Anneke Kempeneers visited us, together with two Board members of the Dutch foundation Kimon (translated: ‘Children all over the world’). We enjoyed their visit very much. We met with the elders at Lawa and the Baptist Church of Maripasoula in order to affirm their support for Anneke when she will come to work with the Wayana teenagers at Maripasoula. Anneke now has to build her prayer – and financial support to be send out as missionary by St. Kimon. We hope that she will come at the end of this year, Lord willing. In the mean time she will try to live and study for a number of months in France to improve her language skills in French.

After they left we worked hard to prepare the house for the annual sale of second hand clothes that we received from the Netherlands. Time and again we enjoy seeing the happy faces when people come over to find what they like. This time we also ended the sale with a surplus of money that we can invest in some of the financial needs of the Churches.

Together with the Board of the Lawa Church we sat down to work on the financial report of 2016 and the budget for 2017. This is still very new for the leaders but they want to learn and see why they would be better of when doing so. We plan another 4-5 years to get this ball rolling. We are happy to see how far they came last year in keeping the books. It was great to see how, also in this aspect, we recongnize Gods blessings on the Church.

Reaching out to unbelievers in the different villages along the river has proven out to be effective. Apart from the extension of the Lawa church we see that on 6 other locations the believers are at work to prepare or even build a church. This in order to reach out to al the people in their own village. What a beautiful development! Building materials are very expensive, so we expect this to be a project over a number of years. We enjoy seeing the people getting involved and motivated to do their part of the task. Cutting the bush to prepare a plot, working hard to get the sand they need out of the riverbanks, building concrete blocks and cutting downs trees they need to cut the beams and the planks. On the next picture we overlook the plot that the Maripagpan believers are cleaning up to build the church.

We brought a box full of reading glasses. A lot found their way to the people. The want to read their Bibles.

We were able to provide the Maripagpan Church with a starting budget to buy gasoline for the outboard and the chainsaw. The leaders asked us to inquire in the States and in the Netherlands for financial support to buy roof plates and cement.

Last week the Lawa youth has spring holidays. Every morning the girls will be taught in Church and every afternoon the boys. We praise the Lord when we see the dedication umong the leaders to teach the youth.

We learned that the leadership at Apetina is working hard to prepare the Eastern Conference. They work diligently as a team, praying together in the Church regulairaly. The children workers train a number of young leaders at Tutukampu since they also want to start a childrens club and youth work.

We rejoice when we see how the leadership is growing in dedication and commitment serving the Lord of the harvest along the Lawa and the Tapanahony River.