Richard & Sandra van Dillen Holland 12 January, 2011
PRAISES
1. 1. New Year’s Eve was extremely exciting again in our city of Den Haag. The fireworks start around Sinterklaasdag (5 December) and are heard around our city until about January 5th. However, legally they are allowed only from 10am until 2am on New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day. Our new daughter-in-law had never been allowed to shoot off fireworks and it was like watching a child shooting off their first firecrackers. Perry-David and Amber bought fireworks for as well as for the 3 other PD’s. The fires burning in the streets of Den Haag, the glitter explosions flooding the sky, and our smoke-filled neighborhood were all amazing to Amber. She kept saying, I can’t believe this is legal! Perry-David & Amber also enjoyed meeting our Hindu and Muslim Hindustani neighbors during the festivities. Mr. & Mrs. Poeran (Hindus) loved meeting Amber. Mrs. Poeran told me that I have a beautiful schoondochter (Dutch for daughter-in-law). (their grown Hindu daughter) is living with Reza (Muslim). They have two sons: Ryan (9) and Steven (6). Reza and Sarita do plan to marry legally sometime in the future.. They also loved meeting Amber on New Year’s Eve. Mrs. Poeran gave me a BIG HUG and told me how happy she was to have us back in Holland. Their grown Hindu son, Rino, always buys the BIG Chinese illegal fireworks which are extremely loud and long (100,000 ear drum blasting shots). Amber loved watching Rino & Richard set those fireworks off. Perry-David, Amber, Patrice Danielle, & Paul-Duffy also visited our Hindu neighbor, Bea with us. Anita (her Hindu daughter) enjoyed having Vinay (Anita’s 15 year Hindu son) shoot off his remaining fireworks with Perry-David & Amber. We thank the Lord for an exciting New Year’s Eve with our kids, and our Hindu and Muslim Hindustani neighbors.
2. 2. Perry-David & Amber were able to visit many Dutch cities and Amber LOVES Holland. The Dutch people were amazed at her simple Dutch sentences because she has only been studying Dutch for a few months. We praise the Lord for Perry-David & Amber’s love of Holland, the unreached Muslim and Hindus here, and of the Dutch language.
3. 3.Sharmila & Arun (Hindu convert whom Richard led to the Lord and baptized in 2005) invited us over for dinner with Perry-David & Amber. Amber was sick, but Perry-David really enjoyed fellowshipping with his Tante (aunt) Sharmila & Oom (uncle) Arun again after four long years. They also had us over last night since Patrice Danielle is flying back to New York tomorrow.
4. 4.Patrice Danielle & I also visited Manisha & Rikash (her 18 month old son) on New Year’s Eve. Manisha has invited us over again this evening since it is Patrice Danielle’s last night in Holland.
5. 5.We praise God for the opportunity to have our entire family together for a late Sinterklaasdag (5 December) celebration, First & Second Christmas days, New Year’s Eve and Peter Daniel’s 23rd birthday celebration. Duffy and Richard cooked delicious turkey filet for Peter Daniel’s birthday and we all shared what we were thankful for in 2010. We had a delicious and enjoyable family celebration on 3 January (one day after Peter Daniel turned 23).
6. 6.Soenita (Hindu neighbor) listened carefully when I shared Christ with her again this past Monday evening and she even sai d she agreed with what I read from God’s Word. However, she is so blinded by Satan. She just can’t see her need to trust in Christ alone for salvation from her sins.
7. 7. We are praising the Lord for our precious Boston Terrier, Tikkertje Doei who recently went through 11 epileptic seizures in 53 hours. The vet doubled her meds and she was as high as a kite. Richard put her on a ketogenic type diet on Saturday night and she has not a seizure since. We were also able to lower her meds dosage so she is almost acting normal. Yesterday she outran me and Tijnie Leila, our little pug gift from our Shadow Mountain Community Church Alpine kring, when we jogged our 4.5 miles. We praise the Lord for our close friends who prayed for Tikkertje Doei through this past weekend’s extremely stressful ordeal. Please pray that the Lord would continue to heal our doggie.
PRAYER
1. Please continue to pray for the salvation of our Hindu and Muslim friends and neighbors: Bea, Anita, Vinay, Manisha, Viskash, Rikash,Sarita, Mr, & Mrs. Poeran, and Soenita (Hindus) and Reza, Ryan, Steven, Raf, Ans, Fayaaz, & Sufraaz (Muslims).
2. Perry-David is still searching for a job in media production 18 months after graduating from Calvin College. Pray for the Lord to provide a good job for him. Pray that his professors at Calvin Colledge would help Perry-David in this endeavor since they offered to do so when he graduated at the end of May 09. Pray also for Amber as she works, goes to school, and learns Dutch for their future service to our Lord on the mission field.
3. We praise the Lord for our close friendship with Arun & Sharmila Bageloe. We prayed for Arun to get a permanent job as an engineer last week. He interviewed on 4 January and by 7 January he was offered the job. Please pray that Arun would be a strong testimony for Christ at his new job, and pray for his relationships with his new co-workers to be amicable.
4. Please continue to pray for my friendship with Manisha to grow. Pray for Manisha to be able to understand Christ’s love for her as Patrice Danielle and I plan to share Christ again with her this evening.
5. Pray for Patrice Danielle to have a safe flight back to New York. We still have not heard from The King’s College about her housing situation. Please continue to pray that Patrice Danielle will be able to live in The King’s College housing at a 50% reduction for this 2010-2011 school year. Yesterday we sent another e-mail requesting this to two women in charge of housing and financial aid at The King’s College: Fanny Perez & Anna Peterson
6. Please continue to pray for Perry-David, Amber, Peter Daniel, & Patrice Danielle to grow in their walk with the Lord. Please pray for Paul-Duffy to put Jesus first in his life. Pray for wisdom as he must choose an area of study since in Holland college students can’t just simply change their majors the way they do in the US. Pray for us as we work to get his residency permit and later hopefully a double passport since Paul-Duffy was born in Den Haag. Presently he has no idea what he wants to study in college in Holland. Pray he do very well on the entrance exam to the Haagse Hogeschool.
7. Soenita needs prayer to be able to assess the meaning of one God in her mind. She feels that Jesus is just one of her gods who happens to have the most power, but her other Hindu gods are still important to her.
8. I cried for 5 days after Perry-David and Amber flew back to Grand Rapids on 5 January. My only daughter flies back tomorrow morning. Please pray for me as I miss having my PD’s around very much!! The last time we had seen Perry-David and Amber was at Papa Perry’s memorial service in September of 2009..
9. Pray for Patrice Danielle to be able to study business in the Christian University or College where the Lord wants her to be. She wants to open a youth center someday for troubled youth. Pray also she be hired for the job as a camp counselor at Camp Haluwasa in New Jersey for this summer. Richard worked at this same camp when he was also 21 years old and he had the privilege of leading more than 50 campers to the Lord. She filled out her extensive application here in Holland and she will be mailing it from New York after she returns tomorrow. This job would be good training for her future as a youth counselor.
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