May 2023
Last week I received a phone call from our son David, who was in Cape Town with his girlfriend and about to fly to The Netherlands. He told me that his suitcase broke and he felt bad that we’d have to spend money on a new bag. I laughed and told him that breakage is a big possibility for a suitcase that served its purpose for over 20 years!
Since 2023 marks our 20 year anniversary, the suitcase occasion took me back in time. When we were about to start our missions journey we had to buy suitcases. We didn’t have any yet and I actually had never travelled by airplane before. We walked into a shop to get some advice on the different types of luggage one can buy. A couple who was also in that shop, overheard our conversation and when we walked out they told us that they wanted to donate their suitcases to us. We thought that this was a fantastic gesture and we experienced it as an encouragement from our Heavenly Father. The adventure we were about to start was quite a big and scary one and receiving an encouragement like this was very heartwarming.
At that time we didn’t have any idea of all the other miracles we were about to experience in the years to come. Seeing God at work like that filled us with awe and our respect for Him grew bigger and bigger. Yes, He is interested in us and wants to collaborate with us (and I mean everyone who was in any way involved in Victory4All over the years) to positively impact as many as possible children’s lives. We (still) don’t feel capable or worthy enough but God sees it differently.
When we drove to the given address to pick up the donated suitcases, later that day, we laughed when we found out what the surname of the people was; De Heer (The Lord)! This moved us to tears; we received suitcases from the Lord!