Graduation!

Just a quick update today to all our family, friends and supporters!

What a whirlwind week it has been! Unfortunately I got quite sick on early Tuesday morning with some food posioning/stomach bug which sapped my energy. I did visit the doctor but they did not advise to do anything 'heavy' for the pain just in case there was something more serious. Thankfully by early Wednesday morning I started to feel better. Albert was a great nurse as always and managed to pack up his seminary stuff in boxes while I was in bed. We had a very lovely faculty/senior dinner on Wednesday night. It is so surreal to be finally done. The Bumas, Albert's third (or something distant related) cousins came down on Wednesday and babysat the girls while we went out for dinner. They also took the girls out for dinner, I'm not sure who had more fun on Wednesday night! 

On Thursday the seminary organised a family lunch with the senior students being able to take family on a tour of seminary. I wish I could have taken all of you! It was very nice to relax and socialize with the seniors, their families and faculty. Albert also had his exit interview with the board of Mid America. 

In the afternoon, we went back home. I braided the girls hair and Hannah and Karena curled the girls hair. Albert managed to 'cook' us some  (frozen) pizza for dinner, proud of him! I got my hair done by a local member of the church who is a hairdresser. The girls FINALLY got dressed into their brand new dresses that have hung in my wardrobe for the last 6 months! They were VERY excited to finally wear their brand new dresses! 

Once arriving at the graduation venue, we had photo's done, and oohed and aahed at all those gorgeous (graduation student) kids (including a 2 week old!). The photographer was great in taking our family photos, couple photo and on our request a photo of the girls. 

While we were waiting for the graduation to start our guests started to arrive! We welcomed our two Canadian couples who drove in for the ceremony, it was very lovely to see them. Then the girls had to look twice at the lovely surprise coming from Canada! Pam and her two girls, Olivia and Amy had driven down to surprise the girls! WOW what a surprise it was, Grace was speechless (if you know Grace, that is just about a miracle!!!!). Since we didn't have any family here in the USA (apart from the Bumas who came) God blessed us with so many friends that came to Albert's graduation that we needed two pews! (those are BIG pews!). While we missed our flesh and blood family and wished that they could have shared that moment with us, God is faithfully in looking after us with providing for us family in Christ! We are soooo going to miss them sniff, sniff. 

Hopefully we will be able to share a link to the graduation ceremony soon. The speaker was excellent, Rev Paul Murphy from NY. The wives got honored as well at the ceremony which I appreciated. It really has been a team effort, his Masters. Then the proud moment came where Albert received his Masters and his hood! VERY PROUD!!

Here are some photos that Jeremy took. When I get more photos I will share :).

Thankful Post AKA Christmas Letter 2014

Niagara Glen - One of my favourite memories of the summer. An un-posed photo capturing the real,soaking wet, us. We are standing on Canadian ground with the USA in the background, how cool is that?

Dear Friends and Family!

First of all, a couple of things, I'm not a huge fan of Christmas letters, on what you have achieved this year etc BUT I do like being part of peoples lives. So I'm faced with a dilemma, to write or not to write or to write something in between. Well here is my attempted version!

Since most of you read my blog posts, I'm not going to rehash everything that we've done this year. I'm just going to give you a few of the ways God has blessed us and has been faithful to us this year. So it's going to be a kind of Thankful edition instead of a bragging letter. 

I'm very thankful for the following things, in no particular order:

• Our support network. This encompasses so many people, family, friends, strangers (to us), churches, financial donors, students, seminary etc. I don't like to name people for fear of missing someone out! Needless to say we can't be here or pursue Albert's call to the ministry without our support group. It's is VERY humbling to receive while being unable to give in return, at least financially. Hence the above verse is printed on our thank you cards!
• Internships - WOW this just about makes me speechless. What an AWESOME experience! It is such a privilege to be able to part of people's lives. It is so encouraging to see on how God works through out all our lives especially when we are faced with trials. 
• True Woman Conference run by Revive Our Hearts. What an fantastic experience to learn more about God and worship with 8000+ other women! The company was also fantastic.
• Thankful for our Sonlight curriculum. It really saves my sanity for someone who has not got the teaching gift! Grateful for the option but thankful that the Bible leaves us room as to how we teach our children. 
• Travel. I do love to travel and so I am grateful that we have had the opportunity to be able to see and do lots. 
• Ladies Bible Study. We are studying Nancy Guthrie's series on Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament. It is very encouraging.
• Watching the girls grow in wisdom and character is a joy.
• Albert's parents to come and visit and experience some of our world! We miss family!

Since Albert has started another year, lasts haven been happening. Our last seminary retreat, last USA Thanksgiving, last USA birthdays, etc. This makes me sad as our seminary journey is coming to an end. I'm looking forward to being reunited with our families and introduced to some of our new family members! 2015 will be bittersweet with plenty of tears no doubt! 

So in ending, a simple Thank you to all of you. We are soooo undeserving to be chosen by God to be part of HIS family! I hope you are part of HIS family also! Remember there is hope for ALL of us through God's Grace! You are ALL in our prayers!

Much love

Hanneke, Albert, Michaela, Grace, Kate and Zara

Divine Hope Reformed Seminary

WOW it got to 64F, 17.7C on Monday!

I had the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to spend a day at Divine Hope Reformed Seminary. No I am not going to change Seminaries. In fact, this is a Seminary that it should be very difficult to attend. You see this Seminary is at Danville Prison in Illinois.

Two of our Professors were going down for the day and invited some of the students to join them for the day. I was not sure if I would be permitted to go, being a foreigner. You need to apply two weeks beforehand so that background checks can be done. The checks came through fine, and I was good to go.

It was a two hour drive down there, empty cornfields broken up by one wind farm. It was good to get out into the country, but it .... is ... flat.

Arriving at the prison we signed in, and passed through security. And then we were inside. It felt a little funny being inside the fence line. The buildings reminded me of old college buildings, minus the razor wire. We went into the education block, and into the classroom.

Divine Hope Seminary has approximately 30 students, and we sat down to lectures with them for the day. Our Professors and Rev. Brummel, the Pastor that does most of the teaching at the Seminary, spoke on preaching, the whys and hows. It was a good refresher. It was a good experience meeting many of the Seminarians. It was exciting to hear what God has done in these men's lives. Some of the men will never be released, but they are looking at being involved in ministry in the prison.

The Seminary is entirely funded by Reformed Churches, and they have an awesome library, with all of the books donated. I confess to coveting the books slightly. We also got to experience prison food. We ate in the staff cafeteria, not with the inmates. I didn't think that the food was too bad at all. We had pasta, lettuce, pears, and sherbet for dessert.

It felt odd leaving at the end of the day, being able to walk out knowing that the men we had met could not do what we had just done. But it warmed the heart to see God's work in the lives of these men.

I hope to go out and preach sometime, but there is a 90 day stand down before you can go back. So something I will be looking at next Semester. But what left me with the biggest impression was that here, in the middle of a prison, was a Seminary the same size as the one that I am attending. How wonderful would it be to see something like that in one of our New Zealand prisons?

Blessings,

Albert