refreshment

Something amazings happened .....(this happened the Sunday before Erics medical)

Eric and I were both overtired for a couple of weeks/months, having a hard time. Tonight we decided to go for a walk dark or dogs,buffelo's or what, we went. As we were walking and talking about our hard time we walked past the church and it was full of people, something in us told to go in. The music just started to Worship God. We joined in and peple started sharing and repenting and kneeling down and something amazing happened: there was reconciliation between 2 clans...wow they repent and hugged and cried...wow!Praise God.
The Holy Spirit told me to bow down aswell, so together with Eric we kneld down and the Yolgnu people started to pray for us...wow...they didn't know what was going on in our lives but the Holy Spirit knew and so they prayed refreshment over us and 5 times they prayed for a new ministry....exciting wow...we walked home jumping for joy thanking God for this amazing time and these amazing people!. God did something very special and is going to do even more.... wow

 

We are a week further now and I, Adriana am really refreshed! Iam so glad I am, so that I can take care of Eric, now he is still not well and the care for the children.

Erics health

I (Eric) am not too well lately, with being allmost constantly overtired and not flying as per the 28th of May (also missed pilots meeting last weekend).

A few weeks ago I did a bloodtest just here at the clinic which didn't indicate very much.
On the 28th of May I had my aviation medical and that doctor wanted to investigate a bit deeper into the situation!
Some extra bloodtests followed and yesterday the results came through, again fortunately not showing things like glendular, ross river or epson barr.
Only this time the percentage of white bloodcells showing high which might be an indication of the body batteling with something else.
He called pathology for doing a Hepatitus A, B, C investigation, with results coming back on Friday.

His diagnose on the things done sofar is chronic fatique without depression!
Maybe I need to undergo extra tests now which cannot be done here in Gove, but MAF and myself are working on someone in Cairns where we'll be going to coming Monday.
Otherwise maybe somewhere else in Australia (some of the bigger centres can do things like sleeptests etc).

I spoke to Doug(Maf manager) on Monday together with Adriana, which was a very, very good conversation and of course at that stage we didn't have a diagnose yet, so the desicions about how to go from here haven't been made yet. I indicated that within the Laynha program I am only just coping with the workload and hours (average 7:00am-6:30pm).

I have been enjoying flying for MAF (closed charter) more so than for Laynha, but Keith our Chief-pilot wanted to do the 6 monthly check first before putting me more on the closed charter which involves mainly the long sealed strips (Lake Evella, Elcho, Milingimbi etc).
In this check they do STOL checks to see if they can remove the 700 meter curfew as well as an extra 20 minute last light curfew. I did well that day so Keith removed both curfews which means I can go into the shorter strips now. Exciting aye!!
The Lord has called us here, but we have to work together in finding a more balanced way in flying/ministry/homeschooling!

shapes and colours

It was the week of shapes and colours for Hannah, Lois and Ruben to learn. We did several activities with it: sheets printed out from the internet, hammer & nails, cutting and glueing shapes in different colours, game:I can see what you can't see and the colour/shape is.
With the heart shape I teached Lois to draw a 2, by drawing the left side of a heart for her so that she could finish the heart and add a little stripe under it. She can do it!

I thought also to explain something about the heart and what the bible says about it.

Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you.Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.(John 14:27)

I thought it would be good to explain to the kids, especially Hannah. She is having nightmares lately. And we have noticed   

 a lot of fear in her.
I took the kids outside to show them something.
First I asked Naomi to read the bible verse John 14:27.
I explained to them: The moment you believe in Jesus Christ, He who is the Prince of Peace comes to live inside you. And when He resides in you, every blessing you ever need is already in you.
But why do we still see problems in health, finances, family and relationships?

Because of a troubled heart

Jesus said: peace I leave with you and straight after that He said: Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
So I took the hose and turned the tap on.Lots of water was running from the hose. I explained  that God's ever present supply of blessings toward you is like the water flowing freely from the hose.
But a troubled and fearfull heart works like a water hose that you clamped down hard with your fingers, little or nothing is coming out at the other end of the hose.
You won't see the blessings when you allow your heart to be gripped by worry of fear. It all starts in our own minds. Fear of the known or unknown, feelings that you can't do it, or of being a failure, feelings of frustration,hurt etc.
So we prayed for these things and asked God to help us.
Hannah still have those fearfull dreams, but we continue with praying for her and singing songs, that calms her down.

Eric is really tired from the load of work and the hours away from family, the weather, etc. Because of the busy program and his tiredness there is not much time/energy left for at home or outreach, discipling the Yolgnu people. And the harvest is plentyfull...
Eric is finding this hard and frustrating sometimes.

I'm also really tired and going through a hard time. I felt like running away from here, away from the heat, back to the land of homeschooling, New-Zealand or back to family in Holland. But knowing I can't and have to go on and through this rough time.

I explained about a troubled heart to our kids, but here I am: I had a troubled heart myself!
I had to be freed from al those thoughts and worries and giving the controle over to God.
I had to remind myself to count my blessings that I started writing down in a journal even those little things.
I had to remind myself that God is for us, who can stand against?
And that the Lord is my Light and my Salvation, shom shall I fear? The Lord is the Strength whom shall I be afraid?Psalm 27:1-4

Praises to God that  He holds everything in His hands. He knows everyting and at the right timing.

Last Monday we had John and Linda Watson from NZ over. They are counselors for missionaries. What a blessing they are, thank God! We had a good time of conversation and prayer with them.
The next day Eric and I had a meeting with Dough, the manager of MAF Arnhemland. And we shared our concerns about tiredness, the program, homeschooling.
The decision was quickly made. Eric is gonna have 1 day off a week. (He will still make 40 hours in a week) He will need that day in the first place to have a rest from flying, second place to support us in homeschooling, and thirthly for outreach to Yolgnu.
Thank God for this conversation and for the exta day off a week!

Please continue to pray for: God's power
When we are week He is strong.
For protection over body and mind
For our Yolgnu family.
Thank God we had a prayer/biblestudy/night at their house organised by themself!!

Easter weekend

On Good Friday morning at 7.30 am we started with a prayerwalk around Yirrkala. Eric was asked to carry the cross like Jesus did. We stopped at 7 places to pray for the community. It was really good, but also sad to realize that we were the once with the wips and that shouted:Crucify Him! The thorncrown on His head were our sins...

But so encouraging and hopeful to know that God already had made another plan for this world.

To gave His one and only Son, that whoever believe in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

I had organized a Passover meal on Friday Evening for everyone who wanted to hear and learn about the meal. Why Gods people celebrate it like this. It is so rich, everything is symbolic and points towards Jesus.

Lois asking one of the 4 questions:Why is this night different from all the other nights?

Because the Israelites were slaves in Egypt and the Lord redeemed them with His mighty hand and they can tell this story from generation to generation, Praise God.

Why do we eat unleavend bread(Matzah):

to remind us of the Israelites, they didn't have time to wait for the yeast to rise because they
had to be ready to move when God told them.

We eat Matzah because this night we remember Jesus. By whose stripes we are healed. Yeast leavens, or puffs up, as pride and sin inflates our hearts. The stripes and the holes in the bread reminds us of Jesus who was punished and broken for us .

I had roasted 2 lambs legs and made some other food. We had a great time of fellowship with Yolgnu and Balanda(white people)


On Easter Monday when we woke up we were really tired. I had to go back into my room not for a sleep, but to go on my knees, I knew this was the only way. Because God is my strength and my refuge. Amazingly He gave renewed strength.
I was able to bake pancakes for the kids and us. To welcome our yolgnu family who came suddenly when I just finished baking. To share our meal with them. He gave strength to bake an extra stack of pancakes and even we could enjoy watching the kids do their play of the prodical son for our family. He gave strength to share God's word with them and to pray for them especially the children .One of them, Emily, 14, lost her dad. They hadn't slept for 2 nights because of that. Please pray for them.

After this weekend, we got some sickness in the home. Hannah got a high fever. And because of that she had really bad nightmares. We had to pray and command the spirit of fear to leave her.It took her a few days to get over this as she was so scared to go to bed again. Scared to get those dreams again. Pray for a protection over our family and especially Hannah.

going out into the community to bring hope, love and joy

2 months ago Eric and I went to a worshipnight at Walibi Beach. Someone was preaching there and said: Use the things(talents,seeds) God has given to you to go out, use them for His Glory, rather then to look on the things you don't have and what you think you need.
The Next morning I talked it over with the kids and said to them: lets write all the things down in your notebook. So they were busy writing and Lois draw the things she could do. Then I asked them to circle 1 thing they could use today to encourage someone else. So Aron decided to bake a cake, Hannah to write cards to people and bake cookies, Naomi offered to help the whole day and Lois wanted to say her memory verse.
I had a family on my heart to go to and bring al these things to.
The next morning we went to them. The Lady of the house,Eunich, was very surprised to get visitors and was full of joy to see that cake(with a cross on it and the letters: God loves)made for them. We prayed together and especially for her grandson, who had a difficult time. No friends, nothing to do, drinking. Lois said her bibleverses. Uenich saidI am so happy that you came,you have brought us joy and the love in this house! Praise God, it was He that laid it on our hearts!

Later Eunich told me that her grandson is doing well, not drinking anymore! And she asked us to come back.

So we went back to them to "water the seeds".

The kids had made a play of the predical son and we made an easter cake and brought party food like the father gave a party to his son in that story.The kids did so well, Eunich and her grandson, Dwuane loved it every minute. We talked about God and that he loves us so much, so Lois had another verse:For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, so whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life, John 3:16

I asked him if He found it hard to believe and he said: no, easy, I love Jesus!! So pray for him for a living relationship and that he will become a follower of Jesus.

Dwuene wants to teach Aron how to make a spear and to fish, really exciting!

We ended our visit with in prayer and Lois prayed: Dear Lord, thank you for this family of Eunich, that you made them so special and that we can have a good night, amen.

Invited

Eric had a day off on Friday. In the afternoon I got a phonecall from Vanessa. She invited us to come and join them for the baby ceremony. So we decided to come.

First we had to collect some wood in the bush to make a fire on the sand. Eric and Gerard collect some wet sand to put beside the fire to warm up.

This is their babyboy.

The ceremony is to get them walk.

It's more like a traditional celabration.

They put the warm sand onto his toplegs

and back and massage it.

To celebrate it they make demper. A sort bread, with only flour and milk. They put it in foil and cook it in the hot sand.

Don't mind the sand in the demper :)

They cut it and share it and dip it in sweet condensed milk or honey.

The kids so enjoyed it on the beach and they had a swim in the water, played with sticks and crabs.

This place is called Noll. It's private land of Gerard and Vanessa. They lived here till beginning last year, when the cyclone blow their house down.

Now they live on Birijimi 25 km away. Gerard got a vision from the Lord, one day they will live there again.
It's a beautiful peaceful place with beautiful people!

Demper is ready. Now time to cook the fishes the same way as the demper, in foil and in the hot sand.First we had to clean them.

We learned some new words: guya looka= eating fish, natta=food, go rali marrtji=come here, ga=thank you. We thanked God for this precious time we had together!

Boyracer in Yirrkala

Friday night chase in Yirrkala results in Yolngu dramatic salvation

Friday night 11.15 Eric and I just wanted to go to bed as we heard and saw a car racing, turning and spinning through the streets of Yirrkala. We heard a lot of people yelling.
We started praying over the people in the car, as we didn't know what else to do. It was to dangerous to go outside and do something.

Because we are living on the corner of two streets on the edge of Yirrkala we could see a lot. The police came and went after him, but couldn't stop him. Another police car came and after 1,5 hours of racing, they crashed him. The police took the boy quickly and put him in the car, as the Yolgnu wanted to spear him. Praise God no one was hurt.
+
Sunday afternoon we received this news written by and MAF pilot:

For those of you who were praying for the young man in the car chase around and around and around the streets of Yirrkala you will be thrilled to know that he met Jesus that night in the prison cell.
I had noticed him attending the church over the last few weeks.
This is his story.
In his dark cell there was only light coming un...der the door.
He prayed to the Lord and asked for Him to save him.
Suddenly a light filled the room and he was converted and born again.
This morning he asked his mother's forgiveness, and this afternoon he is to ask the forgiveness of his father who owned the truck.
I was sitting around 15 paces from the man when he gave his testimony and publicly confesses his sin.
As he asked forgiveness, I smelt alcohol from that distance.
The church leadership asked me to pray for him.
He was immediately struck by the power of God (it's not often the men will fall under the power of God).
I could not smell any alcohol on his breath, so I knew that it was a spirit.
I asked him if he had been drinking that night.
He said he had, and was keen to be set free of the demon.
Once again he fell down as the spirit left him, but this time he was filled with the Holy Spirit in accordance with scripture (so he would not be 7x worse off.)
He immediately began speaking fervently in tongues. (I am convinced that tongues is God's antidote to every addiction).
There is more to his story that I cannot tell you on Facebook, as he has not given a statement as advised by his lawyer, ask me at work if you want.
Please pray for Jamie.

We were thrilled to hear this news and Praised God for what He is doing!

Outreach Baniyala Arnhemland

Last Friday Eric and I had the opportunity to go on an outreach to Baniyala(Yilpara).

Yirrkala bush and beach walk

What is the way to forget about your daily sorrows and to meet the local Yolgnu and to see more of Yirrkala?

Eric had a day of today and so after our cleaning and reading it was really time for us to go out and explore. This did us all so well! We found a new path through the bush that leaded us to the dunes. Hannah found it a little scared but at the same time exciting to go through the bush. She hold my hand when she felt scared,but let me go and run forward to Naomi and Aron when she got excited.

We immagined to put our tent up at the top and camp there.

The girls made drawings in the sand.

We watched the sea and breath,

We watched the clouds and what we saw in them.

We met Yolgnu people at shady beach and had a chat with them and found out that some were our family.

Aron climbed in a coconut tree, try to get a coconut, he made it to the top but couldn't get the coconut out.

So we loved, lived and laughed!!

.

Homeschooling

We have had a really good brake from the schoolwork. The kids have had a good holiday. Although we didn't stop with having time with God! And we are continue with bible memorizing. For this year, we have challenged ourselves with the whole book of Collosians!!Mum is doing it too! It's fantastic how much Lois is picking up from this, I had different Bible verses for her, but she is learning the same scripture now as the older ones!
I have spent more time with the Lord. To ask Him for guidance for the coming year.

My verse is: Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
And amazing, God is so good, He has spoken to me a couple of times and He has already given me so many ideas and answers to prayers! My concern was Naomi: as she rather wanted to go to school than to be homeschooled. Although she is more than happy at home. I asked the Lord what to do and clearly His answer was perseverence, go on with it, I'm with you!
He has given me new ideas for Naomi for this year: Naomi wants to be a hairdresser, so one of the ideas was to go and asked in the hairsalon in town(20 km away) if it was possible for Naomi to learn there. What a great outcome: The owner was so possitive, has learned it the same way. Naomi was welcome and is already working there!! And the owner is so happy with Naomi and she wants to teach Naomi! I have already asked her about schooling for it. She would need University/aprentenship Darwin or somewhere else after her college.

The other Idea is: That Naomi can go to the homeland MAF families to help with the children homeschooling and with the little kids to entertain them, baking, cooking, games etc. for a few days a term. Naomi is a great helper at home, I will miss her here but see that she can be a blessing to other families and so this is her little missionary work. With these ideas it will be a exciting year for her and all of us.

Homeschooling is not the easiest thing to do, but I don't want to miss it. There are so many rewards!( Family bonding, teaching them Gods ways, God molding me the most maybe,one on one teaching)
The hardest thing I found is that we are nearly the only family here that are doing it.People don't really understand it, because why don't you send them to school, if their are schools?
Compared to New-Zealand it was so normal there, even when you were living close to schools.
It is against the flow, that makes it hard.

One day as I went for a walk to shady beach by myself and sat on a roch and cried it out to God for help, how than Lord? How can I teach, how can I love? Straight away He answered: Come to me. And than I remembered the rest of the verse: all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.(Matthew 11:28)
He gave me 3 words: Love (giving my everything), Live(go out and explore with them), Laugh(have fun together)

I know with Gods help we can do it! It was God Himself that layed it on my heart to homeschool. He gave me verses to confirm: Deuteronomy 6:6, Psalm 78:3-8
And so we go on, following His footsteps, not my will anymore, but His will be done!