Mission Europe and Middle East - December 2011

Dear friends

We wish you a very blessed Christmas!

Each year we are reminded that Christmas should not be just about giving and receiving presents.  But, if we truly think about Christmas, it is, indeed, all about gift giving!  At Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the greatest gift ever given, by the greatest gift-giver of all, our wonderful God and Father!

God is the giver of joy and He is ‘God with us’.

Wonderful Impossibilities

"When God intends to make something wonderful he begins with a difficulty.  When he intends to make something very wonderful, he begins with an impossibility."

The birth of Jesus was not just a difficulty, it was an impossibility.  Mary was a virgin.  Only God could breathe life into her womb.  And just as God caused her to conceive the perfect sinless Savior, fully God, fully human. He can accomplish through you, those things that seem impossible in your life.

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!  Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21 (NIV)

We pray that in this Christmas season God will change impossibilities in possibilities.

In the last month we spend time ministering in Europe: in Belgium and The Netherlands.

On 11-11-11 we ministered at the Flemish national gathering of Pentecostal churches in Belgium, a gathering where 97 churches were represented.  I ministered on rejection and on enlargement.  Many were touched and blessed.  We received such a good feedback from so many people.  God has been doing something special in Belgium.

We also organized a barbecue for pastors and elders from West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, where we emphasized building relationships between churches and bringing down walls of misunderstanding and misconception.  There was such a sweet atmosphere it was so good to see pastors and leaders from different churches interact with each other and have fun together.  After the eating festivity we took a walk together.  Unity is not uniformity but unity is complementation and mutual respect.  A special thanks to our friend Geert who always helps us organize the events with great excellence.

We also ministered at the 15^th anniversary of ‘Levend Woord’, pastor Gerard De Groot’s church in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.  The theme of the conference was ‘When the supernatural becomes natural’.  There was an amazing move of the Holy Spirit and many people were blessed.

It’s so wonderful for me to have my wife interpret for me both in Belgium and The Netherlands.  We are a great team together.

Our time of ministry this past month included a special time of teaching and training at ‘Foundation for Life’ a training school for young people in The Netherlands.  They give up 1 year of their life to study the Word of God before going back to school or pursuing careers.  We enjoyed interacting with the young people.

We also ministered to our brothers and sisters from the Middle East from Iran, Afghanistan,….  There was a great time of teaching and impartation.  We enjoyed spending time with these heroes of faith.  We also spoke at a special outreach where many non-believers came and accepted Jesus and asked for prayer.  It’s so special to even see people from the Middle East that do not believe in Jesus but want to receive prayer so that they can get to know Him.  Their hunger is so encouraging.

We also enjoyed our time of ministry at Effatha, a church in Staden, Belgium and our time of fellowship with pastor Johnny and his wife.

2011 has gone so fast and we have been in so many places around the world, circling the globe.  God has been so good and so faithful.  We are so grateful for this opportunity to serve our generation with the Gospel of power and the love of Jesus Christ.

We thank God for all our prayer and financial partners and the overwhelming love of the Body of Christ all over the world.  This has been a source of strength and encouragement to see how God has given us favor with Him and people.

We just had our annual board meeting. We thank God for our board of directors for the input, advice and service.  God has blessed us with quality people that carry His heart.

On Monday we are going to Belgium.  Ilke’s grandmother past away last Friday.  We will be attending the funeral and spend time with her family.  We will be celebrating Christmas and New Year with Ilke’s church family in Belgium.  We will also be meeting with pastors in preparation of our conference next year in Belgium.  We look forward to what God’s going to do next year in Belgium.  Exciting things!

2012 looks very great for us.  God is opening doors all over the world.

Continue to reach forward in Him!

Love and blessings

Guy & Ilke