Oosterhuis Newsletter: The Final Stretch

Dear Friends and Family,

Two weeks ago we arrived back in the Netherlands, the land of coffee, tea, and clogs. This is our last stop on our way to Athens, Greece. Here's a little about the last month in the U.S. and what the weeks ahead will look like. 

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In July we had our final ITeams pre-field training, where we reviewed the ICT strategy (integrated community transformation) and covered everything from security to soul care. We are grateful for the time spent with other ITeams members going so many places around the world but with a common mission, vision and strategy.

 

After our training, time passed quickly, we spent time with family, and continued to make new friends, reconnect with old ones and began to make our many goodbyes. Allie was encouraged by the women at Poplar Creek Church who threw her a goodbye party and gave her an opportunity to share a little about the role the arts can play in relationships, ministry, and trauma care, and to lead them in an art activity. 
 

The last weekend before we left, we had a goodbye party in Elgin and we were blessed by those who were able to make it. We are sad to have missed farewells with many other people. However, we know that even as goodbyes are hard the difficulty reflects the valuable relationships we have.  We left the United States encouraged by all the support we've received and the wonderful new friends we have made. 

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Prayer Requests and Praises:

Praise God that we passed our health exams, have had safe travels, and have come so close to our fundraising goal in a such short time.

Please pray for the timing of our funding, move, and visas and for all the paperwork that comes with it.

Please pray for us as we work on translating our materials and present in churches in Dutch.

Please pray for good health as we travel and have a full schedule.

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We arrived in the Netherlands after a fairly smooth flight, a day ahead of our luggage. Stepping out of the airport we were greeted by the familiar smells of Amsterdam. The flood of aromas always brings me (Allie) back to the day I arrived in Amsterdam for the first time 7 years ago.

Jet lagged, we dove into our first full day on Friday with a trip east for a "fit for duty" medical evaluation for our insurance in a small dutch town, complete with emus and a strange manikin store, and beautiful heather fields. 

We passed our Fit For Duty Exam, praise God, and headed to the southwest of Holland. With a short pause at the "Kinderdijk" a dike with lots of windmills and only a few kids, we went to a small group meeting to share about the Helping Hands Refugee Center. 

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We were invited to this group by Eline, Allie's good friend and had such a warm welcome by the whole group that we stayed late into the night! It was a fun way to return to Holland!  

The next day, pretending jet lag doesn't exist, we celebrated Henk's father Jaap's 60th birthday. We saw a lot of family and friends and received a lot of sets of 3 kisses. The day consisted of cakes, tarts, kisses, coffee, tea, more kisses, fizzy drink, coffee, tea, chocolate, coffee, more kisses and not so dutch Chinese food dinner, followed by more coffee and tea.

Our first full week was spent in Germany at an ITeams Europe Conference. It was a great opportunity to meet and learn from other people from ITeams working around Europe as well as from our team in Athens. Allie especially enjoyed talking with a woman who is working in Austria with refugees and did the same First Aid Arts training. She also attended a seminar during the conference about how to help survivors of domestic abuse. Henk enjoyed connecting with everyone, and we were both encouraged by the message from Sheridan Voysey, author of Resilient.  
 

We used our traditional method of transportation to return from Germany: Hitchhiking :)

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In the coming weeks we hope to continue reconnecting with family and friends. Our schedule is fairly open at the moment, so friends and family in the Netherlands, please connect with us to catch up. And if you or any person/group/church you know may be interested specifically in the refugee ministry in Athens please let us know as well. 
Friends and family in the US, we are still reachable by sms texting, whatsapp, skype calls, and Facebook. 

Skype: henkjjo    Email: Henk.Oosterhuis@iteams.org
 US Phone and WhatsApp: 1.815.517.5807   NL Phone: +31638310233

LOGISTICS - MOVING - FINANCES - VISAS

The time is really coming soon! In order to meet our goal to move to Athens in September we need to be fully funded in one time set up costs and monthly pledges by September 10th so that we can have the correct paperwork completed and submitted by September 13th.

If we don't meet this deadline we will have to delay a month and so on.  
The timing of September is important because Allie has a 3 month visa for all of Europe. We can only apply for a residence permit once we are in Greece and if the process is not started and on its way before the 3 months are up in November, Allie will be required to leave all of Europe for 3 months before returning to try again. 

Since our last newsletter we've gone from 50% to 80% of our monthly costs! Our one time costs are now covered!

Thanks to all who have given generously!

We especially need people to commit to monthly partnership. Every little bit helps! 

*** We've been reminded by ITeams that many businesses will match donations. If you haven't already, check with the HR department at your job to find out if if they will match your gift!  ***

          Thank you and God Bless,

Allie and Henk

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