May 2008
“I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord... O magnify the Lord with me and let us exult His name together.” (Ps 34:1-3)
How grateful the psalmist was to the Lord! In a similar way our hearts are also full of gratitude to the Lord for special blessings in our lives. What an unusual few weeks these last ones have been as the Lord has orchestrated some unexpected blessings that lets our hearts relate to the gratefulness and praise of the psalmist. We have seen the Lord provide for us in order to see some important events take place in our lives.
As I am writing this letter, Stephanie along with our daughter Lycia, are in Pennsylvania doing a disaster response training course. This was made possible because of a gracious sponsorship from a church. Apart from the fact that Stephanie may be called up for future disaster responses, training like this can hold future benefits for our ministry in Chile as well. We live in an earthquake area of the world and this training could be a very specific ministry we can offer to our community. For instance, while the world’s attention is presently focused on the Myanmar disaster, an evacuation on a much smaller scale is also underway in the same region where we live in southern Chile. Already thousands have been evacuated as Volcano Chaitén continues to spew out ash over neighboring territories. Disaster response preparation training could be an effective way of mercy ministry contribution to our communities.
In our last communication I expressed my disappointment at not being able to attend a conference in Chile. I was able to attend a mission conference over the same dates and during that time someone gave me a ticket so that I was able to visit the team in Chile and also begin to put out “feelers” for possible new future ministries. This was also an important time since I had to complete ministry projects there for my D. Min. requirements. This unexpected blessing allowed key kingdom times, in Santiago as well as in Osorno and Puerto Montt. It was good to see how well the Frites and Senters are doing and to encourage them. The Aguileras in Puerto Montt are very eager for us to start a new work there. Since God has blessed the Five Love Languages seminar in the region, the team will begin with that soon. Please pray for them in this venture.
As far as the family is concerned, the biggest news is that our youngest son Brendon got engaged to Kristi Greer, a wonderful girl who we are proud to add to the fold of the “Van Clan”. Their wedding date is set for August 2 this year. We are looking forward to Stephanie’s mom coming over to join us for this happy occasion.
Thank you to all our supporters who through prayer and finances enable us by the Lord’s grace to remain ministering His goodness to others.
Together for Jesus,
Johan (on behalf of the rest of the team)
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