Our last message is from a few weeks ago. A lot took place since then.We enjoyed Christmas with a busy weekend after that. With more than 450 people we celebrated the birth of the Lord Jesus in the village. We enjoyed a number of Church meetings with various speakers, including a number of young leaders from up river. In between lunch was prepared for all visitors. It turned out to become like a big conference.

All places in the village where people could stay were occupied. We sheltered three families under the house.

Christmas Saturday we planned to have a day of sports and plays. It turned out that although we made preparations with the elders last June, the both of us were expected to lead the entire day. This day was a great success. With 14 teams the people played along in rope pulling, shooting with bow and arrow and canoe race.

After Christmas we trained all children workers for the coming events of Operation Christmas Child that are due the coming month. We plan to reach out to more than 500 children along the river. We hope to see the 7 children clubs that are active now grow in numbers. In the end we pray that also the parents will be interested to visit the bible studies and church meetings in the villages.

In the beginning of January we flew into the city since Marco traveled to Orlando, Fl, for the annual LEAD meeting of World Team Americas. Marjolein stayed in the city visiting our daughter Elsbeth and her husband Rafael. Elsbeth is expecting her baby in about a month.

A big surprise for Elsbeth, we had been involved in, was that our other daughter Jiska came over to Suriname to be with mother and sister for 10 days. Jiska wanted to meet her sister while being pregnant. They had a beautiful week together.

It was special that we decided last minute to catch a plane a few days before we had planned before. It turned out that we were just in time to say goodbye to an old friend who was very ill. He passed away in the days we stayed as guests in their home. We were able to comfort and assist his wife and the closest family.

The weekend before we returned to the bush we celebrated Marjoleins birthday. Very nice to be able to do this with family and friends.

At the moment we are back in Lawa. Now we are with Anneke Kempers and Ilse van Dijk. They will help us with all the children celebration activities. The coming weeks our plates will be full again. We plan to fly back to the city in the end of February in order for Marjolein to be with Elsbeth right after giving birth. We are expecting …