2014 A YEAR OF TRANSITION. This year the Lord gave us a surprising Word to “make Hawaii our home”. Surprising because we had had our hearts set on moving back to Nigeria as fast as possible. We still carry this vision in our hearts, but felt that we needed to lay down the timing and plans before the Lord. So we obeyed and are now fully engaged and committed to serving the UofN Kona Campus and the local community via our church
THE UofN KONA CAMPUS
The UofN Kona Campus it the largest training location of Youth With A Mission. Over 800 full time staff and about 600 students every quarter from around 50 different nations gather to be trained and equipped for the mission field. They receive discipleship as well as Bachelor/Master education in all 7 spheres of society. Every 3 months new teams are comissioned to go out into all the world. This December the teams went to 39 different nations.
WORD BY HEART
This Sept-Dec period Jackson led his first Word by Heart school. In 2013 he was among the first students to finish this 3 month training in whichhe learnt to present the Gospel of Mark by heart in an engaging way. Since then the WBH ministry has multiplied with now a school running each quarter. Jackson is part of the WBH leadership team and he was the first “trained student” to lead the school after the founders.
GO CENTER
The GO Center is the heart of hospitality on the campus. A place for seminars, guest speakers and visitors, a place of celebration! Since August 2014 Jackson is Building Manager for the GO Center and we therefore moved into the building to be available and accessible. We really enjoy living there and Jackson is very hands on involved with the volunteers working hard to make it all happen.
CORPORATE EVENTS
A new area that emerged this past year was that of Corporate Events. Anneke was point person for 3 major events on the Kona campus- the Grand Opening of our new cafeteria, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Jackson was point person for the Christmas Bazaar. It was a great privilege to serve our campus in this way and to be able to work with and get to know so many people!
MOKUAIKAUA CHURCH
Our home church in Kona is Mokuaikaua First Hawaiian Church. Next year will be its 195th anniversary. Anneke is co-leading the nursery program for the 1-4 year olds and Jackson is involved with Bible studies and programs. This Christmas week he organized “the Festival of the Bible” a series of events centered around the Word.
On Sunday Dec 21st Anneke together with our pastor’s wife Kim, and fellow Sunday school, youth and nursery workers Jennifer and Barbra organized our first ever “Ohana Christmas Celebration”. Young and old participated and Anneke led the dance group.
HOPE SHEKINAH
Hope Shekinah is now 3 years old and it is amazing what she can do and what she can say. The other day Jackson had made a comment about how she and I were so alike in getting cold quickly, so I told her that and she said “mommy, what color eyes do you have?” I said “blue”, she said: “What color eyes do I have?” I said: “brown”. She then responded: “See, we are NOT the same”… J
REJOYCE ZOE
REJoyce Zoe turned 1 in June and is now rapidly expanding her vocabulary. Her favorite activity is fastening the buckle and then asking mommy to open it. At this age she speaks about 20 words, but in the car all of a sudden she blurted out “I did it!” So we are all in shock at what we just heard- a sentence? Really? So Jacksonasked her- What did you do? And she said “I did the buckle!!” Seriously! Incredible and so funny. She repeated it 5 times and we all had a good laugh at this bundle of joy.
BABY NDECHECK!!
June 2015 our third baby Ndecheck is due!
After a slightly rough first trimester Anneke is now feeling much better with more energy. All the check ups have been good and we are grateful to God for this precious gift!
HIGHLIGHTS 2014
As we reflect on this last year the key highlight was to be able to fly to the Netherlands for Anneke’s brother’s wedding. What a precious family time it was and what a beautiful day.
More fun came as my best friend Femmy visited us from the Netherlands over Christmas. She was maid of honor at our wedding in Cameroon 2009 and it was so precious to spend time catching up together.
MIRACLE
We ended the year with an amazing miracle. After 4 years of prayers a YWAM family felt led by the Lord to GIVE US THEIR MINI-VAN!! We now have a beautiful 7-seater to accommodate our growing family. Words cannot describe what this means to us and how grateful we are.
LOOKING AHEAD 2015
As we look ahead to 2015 we are committed to serve the Kona Campus. Jackson with Word by Heart and the GO Center and Anneke as Loren & Darlene’s assistant.
Jackson’s passport expires in April so before then he will have to renew it at the nearest embassy (which is in Washington DC!).
When baby Ndecheck is due Anneke will take a break over summer and we are praying for a nanny/housekeeper to help us during those first few months.
WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS & SUPPORT!
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