Sponsoring summer camp Berdichev, Ukraine

Celebrating together as one!

As in previous years, next month Teen Challenge Ukraine and the Jewish Messianic congregation of pastor Sergey Romanenko are organizing a summer camp again. They are expecting about two hundred participants in Berdychiv.

The camp will be organized for men and women who are in drugs- and alcohol rehabilitation centers all over Ukraine. But also volunteers, workers, leaders, pastors, church members, children and family members are very much welcome. A joyful happening... despite the trouble currently going on in Ukraine.

Bible study

A mid week camping out, playing games, laughing, Bible study, music, food and just plain fun... too much to mention. Most of these people have never been on vacation (which can be hard to imagine if you're from a different country) and never played any games as children. Some of them have been homeless on the streets ever since they were little.

The camp will be held from June 23-27 and participation costs 16 euro (about $ 25) per person. This is a great opportunity if you want to make someone in Ukraine very happy... Financial difficulties will stop people from signing up, but for 16 euro you will make it possible for one person to go to this summer camp in Berdichev. That's awesome, isn't it? So, if you have it on your heart to help, please send 16 euro (or a multiplication) to St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U

Time for groups study

Traveling Light has good contacts with the organizers of this camp in Ukraine and we would love to help them to shine their light  in difficult situations. 

Sponsoring the summer camp is a very direct and practical way to support believers in the Ukraine from where you are!

Photo's: Victoria Moore

Support is so much more than giving a donation

Children of Saraj church in Skopje

Traveling Light supports mostly small scale projects that have been set up by local people. This also means we will always do our best to build personal relationships with the people requesting our help.

Offering help doesn't stop with a financial gift, this is actually where the projects starts.

If you have been reading this weblog for a while, you must have noticed that we try to stay in contact with the people behind the projects and that sometimes we are able to do follow-up projects; which is a great way to build long-term relationships. It also happens that we receive specified gifts from supporters who have a certain project or country on their hearts.

Making gifts for mothers day

We recently received a gift for the work of Sokrat & Lena Apostolovski among the Roma children in Skopje, Macedonia. We visited them again this past February. We love to see how they encourage the children to use their creative talents! Doing arts & crafts together may be normal for most of us and our children, but this is certainly not the case everywhere.

We also received a gift for the work in the rehabilitation home of Teen Challenge in Slovenia. We were there last month for a visit. In the picture you see us with Marjan, do you remember Marjan? He is doing well, he has a job, an apartment and he volunteers at the Dennis Griffith House in Nova Vas.

Posing for the weblog :)

We regularly receive photo's, cards, news letters, thank you notes and emails from all corners of Europe... but also requests for help. We currently have 10 projects on a waiting list! We can only promise them help if you decide to support and continue to support us.

If you still want to give a donation for project sewage treatment plant Teen Challenge in Poland, please send your donation as soon as possible to:

When in EUROPE: St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275, BIC: RABONL2U

When in USA: Eastern Europe Outreach, make sure to mention: TC Poland Winiarczykowka

Amazing grace, unending love

Men @ work in Teen Challenge Slovenia

When we talk with supporters and people interested in becoming sponsors of Traveling Light, we have noticed that it is not always clear to them what the work with addicts and homeless people really is all about.

Many of the projects we sponsor are part of the ministry of Teen Challenge and have to do with small scale rehabilitation homes for people with life controlling problems.

Last month we visited the men's home of Teen Challenge in Slovenia, and they gave this presentation. Turn up the volume and have a look for yourself!

Later this month we will be going to Teen Challenge Winiarczykowka in Poland for a few days visit!

Great kick-off project sewage treatment plant, Poland

Yes, this is what really makes us happy here at Traveling Light: within a week almost 2,500 euro came in for project sewage treatment plant, Poland.

What a great and quick response to our appeal for help. The proceeds of the Rabobank Clubkasrun and the free market at Kingsday are included in this.

In the picture on the left you can see the men at the Teen Challenge rehabilitation & crisis center in Winiarczykowka working to improve the property around the house. We sincerely hope to be able to visit Poland later this year; we're looking into possibilities to go with one or two of our volunteers.

We mentioned it on our Facebook page last week (By the way: you can access our FB page even if you do not have an account): to love the unloved, that is giving heed to the call of Jesus.

Showing love to the downcast, poor, addicted and lonely people of this world. And more than love: HOPE.

Because of your faithful (and sometimes surprising) support we are able to say YES to these wonderful projects... and to be honest, we have a waiting list right now. So, if you have a heart for this work in Poland, please send us your donation asap:

When in EUROPE: St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275, BIC: RABONL2U

When in USA: Eastern Europe Outreach, make sure to mention: TC Poland Winiarczykowka

Project sewage treatment plant Poland

Janusz & Bogusia Gornicki

Do you remember project heater Teen Challenge Poland? Well, at that time we also wrote a few lines about Janusz Gornicki who runs a rehabilitation & crisis home in the south of Poland. You can see him in the photo with his wife Bogusia.

Back in 2010 they started a Teen Challenge rehabilitation & crisis center in the south, in Winiarczykowka. Which is totally awesome, because Janusz walked through the doors of Teen Challenge Lekini years ago, struggling with addictions. Today he is a free man and dedicated to rescuing others as he once was rescued!

Loving others as God loves us

Together with Bogusia and their staff they help men who are homeless, addicted and disabled and who often live under difficult life circumstances. They offer them a home, a warm bed, food, good care and most of all love.

Most of these men are up in age and are, because of their addictions, not accepted in regular care facilities. These men experience Gods love, often for the very first time in their lives. Janusz and Bogusia have given their lives to take care of the poor, homeless and lonely ones.

The Winiarczykowka gang

Winiarczykowka also serves as a crisis center as it offers shelter for those waiting for their placement for a long-term treatment in the Teen Challenge Centre in Łękinia. There is room for 22 people (including staff) to live at the center.

Janusz emailed us (towards the end of 2013) about the problems they are having with their sewage water tank which has been wrongly installed by the previous owner of the house. It collects ground and rain water as well and fills up quickly. This means they have to pump everything out on a monthly basis, which costs them several hundred euro's every month!

Emptying the current tank

They rather use this money for the day to day operations of the center. Just imagine how much is needed for 22 people every day: food, clothing, study materials, utilities, everything. The centers depends on donations and on the creativity of a few ladies, just take a look HERE and see what beautiful things they make. The sales of such artwork brings in some money as well.

The installation of a new sewage treatment plant is a big investment for the center, about 11,000 euro. They have collected part of it and still need 7,000 euro before the contractor can start the work. Traveling Light really wants to help Janusz and Bogusia. It cannot, and should not, be difficult to raise at least 4,000 euro towards this project. The new installation will save them a big chunk in their monthly expenses.

Maybe you are (or want to be) a generous church, organisation or business that would love to jump on this train as well... the faster we can raise the necessary funds, the sooner they can start the work! If you have a heart for the work in Poland, please send your gift:

When in EUROPE: St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275, BIC: RABONL2U

When in USA: Eastern Europe Outreach, make sure to mention: TC Poland Winiarczykowka

We are looking forward to hear from you.

PS: Make sure to share this post with others. It is so much fun to do this together!

News and events

The beautiful city of Potsdam

It has been quiet at the digital home front for the last few weeks. At Traveling Light this means people are working very hard behind the scenes :) Just to mention a few things:

We (Jan and Marja) were invited to speak at several places in Germany: at Full Gospel Business Meetings in Berlin and at the Nehemia Church in Potsdam. We are looking back at precious and very special meetings, seeing old friends and making new ones. A very special moment was a talk we had with a Jewish lady from Ukraine. She was so happy with our teaching on Law & grace; it was the very first time in her life that she saw Old and New Testament come together, like folded hands!

Visiting Teen Challenge Slovakia

After we picked up volunteers Jim & Lynda Hayes at Bratislava airport, we visited Teen Challenge Slovakia. In Sered the construction of the David Wilkerson Memorial chapel at the grounds of the men's rehab home continues. In 2013 we have helped them twice with a donation, and we will certainly do so again this year. The construction of the chapel has already lead to great conversations with curious people from the neighborhood.

We also visited Teen Challenge Slovenia. The program at the men's rehabilitation center is running well. Again and again new men in desperate need of help and healing are entering the center. It is so encouraging to see how God heals and delivers them from a life of addiction. We are thankful for the staff and students who organized a huge bbq for Jan's birthday.

bbq at Teen Challenge Slovenia

One of the neighbors came for a visit. He joins the Bible studies regularly. He has cancer and is undergoing chemo therapy. When we prayed with him he literally felt God's love and peace enter him, as he later described!

With Jim & Lynda we participated in the Europe Teen Challenge conference in Rimini, Italy. We were inspired and encouraged and made several new contacts, for example with people from Lebanon, Georgia and Latvia.

After the conference we spent several days in Comunita Brezzano, in Tuscany. Again, lots of interesting meetings, good talks and much prayer with people in need. It brings such joy and satisfaction to be able to shine our light in all corners of Europe, sometimes in dark or difficult situations and to experience that praying together really makes a difference!

Our faithful volunteer Jan Visser

In the meantime in Rotterdam: our friend Jan Visser ran his first marathon in a time of 4:23:11. Such a great accomplishment. He raised about 1,200 euro for the Teen Challenge men's center in Castanheira, Portugal. If you are looking for a small scale project to sponsor, don't hesitate to contact us...

This coming Thursday the annual Rabobank Run for non profit organisations is being held in Papendrecht. If you want to join and run/walk for Traveling Light, please contact us for more information.

Saturday April 26, 2014 we will celebrate KINGSDAY in The Netherlands. We will have a stand with second hand stuff at the free market. So, if you're in the neighborhood, come and visit us and say hi. We have lots of cool things to sell. All proceeds will go to Traveling Light projects.

Next project: water treatment installation for Winiarczykówka Teen Challenge in Poland.

Seder meal at Comunita Brezzano, Tuscany. Nine nations represented at the passover meal!

Marathon sponsor run for Teen Challenge Castanheira, Portugal

Jan Visser

As we announced last week, our long time friend Jan Visser is planning to run his very first marathon ever on April 13, 2014, in the city of Rotterdam. Yep, it is his way of celebrating his 50th birthday :) and he wants to make it even better by running for a good cause. Well, Traveling Light has plenty of good causes that need support.

We discussed the possibilities and decided that all proceeds from his sponsor marathon run will go to the work of Teen Challenge in Portugal, and well specifically to the rehabilitation center in Castanheira do Ribatejo, just outside Lisbon. They need funds to renovate the men's shower room.

Center Castanheira do Ribatejo

This past January we visited the beautiful Teen Challenge center in Castanheira which offers room for 10-15 men who are struggling with life-controlling problems. They can start a year long recovery and rehabilitation program here and for many of them it will be the first time to learn more about Jesus and the Bible. The program offers daily devotions, groups studies, bible studies and groups and individual counseling sessions.

Men at work in the wood shop

With the help of God they will get their lives back on track, sometimes after years and years of being addicted, homeless or depressed. The workers and volunteers of Teen Challenges live in the center as well. There is also a huge garden, a mini farm, a wood shop and greenery. The men can do all kinds of work and in this way practice and develop their skills.

The shower room in the center needs work desperately in order to meet European standards for sanitary services. Just look at the picture below. Nelson Rato, the director of Teen Challenge Castanheira, really wants to renovate these showers, but there is a lack of funds for material. Most, if not all, of the work they will do themselves.

plenty of showers like this...

So, back to the marathon sponsor run... it is possible to sponsor Jan Visser by:

• pledging an amount for finishing the marathon,
• pledging an amount per kilometer completed, or
• pledging an amount, no matter what the results are....

Send an email to Traveling Light if you want to sponsor Jan Visser and help Teen Challenge Portugal, or send us your donation now!

EUROPE: St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275, BIC: RABONL2U

USA: Eastern Europe Outreach, make sure to mention: TC Portugal, Castanheira

PS:

- Project Tamimi family in Jerusalem is still going

- Project jewelry Israel is still going

- Coming up: Poland, Slovakia and.....?

NLdoet, volunteers day in The Netherlands

Where would we be without volunteers?

This past Saturday we participated with some of our volunteers in NLdoet. This is an annual event organized by the Orange Foundation and thousands of organisations in the Netherlands. NLdoet is the biggest volunteer event of the year.

NLdoet wants to put volunteer work in the spot light and encourages every citizen of Holland to come into action. We at Traveling Light are active all over Europe, but this weekend we decided it would be good to shine our light in our own home town :)

At nine in the morning we were escorted to the location where we were going to prune and cut some willow trees, in order to help the Nature- and birdwatch Alblasserwaard. This was nothing but HARD WORK. The branches we had to cut and saw off were huge, and it took a lot of effort and power to move the branches to designated areas where a truck came to pick 'm up. It was very good and useful to come and work together like this!

And, as promised, the year report 2013 is available online. Sorry, it is only available in Dutch, but maybe you can run Google Translate over it :) It is just so awesome to see how many projects we were able to sponsor and how many countries we visited. The financial report shows that many, many gifts came in in this past year and that we were able to give away almost 50,000 euro to all kinds of small scale, locale projects throughout Europe and the Mediterranean area. A large chunk of it went to Teen Challenge centers.

Thank you very much! With your help 2014 will be a blessed year as well. Please, tell others about Traveling Light and keep sending your gifts.

Click here for an overview of all projects per country since 2011.

News items & prayer

We received a kind email from Guus Peters in Terneuzen thanking Traveling Light for the 800 euro we donated, result of your gifts, for project Bibles for sailors. He writes: "You are helping us in a great way. It is often difficult to find sufficient funds to purchase the materials we hand out... Attached is a picture of Rean, he is a shy guy (just 20 years old) from the Philippines on his first trip, and he is really home sick. He still needs to work for seven months. He is a Christian and was very happy with the New Testament Bible in English/Tagalog that he received, thanks to you all. We are very thankful." Let's pray Rean will receive power and joy!

We have already received more than 1,000 euro for project Tamimi family in Jerusalem. We have not set a certain amount to help them financially. The purchase of a good family car/taxi will cost several thousands of euro's and we hope to be able to help them with a big chunk towards that purchase. It is good to take care of our Arab brothers and sisters in the Middle East, to encourage and pray for them. You can make your gifts payable to: St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U

Project jewelry from Israel kicked off last week, already three necklaces have found their way to happy owners. Just for clarity: you don't buy these necklaces, you get one for your gift of 50 euro. All proceeds will go to the women's home Ark in the Negev in Arad. Please pray that abused and addicted women will find their way to the women's home.

Sports: our friend Jan Visser turned 50 last month. A great moment to run his first ever marathon... well, that's what he is planning to do. On April 13th he will participate in the Rotterdam Marathon. 

He wants to make it a fundraiser run for Traveling Light and  raise money for the Teen Challenge men's home in Castanheira do Ribatejo in Portugal (we visited the home in January). We pray that Jan will stay in good health and that he will be able to raise a generous sum for the work in Castanheiro. Please, keep an eye on this blog for more news.

In February we visited Macedonia. We spoke in several churches and home groups and went to see the Roma families and the Saraj church in Skopje. It was such a time of encouragement! We are hearing more and more stories of God's Spirit moving among the Roma people in Europe. Let's pray for the wonderful (and difficult) work Sokrat & Lena are doing among them.

We are almost finished with the 2013 year report. The report is only available in Dutch, sorry :) But we can tell you we have booked great results last year, nothing but good news :) The year report will appear on our website.

Isn't it wonderful to see what we can do in Europe when we work together? THANK YOU SO MUCH. And please, pray for the Ukraine.

Project jewelry from Israel

As we announced in our previous blog post, we are currently fundraising for project Tamimi family in Israel. Most believers in Yeshua (Jesus) are having a difficult time there, whether they have a Jewish, Arab or Palestinian background. Let's help and encourage them!

Another project in Israel that we are sponsoring is Ark in the Negev, the women's home of Teen Challenge in Arad. We were visiting the women's home again this last November and the director Polly showed us some of the jewelry the ladies and a group of volunteers are making and selling.

The proceeds of the sales bring in some money for the day-to-day operation of the women's home. We took ten of those necklaces back to Holland with the following sponsoring idea: for a gift of 50 euro (or more) you will receive a beautiful necklace! The necklaces are made with semi-precious stones and come in all colors and shapes (click on the picture for a larger view).

Ten necklaces = ten x fifty euro = 500 euro. Well, that would be a wonderful donation towards the work in Arad, don't you think? Within Europe you can send your gift to: St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U

Make sure to mention: JEWELRY ISRAEL

This makes GIVING fun, doesn't it? God just LOVES cheerful givers!

PS: Please make sure we have your home address (email us).