Writing from a Country of Cold showers

Can you imagine not needing hot water? So far this is what i've experienced in the houses and bathrooms we've been in. No hot water option. If you shower, it's cold, if you do laundry, cold, if you wash dishes, only cold! 

Everything is Imported!

Today is day six being here in Aruba, and I'm currently enjoying a cool breeze on the beautiful patio of our host family (Erick's -our outreach leader- sister and brother in law's). I'm overlooking the peanut field that the man of the house has planted here in his backyard. There is practically no agriculture here in Aruba, and one of our hosts, Donny, works here in parliament. He wants to show that it is possible, that something besides tourism can grow here, that Aruba can produce it's own products. I believe this is prophetic: Aruba producing it's own produce, it's own fruits so to say.

So far what I've experienced here in Aruba is lots of imported goods. Since the nation is not self sufficient, they have to fly everything here. Which causes much of everything to be relatively expensive. We're eating lots of what German's would call “toast bread”, which in North America is just normal bread, tuna, cornflakes, pasta etc. Milk products are very expensive, quite the opposite of Germany.

Weather

The days are very warm and humid. So far it has ranged between around 26 and 31 degrees everyday, but since we're in rainy season we have the satisfaction of the coolness the rains bring. It typically doesn't rain all day, but in short bouts.

The Arubans

I've been really overcome by the general friendliness of the Arubans. Yesterday was our day off, and Simon and Elijah and I took the public bus up to the northern part of the island to the nice white sandy beaches. It was a bit stressful for us as a family to figure out how things work transportation wise, but many people were very helpful. Even willing to give up their seats on the bus for me, which hasn't happened so often in Germany. I've also been astounded by Erick's family, and how gracious they've been to us. They've invited nine young people into their home, given up their beds, and allowed us to use their house as their base. We were only planning on being here until last weekend, but we still haven't found a house that we could rent for ourselves to stay in. This is a prayer request of our ours! Especially since Simon and I live on the opposite end of the island with Erick's sister and brother-in-law. We have to figure out rides with various people, his family has been even more gracious to be taxiing us around, but it can't last. 

Here you can see that our team is staying with family near Santa Cruz, in an area called "Paradera", and our little family is staying in Savaneta. It is about a 20-30 min drive. Our request is for a our own vehicle to get the team around the island, since public transportation isn't so great, an a house that we can live in together!!! 

Not only is his family driving us around, but a contact of Volker's (our DTS Leader), Jose, has come out to Aruba from his home in Venezuela to drive us around with his car when we need him. He is a pastor/missionary as well, and spends half the year here and the other half back home. This is really touching though, that one of his purposes of being here is to serve us.Someone else who has flown out to visit us is Juan-David from Columbia, a friend of the family. He would really like to take part in the next DTS that starts in January in Hurlach, so please pray that he can quickly get a visa and accepted! 

The culture here is very mixed, ranging from people with African, Latin and Asian background. As a matter of fact, every supermarket here is owned by an asian, and has an asian name! Around the corner is "Morning Supermarket" and around another is "Hong Kong Supermarket", and near us is "X and H Supermarket", and many of them are built in an asian style. 

Timing here is "island time", so far I haven't experienced so much rush, but much rather waiting. We wait for people to pick us up, we wait to be dropped off, we wait for someone to pick something up, then we wait while they talk with a friend before we get back going. Much of our time in one sense feels "wasted", but this is subjective. I think especially for the Germans and Swiss this can be challenging, but even for myself as a Canadian, I can get annoyed. But I can't change the culture, but I can adapt to it. So we are trying to be more relaxed, and changing our expectations on timing. Things are much more relational here, and not so much "getting things done". Although, I'm sure there are things I don't quite see yet. 

Our Team

We've been battling a lot with trying to settle in here, and clarifying things. Last week was rather all over the place, with us trying to figure out transportation, things breaking down, cell phones breaking down, all sorts of "unexpecteds". But we took a stand as a team, and realize we're in a spiritual battle. We're really focusing on keeping the unity in our team, and glorifying God. Because ultimately our goal here is to see Him glorified in us, and on this island. 

Last week the team did a variety of things like going to a youth group, doing capoeira downtown with another team in the area, and many prayer walks where we have met people, and even was able to invite someone to have lunch with us. We would like to continue meeting with those we've met and connect them to the local church here, and encourage and pray for them. 

Our goal here is to bring the young people here that are from the churches, and who we meet along side us in everything we do and disciple them, and also to connect and unite those we meet who don't necessarily meet this "young people" category. We want to see Aruba, and the churches and people here united, especially since we've had the impression that there is a spirit of division here. At times this spirit of division has crept into our group, so we are trying to keep guard, and by God's grace, nothing will happen. 

This afternoon    

The team has gone out to cover Aruba! This morning we had the impression to be strategic with our prayers and intercession, and take the physical act of traveling to the north, south, east, and west ends of Aruba and claiming it for Jesus. We (besides Elijah and myself who have stayed behind at the Mother House :) for his nap, and to do a few errands, and start dinner for the team) split up into groups of 3-4, invited some of the local youth, and spread across the island. This is also a team where we expect to see miracles, we want to pray for people, we want to gain insight into this nation, see the problems, and see what we can. 

I'm very excited for them to come back this evening and tell us about everything that's happened. God is a big god! He can do the impossible, and we expect it. 

No pictures!? 

So as you can see, I've included no pictures. Reason being: I forgot the stupid camera cable! I will have to look around and see if anyone has a card reader or cable that will fit, but until then... no pictures :( 

Just picture us in summery clothing, and there are palm trees around, and Elijah is running around in his diaper. By the way, I think so far he is happy being here. Perhaps not so much with the heat, but the people, the ocean, and all the lizards crawling around!

Much love,

Dani

Merry Christmas!

This year we were unable to send so many Christmas cards out, so this year we will blog our Christmas card!

We wish you all a blessed Christmas season, filled with joy and no stress! And may 2012 be better than all the years before!!!! 

Arrival in Aruba, Week one of Outreach

Here I am writing from the little island of Aruba.

What an adventure it was trying to get here though! At least for our little family. The rest of our team arrived with virtually no problems on Monday of this week. We were also set out to arrive Monday. We left with one other student early in the morning apart from the rest of the team, because that's just how our flights were due to some other issues. We arrived in Munich at 6:00am only to find out Elijah was unable to board the plane. Because we were flying through New York, and he holds a German children's passport which doesn't have an electronic chip in it, he would not be allowed to fly to the states. Even though it was just a stop over, they couldn't risk it and there are no exceptions. He would either have to get a new passport or a special visa. To make matters worse, we found out our tickets were unchangeable and restricted. This meant, they couldn't even book us a different flight a few days later so we could get the required documents. Either one of us could go, or none of us and we'd lose the flights. So we prayed to see what we should do, and it was pretty clear that Simon should just go. Since we were also responsible for the student with us, someone needed to go with her.

 This was heart wrenching for me because I saw no other possibility but staying in Hurlach alone for a month, Christmas alone, and no apartment because we had given up the room we were staying in the Castle for other people to move it. So one hour before boarding Simon checked in and left his very distraught, unhappy wife, and little boy. It was an unhappy situation for everyone. 

But I am very blessed with a wonderful DTS Team, and the Castle community. So in no time, two people from our staff were there to rescue me and my load of luggage to bring back on the train and to help with Elijah. I was feeling very depressed on this day and all I wanted to do was have a huge pity party. I didn't understand why God would give us the money in the first place to fly out, and then all the sudden to have everything mess up. This was very challenging for me. It was a miracle in the first place to receive the money, so I felt hurt and confused. When I arrived back at the Castle I was greeted by a beautiful sister and a bed made up in one of the girls dorm rooms that Nara and Taylor did. They set me up a colourful, comfy little bed, with a fruit basket and a lovely little card. It made me feel very loved, and I realized despite my longing to lock myself away from the world and be sad, it was much better to be around people who could love me, talk to me, and help me through a difficult moment. 

At this point, I still had no thoughts of actually being able to get to Aruba since we had no money, and our tickets were garbage. But it was obviously the thoughts of others that they would figure out a way to send us there. The community and our team prayed, as well as whoever saw my facebook status :) Later on that Monday afternoon, a visitor approached me and said that they wanted to bless me, and after looking up some direct flights to Aruba, they gave me enough money to cover a whole new set of tickets for Elijah and myself. But this time via Amsterdam. This way I wouldn't have to wait to order Elijah a new proper passport, or however long it would take for the visa. So plans were made, I contacted the travel agent and organized as soon as I could another flight. 

This 2nd miracle flight took place yesterday!! Praise God. Even when my faith is little, and my hope is weak, he astounds me with his goodness. Besides a little hiccup at the beginning, where I forgot all of our passports, and tickets at the Castle and realized first when we were at the airport... but thankfully, Raphi, who was my chauffeur that morning was able to quickly drive back and and organize a pick up. He was able to get it to me right on time, and I was even able to reserve seats for Elijah and myself without any ID! My concern was that I would have to sit in a very crappy seat for 10 hours with him, so I wanted to be there extra early to reserve something better. So I was blessed for both flights. Travel was long, but Elijah was good, and sometimes I feel really pregnant :)

We arrived in Aruba last night, and unfortunately my luggage was left behind.. but it should come tonight.

As of yet I haven't seen much of the island, but it's warm here : 30 degrees. It's very humid and sticky, so I'm looking forward to jumping into the ocean as soon as my bathing suit is here. It's rainy season, so there are a few periods of rain. The rain fills up the roads since there is no proper draining, so we were driving through little lakes this morning. 

We're staying with the family of our wonderful leader Erick, and we will be looking for somewhere else to move to by Sunday. 

The students did their first "outreach" activity today which was a prayer walk where they met many people, were invited into homes, and picked up by strangers. It's an exciting beginning. People are friendly and open here, and we look forward to what God has in store for us in this little country.

Be blessed! 

-Dani