This blog has gotten a bit long. I hadn’t written in a while, so I’m catching up. Further on you can read, among other things, how a boy, who was born with a deaf right ear, heals!
After living in Denmark for almost 14 months, we think it is time to return to the Netherlands and continue working there. It has been a special time in which we have learned a lot. From the start we planned to stay here temporarily – we were thinking of a few months actually. It ended up being more than a year!
We look back on a very good period, during which we were formed ourselves. We learned what it is like to trust in God, and how He proves trustworthy. Our conclusion: God is trustworthy! Jesus is trustworthy! We have seen the Reformation expand enormously all over the world and we were allowed to play a part in that. And that growth is still increasing. We have witnessed that a great number of people surrendered their lives to Jesus, turned from their sins and decided to be baptized and go after Jesus and continued to follow him. We have made many contacts all over the world, with whom we continue to work together. For us this is just the beginning: from Denmark we have already been able to do a lot of support work for the things that are happening in the Netherlands, but when we get back we can spend a lot more time on that. And we look forward to that! Because our country needs Jesus.
We expect to live again at our trusted address on the Heidelaan around 13 July. 🙂
Because I haven’t written for a long time, I’ll give an update of some things that we have experienced in the past period.
To Ireland!
A while back I went to Ireland, on a kickstart. A beautiful experience! My job was to capture the entire seminar on video so that we on Youtube could place. Unfortunately, the sound did not always end up well on the recording, but nevertheless easy to follow.
Because we had to drive from Belfast airport to Dublin – a 2 hour drive – we could still see a bit of the (country) country. Really beautiful! I myself was able to tell our story on Sunday morning, what it was like to leave home and hearth behind and thus inspire others to take steps too.
Afterwards I heard from several people that they wanted to do the same! But some came to me and told me that it was not possible for them to take a similar step, leave home, etc., because their situation did not allow it. Often the partner is not willing to do that. Then I can say that that happened to us as well. God wants and can change every situation, I am convinced of that, even if it sometimes seems very hopeless. Prayer is the key. Last week I saw a beautiful movie of that, which has now become my favorite movie: War Room . Highly recommended!
To the Netherlands – praying for prostitutes
A week or two later we were in the Netherlands. First we visited with the team Frits Rouvoet . Frits works in the red light district and helps prostitutes get out and is often on the street with a team where they make contacts with prostitutes, pray for and with them, offer a listening ear, etc. Once there we were able to see some of Frits’ work and Torben explained how important it is to pass on the gospel in a clear way and the power of the gospel to liberate. Then a number of (ex)prostitutes came who wanted prayer for different things. I spoke to a woman who recently became a Christian and was going through a difficult time. She had many worries and fears. So I prayed for her and she felt relieved and freer afterwards. It turned out that she still had pain in her leg. After a short prayer this pain disappeared and she was completely surprised and said to Frits: “it is really gone, really”. Then pray for a few others. I was very shocked by this neighborhood, the Redlight. In the middle of the day, cozy terraces and women who offer themselves in front of a window, while all kinds of people, including students, pass by. Through the stories of Frits (see his blog ) I was already a bit prepared and now I know how much pain is hidden behind the smiling faces of the women.
Kickstart Zelhem – Jesus heals!
Immediately afterwards, the kickstart weekend at the Betteld near Zelhem. The location was very nice, because most participants stayed at the (fully booked) park. As a result, no one had to go home at the end of the day. One of the most striking things about this weekend was this: when I walked around the site, I overheard all kinds of conversations. And only God was spoken of, the Holy Spirit, sin, repentance, miracles, the Bible, baptism, etc. There was a huge hunger for God and everyone seemed to come there to really learn.
A special story was that of a boy whose girlfriend had come to faith a few months earlier. He wasn’t supposed to know much about it, although he did notice a positive change in his girlfriend. Someone gave him our movie ‘The Last Reformation – The Beginning’ and that’s how this boy got interested in God. He heard about the kickstart and now hoped to experience that God is real. But what he saw disappointed him! He saw no miracles before his eyes and was not impressed by the ‘speaking in tongues’. He said: ‘I can do that too.. bababa. This is just fake! You are all actors!’. A number of people spoke to him and at one point someone asked: What would God have to do to prove that He exists? He said, then He should heal my deaf ear. He turned out to be born with deafness in his right ear. The one who prayed for him thought to himself, “Well… it doesn’t work like that. Don’t believe until God performs a miracle. He doesn’t go into that ‘. Fortunately, God does not work according to our standards! After some time of praying, his ear opened! He could hear with his right ear for the first time in his life! He was deeply impressed. Then the gospel was clearly explained to him again: sin, repentance, following Jesus. He decided to repent and confess his guilt to God. The people who prayed for him took him to the recreational pond and there he was baptized and became a new person!
Earlier that day, something else had happened in the room, where Torben was engaged in a Q&A session. Torben said that sometimes it happens that the sick person is blamed if he or she does not heal after prayer and that this is wrong. At this, someone in the room began to sob quite violently. After the session, Torben went up to her and asked what was going on. She told me that she had had an unpleasant experience for about ten years with people who had prayed for her. They had told her that it was her disbelief that prevented her from being healed, and they had also tried to exorcise an evil spirit and pushed her to the ground. This made her very afraid and she no longer wanted to be prayed for. Still, she could use prayer, because she said she has an incurable muscle disease (Myasthenia Gravis). This sick person causes her to become seriously weakened and can hardly walk or speak. Fortunately, the symptoms could be suppressed well with medication that she had to take every 3 hours. This allows her to function fairly normally. Torben encouraged her to forgive those who had prayed for her at the time. She did this and then Torben prayed for her that the fear of prayer would disappear. After this prayer, a remarkable thing happened.. during the day her strength slowly began to diminish. Although they had taken the meds at the correct times, she noticed that something was wrong. The meds didn’t seem to work anymore! Although she had decided that she would like to receive prayer that evening for her muscle disease, she was so weak that she could no longer last in the hall and decided to return with her husband to the chalet they had rented on the property. In the meantime, her husband heard about the boy who had been cured of deafness and when he saw his wife deteriorate, he said: ‘I will not accept this!’ He arranged a wheelchair at the reception and drove his wife back to the hall. The room was nearly empty, but those who had prayed for the boy who was deaf just before that were still there. He drove straight up to them in the wheelchair and asked them to pray for his wife. They did and after a moment her face started to change. Then she was able to get out of the wheelchair and jump and run! She was completely healthy!!
I had already gone to our house myself, but had forgotten something in the hall. As I walked back I thought: I think there’s a reason I’m walking back 🙂 Then I saw the smiling and happy faces and recognized the one who was healed! Evelyn and I had spoken to her and her husband via Skype a week earlier. They were eager to follow Jesus and give up everything for Him. In that conversation she also told about the muscle disease, so I already knew that she had that disease. I then took this photo:
The next day I was at Schiphol and posted this photo on Facebook. And then she was ‘recognized’ by one of her friends: “Hey, she wasn’t in a wheelchair at all! This is fake! How bad this!Immediately a number of people, who normally don’t respond, jumped in and posted a series of comments: “Oh, if this is really the case, then this is very bad.. ooh”. The gate to the plane was already open and I thought to myself: “Okay, now is the perfect time to leave the country! :)” Fortunately the whole story became clear later on, but I did see people in other places write: “Her friends said she was not sick at all.”. It occurred to me that some people really prefer the darkness than the light and rather believe a lie than the truth But if you want to discover the truth… then God shows Himself And the truth is Jesus Christ He showed who God (the Father) is.
Media attention
The Last Reformation has been in the media more and more in recent months. Not always positive. For example, before the trip to Ireland, a lady has made a lot of fuss who heard that during a meeting a boy was cured of autism through prayer. Torben was called a number of times by a radio DJ ( listen back #1 , listen back #2 ) and popped up in An a lot newspapers in An number various Nations . It is funny and sad at the same time to read what is written – according to one of the newspapers Torben would even drive around in a Porsche 🙂 Yet I can also understand that in 2016 it sounds strange to many people: demons being cast out causing complaints to disappear! Yet the Bible is full of it and in many cultures (Africa) it is the most normal thing in the world. But in the west, many people are blind to it.
Reformation in Denmark!
In recent months I have paid a lot of attention from Denmark to the Netherlands and supported the team there as much as possible with ICT things, promotion work, mailings. Evelyn and I had been planning to go back to the Netherlands for some time, but we didn’t really know how to go about it. For example, we’ve been looking for a rental home for a while, but that didn’t seem to work.
Meanwhile, a new team started to take over the Jesus Hotel. The idea arose to make it more Danish and also to bring The Last Reformation to the attention of Denmark itself. Because in Denmark it is not really picked up yet. So now I’m working with the new team to build a Danish site and help people in Denmark get excited about the reformation too. So now we are working hard on www.densidstereformation.dk ). And I will be able to provide further support from the Netherlands.
Packing up
Because we at 13 We are already back in the Netherlands in July, so we are already busy packing. We will miss the people here immensely. But also the beautiful spot on the hill with the beautiful sunsets!
https://youtu.be/ jR0 WGRKnRcQ
From the window in Maarten’s room. We are going to miss this view! 🙂
Yet we are very much looking forward to living in our own country again. Thijs eventually learned to speak Danish well and Evelyn can understand and speak it well. I don’t do much of it, so I’m happy to be able to speak Dutch again. 🙂
This could well be the last post of this blog ‘In Denmark’.. Thank you all for reading!
Evelyn and I are convinced that the adventures are not over yet… this is just the beginning! 🙂
God bless!