Meetings at the Europe Teen Challenge Conference in Albania

In our previous news post, we already mentioned the meetings we had during the Europe Teen Challenge conference in Albania earlier this month. We would like to go back to that, briefly. Especially because those meetings are so important in the support and encouragement we provide.

On behalf of Traveling Light, we maintain international contacts in more than thirty countries in Europe. We do this via email, social media, and (preferably) in person.

Meetings are precious, like with Orges & Blerina Hysenaj, the directors of the Teen Challenge program in Albania. We have known them for years and have a good relationship.

They now run two rehab centers, a church, and a coffee house. Furthermore, they also organize special evenings for family members of the men who are in rehab.

Last week, they held a baptism celebration. What a wonderful fruit of their work. Yes, it is God who changes people's lives, but that does not happen automatically. He makes use of believers who share the gospel with those who have never heard it! We are grateful for what God is doing in Albania!

Furthermore, we had time to catch up with Sergey & Irina Romanenko from Ukraine. They are the directors of the rehab centers in Berdychiv.

Together with one of their daughters and their daughter-in-law, they spent twenty (!) hours on a Flixbus to Warsaw to catch a plane to Tirana from there.

Despite the tragedy of the ongoing war, they remain in high spirits and trust that better times will come. The rehab centers are full, and there is an enormous amount of work to be done, especially among soldiers returning from the front traumatized (and addicted).

They have made a beautiful promotional video about their work. Watch it via this LINK. We have been supporting that work for years. 👉The work in Berdychiv will be the project of the month for June in our secondhand stores Twinkeltje and de Schor.

It was also nice to catch up with Niklas & Heidi Furu, the directors of Teen Challenge Finland. A visit to them has been on our to-do list for a while! It is amazing what they are doing in terms of street and coffee house work and evangelism to reach people with the gospel.

And of course, we spent time with Kuanish & Mada Akkuzova, the directors of Teen Challenge Georgia. It is always good to hear what is going on there. We were there for a week, last September.

And furthermore:

• Teen Challenge Iceland will soon open its first women's house.
• Teen Challenge Romania recently opened a new rehab center in Baia Mare.
• Teen Challenge Sweden has a chance to open a rehab in northern Sweden.
• Teen Challenge Denmark is going to open a location in Roskilde.

We hope to visit the Teen Challenge programs in Belgium, Slovenia, and Lithuania in June. As you can see... there is a lot going on! That requires prayer, work, finances, and good relationships.

How wonderful that we can continue to support the life-changing ministries in so many countries, thanks to your generous donations.

If you have a heart for the supporting work we do, you can send a donation in different ways:

💛Send your financial gift to St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U.

💳 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 TRAVELING LIGHT.

Travels in Italy

For the past 7 or 8 years we have organized workweeks in Italy. With a group of volunteers we would stay in Casa Shalom, the guesthouse of Comunita Brezzano.

Unfortunately, we did not succeed in getting a group together this year. Nevertheless, we (Jan and Marja) decided to go to Italy and visit a number of people within our network. Perhaps, encouragement is more needed than ever before!

We first went to visit Francesca Spataro who translates Marja's books into Italian. We listened, talked, laughed, and prayed together. Very nice. Nel mio Nome is now available online through the distributor as well as in Italian bookstores. 

Then, we drove on to Comunita Brezzano in beautiful Tuscany, where we spent some delightful days. We did some small jobs, but mainly talked with and listened to our friend Maria Meier who runs the community.

The Italians went through a lot this year and many conversations are about the pain their nation is experiencing.

Marja also wrote the first (draft) chapters for a new book in the series about the Ten Commandments in the 21st century.

Years ago, Traveling Light made a donation for the completion of the jam kitchen in the Comunita. Maria is always inventing new recipes: fig and grape jam with cashew nuts. The jam is mainly sold in Switzerland.

And finally, we spent time on the east coast of Italy with Roberta Rapezzi (see picture below). We have known her for years from the Teen Challenge conferences where she is always working as an interpreter. She is a proofreader of Marja's Italian books. It was very good to meet and spend time together.

We realized again, more than ever, that the 💓 of Traveling Light is a spiritual ministry. Meet people, keep in touch, talk, listen, pray, and above all encourage ... whenever and wherever!

And yes, financial support of course. After all, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Donations are always welcome at St. Traveling Light in Papendrecht, IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U. We are currently raising funds for Teen Challenge in Austria.

Switzerland added to our network

During work week 2018

We promised to write a short report about our recent visit to Switzerland. At the end of May we (Jan and Marja) drove to Zurich.

We had received an invitation to be present at the annual meeting of Comunita Brezzano. We have supported this ministry for years through our work weeks in their therapeutic community in Italy and also with financial donations for the construction and maintenance of the shelter homes that our good friend Maria Meier is running there.

The wonderful thing was that we were asked to give a presentation about the work of Traveling Light. How cool is that? We are happy to travel for that reason alone.

Members of the Comunita Brezzano Foundation

We were warmly welcomed by Corina Schmidt who works among the homeless and addicted in Zurich. We stayed at her home the first night and enjoyed a delicious sabbath meal together. Sharing life, sharing meals... a great way to get to know each other 😊

The annual meeting was a party in itself, because everyone had brought good food ... organic and vegetarian! We gave a presentation about the projects we support in the various countries of Europe and 👉we were able to share a lot about the work of Teen Challenge and everything God is doing in countries all over Europe.

prayer room

Our book table

Our story was a huge encouragement for the Swiss ... to know that, no matter how small your organization is, we are all part of something much bigger! Every human life that changes counts.

They even did an offering for Traveling Light and collected almost 1500 euro, which of course fully benefits the various projects we support.

We were then invited by Werner & Heidi Dellapiazza to go home with them for the rest of the weekend. We talked a lot, shared meals, walked, prayed, even played games. Quite delightful, especially when you consider that we had never met these people before. We felt connected right away.

Looking over Buchs with Werner and Heidi

Werner and Heidi lead prayer movements in Switzerland. In their house there is also a 24-hour prayer room where everyone can go (the door is always open) to seek silence and to pray for Israel. It was very inspiring for us to see and hear that in Switzerland people are seriously working out their faith and that they have a heart for the nations.

PS: At the end of August we will go to Italy again for a work week. If you want to come along, please contact us.

Donations for all our awesome projects are always welcome at St. Traveling Light in Papendrecht, IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U.

Treasures in heaven...

This coming April Traveling Light will celebrate her 5th anniversary. A relatively short period in which a lot has happened. Praise the Lord!

What started as a simple initiative of two people has become

• a vibrant network covering over twenty countries,
• hundreds of projects supported,
• a wonderful team of volunteers and
• a group of faithful supporters

Treasurer Martin DeHaas writes in the financial year report over 2015:

"We can look back at 2015 as a year of growth. The income rose by over 13% compared to 2014 as more than 59,000 euro in donations came in. With all that money we were able to support 29 projects for a total of more than 58,000 euro, an increase of almost 10% compared to 2014.

All the gifts that came in have found a good destination. I find it remarkable that we can do all that at minimal costs. Only the bank charges are being paid out of the gifts coming in. This year that was less than 0.5% of revenues. All other costs are being paid out of pocket.

For the coming year it is my prayer that we can again support a large number of projects and that we will see a continuation of the upward trend of income and expenditure."

We would like to thank everyone who has worked in any way to facilitate this growth. Without your time, attention, prayers, gifts and enthusiasm we would not exist. We certainly speak these words on behalf of the hundreds, if not thousands, of people we have helped on their way to a better life.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

[Matthew 6: 19-21]

We certainly don't mind if you share this positive news with as many people as you can :)

People, projects, programs...

Go into the world...

On this blog we often write about projects and programs, but ultimately it is always about people. The people behind the projects. The people in the programs. The people of the initiatives and ideas. The people we want to encourage.

We try as much as possible to build good relationships with them ... As a matter of fact, every project is essentially the beginning or the continuation of a friendship!

With Miki & Suzana Kamberovic

Sometimes we do not have to travel far to maintain those relationships, sometimes we just meet each other on Dutch soil :) This happened several times in recent months ...

In October we had an inspiring meeting with Miki & Suzana Kamberovic from Serbia. They are the leaders of a Roma church and school. We talked, shared ideas, prayed together and agreed to help them with a winter project. We donated a portion of the proceeds of the winter fair for the purchase of a good heater in their new kids' club.

With Boris & Jelena Strbac

A few weeks later we had a pleasant meeting with Boris and Jelena Strbac, also from Serbia. They are the founders of Restart, a non-profit organization dedicated to reach addicts and the homeless. They were in the Netherlands to attend a church conference and drove all the way in the beautiful Citroën they purchased with the help of Traveling Light.

We asked them about their greatest joy, their biggest frustration and their most difficult challenge. That lead to a very interesting conversation. At the end of the evening we prayed together in the Citroën!

With Janet van Boxtel

Janet van Boxtel (Embrace) from Hungary was also in the Netherlands for a few days. We went to her ministry presentation in Wemeldinge. She told about the work among the homeless and poor in Hungary and also about the difficult, but beautiful contacts with the many refugees.

We prayed together, we laughed and talked. We could tell that spending some time with her Dutch friends and supporters encouraged her. On December 23rd they organized a meal for 300 homeless people in Hungary. A very special event!

With Maria Meier

Last week we drove to Aachen (well, that is Germany, but close to the Netherlands alright) for a meeting with Maria Meier from Comunita Brezzano in Italy. We have known Maria for some years now. She leads a therapeutic residential community in Tuscany. In 2013 and 2014 we organized a work week in Tuscany with a group of youngsters from our church.

At the beginning of 2016 you will see Maria again on this blog. We will help her to fundraise for roof repairs on one of the old Tuscan houses.

Meeting up with people, inspiring and encouraging them ... perhaps the most important aspects of the work of Traveling Light, even more so than the money we obtain through fundraising.

There are many small-scale initiatives (read: charities) all over Europe. From time to time the people running those programs and non-profits feel somewhat alone in their struggles. That is exactly why, in addition to offering financial support, we invest in friendships.

[Click on the photos to enlarge.]