It is holiday time in Lawa. Many teenagers returned from Maripasoula and Cayenne in French Guiana. Since the soccer field is in front of our house, we see them play every day. They don’t care when it rains or when the sun is hot, they play. Only when the World Cup matches are on TV you don’t see anyone, you only hear the cheering. With Brazil out of the games, they all cheer for French Guiana. Some of the teenagers have a French ID, since French Guiana is still part of France.

For the parents this isn’t holiday time at all. They need to travel extra in order to obtain the needed documents for the coming school year. They travel by canoe or by plane to Maripasoula, Saint Laurent, Cayenne or sometimes even to Paramaribo. It is expensive to let your children attend school. In the rest of Suriname school ends half of August. They’re still working hard to prepare for tests and exams.

Our grandchildren in the Netherlands enjoy their vacation time after graduating to the next class. We wish al of you a great holiday season. We hope you’re able to find rest and new inspiration for body and soul.

At Lawa we see daily progress in building the repair shop for outboard engines. We see some of the Wayana men come over to see how the building crew from the city works, hoping to learn some new tricks they can use when building their own houses. This is one of traits we love of the Wayana: they’re always open to learn new things. We experience the same thing at the training for outboard engines. They take in all the new information, but it is really difficult for them. They are taught in either Dutch or Sranan Tongo, which is not their mother tongue. They learn to measure in micrometers, which is totally new for most of the trainees. While working on an outboard engine, they soon discover why all those tiny measurements are important. This gives new motivation to keep trying.

A number of documents have been produced for the financial administration. We teach the people to work with the computer and printer, how to make a budget and a price quote for the customers. They also have to learn how to deal with the money in the shop since there is no bank around.At the end of the second trainingweek the participants had a test. Everyone was anxious to see if they would pass the test and were able to do the exercise. We are happy to see that everyone passed and the trainers are confident they will be able to complete the training with all on board.

Next week Monday and Tuesday MAF will fly four times from Lawa to Sipaliwini to bring a group of some twenty people over. They walk from there across the mountains in two days to the nearest airstrip in Brazil, in order to fly to the city in Northern Brazil for a big Bible conference. It is the first time they take this route. Please pray for safe travels and a blessed time in Brazil.

Here we’re preparing for the annual July conference. This time it will be at Lawa. We’ll be meeting from July 26th-29th. The theme will be: the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the believers. Every evening the choir is rehearsing in church. So by the time the conference starts, we already know the new songs by heart since we live opposite of the church.