For some years now we’re talking about, pray for and think about a connection between the French speaking Wayana youth and French speaking Bible teachers and a French speaking youth worker. The last two weeks we felt so priviliged to receive both ‘parties’ in our home at Lawa. Anneke Kempeneers, a youth worker from The Netherlands, was commissioned on June 6th to the Lawa youth. Onze World Team colleague from Haiti arrived with two teachers of the MEBSH Bible school in Cayes July 12th in Paramaribo. After a weekend with several visits to Haitians in and around the city, we flew on Monday July 15th with six persons to Lawa. Very nice to have so many people around our table. We were happy that the conversation was in English because our French is a bit ‘rusty’.

Tuesday we went by canoe to Maripasoula to see if we could meet some Haitian people and to see if there was any progress in the search for a house for Anneke. She hopes to have even a choice from several houses by mid August. Our Haitian guests enjoyed this daytrip very much and so did we.

Thursday the 18th of July the Chairman of the Baptist Union arrived in Lawa to join us for the Bible conference in one of the villages along the Lawa river from July 19-21. What a joy to be part of this festive gathering and to share from Gods word. We all slept in hammocks under the house of one of the elders. In the morning we had breakfast with our small group. After the morning service we ate together village by village. In the evening our host invited us every evening for supper. What a hospitality! We were so happy to see a lot of Wayana’s after being in Apetina for several months. We feel how our life is connected with the Wayana’s. What a privilege to be part of this conference.

After the conference our Haitian guests held a mini Bible school from Monday until Wednesday in Lawa about the book of Daniel and Revelations. It had to be in a nutshell, but there is appetite for more. The Wayana’s are looking forward to the return of the two teachers and in turn they also would love to come back. We’ll see how this will be continued.

Thursday July 25 Anneke Kempeneers stayed behind in our house in Lawa where she waits for Ilse van Dijk and Anneke Kempers to arrive to train youthleaders first and after that lead a youth week from August 12-16. A great opportunity for Anneke Kempeneers to get to know the teenagers. With the rest of our group we flew back to Paramaribo, where we picked up Bruce, our Canadian friend, at the airport. Right before his arrival, Anneke Kempers arrived from the Netherlands. It was good to see her for a moment before she leaves for Lawa.

Early Saturday morning Marco brought our two Haitian brothers to the airport. We did our shopping for our week with Bruce in Apetina and we enjoyed the company of our daughter and grandson.

Monday July 29 we fly to Apetina. We’re looking forward to meet the people and see what God has in store for us.