized in Chronical Fatigue, but there was none in Cairns.

Although we had a good time in Cairns, we couldn't get away from work related things.

 Eric had to email   the manager of MAF to say that he wasn't able to fly once we're back but he is able to do other work on a reduced roster. 

He took Eric off the flyingroster. Also he is not allowed to fly, because his medical for his licence is not back yet.

Eric has been to the doctor  to get his Aviation Medical aproved, but he needed to undergo further bloodtest  and other test for the fatigue problems he is having. The doctor grounded him because of his medical was expired and because of the fatigue problem.

The bloodtest results were fine now.

 For other tests he needs to travel  to Brisbane or another big city. The earliest he can have an apointment is the end of September/October.

Also Maf wants us to do the Living Wisdom course,  (life & counceling skills)

At the moment we try to work it all out.

We have had several meetings with Maf management,  We ask for prayers for them, for wisdom and Gods leading, as they are not in a easy position too.

We had agreed that Eric is going to work in the Hangar with the engineers .

It's still all unknown where this is leading to, but we trust God that it will be good. We believe in what the Yolgnu people led by His Spirit, where praying over us.... a new ministry!

In the meantime we are a happy family.

Having good times with our Yolngu family.

They adopted Erics parents too by making a welcome hangi.

It was sad to say goodbye to Opa and Oma. We are back into our daily routine again. Started schoolwork again. The kids are doing really well. They had great reports, high scores. Something to be thankful for! One of our schoolprojects was making an aeroplanebed for Ruben's birthday.(see photo's). It took a little longer than we had planned but...we finished it. The kids are all into lego and create many things. Aron's last project was the Volkswagon he bought from his saved up money. Aron was also invited by our Yolngu family to go camping with them. Next post he will tell his story.

Celebrations

 The months May and June are full of celebrations. We organised a surprise party for Hannah. She became 8 years on the 14th of May. Eric took her out on a date to the swimmingpool and while they were away we decorated the house and the cake.She was really surprised when they came home and the house was full of visitors for her!

 A week later(the 22nd of May) Ruben turned 2 years already. He had a lovely day and was excited to get presents.He was the most happy with his little airplane toy which I found at the opshop.But liked also his favorite animal crocodile soft toy and dvd from Steve Irwin. Rubens word for crocodile= cootepa

We made the easiest cake ever with cupcakes in a shape of a crocodile.

Another week later it was my(Adriana) turn to have my birthday. I had a day full of blessings, with lovely cards,emails,phonecalls, facebooknotes, Eric unexpected home(overtired though), Naomi making pikelets(poffertjes) for breakfast and a apple pie for afternoontea, and a delicious lasagna for dinner, and a friend poppin in with a sweet pressent, and a restyle haircut!


On the 6th of June we celebrated our 15th wedding aniversary! We had fun watching our weddingdvd together with the kids. In Cairns we will have some time together hopefully.

This coming Saturday(9th of June) it's Erics birthday. Because we have the Maf conference, we celebrate it on the Friday evening with a barbeque.