Events & year report 2017

Free market Kingsday 2018

On April 27th we celebrate King's Day in The Netherlands, it is the birthday of our king Willem Alexander van Oranje. It is a public holiday with lots of festivities going on everywhere.  Our stall at the free market was busy all day long. Thank you to everyone who came by for a visit. We sold secondhand stuff for 300 euro.

That amount will be fully added to the revenue of our 2nd hand shop Twinkeltje this month. The project of the month is Teen Challenge Winiarczykowka, Poland. This is a home where the elderly and lonely can live safely and work on the farm.

Making cupcakes

Earlier this week we were pleasantly surprised by a gift of 250 euro from our church the Hoeksteen in Etten-Leur. The children made cupcakes and sold them last Sunday. This amount will fully benefit the work of Brian Slater in Israel. His organization Abundant Bread of Salvation helps the elderly, single people and immigrants in Netanya.

Last week Jan visited the rehabilitation centers of Teen Challenge in Latvia. Wonderful work is being done there! The adventure continues, more about this on our blog soon.

Our annual (financial) report 2017 is short and simple... and in in Dutch only (sorry). But we can quickly share the results: 12 countries visited and over 58,000 euro donated to more than 25 small-scale projects. Yes! Click HERE for the annual report.

Gifts (large & small) for the various projects are always welcome! We are currently collecting funds for project church kitchen Navazi in Georgia. Make your gifts payable to IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U St. Traveling Light in Papendrecht.

Runners in action for Bertine House, Ukraine

Crazy, sportive, good and fun activities in order to raise funds for small scale, practical projects... that's exactly what we LOVE to do at Traveling Light.

On October 26th the marathon of Etten-Leur will take place in The Netherlands and some wonderful brothers from our church have decided to run as a fundraiser for Bertine House in Ukraine.

Bertine House is a rehabilitation home for mothers and their children in Donetsk, founded by Magne & Olga Gulbrandsen. We know them from several conferences. Bertine House is a beautiful and big house with plenty of room to play.

Bertine House in Donetsk

A few weeks ago the women and children had to leave their home in Donetsk due to the current war situation in that area. They were happy to find temporary shelter in a home in Poltova (which is about halfway between Donetsk and Kiev).

They are now desperately looking for a decent place to live in Poltava, a place big enough for everyone (women, children, staff and volunteers). The current house in Poltava does not have proper sanitary services for so many people and does not have enough room for everyone.

Bertine House gang :)

We love to help them by raising funds which will be used to buy or rent a good house! The children are often traumatized because they grew up with addicted moms (thank God they are clean now) and the current war situation adds even more to that.

Gotta be creative

We want to see the children (and their mothers) in a safe environment. This is a practical project with direct contacts, the money will go straight to the project, nothing will stay behind. Also, Bertine House is part of Teen Challenge Ukraine, which we have good contacts with.

Temporary home

Thomas van Dartel (5 km), Erik Slobben (21 km), André van Slooten (21 km) en Jan Verschoor (21 km) will run to give these women and children a home. You can sponsor them by giving a donation per kilometer and/or per person or by donating a certain amount for finishing the race or by giving a general amount. Everything helps!

ALL donations are welcome. Send your gifts to St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht, IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U. Make sure to mention: BERTINE.

They really need a good and safe place to live. Will you help us to make it possible to find that place?

PS: Click on the pictures for an enlargement

Project la Rocca Ministries, Italy

Pastor Mark & Denien King

Project Teen Challenge Tbilisi, Georgia is going full throttle, we have already received more than 1,200 euro! This gives us great joy, thank you all. Besides the current project in Georgia we want to inform you about a project that is being organized by the youth of the Hoeksteen church in Etten-Leur and for which they will be traveling to Italy later this month.

From July 22-28 a group of about twenty young people (age 12-25) will travel to Northern Italy. They will go and help to fix up and repair the building/grounds of La Rocca Ministries in Asti. La Rocca is the evangelical church that pastor Marc and Denien King have planted many years ago. The church meets in an industrial building, which they own (see picture below).

Building of La Rocca Ministries, Asti

Pastor Marc and Denien definitely have a heart for the weak, the homeless, the poor, the immigrants... well you name it. For anyone who cannot survive without an extra portion of loving care and support. They are always busy with food and clothes distribution. They organize great meals and help people find housing and work where needed.

We (Jan and Marja) have visited the King family on several occasions, while traveling through Italy. They are very hospitable and open their home for anyone passing by.

The Hoeksteen youth group wants to let its light shine in a practical way, and of course we want to encourage and support them. They're all busy collecting funds for the trip, which is their own responsibility.

The Youth group of the Hoeksteen church

La Rocca also needs an amount of money for tools, paint, building- and other materials, needed for the task. The youth group will work together with the folks from La Rocca. Together they can and will succeed in fixing up the building within several days.

The Hoeksteen youth group has taken the lead in organizing this mission trip. Traveling Light wants to help them collect donations which will be sent directly to La Rocca Ministries. All building materials and other necessities can be purchased locally which will give a boost to businesses in the area.

If you want to encourage this group youngsters and bless our fellow believers in Italy, you can send your donation to St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U. make sure to mention: LA ROCCA.

Project dental work Theo

HOORAY! The 5,000 euro needed for project women's home Berdichev, Ukraine came in. Fantastisc, this happened really fast. Thank you very much for all your support. We will have pictures soon! We have a wide variety of projects lined up, so let's move on...

If you have been a reader of this weblog for some time, you may have noticed that every now and then we have projects to help individual people on their road to recovery. Especially when their past has been a mess. We have helped formerly addicted people to pay for dental help and study expenses. Why do we do that as a non-profit? Because Jesus has an eye for the individual. He used to pick people from a crowd (no matter what their background was) and showed His love and grace to them.

We will stay in the Netherlands this time. We would like for you all to meet Theo. Please read below how a visit to a Christmas Eve service changed his life!

Theo grew up in a broken home and as a result of all the trouble became very violent at a young age. He was taken away from his home and placed under government care. During this time he was abused and raped and when he finally turned 18, he was looking forward to starting his own life. He was looking for happiness. When his girlfriend died in a motorcycle crash his life went down hill. As he says: "I did everything God didn't want me to do."

He got into a new relationship and married. When their daughter was born, he began to believe in happiness again. But his violent past got a hold of him and after a while he ended up in prison. His marriage fell apart and he lost contact with his daughter. When she turned 18 she contacted him again, a small light in the darkness of his life. But there was just too much pain and reproach and their relationship did not work out. Theo decided that happiness was not meant for him.

During this time he got invited to a Christmas Eve church service in The Hoeksteen Church in Etten-Leur. Theo had visited the night mass in his town, but had never been in an evangelical church. After that night he decided to visit The Hoeksteen more regularly. For the first time in his life he experienced peace (which is much more valuable than happiness). He has been coming to our church for quite some time now and slowly he is letting God heal his inner wounds.

One day we asked him whether we could help him to heal his outer 'wounds'. Theo's teeth (or, what was left of it) were a mess. God looks at the heart, but human beings will mostly look at the outside when meeting for the first time... So it was decided that Theo would go to our sister-in-law, who is a wonderful and highly experienced dentist. She has done a great job giving him advice and soon he will be able to smile again :) Traveling Light is honored to pay that part of the bill not covered by his insurance. We will need about 600 euro.

To us, this is practical Christianity: helping someone to get back on their feet and live a dignified life.

All gifts, large or small, are welcome on Rabo bank nr.

IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275

BIC: RABONL2U

My Brother's Keeper conference, Serbia

About 300 men attended the conference

Like last year we received an invitation from pastor Steve Telzerow (ICF, International Christian Fellowship) in Ljublijana, to attend a special conference: the My Brother's Keeper Conference in Beograd, Serbia. That is a church conference for men (spiritual leaders and pastors) from all Balkan nations. Traveling Light has good connections in most of these countries and it is an honor to be part of such an event. And again a volunteer, from the Hoeksteen Church in Etten-Leur, came with Jan. His name is Jim Hayes.

City centre Beograd

At first they drove to Slovenia where they slept at the Teen Challenge men's home. The next day they all left for Beograd. During the conference a group of six men was set apart (Jan being one of them) for confession purposes. Many men took the opportunity to confess their sins and to pray with a man from this group for forgiveness and healing. Wow, a wave of forgiveness, reconciliation, deliverance and healing came forth. What a blessing for Traveling Light to be able to participate, and be of service, at such an historic event, as personal and international relationships were being restored.

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him (Psalm 22:28).

Fixing the Teen Challenge moving van

At night Jan, Jim and the Teen Challenge Slovenia team went into the streets to talk with the homeless and addicts. They actually were able to take one desperate guy with them to the center in Slovenia, where he has the opportunity to start a new life, with the help of God. For Jan there was no time to relax, the Teen Challenge moving van needed repairs. The perfect job for a good mechanic, offering practical help when possible :) The blond lady in the middle is Bianca, she obviously has an eye for technical stuff and cool guys.

On the way back to Holland Jan and Jim stopped at Teen Challenge Gutes Land in Germany. There is always room for one more person there. The theme of forgiveness and reconciliation came up again during prayer and Bible study. It turned out Jim (an English men by birth) still had some unresolved anger towards the German people, deep down in his heart.

Jim & Markus, one in Jesus Christ

The Holy Spirit prompted one of the staff members of Gutes Land to do something very special and precious. Early in the morning of Wednesday June 12th, 2013 he bowed down and washed the feet of Jan and Jim. While doing that he asked the English people and the Dutch people for forgiveness on behalf of the German people. Again, a very special historic and symbolic moment, needless to say that tears flowed and emotions could no longer be kept inside. And what a confirmation that the work of Traveling Light can and will impact the nations... changing hearts, one person at the time..

He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” (Psalm 46:9-10)

If you desire to support our work in Europe... please, do so!

Make your gifts payable to:

Rabo bank nr. 1185 82 275 St. Traveling Light

IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275

BIC: RABONL2U

PS: We ALWAYS travel at our own expense. ALL gifts go towards our current projects.

Fun events

As promised a blog post about the fun events that some of our supporters organized during the last week of December. Events that brought in quite a sum of money for Project Fence Onyfrievka, Ukraine. We hope this will inspire you!

The Donk Family

On December 29th Krijn Donk celebrated his 50th birthday with a party for family and friends. He decided to place a collection bin for Traveling Light at the party. At the end of the evening they were able to donate 350 euro towards our project. Awesome, thank you very much.

Christian church De Hoeksteen in Etten-Leur (yes, yes, the church where they cut Jan's pony tail) decided to give their Christmas Eve collection to Traveling Light. They donated 850 euro towards our project for Teen Challenge Ukraine. Thank you so very much.

The Stehouwer Family

Krijn was not the only one celebrating a birthday. Arjan Stehouwer and his brother Chris Stehouwer celebrated their birthdays with an outdoor winter garden party. They also placed a collection bin for all to see, we received 488 euro towards the Onyfrievka project. Wow, what a great idea guys, thank you very much. Here's a cute picture of Arjan and his family. Chris is way too handsome to put on a blog, and besides that.. he's dating someone :)

We also received a beautiful Christmas card from our long time Californian friends, better known as the Biddle family. They emptied their pockets right before Christmas and surprised us with 300 dollars towards this project. You should have seen our faces when we opened the envelop. Thank you dear ones!

These are just some of the fun ways people have come up with in order to help us fund raise. We are happy and thankful of course with ANY gift that comes in, no matter how, whether it is 5 or 500 euro. We might as well put you all in the spot light :)

It is our goal to keep our overhead costs as low as possible, also in 2013, so your donations will actually go to the projects. In 2012 we were able to donate more than 30.000 euro and the cost for international banking was 212 euro. All other expenses and costs were paid out of private funds. 

All right, enough about numbers and money. It's all about having a generous attitude and joyful giving, which will bless everyone involved. That is our prayer for you in 2013: May the Lord bless you abundantly.

Bye bye ponytail!