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

News-n-stuff

Restart drugs prevention work at schools

Four weeks ago we announced project minivan Restart, Serbia on this weblog. Restart is a non profit organization with the mission to raise awareness about the dangers of addiction and to help addicts and former addicts and their families.They are in need of a minivan for their outreach and prevention work.

The founders Boris & Jelena were heroine addicts for many years until they came to know the love and grace of Jesus Christ in the Teen Challenge program in Serbia. The doctors gave them no hope to become pregnant. But with God all things are possible! They have a healthy baby girl!

In the previous weeks about 3,000 euro came in towards this project. Thank you very much for your quick and generous response. We would love to donate 3,500 euro for the purchase of a minivan. We trust the last bit will come in soon. Boris is looking out for a suitable vehicle.

Jim & Lynda Hayes

Next Friday Jim & Lynda Hayes will be heading for Amsterdam for project Homeless Honeymoon. They will be roaming the streets for a few days, as many homeless people do, and raise awareness about the work among the poor and addicted.

The proceeds of their fundraiser will go towards the work of Teen Challenge in Slovenia. We have already received more than 1,200 euro! You can still sponsor Jim & Lynda by sending your gift to St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U. Make sure to mention: HONEYMOON.

The telephone keeps ringing and emails and FB messages keep coming in at Traveling Light. We have direct and personal contact with the people behind all of our projects. We currently have some projects lined up for next month, for example:

• Half marathon Etten-Leur fundraiser for Bertina House in Donetsk, Ukraine. The women and children in this Teen Challenge rehabilitation home had to leave everything behind, because of the war. They are looking for a new home in a safer location. Big need!
• Project winter fuel for Teen Challenge rehabilitation and crisis center Winiarczykowka in Poland.
• Project Beit Hallel Messianic congregation in Ashdod, Israel. In October they will start an Alpha course again!

Women & children Bertina House

And these are only a few of the upcoming projects. As always: small scale, direct, practical and personal help. Without your prayers and financial support we would not be able to take on so many projects. Keep an eye on this blog and/or our Facebook Page.

We count on your support!

Veggies and spiritual food

Happy sailors with their new Bibles

Below you will find a thank you note from seafarer's  evangelist Guus Peters, which shows that practical help will result in spiritual blessings.

"Again, thank you very much for your generous donation towards the sailors on board of the ships that are being held in the port of Gent, Belgium.

There is good news: seventeen of the twenty-two crew members have been able to go home with their salaries. Christian Roos from ITF (International Transport Workers Federation), which is the international union of seafarers, has done a great job. There are five more man still on board of the two ships. The owner of the ships has been put under a lot of pressure, also to provide food for the men.

I want to thank you very much on behalf of the sailors and my dear colleague Ann van der Sijpt from Stella Maris in Gent for your fantastic help.

There is also spiritual fruit: Three of the sailors wanted to know more about the gospel and I was able to explain several things and handed them Bibles in the Russian language."

Work week Italy 2014

Working hard and always smiling

As we did last year, Traveling Light again organized a work week in Italy. Offering practical help with a group of volunteers in Communita Brezzano, a Christian Therapeutic community in beautiful Tuscany.

[click on the pictures for an enlargement]

Camfire

Communita Brezzano consists of three old Tuscan homes in the mountains. Maria Meier (a German widow who has been in charge of the community for many years) lives in one of the houses and receives women with emotional, psychological or addiction problems.

Her long-time helper Boris lives in one of the other houses and receives men with similar problems. The third house, Casa Shalom, is being rented out as vacation or groups home, which brings in some income to keep the work going. We rented Casa Shalom for a week.

pizza from the wood oven

Each day the guys disappeared into the woods to cut trees and chop wood. They did a tremendous amount of work and stacked enough wood for the upcoming winter in the cellar of the men's home. A very labor intensive job, that would cost Boris weeks and weeks to accomplish.

All three houses are being heated through wood heaters, and so they need a huge supply to survive the cold months. Thanks to the help of David, Jan, Menno, Nick and Teun this job was done in several days. Thumbs up for our faithful volunteers!

The theme for this week was 'spiritual warfare', we did Bible studies on this subject every night. Those were precious evenings, sitting together talking, praying, discussing, and singing songs. Teun brought his guitar and was leading the group each night in worship. He did an awesome job!

Sunday brunch with Maria and Boris

Thank you very much David, Menno, Nick and Teun for your endless energy, humor and enthusiasm. Together we were able to let our light shine in Italy and it is our prayer that our time given will bring forth much fruit in the lives of the people there, as well as in our own lives.

It is indeed so much better to give than to receive.

Check out our photo album on Facebook.