Dear Family and Friends,
Aloha from Kona Hawaii! We arrived safely in Kona after an 18 hour trip from the Netherlands. This time the travelling was a bit more challenging, because Hope had learned to crawl and stand up and she tirelessly worked at that on the airplane!
As we arrived in Kona it felt as if we arrived “home”, which was a good thing as we did have to say goodbye to both our families for a while before we left. We were able to move into the same room that we had before we travelled, so that gave a great sense of familiarity as well. The first couple of days we spent unpacking and settling in. With a new arrangement of the table and desk we were able to create more space for Hope to move around. There are some pictures on which you can see what our room looks like and as you can see it is an “all in one” space. So we have our bed, kitchen and eating area all in the same room. Our room is situated right next to the campus kitchen and this is very convenient at mealtimes.
After settling in, we jumped right back into work where I, Anneke, helped organize the Impartation Event 2012, an advanced leadership seminar for both people in and outside of YWAM! We welcomed pastors, businessmen, educators, medical professionals and more from different nations. Altogether the group speaks about 26 different languages! The seminar will run for 2 weeks and during that time Jackson is involved in connecting people within the group. While Jackson is in the classes I am able to spend more time with Hope who is developing so rapidly! She is cruising around and has started saying words. She has a small piano which says the numbers 1-2-3-4 and the other day we both heard her imitating the number “three”. She is also starting to understand the word “no” where she will shake her head (and then that just makes you want to laugh- so not sure if it really serves its purpose 🙂
Apart from this, we also enjoyed meeting our friends again. Our good friends Ricardo & Nadia are 7 ½ months pregnant of their first baby and it was so exciting to catch up with them again. In the local Hawaiian church we go to, we got a very warm welcome from the members there and were able to share with some of them all that God had been doing during our time in Cameroon, Nigeria and Holland.
We look back on an amazing God-led time in all the countries we went to and are sooo grateful for everything that happened. We also want to use this opportunity to THANK each and every one of you, for welcoming us into your homes, for feeding us, supporting us and blessing us with your words of encouragement and your prayers. We really feel very loved and privileged to be able to do this work.
Love and blessings,
Jackson & Anneke Ndecheck
