Hey Everyone,

I’m sick in my bed right now, the perfect time to finally write something again. And there’s some news since the last time. But first I’ll tell you what we’ve been up to since we got married. Right after our honeymoon, Amy and I set about preparing a new Bible school that would start less than two weeks later. In retrospect, we would probably do it differently, take it slower, maybe skip a round and get used to married life. Lesson learned. Everything doesn’t always have to go at full throttle. Well, but somehow we both work like that, one challenge is not enough and except on vacation there is no slow … Back to the new Bible school. Why new? Because nobody signed up for our full-time Bible school, but instead a church here in Tauranga asked whether we would do an evening school. Sure! We can do that! And within a few weeks, including weddings and honeymoon, we rewrite the curriculum to function as an evening school. I can tell you it is not that easy to pack 15 hours of teaching into a 1-hour unit. But it was a complete success, we had 27 students, 5 small groups and 9 sessions. In the 9 weeks we dealt with both Testaments and had teachings on every time periode of the Bible.

On the weekend after the last session, Amy and I went to friends in Taupo to take at least a few days of rest before we went to Wellington with 13 of our fellow staff. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and is located at the southernmost end of the North Island, thus connecting the North and South Island. I was here a few years ago when I took the ferry from Picton. The city is known for the incessant and biting cold wind. But that wasn’t why we came here. The reason for our 10 hour trip was the M / V YWAM Koha, which docked in Wellington harbor. The YWAM Koha is the newest ship in the Marine Reach Global ship fleet. As a medical ship, the YWAM Koha will soon go to the hard-to-reach islands in the South Pacific Ocean to care for people who have no opportunity to see a doctor. What is the ship doing in Wellington then? Well, it costs a lot of money to operate a medical ship and that’s why the YWAM Koha went to many ports in New Zealand to find sponsors. Why were you there? Although the Koha is operated by our neighboring base Furnace, it has a lot to do with our history as Marine Reach NZ. We came as a support and helped to have as many tours as possible on board for two weeks. At the end of the tour several thousand New Zealanders saw the ship, some doctors, dentists and nurses have agreed to voulenteer on the ship and have found enough sponsors for a whole year. In our spare time we prayed, evangelized, and worshiped for Wellington for hours.

For 27 months I helped with one school after the next, a total of 7 since January 2019, of which I have directed 2. That’s why I started helping out on our premises grounds after Wellington. The slightly slower pace is good for me and it’s fun to cut trees instead of sitting in front of my laptop all day and writing emails.

You are here on our new website. Yay! Welcome! Amy and I have had this website for a couple of weeks. What for? Our goal is to be able to publish our newsletters and so on in two languages. And for all who do not know us can get to know us.

Enough for today, I will hopefully get back to you soon.
Until then, be blessed
Silas