Shalom beloved family in Jesus, our God & our eternal King!
Hope you are doing fine and that you all might walk in faith, obedience and grace - growing in knowing our Saviour & in making Him known, yes loving Him more & becoming more like Him :)
We are doing fine by the grace and love of our good good Father! Some very special news we have for you..... :) The Lord did bless us with the "fruit of the womb" (since about 10 days after marriage) so we are very thankful and already on half of the pregnancy! Hallelujah! What a blessing! Thinking of Psalm 127:3-4
"Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD and the fruit of the womb is His reward! As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth! HAPPY is the man that has his quiver full of them!"
We are still in Mexico! We did not know beforehand that we would stay here! We could come for just a month, in the guesthouse of friends, who actually became here as parents unto us! God is so merciful and takes such a good care of us, yes of His children!
"Cast thy burden upon the LORD and He shall sustain you! He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved!" Psalm 55:22
Pictures in / around the guesthouse:
When we arrived here, I said already to my husband that I would love to stay longer, IF the Lord would confirm us to stay... And He did, simply by making the way for us!
“How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts! My soul longs yea, even faint for the courts of the LORD! My heart and my flesh cries out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow had found an house and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young! Even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God! Blessed are they that dwell in Your house: they will be still praising You! Blessed is the man whose strength is in You! In whose heart are the ways of them. Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well, the rain also fills the pools. They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeares before God.” Psalm 84:1-7
When I met the family of the guesthouse for the first time (my husband knew them already) they told us directly that we might could rent another house. That they were just renting, less then 5 minuits from the guesthouse. And they told us we might could go in there, after that first month, if we wanted to stay... We loved to stay longer, so they let the house be prepared for us (which looked from the outside like a little shed but unto us it was a palace:) We did live 6 months in tents before, so this was more what we were used to!
"Where He guides HE provides".
They let everything be painted, fresh and white! Also the floor got repaired, electricity was fixed, water connection repaired and so on! The house needed a quick renovation, because there were coming other people in the guesthouse in 1 or 2 weeks! They bought a fridge, oven, wood stove, and brought also some of their beds, chairs and a table :) and then we moved in :):):)
My husband could work here in their coat business (as a website designer), several hours a day. This so he can pay the rent etc, but at the same time have enough time left over to be busy with heavenly things and lead the family in all righteousness. As Jesus taught us: 'My food is to DO the will of the Father' (and we want to (learn to) follow Him in everything).
I also could help in the company for a day, because they needed a female model for the advertising of the jackets. Gerard himself could be the photographer and it was very nice to work together in their company! (The pictures are already hanging in their store and are on various websites :)
Pictures in / around our new house:
In the first place we would rent this house just for some more months but after praying where Abba wanted us to serve Him (and others) we got more and more confirmed, that His will for us is (for now) to STAY! (For as long as He did beforehand decided, we always say:)
Life is different here! If we compare Mexico with Holland, then it is truly like Sodom and Gomorrah in the Netherlands, comparing with the quiet place where we now live. And here it's just back in time, way more peaceful. Boys are boys & girls are girls and they play all together and mostly outside:) We are surrounded with God-fearing people! Many people with Mennonite roots and with Biblical life style and Biblical habits! Even the grocery story plays worship music (we won't hear this in the Netherlands;) We do believe the Lord commands here His blessing, probably because there are so many praying people living arround us. (Of course there are also many dark places in Mexico). Anyway my husband thought soon that this could become a perfect kind of "home base" for us: raising children in Gods ways, so they will not know the paths we walked in our old lifes! Like God promises us very beautifully and so very encouraging in His Word:
"TRAIN up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, HE WILL NOT depart from it" Prov 22:6 ( what a promise !! and at the same time; what a responsibility do we have as parents, to TRAIN our children daily / continiously in His way and in His Word, in HIM ! )
That's our hope and desire; that Samuel and the children He gives will walk in HIS ways of righteousness & holiness and live for HIM (and not for themselves:)
Please keep on praying for us, that we will become perfect examples, for our children (and an inspiration / blessing for others) unto God's glory! Thank you very much, we appreciate your prayers more then words could tell ;)
"Confess your faults one to another & pray one for another, that you may be healed! The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man AVAILS MUCH! Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years & six months! And he prayed again & the heaven gave rain, & the earth brought forth her fruit!" James 5:16-18
We went to different churches here, to be fed by Him & share (from) Him, the Bread of Life :) We finally were guided to a small English church with about 10-12 families! We felt HOME since the very first time! Even Samuel loved it very much and happily played with his new brothers and sisters in Christ! We experienced to be fed with the meat of the Word and had got now our last confirmation, with the total peace & joy to stay (for as long the Lord wants) (It also helped me a lot to really feel home, because the first 3 months of the pregnancy I actually felt quite sick and just very pregnant! So then I was missing our old living place, family and friends more, then when arriving here. But since guided to this fellowship I felt HOME halleluYah!
* "For every one that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
But strong meat belongs to them that are of full age; even those who by reason of use have their (spiritual) "senses exercised" to: discern both good and evil!" Hebrews 5:13-14
VISIT THE POOR
One day we went to visit the poor and to give about 700 Bibles away. We went with the whole English fellowship. We had a very blessed trip, through the mountains, with a missionary family, who are serving a lot among the refugees. They are expecting there 10th child soon :) We first visited a very poor neighborhood, whereof the people lived mostly in huts (see pictures below) They lived there mostly from making and baking stones! (just like the Israliets did for farao in their time of slavery)
We knocked on there doors and asked them if we could sing some songs for them. Our brother red the Word to them in Spanish and we song Spanish worship songs together and prayed with them. We also gave them food bags and a Bible. We even met some orphans and this was most difficult. If you see them, you just want to bring them home! We did cry with them but at the same time we felt so very thankful, that we were able to do something good there, in Jesus Name, unto them! Our brother told them that God did not forget them and gave a very little girl an extra food bag. It broke my heart, please pray for them! That they will get to know the Father and protector of the orphans!
“A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, IS GOD in his holy habitation. God sets the solitary in families! He brings out those which are bound with chains! But the rebellious dwell in a dry land.” Psalm 68:5-6
So we really felt we were made for this and we are hoping to go every week or at least every month, please pray for more opportunities, we drive with others! and pray that we all will have the willingness like Christ, yes to GO wherever ànd whenever He wants! To bring Him as much glory and fruit as possible! To give Him our selves, our lives, our everything, our very best! That's really our longing, to walk much more in these works that Abba did ordain for us, yes to fulfill His will in our lives and to bring Him more glory by a total obedience unto Him!
"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto: good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them!" Eph 2:10
Pictures of the poor neighbourhood:
After visiting g the poor people, we went to the big city to bring there about 700 Bibles! This we could do very fast. The people were happy to receive the Bibles and there were not many people saying no :) The children could also help and were sharing around cookies from the bakery! They also played together and catched a dove, see picture :)
Pictures in the city (after sharing the Bibles)
This sabado we actually do hope to go again visiting the poor! We were invited by another church, to visit another poor neighborhood and to bring there blankets & burritos & Bibles! We are very much looking forward to serve there! Also we hope to bring them the gospel and are praying that we will become fisher of men, followers of Christ and might sow into the good ground of their hearts, that it might bear fruit for His holy Namesake and many come to faith and obedience, yes to repentance!
Beloved friends, we want to thank you very much for reading our newsletter and for your prayers! We do hope it blessed and encouraged you, in our Lord & Saviour Yeshua, Jesus Christ! (We by the way just did post our latest wedding pictures in our wedding blog, for those of you who are interested to see a bit more of our very blessed wedding day:)
Much love from us to you all! May hope, faith and love be multiplied unto you!
Blessings in Yeshua's Name,
Gerard, Anna, Samuel and ..... :)
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