#24 - Important USA-Update

It was March 17th, 2020 …

When we posted a blog with the good news that our sending organization VPE-zending (The dutch version of AGWM) greenlighted us to leave for Pennsylvania in September. I didn't want to lose any time, so I started looking for plane tickets. In that same period, all the borders closed because of Covid19. The months after, we became very quiet on all the channels of Bakkers Beyond Borders. A lot happened behind the scenes, that we simply couldn't share yet. Now, we can and want to share this with you. Yesterday we posted this vlog on our social media:

With this blog, we want to summarize the vlog, so we're sure that all the info in it is clear. It also makes it possible for you to come back later to read it all over, without having to watch the whole vlog again. An important note about this blog is that we wrote everything down very factual, without describing our feelings and emotions and processes. It was super hard for us to describe it on film, let alone write it down. 

HERE GOES:

1. We had a green light and there was another couple that just moved to Pennsylvania because God called them to do go work at The Road Church too and we were almost good to leave September 8th. 

2. On the same day, without knowing this of each other, Ramon and I woke up with the feeling of not knowing whether we should still go and a missing of the responsibility we'd always had felt for the past 2,5 years. 

3. Very confused, we asked our core team to pray with us, and with them, we concluded that we were plan B and the other couple that had just arrived was plan A. Due to circumstances they didn't make it there a couple of years ago, after which we were called. But their circumstances changed and they managed to come anyway, with which the responsibility to go over and help was passed back unto them. 

4. In May of 2020, we made the final decision to know go to the USA, because we believe that following God where He sends us, also means to follow if He doesn't send anymore. 

5. After making this decision our core team and we started praying and talking about the question: What now? Because one thing we did know: the story wasn't over yet. 

This question we want to talk more about a little later this week. We'll do this with a new vlog, followed by a summary blog like this one the day after. 

For now, we need to thank you for your interest and believe in us. We know that it is and has been a very dynamic adventure, that's sometimes hard to keep track of. It is and has been for us too, which is why we took so much time to pray, talk, and think before we communicated any of it. Life as a missionary is never boring, but always beautiful and we love sharing this adventure with you! 

Then, to close this blog, one final thing, that didn’t make into the video. In the process of the past 2,5 years, there’s a lot of things that we have done wrong or misunderstood, which made it such a lengthy process. All of this is a learning process and that’s why we don’t feel like the past couple of years were a waste.

We’re also still learning in our communication with you guys. We’re young and stand at the beginning of our lives and falling and failing (fortunately) comes with that phase of life. Every time we mess up or if we figure out we messed up in hindsight, it makes us realize how great our God is. And at the end of the day it’s His Greatness we want to make known, also (and perhaps mainly) through our own failures! This is the reason why we try to share this process of falling and getting back up with you guys. Living with God isn’t always great, Christians aren’t perfect and shouldn't pretend like they are. For us, this means sharing the whole story, not just the successes. The risk of sharing this all is that we may come across incalculable or proud. We hope that you can see our hearts and that you’ll allow us to keep going through this learning process with you all!

Ook in onze communicatie met jullie zijn we nog steeds aan het leren. We zijn jong en staan nog maar aan het begin van ons leven en daar hoort op je gezicht gaan (gelukkig) ook bij. En elke keer als dat gebeurt of als we daar na een tijdje achterkomen, doet dat ons weer beseffen hoe groot onze God is. En uiteindelijk is het Zijn grootheid die we bekend willen maken. Ook (en misschien wel juist) door ons eigen falen heen! Dit is ook waarom we proberen dit hele proces van vallen en opstaan zo goed mogelijk met jullie te delen. Leven met God is niet alleen maar altijd super en christenen zijn niet perfect en moeten ook niet net doen alsof ze dat zijn. Daar hoort voor ons het laten zien het hele proces en niet alleen het succesverhaal bij. Het risico van dit alles delen is dat we soms wispelturig of hoogmoedig over kunnen komen. We hopen dat jullie zien wat ons hart is en dat we ook dit leerproces nog verder met jullie door mogen gaan.