Project and travel updates

September went by so quickly, have you experienced that as well? So, let's take time for some updates.

The September proceeds in our secondhand shops Twinkeltje and De Schor, together with several specified donations, were almost 2,000 euros.

We will double that amount and transfer a love gift of 4,000 euros to benefit the work of Teen Challenge in the rehab houses in Berdichev, Ukraine. A huge thanks to everyone who made this possible.

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In August we donated 3,000 euros to Teen Challenge in Iceland for their outreach and coffee house work among addicts and homeless people. They had been saving up for a long time for a 7-seater car with which they could pick up these people to take them to church and Group Studies, among other things.

And yes, we received a message that a car could be purchased thanks in part to this gift! Very nice.

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Last week we (Jan and Marja) visited Teen Challenge in Bucharest, Romania. A report about that visit with some more photos will follow soon. It was very encouraging, both for them and for us!

We stayed in the rehab center for men and also visited the women's house and the church.

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The project for October in Twinkeltje and the Schor is the work of Teen Challenge in Lebanon. Due to the ongoing war with Hezbollah, many people in South Lebanon, as in Northern Israel, have been driven from their homes. Garo Margossian of Teen Challenge offers humanitarian aid (food, water, medicine, etc.) where possible.

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Donations, large and small, are always welcome. You can send your gift in different ways:

💛Send a donation to St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U and make sure to mention country/project or general.

💳 Give by card

👉You can also donate directly via our website!

Visit to Teen Challenge Czech Republic

Last weekend we (Jan and Marja) visited the Teen Challenge men's center in Sluknov, Czech Republic.

The center offers space for about 12-15 men who struggle with addictions. It is a beautiful old country house with lots of land around it. The house has a shared kitchen, study room, and large vegetable garden.

Friday morning and evening we had the opportunity to talk with the men in the program about Biblical principles and truths, especially when it comes to using our talent(s) for God.

There was also time and opportunity for personal conversations and prayer. And all that with the patient help of Martin, our interpreter.

Saturday we drove to the TC rehab center in Poštovice (near Prague) for the wedding of our friend Jaroslav Jasso, whom we have known for several years from visits and conferences.

He and his wife Marcelka are Teen Challenge graduates and are now working as staff members. It was great to see them like this, at the beginning of a new phase in their lives. God is good!

You may wonder if it makes sense to put time, effort, and money towards the rehabilitation and discipleship of addicts, criminals, the homeless, and people with all kinds of problems. Our answer is YES.

God changes people's lives, every day! There is always hope, even if a situation seems hopeless. And it is our desire to see more and more people change by the grace of God and become useful participants in society.

As Traveling Light, we want to encourage, inspire, bring hope, and offer simple Bible teaching that they can use in everyday life!

If you have a heart for offering a new beginning to men and women who thought there was no hope for them, then...

💛Send a donation to St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U and make sure to mention TC CZECH.

💳 Give by card

👉Or donate directly via our website!

Project Teen Challenge rehab centers Berdichyv, Ukraine

As we reported in a previous post, the project for our secondhand shops Twinkeltje and de Schor for the month of September is the work of our friends Sergey & Irina Romanenko from Teen Challenge in Berdichyv, Ukraine.

It is very encouraging for us to see and hear that the work in the various men's and women's rehab centers continues, despite the challenges of an ongoing war.

Many have recently completed the rehabilitation program, which is always a reason to celebrate. Most of them walk in depressed, addicted, and distraught. They are in the center for about twelve months, reading the Bible, following group studies, and learning to live again. Sergey wrote to us about this (his daughter-in-law translates for us in English):

"Shalom, dear friends, I want to share news from the rehab centers. God is alive, amen! We have good news, thirteen students have successfully completed the program, eleven of them have made a covenant with God (Twila, the baptism).

God is working in Ukraine and saving people who were on the way to death. New spiritual leaders are rising up in the centers. Three students have been called up for the army. We pray for them and maintain relationships."

How nice to hear they continue, with unstoppable passion, to help people overcome their addictions and traumas and start a new life with Jesus Christ.

There is, of course, always a need for financial support. To make repairs and build expansions, to buy beds and food and furniture, to renovate the kitchen etc. etc. We have been supporting them for years and will continue to do so.

If you want to help bring joy and good news to those who are helpless and hopeless in Ukraine, make a donation and in a joint effort we will disciple the nations! See, what happy faces that will produce 😁You can send your gift in different ways:

💛Send a donation to St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U and make sure to mention TC UKRAINE BERDICHYV

💳 Give by card

👉You can also donate directly via our website!

Press, projects, and activities

Hopefully, you all had a nice summer vacation time, wherever you went and whatever you did.

Our friends Krijn and Cora Donk have been in Kazakhstan and visited the juvenile home of Teen Challenge, the rehab centers and the church in Almaty. Of course, we will share more about that in an upcoming post.

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On Thursday, September 5th, we will partake in the 'Lukassen & Boer sponsor run' again (as we do each year) with an enthusiastic group of hikers and runners. This event will bring in cash for Traveling Light.

During the event you run a maximum of two (if you are younger than 15 years old) or a maximum of four (if you are 15 years old or older) rounds through sports park Oostpolder in Papendrecht. One round is about 2.5 kilometers long. You can run or walk. Each round you run is good for 2 euros.

The youth will start at 6:30 PM and the adults at 7:30 PM. Start at AV Passaat's athletics track, Andoornlaan 38. Hopefully, we'll see you there. We have entrance cards!

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A comprehensive and favorable article about the missionary work of Traveling Light appeared in the VVP Magazine (the magazine of AG Churches in Belgium). It is great that we can also (hopefully) become better known in the Flemish-speaking part of Belgium in this way.

We are always grateful for opportunities to tell a little more about our work. We would also like to come to your church by invitation, to inspire you!

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We are still raising money for the prison work in Albania. If you would like to make a donation for that, you can always do so!

The project for our shops/coffee house Twinkeltje and the Schor in September is the work of our friends Sergey & Irina Romanenko from Teen Challenge. All proceeds will go towards their work. It is amazing what they and their team are doing in these difficult times among addicts and traumatized people in Berdichev, Ukraine.

Recently, many have successfully completed the rehabilitation program and that is always a reason to celebrate. More about that in one of the next blog posts.

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Donations, large and small, are always welcome. You can send your gift in different ways:

💛Send a donation to St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U and make sure to mention country/project/general.

💳 Give by card

👉You can also donate directly via our website!

Project prisonwork Shkbsk, Albania

As most of you know, we have been in contact with the Teen Challenge team in Albania for years. Jan has visited the country several times. We hope to go together later this year.

During his visits, Jan also came into contact with Fred Westerink who has been living and working in Albania with his wife since 2008. Fred is the director of Shkbsh Prison Fellowship Albania.

The organization has been around for 22 years and they are now active in 20 prisons and also help hundreds of children and families of prisoners. All in close cooperation with local churches. The team consists of 25 people, half of them full-time, the other half part-time.

Fred wrote to us a while ago with a request for financial support for their project 'Chaplains bringing Hope'.

The tasks of the Shkbsh chaplains are clear: Share the gospel with as many prisoners and their families as possible, and involve the local church in this forgotten and often marginalized group of people.

The prison chaplains are Albert, a chaplain with his workplace in Korca, Arber (himself a former prisoner) who is active in the prisons in Durres and Rrogozhine, and Zamira, who works in the prison hospital in Tirana among female prisoners with mental problems.

The government does not support spiritual aid in any way. Unfortunately, this is a remnant of the post-communism era, when the first democratic government decided that each religious community had to arrange for itself how and where it wanted to organize its aid programs.

In recent years it has become increasingly difficult to pay the chaplains, partly due to the devaluation of the euro against the Albanian lek.

As Traveling Light, we are involved in prison work in the Netherlands and we know how important sharing the Gospel is in the rehabilitation process of prisoners.

We would therefore like to help Prison Fellowship Albania with a nice amount so that their chaplains can continue to do the work. Would you consider sowing a financial seed?

Donations, large and small, are always welcome. You can send your gift in different ways:

💛Send a donation to St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U and make sure to mention PRISONWORK ALBANIA

💳 Give by card

👉You can also donate directly via our website!

Travel and project updates

Oh, how quickly time flies. It seems like only a while ago that we were in Iceland. But Jan has now also been to Germany, Slovenija, and Croatia... on his motorcycle this time.

On June 18th, he left after work heading for Slovenija. Together with the staff and students from the drug and alcohol rehab center of Teen Challenge, they drove in a van to Croatia for Čuvar Brata Svoga or the 'My Brother's Keeper' conference.

It was already the eleventh time that Traveling Light participated in this conference. It is an active weekend for men from all Balkan countries (former Yugoslavia) in which reconciliation, forgiveness, unity, and spiritual growth are central themes.

Also this year, a number of men from the TC program in Slovenija surrendered their lives to Jesus! 💓 Reason for great gratitude and joy, of course!

After the conference, Jan stayed, as usual, an extra day at the TC center in Slovenija to teach the Bible, pray with the men, work on cars, and receive prayer!

On the way home, Jan stopped by the former Teen Challenge rehab center Gutes Land in Germany. We have visited there many times over the years. It is our prayer that the farm will be used for this purpose again.

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Thanks to your fantastic support, we have now been able to transfer generous donations to:

• CIC MIssion guesthouse in Georgia (4,000 euro)
• Outreach and coffee house work The Bridge in Macedonia (2,000 euro)
• International rehab center Teen Challenge in Georgia (4,000 euro) and
• The work of Roma Ministry International and YWAM in Bulgaria (1,500 euro)

We sometimes call that a tour of Europe 😁 How wonderful it is to be part of the great commission that Jesus gave us: Go, and make disciples of ALL nations!

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For the month of July, the project in our secondhand and vintage shops is the work of Teen Challenge in Iceland. We are closed in August!

The next projects we want to support are the TOV house in the Netherlands, the work of Teen Challenge in Kazakhstan and in Berdichev, Ukraine. More about that soon.

We are always happy with your donations to support all these wonderful projects and programs. You can send a donation in different ways:

• 💛Send a donation to St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U and make sure to mention which project or country
• 💳 Give by card
• 👉You can also donate directly via our website!
• 👉When in the USA, make your tax-deductible gift payable to EEO Inc. Make sure to mention which Teen Challenge center in Europe you want to support.

Visit to Teen Challenge Iceland

We (Jan and Marja) went to visit and encourage Teen Challenge in Iceland from June 7-10. It was the first time they organized a conference and we were invited to speak there.

TC Iceland does not (yet) have a rehab center, but it is possible for people who struggle with addictions and want to get rid of them to follow a day program.

We were already aware of this through the meetings with Katrinn, who started the Bible studies for this group of people a few years ago. We already donated the proceeds from our shop Twinkeltje in December 2020 for the benefit of that work.

The group lessons for New Life from Teen Challenge are used in the day program. Yes, the same lessons we are currently using in our hometown Papendrecht with a group (Highly recommended for your church or home group of new believers).

Jóhann and Svava were our hosts during these days. Svava is now the director of Teen Challenge Iceland and during the Europe Teen Challenge conference in Warsaw, last May, we agreed to come and visit them.

They looked after us very well and also showed us beautiful tourist highlights. We enjoyed it, even though it was a very busy weekend.

Friday evening we went straight from the airport in Reykjavik to Vegurinn church where they can use the coffee room for studies and meetings.

The TC team regularly takes it to the streets to talk with addicts and invite them to the 'coffee house' and participate in the group lessons.

It is very encouraging to hear the testimonies of those who have accepted Jesus into their lives and the changes they have gone through. It's not just about addicts, by the way. We also heard testimonies from (young) people who came to to Jesus from New Age and Satanism. Oh, that gives so much HOPE!

👉On Saturday we spoke during a morning, afternoon and evening session about the importance of knowing and communicating with the Holy Spirit. We received many grateful responses to our simple and practical teaching.

Sunday morning we went to a church in Selfossi where Svava spoke. We were asked to invite the Holy Spirit to speak through people so that they could encourage and build each other up!

If you are ever in Iceland, there are plenty of churches you can go to!

We were extremely encouraged by the stories and people we met in this remote country where addiction is a major problem. There is a hunger for the truth, people are open to the gospel and God is working... always and everywhere!

We should remember that Jesus sends His followers to the ends of the earth with the assignment to make all nations His disciples 💓. What a blessing to be part of that.

If you also want to sow seeds in the fertile soil of the Teen Challenge work among the hopeless and desperate in Iceland...

Then send a donation in one of the following ways:

• 💛Send a donation to St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U and make sure to mention TC ICELAND
• 💳 Give by card
• 👉You can also donate directly via our website!
• 👉When in the USA, make your tax-deductible gift payable to EEO Inc. Make sure to mention TC ICELAND.

They are currently raising funds to purchase a van with which they can transport students to and from church services, Bible studies, and meetings.

Travel and project updates

Last week we (Jan and Marja) attended, on behalf of Europe Teen Challenge, an official event in the Kreuzkirche in Ergolding, Germany.

Our friends Dirk and Meike Hellmann received an honorary prize from the Sinn statt Sucht foundation as an appreciation for their years of work among the addicted.

For more than 28 years, they opened their hearts and home in Gutes Land, a farmhouse in the countryside of southern Germany, to men with addiction problems. The work was part of Teen Challenge Germany.

We have visited them several times over the years and always received a warm welcome. We were also given the opportunity to encourage and teach the men from the Bible.

Dirk has been battling bone cancer for a number of years now. It was therefore good to spend time together, pray with each other, and encourage them.

Gutes Land is currently no longer a rehab center, but who knows, maybe that will happen again in the future.

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In April we sent a donation to the Teen Challenge drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Zaporozhye, Ukraine. We previously helped them with a donation for the purchase of a generator and heaters.

The staff and students had come up with the idea of ​​starting a cleaning company and using the income to open a coffee house.

With our donation, they were able to purchase various professional vacuum and pressure cleaners which they will use to clean out the stairwells of apartment complexes.

We like such practical ideas to generate income. And to rent space for a coffee house where they can reach more people is always a good idea! Moreover, working is part of the therapy. We wish them many blessings.

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Our friends from the Teen Challenge rehab centers in Berdychiv, Ukraine, are busy renovating, expanding, and refurbishing the men's and women's centers.

Partly thanks to support from Traveling Light, they were able to thoroughly renovate the kitchen in the men's home (where we have been several times). It looks beautiful and the extension creates much more space!

(In the photo at the top the old situation and below the new situation. Click on the photo to enlarge.)

The floor in the women's center has been partly replaced and cabinets were purchased and installed, much to the delight of the mothers and children who live there.

Despite the challenges, difficulties, and frustrations the war brings, the team continues to do their work. They see often that pain and loss bring people to the feet of  Jesus where there is healing and restoration.

In addition to the spiritual encouragement we provide during our visits, we can also provide financial support thanks to your help. We love combining the spiritual with the practical!

We also love to provide you with regular updates about our visits and the projects we support. This way you will stay informed.

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We are always happy with your donations to support all these wonderful projects and programs. You can send a donation in different ways:

• 💛Send a donation to St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U and make sure to mention which project or country
• 💳 Give by card
• 👉You can also donate directly via our website!
• 👉When in the USA, make your tax-deductible gift payable to EEO Inc. Make sure to mention which Teen Challenge center in Europe you want to support.

Project guesthouse CIC Mission, Georgia

In our previous newsblog we wrote about the work of Teen Challenge in Georgia. As most of you know, we also support the work of CIC Mission in Georgia.

Throughout the years, we have supported the work of founder Reza Nadirashvili several times with financial donations and visits (Krijn and Cora were there in the summer of 2022).

Reza has a Muslim background and is originally from Iran. He has a heart for reaching and teaching fellow countrymen and he founded a training center (Bible school and practical vocational school in one).

The accompanying farm provides employment to students and people from the village and partly provides income to run the school. The farm has expanded enormously in recent years!

Currently, funds are needed to complete a guest house where key leaders from surrounding countries can stay during their training at the Bible school.

👉We hope you understand that all information about such projects is sensitive and we cannot and should not share too much about it on social media.

But that does not change the fact that we would once again like to help Reza with a gift to complete this guesthouse so people can come and feel welcome.

You can (indirectly) help to disciple the nations by sending a gift to St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U, make sure to mention CIC MISSION.

USA supporters: CIC Mission is considered an approved 501c3 by the US government, so tax-deductible receipts can be provided.

👉You can also donate directly via our website!

Thank you in advance for your generosity.

Project international rehab center Tbilisi, Georgia

During the last Europe Teen Challenge conference in Warsaw, we were also able to catch up with our dear friends Kuanish and Mada Akkuzova, the directors of Teen Challenge in Georgia.

Over the years, we have supported their work in various ways, with donations, with visits (Krijn and Cora were there in the summer of 2022), and with online encouragement.

Teen Challenge Georgia staff and volunteers run a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center for men and one for women in Tbilisi. Kuanish & Mada are also pastors of an active and vibrant church and Sunday school in Tbilisi.

They also do street work and are actively involved in children's work in refugee camps.

The two are originally from Kazakhstan. Kuanish has a Muslim background and overcame his addictions in a Teen Challenge center there. This is how he also came to know the Lord!

For the last two and half years they have been busy completing and setting up a large International rehab center for Muslims with addictions, from surrounding countries. We have seen the very beginning of that center. A lot has already happened.

The facility is a 4-story building. The 4th floor is renovated and furnished. This floor is occupied by the men's rehab for Georgians. The 2nd floor, where guest rooms are located, is currently being used as a mission school for Chinese believers, who will be sent out to Muslim countries in the Middle East.

The first floor has been completed for 80% and will be used for the church auditorium. This coming Sunday will be the first service. The current auditorium has become too small. 

The renovation on the 3rd floor is finished. This floor can accommodate about twenty people and it is there, that they want to offer help to men from Iran and Azerbaijan, among others.

Current need: furnishing of the 3rd floor which includes a studio for workers, four dormitory rooms for rehab students, and a classroom. 

The demand for Christian help is great! It is so beautiful that God wants to reach all nations and all peoples with His love and grace. And yes, sometimes this is done through rehab centers 😁

If you would like to make a donation, you can do so in different ways:

• 💛Send a donation to St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U and make sure to mention TC Georgia
• 💳 Give by card
• 💡You can also donate directly via our website!
• 👉When in the USA, make your tax-deductible gift payable to EEO Inc. Make sure to mention TC Georgia.