2008-07-31 22:55:45
Safe & sound at Youth Hostle in Reykjavik. Much peace about what God is doing(blog). Please continue to pray for connection with at least one believer &health.J
2008-07-31 23:12:59.0 27828510614 -EK HAAL MY HOED AF VIR JOU, JANSIE EN EER VADER VIR D MANIER WAT HY VIR JOU LEI, VOORSIEN EN BYSTAAN!!SOO VER IN D WERELD KITTY, MAAR JANSIE HOU MOED,TROTSEER D ONBEKENDE + EENSAAMHEID... SJOE!!-TERWILLE V HAAR PROFETIESE DOEL-WIT... -EK LEER BAIIE BY JOU...!!!STERKTE, SEEN EN GUNS, + GOEIE GESONDHEID, + D REGTE GELOWIGES WAT JOU HART +VISIE SAL VERSTAAN, OM SAAM MEE TE BID+ FELLOWSHIP TE HE...!!!SHALOM, LIEFDE+GEBEDE, RIANA.XXX
Thursday, July 31, 2008
31/7 - Day 10: Greenland to Iceland
After a beautiful breakfast with Dan & Gudrun, I finished packing and wrote the blog entry about yesterday. My flight was at 12:00 and we had to leave the church at 10:45 to be in time for check-in. I had 2 hours to write and pack, and as usual I wrote too long, and was rushing madly to get everything ready to leave on time.
They brought coffee in a flask to the airport and after I checked in we hat a lot of time to enjoy a last bit of fellowship before I flew.Iceland air uses Dash 8-100s for their flights to Greenland. This tiny little craft became a place of suffering, because the air-pressure kept changing and all the half-solid fluid in my ears kept trying to readjust with terrible grating noises. As I sitting here my I half deaf.
I did not feel stressed anymore about not knowing what to expect in Iceland. It must be because of all the prayers that I found my faith strong enough to trust the Lord for the blessing He has for me. As I stretched my spirit towards what was waiting fro me on this Island, I became aware of a tremendous war going on in the heavenlies over this little place. one song of the fisher folk suddenly spoke to me - God has called you, he will not fail you. And Hillsongs'refrain - Jesus' blood never fails me seemed to paint a picture of a red tunnel of protection Im walking in.
After the painful landing I had to wait to disembark last because I my hand luggage had been stored right at the back of the plane. I was last to go through security, and they made me take off my shoes. When I had them on again they had already closed the security door behind the other passengers, and it took two guards about 5 minutes to get the door open for me again. I had a strong feeling that something was trying to delay may arrival.
After making my way through a very big and empty airport I came to the arrivals hall to discover that the flybus to town will depart in 15 minutes. I went out to the garden by the parking lot and did the border thing as the Lord directed in Qaanaaq. I felt that Iceland was a bit suspicious of me. When I came to the point of telling the gosple to the Island, I asked the Lord if Iceland was paying attention and He said it was. When i asked Iceland for the stones there seemed to be two responses. One was a proud an aloof reluctance but the other was a very grateful and almost deseperate YES. It was as if the stones themselves were ready and eager for the revelation of the sons of God, but something on them was not.
In the bus on the way to town we passed over about 50 km of mosscovered volcanic wasteland. Every now and them various forms of rock artworks were visable. In quite a few places there were things that looked like people in family groups made of crude rocks. I think the Icelanders have some special relationship with their rocks. This rock-related idolitry must be what I was feeling at the airport. Speaking to the Lord about it i felt that this is the reason it has been hard for me to get to the believers: He does not want them in this war right now, and much of what I have to do here will basically be done in secrecy.
I asked the Tourist info to call the youth hostle from the airport, but there was no answer. So the flybus brought me here, and praise God, there was still a little hole for me. So, Im sorted for the night and going to bed early. Ill look for the Gudrun who cant speak much English, but who can open the prayer house for me tomorrow. Then Tomorrow night I fly to the faroes!
Thank you SO MUCH for all your love and prayers! I know you are here with me in the spirit!
---------------
The Reykjavik Youth Hostle was a very safe place for me in what felt like a somewhat hostile environment. After I blogged the previous entry I had a dinner consisting of a Vital Biomeal shake I brought from home and some of the Mash that I found in the ‘Left for other guests to use’ container in the member’s kitchen. I was very tired, my ears were blocked and I sick and felt lonely.
The room was a dorm with 3 bunkbeds and an ensuit bath-room. Just after I changed for bed a man came in and started going through his bag that was already on the bed next to mine. In this way I discovered that it was a unisex hostle – I guess I should have known. Not that its a very big problem, its just that it somehow takes more emotional energy to stay happy in a room with men from Portugal, France, Korea and a couple from Down-under. I just climbed into my upper-level corner, curled up and slept. And I slept very well...
They brought coffee in a flask to the airport and after I checked in we hat a lot of time to enjoy a last bit of fellowship before I flew.Iceland air uses Dash 8-100s for their flights to Greenland. This tiny little craft became a place of suffering, because the air-pressure kept changing and all the half-solid fluid in my ears kept trying to readjust with terrible grating noises. As I sitting here my I half deaf.
I did not feel stressed anymore about not knowing what to expect in Iceland. It must be because of all the prayers that I found my faith strong enough to trust the Lord for the blessing He has for me. As I stretched my spirit towards what was waiting fro me on this Island, I became aware of a tremendous war going on in the heavenlies over this little place. one song of the fisher folk suddenly spoke to me - God has called you, he will not fail you. And Hillsongs'refrain - Jesus' blood never fails me seemed to paint a picture of a red tunnel of protection Im walking in.
After the painful landing I had to wait to disembark last because I my hand luggage had been stored right at the back of the plane. I was last to go through security, and they made me take off my shoes. When I had them on again they had already closed the security door behind the other passengers, and it took two guards about 5 minutes to get the door open for me again. I had a strong feeling that something was trying to delay may arrival.
After making my way through a very big and empty airport I came to the arrivals hall to discover that the flybus to town will depart in 15 minutes. I went out to the garden by the parking lot and did the border thing as the Lord directed in Qaanaaq. I felt that Iceland was a bit suspicious of me. When I came to the point of telling the gosple to the Island, I asked the Lord if Iceland was paying attention and He said it was. When i asked Iceland for the stones there seemed to be two responses. One was a proud an aloof reluctance but the other was a very grateful and almost deseperate YES. It was as if the stones themselves were ready and eager for the revelation of the sons of God, but something on them was not.
In the bus on the way to town we passed over about 50 km of mosscovered volcanic wasteland. Every now and them various forms of rock artworks were visable. In quite a few places there were things that looked like people in family groups made of crude rocks. I think the Icelanders have some special relationship with their rocks. This rock-related idolitry must be what I was feeling at the airport. Speaking to the Lord about it i felt that this is the reason it has been hard for me to get to the believers: He does not want them in this war right now, and much of what I have to do here will basically be done in secrecy.
I asked the Tourist info to call the youth hostle from the airport, but there was no answer. So the flybus brought me here, and praise God, there was still a little hole for me. So, Im sorted for the night and going to bed early. Ill look for the Gudrun who cant speak much English, but who can open the prayer house for me tomorrow. Then Tomorrow night I fly to the faroes!
Thank you SO MUCH for all your love and prayers! I know you are here with me in the spirit!
---------------
The Reykjavik Youth Hostle was a very safe place for me in what felt like a somewhat hostile environment. After I blogged the previous entry I had a dinner consisting of a Vital Biomeal shake I brought from home and some of the Mash that I found in the ‘Left for other guests to use’ container in the member’s kitchen. I was very tired, my ears were blocked and I sick and felt lonely.
The room was a dorm with 3 bunkbeds and an ensuit bath-room. Just after I changed for bed a man came in and started going through his bag that was already on the bed next to mine. In this way I discovered that it was a unisex hostle – I guess I should have known. Not that its a very big problem, its just that it somehow takes more emotional energy to stay happy in a room with men from Portugal, France, Korea and a couple from Down-under. I just climbed into my upper-level corner, curled up and slept. And I slept very well...
SMS 10
2008-07-31 14:47:20
Feeling much better today.Have hope&faith that Lord has beautiful thing planned for Iceland.To airport now.Goodbye& God bless Greenland!Thanx for your prayers!J
Feeling much better today.Have hope&faith that Lord has beautiful thing planned for Iceland.To airport now.Goodbye& God bless Greenland!Thanx for your prayers!J
30/7 – Day 9: Nuuk
After breakfast with Kurt and Liz we went to the airport where I checked in and they waited with me until I had to board the flight. They had blessed me in som many ways, both physically and in my heart. Liz and I could pray briefly befor I left, and I enjoyed the way the Holy Spirit binds us together even though we face language difficulties.
The flight to Nuuk went via Kangerlusuak and my thick head did not appreciate the change in air preasure. I started fearing that I may be getting middle ear infection, but the Lord told me not to worry, and to trust Him for my health. I found a little spot in the sun on one of the comfy couches in the departure hall and snoozed for an hour until we had to leave for Nuuk.
In Nuuk Dan and Gudrun were at the airport to meet me. On the way home from the airport they stopped allong the road to show me something they noticed onle the day before: on the top of a little hill in front of what must be a factory building of sorts there was a South African flag raised next to the Greenlandic flag. I agreed with them that this was somehow significant. I have such a strong feeling that the relationship of mutual blessing between SA and Greenland will grow in the years to come.
They had waited for me for lunch and I could enjoy a Danish bread meal again with all the jams and cheeses and cold meats on hearty health bread. I talked non-stop about everything I experienced up north. I guess it was like a kind of a debriefing.
The church in nuuk has prayer meetings every Wednesday evening, and they had suggested to the leader of the evening, also a man named Aqqaluk, that I may share about my journey at the meeting. He was expected to join us for dinner at 6pm and the meeting was at 7. In the afternoon I had some time to rest and email and wonder about Iceland.
At dinner Aqqaluk shared about how the Lord showed him that His desire is to bless us a good Father. As I listened to him I was challenged by the Spirit about my lack of faith in God’s good intentions towards me. I had been seeing myself sleeping on the airport in Iceland and I wasn’t looking forward to the prospect at all. The Lord started telling me to trust Him for the fullness of His giving Father heart, for Iceland, for my healing and for the whole journey.
At the meeting Aqqaluk also opened with a word about our relation to God as our father, and his desire to bless us. When he called me I shared briefly about the way in which the earth is desiring us to stand in this very relationship to the Father, to be revealed to creation as His sons, and bring His blessing to creation. I did not have time to explain the detail of the journey or the importance of the role of the people at the ends of the earth, but even while I was speaking a little old lady went out, got a stone and brought it ot me where I was standing on the little stage. The Spirit did His part and I believe Nuuk understood. They then prayed for me with the leaders around me putting their hands on my head. As I stood there I received by faith the fullness of all the blessing and the healing that the Lord wants to give me.
After the meeting and some evening coffee I returned to the sanctuary to read the book of Revelations to Greenland. It was the first time I ever did it in one sitting and it was an amazing experience. There is so much urgency and hope in it.
Before I started I thanked the Lord for the book and asked that His Soirit would help everye created thing in Greenland that needs to hear the words of this book to hear it as I speak it. As I finished I could feel the hope of the Church in Greenland. There was an almost touchable sense that every thing was eccoing the Amen, Come Lord Jesus.
The flight to Nuuk went via Kangerlusuak and my thick head did not appreciate the change in air preasure. I started fearing that I may be getting middle ear infection, but the Lord told me not to worry, and to trust Him for my health. I found a little spot in the sun on one of the comfy couches in the departure hall and snoozed for an hour until we had to leave for Nuuk.
In Nuuk Dan and Gudrun were at the airport to meet me. On the way home from the airport they stopped allong the road to show me something they noticed onle the day before: on the top of a little hill in front of what must be a factory building of sorts there was a South African flag raised next to the Greenlandic flag. I agreed with them that this was somehow significant. I have such a strong feeling that the relationship of mutual blessing between SA and Greenland will grow in the years to come.
They had waited for me for lunch and I could enjoy a Danish bread meal again with all the jams and cheeses and cold meats on hearty health bread. I talked non-stop about everything I experienced up north. I guess it was like a kind of a debriefing.
The church in nuuk has prayer meetings every Wednesday evening, and they had suggested to the leader of the evening, also a man named Aqqaluk, that I may share about my journey at the meeting. He was expected to join us for dinner at 6pm and the meeting was at 7. In the afternoon I had some time to rest and email and wonder about Iceland.
At dinner Aqqaluk shared about how the Lord showed him that His desire is to bless us a good Father. As I listened to him I was challenged by the Spirit about my lack of faith in God’s good intentions towards me. I had been seeing myself sleeping on the airport in Iceland and I wasn’t looking forward to the prospect at all. The Lord started telling me to trust Him for the fullness of His giving Father heart, for Iceland, for my healing and for the whole journey.
At the meeting Aqqaluk also opened with a word about our relation to God as our father, and his desire to bless us. When he called me I shared briefly about the way in which the earth is desiring us to stand in this very relationship to the Father, to be revealed to creation as His sons, and bring His blessing to creation. I did not have time to explain the detail of the journey or the importance of the role of the people at the ends of the earth, but even while I was speaking a little old lady went out, got a stone and brought it ot me where I was standing on the little stage. The Spirit did His part and I believe Nuuk understood. They then prayed for me with the leaders around me putting their hands on my head. As I stood there I received by faith the fullness of all the blessing and the healing that the Lord wants to give me.
After the meeting and some evening coffee I returned to the sanctuary to read the book of Revelations to Greenland. It was the first time I ever did it in one sitting and it was an amazing experience. There is so much urgency and hope in it.
Before I started I thanked the Lord for the book and asked that His Soirit would help everye created thing in Greenland that needs to hear the words of this book to hear it as I speak it. As I finished I could feel the hope of the Church in Greenland. There was an almost touchable sense that every thing was eccoing the Amen, Come Lord Jesus.
SMS 9
2008-07-30 21:12:43
Pls pray for time of sharing at meeting in Nuuk tonight+my health& strength.In iceland they'll open Prayer House for me.Now only need Icelander to pray with.J
2008-07-30 07:27:42.0 27827845465 Ek hoop als ga goed ons het gtrek + alles lyk goed God is GROOT +magtig bid vi jou + vou jou toe met Abba liefde in my hart x elsa
2008-07-30 21:14:08.0 27836331919 Maak so jancie
2008-07-31 The Lord said He would answer requests quickly, 1st yr health, then His plan 4 Iceland. Lovu, appreciate yr love for His things!
Pls pray for time of sharing at meeting in Nuuk tonight+my health& strength.In iceland they'll open Prayer House for me.Now only need Icelander to pray with.J
2008-07-30 07:27:42.0 27827845465 Ek hoop als ga goed ons het gtrek + alles lyk goed God is GROOT +magtig bid vi jou + vou jou toe met Abba liefde in my hart x elsa
2008-07-30 21:14:08.0 27836331919 Maak so jancie
2008-07-31 The Lord said He would answer requests quickly, 1st yr health, then His plan 4 Iceland. Lovu, appreciate yr love for His things!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Please pray! Iceland
I only have one more day in Greenland before I fly to Iceland on 31/7. I still do not have a contact there. For some reason the door that seemed open is now closed. I do not have a plan, but I know He has. Please that His perfect will be done, and that I have faith to wait for Him, and not miss him by doing things in my own strength.
Please also pray that this cold will go away…
Please also pray that this cold will go away…
Ilulissat's blessing
The flight arrived early in Ilulissat and I waited about 5 minutes for Kurt and Liz to come. Against the more arid north Ilulissat is almost a lush paradise of green. It was good to be back in the same place as I was 2 weeks ago. I could feel a dramatic change in the way I looked at everything in Ilulissat. The time in the north has allowed Greenland to touch me and change me. I have grown in love, understanding and respect for this nation and its people.
After we had some coffee, I took their advice and went to bed for an hour while they fixed dinner. They had invited a couple of the leaders of the congregation to eat with us and were expecting them at 7pm. I managed to sleep but this cold-like thing in my nose and ears is still bothering a bit. Please pray for me for health.
The leader couple came and we ate and then Liz suggested that I tell them what I’m doing. Kind Kurt had to interpret again, and he did a very good job. After my time of sharing in Upernavik I was also confident of what these leaders was finding in their translations of the scriptures as I was pointing them out to them. I also emphasised to them the importance of the scriptures about the people’s at the ends of the earth for the people of Greenland. They received the word, and accepted my submission to their authority as God’s priests here in Greenland. They also agreed to give me a stone and to bless me on my way.
We went to there house for coffee after dinner where we met there children, and shared a bit about the issues facing the church in Greenland. Then the man took his guitar and they lead in Greenlandic worship after which they prayed for me and gave me a stone along with a little red sealskin pouch for the stones from Greenland.
The Lord is very Good!
After we had some coffee, I took their advice and went to bed for an hour while they fixed dinner. They had invited a couple of the leaders of the congregation to eat with us and were expecting them at 7pm. I managed to sleep but this cold-like thing in my nose and ears is still bothering a bit. Please pray for me for health.
The leader couple came and we ate and then Liz suggested that I tell them what I’m doing. Kind Kurt had to interpret again, and he did a very good job. After my time of sharing in Upernavik I was also confident of what these leaders was finding in their translations of the scriptures as I was pointing them out to them. I also emphasised to them the importance of the scriptures about the people’s at the ends of the earth for the people of Greenland. They received the word, and accepted my submission to their authority as God’s priests here in Greenland. They also agreed to give me a stone and to bless me on my way.
We went to there house for coffee after dinner where we met there children, and shared a bit about the issues facing the church in Greenland. Then the man took his guitar and they lead in Greenlandic worship after which they prayed for me and gave me a stone along with a little red sealskin pouch for the stones from Greenland.
The Lord is very Good!
29/7 – Day 8: Goodbye Upernavik
This morning I packed and finished the blog entries for Upernavik on Nuunu’s computer with the English spell check, before I ran down to Aqqaluk’s office to update the blog from Upernavik’s local radio station’s computer for one last time. While there Aqqaluk told me that his European ancestors were originally of Jewish decent. I told him that if he had told me this before I would have given him a much harder time in terms of making him listen to some explanations I should have liked to give him. As it turned out there was no time left for that now so the Lord will have to show him in His own time.
Nayara came to the station and we walked up the mountain to have lunch before I go to the airport. On arrival at their home we found Heldora there waiting to greet me. We all ate some of Miki’s birthday cake in his absence – his Kaffemik is tonight, I took a few last pictures of Heldora with the earrings and Nuunu with the oilskin jacket I had given her. I had to say goodbye to Aqqaluk there because he had to go back to the office, and then Heldora drove Nuunu, Nayara and me to the airport.
Heldora waited until I checked in and then she went to work saying she would be back before I fly. Nuunu and I found a nice spot on the side of the mountain near the airport and drank coffee she brought in a flask while we waited for my time to board. We had a good time discussing all the amazing things the Lord has done this week, and when we returned to the airport we found Aqqadu, Heldora’s husband waiting there for us. We sat in the almost hot sun until all the arriving passengers got their luggage and left the building. Then to our surprise they started boarding the flight almost 20 minutes early. We greeted in a hurry and I went through the gate, and when I looked back from the landing strip to where they would stand next to the building Heldora was back with them. I rushed back and kissed her through the fence, took a few more pictures of them on the other side of the fence and then I boarded. I could not see them from where I sat, but when the plane took off I could see Nuunu still standing there next to the airport building.
As I sit here now, my heart is paining. I think I’m really in love with Upernavik and its people. This whole 6 days there was such a blessing! I am so looking forward to see how the Lord will grow them.
Nayara came to the station and we walked up the mountain to have lunch before I go to the airport. On arrival at their home we found Heldora there waiting to greet me. We all ate some of Miki’s birthday cake in his absence – his Kaffemik is tonight, I took a few last pictures of Heldora with the earrings and Nuunu with the oilskin jacket I had given her. I had to say goodbye to Aqqaluk there because he had to go back to the office, and then Heldora drove Nuunu, Nayara and me to the airport.
Heldora waited until I checked in and then she went to work saying she would be back before I fly. Nuunu and I found a nice spot on the side of the mountain near the airport and drank coffee she brought in a flask while we waited for my time to board. We had a good time discussing all the amazing things the Lord has done this week, and when we returned to the airport we found Aqqadu, Heldora’s husband waiting there for us. We sat in the almost hot sun until all the arriving passengers got their luggage and left the building. Then to our surprise they started boarding the flight almost 20 minutes early. We greeted in a hurry and I went through the gate, and when I looked back from the landing strip to where they would stand next to the building Heldora was back with them. I rushed back and kissed her through the fence, took a few more pictures of them on the other side of the fence and then I boarded. I could not see them from where I sat, but when the plane took off I could see Nuunu still standing there next to the airport building.
As I sit here now, my heart is paining. I think I’m really in love with Upernavik and its people. This whole 6 days there was such a blessing! I am so looking forward to see how the Lord will grow them.
SMS 8
2008-07-29 16:46:39.0
Mindblowingly wonderful time with the Inuit believers of Upernavik.Inlove with Greenland for life.Blogged. Now to Ilulissat.Pray for health&contact in Iceland!J
2008-07-29 16:48:16.0 27827529994 Ons bid v veilige reis. Geniet elke oomblik daarvan. X
2008-07-29 17:12:23.0 27825357656 Father i pray Mark 4:20 for Iceland! Voel so n teer liefde va Vader vi bruid va Groenland
2008-07-29 19:58:33.0 27839590863 Jansie, "jy sal jou voet teen geen klip stamp nie". Ek bid v gesheid en kontak uit Sy hand T Ron
28/7 - Day 7: Kaffemiks and the bride
Still struggling with the sore throat that wants to go into a cold or something, I blogged a bit on the spellcheckless computer at Aqqaluk’s office in the morning. Nuunu met us there at around 4pm and together we went to 2 kaffemiks. I did not know there were two lined up, and was only told this after my second slice of cake at the first one. Nuunu wasn’t planning to cook fir dinner and when we found whale and seal stews on offer at the second Kaffemik she encouraged me to eat enough. When we were done at the second Kaffemik I realised that Heldora never called me as she said she would and since I had a gift for her I greeted Nuunu and made my way to Heldora’s. I arrived there just in time to sit down with her family for dinner consisting for fried bacon and whale, vedgies and potatoes. I felt like Greenland was making a concerted effort to fatten me up for the way ahead.
Their 16 year old son was present and very graciously helped with the translation. After dinner I told them that I was sent by my church at the wedding of one of our members. At this wedding a lady gave me ear studs of intricate diamond-like stones set in the shape of a snowflake or a star for the journey. I had been asking the Lord what to do with them and I felt I should give them to Heldora. She represents the bride of Christ in Greenland, and the studs speak of the light the bride brings in this land of snow. I also gave them a little bottle of Irene’s Henna & Hyssop Oil and explained that it reminds of the bride’s cleansing through the blood of Jesus and the intimacy that follows the cleansing. They were blessed and we had tears in our eyes when I left.
Their 16 year old son was present and very graciously helped with the translation. After dinner I told them that I was sent by my church at the wedding of one of our members. At this wedding a lady gave me ear studs of intricate diamond-like stones set in the shape of a snowflake or a star for the journey. I had been asking the Lord what to do with them and I felt I should give them to Heldora. She represents the bride of Christ in Greenland, and the studs speak of the light the bride brings in this land of snow. I also gave them a little bottle of Irene’s Henna & Hyssop Oil and explained that it reminds of the bride’s cleansing through the blood of Jesus and the intimacy that follows the cleansing. They were blessed and we had tears in our eyes when I left.
27/7 - Day 6: The meeting of believers
After a very relaxed day of much resting to try and get rid of a sudden sore thought that struck during the night last night, Nuunu and I went to Heldora and Akadu’s house for their weekly meeting. The group did not have meetings during the summer vacation so far and this was the first meeting they had in about a month. When about 15 people were together they started with Greenlandic worship that Heldora led. Many of the songs they sang they have composed themselves and it was very beautiful.
After the worship they gave me some time to explain what I’m about. Nuunu and I had gone through it very thoroughly in the morning to make sure she understood everything, that the scriptures say similar things in their Bible and that I would not be using concepts that she could not translate. She did a great job, and the group understood us clearly. When I told them about the prophecies about the people at the ends of the earth I could feel the Holy Spirit’s presence strongly. This group is very new, and they feel timid and insignificant, but the Lord wants to use them, not only to bless their town and nation, but also the other nations in the world and Israel. As we shared about this more and more I could sense the witness in their spirits. They received this word by faith, even though their minds struggled to believe it, and I am looking forward to seeing them grow, and for the Light of Upernavik to be visible even in Africa.
They were also happy to give me a stone from their town, and they prayed for me and blessed me on my way.
After the worship they gave me some time to explain what I’m about. Nuunu and I had gone through it very thoroughly in the morning to make sure she understood everything, that the scriptures say similar things in their Bible and that I would not be using concepts that she could not translate. She did a great job, and the group understood us clearly. When I told them about the prophecies about the people at the ends of the earth I could feel the Holy Spirit’s presence strongly. This group is very new, and they feel timid and insignificant, but the Lord wants to use them, not only to bless their town and nation, but also the other nations in the world and Israel. As we shared about this more and more I could sense the witness in their spirits. They received this word by faith, even though their minds struggled to believe it, and I am looking forward to seeing them grow, and for the Light of Upernavik to be visible even in Africa.
They were also happy to give me a stone from their town, and they prayed for me and blessed me on my way.
26/7 - Day 5: Whale fat and a lot of love
Nuunu and I went to Heldora and Akadu, the leaders of the little congregation’s house for what I thought would be coffee. When we got there we were received warmly and taken to the table almost immediately, where we sat down to a meal of Greenlandic food: dried seal, half-dried unsalted cod, salted but very raw looking other fish with a redder meat, and raw whale fat. The whale fat looks like spotted grey marble with a layer of pink flesh attached to it. This flesh is supposed to be very nutricious and one of the main sources of vitamins the old Inuit had. I tried everything and the fish was very good, I could stomach the seal with the help of some Aromat, but the whale was a bit much and I did not manage more than a mouth full. After the meal we had coffee and home backed cake. This in itself was very good, but in combination with the meal my digestive system was really surprised and a bit unhappy with my lack of caution.
Apart from the culinary challenges the meeting with Heldora and Akadu was very blessed and I came away fulle of love and wonder about the goodness of God. Nuunu was nervous that she would have to translate, because she did not feel sure of her English, and they speak very little English, but she did very well, and more than once testified that the holy Spirit must be translating because Heldora and Akadu and I would be repeating each other’s thoughts almost word by word without knowing what the other had said. They invited me to share about what I’m doing at their meeting the next day.
Apart from the culinary challenges the meeting with Heldora and Akadu was very blessed and I came away fulle of love and wonder about the goodness of God. Nuunu was nervous that she would have to translate, because she did not feel sure of her English, and they speak very little English, but she did very well, and more than once testified that the holy Spirit must be translating because Heldora and Akadu and I would be repeating each other’s thoughts almost word by word without knowing what the other had said. They invited me to share about what I’m doing at their meeting the next day.
25/7 - Day 4: A day in the life…
With the sun never really going down being here feels like living in a long day with many little naps along the way. Nuunu took leave from work to be able to host the Kaffemik but today she had to be back on her post. She is a teacher at one of the schools in town and even though it is summer holiday she has to go in to do some of the administrative jobs. After a very leisurely breakfast she trotted down the hill to be at her office at 9am. Aqqaluk did some of the household chores, like hanging out the clean washing, and then we went to his office where I spent a happy few hours on the internet. Somewhere in the bright afternoon we went home for lunch, and then we all had a nap. We had dinner after 9pm and then we went for a walk. On returning we sat at the kitchen table drinking coffee and eating cake until long after 1pm.
During all the times of sitting we had the most interesting discussions. Both Aqqaluk and Nuunu speak English well, and I was thankful to be able to ask them all the questions about Greenland and the people here that have been building up since I arrived here. They have a deep awareness of the past and present strengths and challenges faced by their people. Aqqaluk had been to Canada and Alaska and has a wide understanding of issues faced by the Inuit around the Arctic. We also spent many hours contemplating similarities between the cultures here and in South Africa and issues that arise in the process of development and globalisation. I really feel that there is a something that the Lord is preparing in the Inuit that will bless the whole world but especially places like Africa who are facing many of the same problems.
During all the times of sitting we had the most interesting discussions. Both Aqqaluk and Nuunu speak English well, and I was thankful to be able to ask them all the questions about Greenland and the people here that have been building up since I arrived here. They have a deep awareness of the past and present strengths and challenges faced by their people. Aqqaluk had been to Canada and Alaska and has a wide understanding of issues faced by the Inuit around the Arctic. We also spent many hours contemplating similarities between the cultures here and in South Africa and issues that arise in the process of development and globalisation. I really feel that there is a something that the Lord is preparing in the Inuit that will bless the whole world but especially places like Africa who are facing many of the same problems.
24/7 - Day 3: Internet and Kaffemiks
After a brief repose I woke up to go with Aqqaluk to his office at the local radio station to use the internet there to update the blog and catch up on some emails. The rest of that day was spent discovering the intricacies of Greenlandic birthday celebrations. The birthday girl got dressed in her traditional suit: a mix of seal skin, beads and beautiful embroidery. She opened the gifts her parents gave her, including a cell phone and a pink Barbie bike, and then all the family and friends started coming for coffee and cake. They did it in quite an organised fashion with never more than 10 guests at a time. When you had your coffee and a chat you leave when the next guests arrive. All the porcelain in the house was being used and washed and used and washed over and over. I did my little share of the washing-up and took a nap or two during the afternoon and evening to try and catch up on last nights lack of sleep. It was an amazing day of free and easy hospitality that seemed to have no end.
Upernavik
Upernavik is built on a little island (I guess about 2square kilometres) halfway up the western coast of Greenland. Its name means ‘place where we go in the spring’ and it was the spring hunting grounds of the old Inuit tribes who lived in the area. The first missionaries who came to Greenland to bring the gospel did not realise the extent to which the people where nomadic, and when they found a sizable community on this little island they built a mission here. They soon discovered that the Inuit moved away during the winter months, leaving the missionaries to battle out the North-Atlantic winter on their own. The European businessmen and whalers then started using Upernavik as a base, and the five little buildings that remain from that time remind strongly of 18th century European carpentry.
Upernavik is currently home to 1200, and not that many dogs. The town covers about a quarter of the island, but since the island is like a little mountain rising out of the water, they have built up most of the habitable spaces leaving only the cliffs on the eastern side untouched. One of the most amazing features of modern Upernavik is the airport which is built on top of the highest point on the island. They literally flattened the peak of the mountain and raised up enough earth around it to accommodate a runway. This rather unsightly feat of engineering is visible from most places in the town, but it has also confirmed Upernavik’s regional prominence. The other 1800 people living in little settlements on other islands in the area all make there way to Upernavik by boat or dog-sleighs to do most of their business here.
Our flight from Thule arrived with a heart stopping landing on the little eagle’s perch airport on the hill-top. As I set my feet on the tarmac I looked to see if I could recognise Julianne, and indeed, there she was waving to me on the other side of the fence. In the full little arrival hall I was greeted with open hearts and big smiles and I was introduced to many people, all of whom seemed to be related to Julianne – or Nunu as I was now told she is actually called at home – in some way or another.
I was put in a car and taken down and around to the other side to the highest little house on the hill. I don’t know how these quaint little homes can be so spacious and comfortable inside, from the outside they don’t seem bigger than dolls houses – but this may be an optical illusion caused by the happy blues, yellows, reds and greens that they are painted.
Juliana or Nuunu is married to Karl or Aqqaluk. Their youngest son and daughter Miki and Nayara are still at home. I was shown to my room – my hosts home office that he graciously evacuated for me – and after settling in we walked down the hill to the supermarket in town. Nunu had to get the ingredients for the 7 cakes she had to bake that night for Najara’s 7th birthday celebration the next day. A taxi brought us back up the hill with all the purchases, and while Nunu backed I used her laptop to type up the blog entries about the opening Highway at the dining room table. This took me most of the night, and I went to bed just as they woke up at 5am to wish Nayara a happy birthday.
Upernavik is currently home to 1200, and not that many dogs. The town covers about a quarter of the island, but since the island is like a little mountain rising out of the water, they have built up most of the habitable spaces leaving only the cliffs on the eastern side untouched. One of the most amazing features of modern Upernavik is the airport which is built on top of the highest point on the island. They literally flattened the peak of the mountain and raised up enough earth around it to accommodate a runway. This rather unsightly feat of engineering is visible from most places in the town, but it has also confirmed Upernavik’s regional prominence. The other 1800 people living in little settlements on other islands in the area all make there way to Upernavik by boat or dog-sleighs to do most of their business here.
Our flight from Thule arrived with a heart stopping landing on the little eagle’s perch airport on the hill-top. As I set my feet on the tarmac I looked to see if I could recognise Julianne, and indeed, there she was waving to me on the other side of the fence. In the full little arrival hall I was greeted with open hearts and big smiles and I was introduced to many people, all of whom seemed to be related to Julianne – or Nunu as I was now told she is actually called at home – in some way or another.
I was put in a car and taken down and around to the other side to the highest little house on the hill. I don’t know how these quaint little homes can be so spacious and comfortable inside, from the outside they don’t seem bigger than dolls houses – but this may be an optical illusion caused by the happy blues, yellows, reds and greens that they are painted.
Juliana or Nuunu is married to Karl or Aqqaluk. Their youngest son and daughter Miki and Nayara are still at home. I was shown to my room – my hosts home office that he graciously evacuated for me – and after settling in we walked down the hill to the supermarket in town. Nunu had to get the ingredients for the 7 cakes she had to bake that night for Najara’s 7th birthday celebration the next day. A taxi brought us back up the hill with all the purchases, and while Nunu backed I used her laptop to type up the blog entries about the opening Highway at the dining room table. This took me most of the night, and I went to bed just as they woke up at 5am to wish Nayara a happy birthday.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Day 2: Goodbuy Qaanaaq – Thule
Goodbuy Qaanaaq
Early on my last morning in Qaanaaq the Danish plumber arrived to sort out the pipe. I packed and cleaned and thanked God once more for the awesome time I had there, and by the time I was finished the plumber was done. I also wanted to take out my last toilet bag and leave the house with a clean one in place, and as I was sitting on the toilet the last time I heard steps coming up the stairs outside the house and a man walked straight into the bathroom just as I pulled up my pants. He took the bag with a friendly smile and disappeared. I don’t know if he was Iidu’s friend, but for all I know he was an angel. I was very thankful for not having to deal with this matter.
My flight was at 1pm but Iidu arranged that I would be picked up at 10am. I’m not sure why she felt this was better, but I was thankful and ready for her when she came at 10:45. I gave her a card I have written for her, and she gave me a little pressent she had wrapped. We exchanged our wordless appreciation and then we went to the airport. It was almost as gloomy a day as the day that I arrived, and we both cried when we said goodbuy at the airport. I watched as the car disappeared over the furthest hill in a little whisp of dust. Love grows fast in the dessolate places of the Earth.
I was the first passenger and waited a while for check in to open ar around 11:30. The other passengers and the people waiting for people on the incomming flight started filling the little room, and almost all the young people I had met during the week – Iidu’s sister’s daugters – were there. I was glad to be able to greet them. The incomming flight finally arrived at 12:30 and I could quickly meet Tukkumeq and her family. I gave her ‘Heaven is so real’ and a card with a report on all the praying I did for the different people and things I felt she might want to follow up on. I was especially concerned that there may have been misunderstandings, and I just wanted her to check what they came away from the meetings with. We greeted briefly and they left with the lift that came for them.
Thule
Thule is one of Greenland’s biggest sources of income, since they rent its top-security airbase to the US government at an astronomical yearly amount. I did not know that we were going via Thule, and I was very glad to hear the announcement. Thule featured in the book that I read in 1996 ‘Miss Smilla’s feeling for snow’ - my first introduction to modern Greenland. It had an aura of suspence in my immagination and the whole time I was in Qaanaaq I was kind of sorry that I would not be able to go to Thule only 60km away. I was already preparing my little blurp to beg the airhostess to let me off to get a stone, when we were all told to get off for refeuling. The big runway dwarfed the little group of passengers, as they rushed us into the airport building through the biting wind. The scene was appropriately bleak and sterile. As we waited with 4 guards around us to return to the aircraft, the Lord showed me that there is an active little group of believers there whom He loves very much. On the way back to the plane I got a stone and thanked the Lord!
Early on my last morning in Qaanaaq the Danish plumber arrived to sort out the pipe. I packed and cleaned and thanked God once more for the awesome time I had there, and by the time I was finished the plumber was done. I also wanted to take out my last toilet bag and leave the house with a clean one in place, and as I was sitting on the toilet the last time I heard steps coming up the stairs outside the house and a man walked straight into the bathroom just as I pulled up my pants. He took the bag with a friendly smile and disappeared. I don’t know if he was Iidu’s friend, but for all I know he was an angel. I was very thankful for not having to deal with this matter.
My flight was at 1pm but Iidu arranged that I would be picked up at 10am. I’m not sure why she felt this was better, but I was thankful and ready for her when she came at 10:45. I gave her a card I have written for her, and she gave me a little pressent she had wrapped. We exchanged our wordless appreciation and then we went to the airport. It was almost as gloomy a day as the day that I arrived, and we both cried when we said goodbuy at the airport. I watched as the car disappeared over the furthest hill in a little whisp of dust. Love grows fast in the dessolate places of the Earth.
I was the first passenger and waited a while for check in to open ar around 11:30. The other passengers and the people waiting for people on the incomming flight started filling the little room, and almost all the young people I had met during the week – Iidu’s sister’s daugters – were there. I was glad to be able to greet them. The incomming flight finally arrived at 12:30 and I could quickly meet Tukkumeq and her family. I gave her ‘Heaven is so real’ and a card with a report on all the praying I did for the different people and things I felt she might want to follow up on. I was especially concerned that there may have been misunderstandings, and I just wanted her to check what they came away from the meetings with. We greeted briefly and they left with the lift that came for them.
Thule
Thule is one of Greenland’s biggest sources of income, since they rent its top-security airbase to the US government at an astronomical yearly amount. I did not know that we were going via Thule, and I was very glad to hear the announcement. Thule featured in the book that I read in 1996 ‘Miss Smilla’s feeling for snow’ - my first introduction to modern Greenland. It had an aura of suspence in my immagination and the whole time I was in Qaanaaq I was kind of sorry that I would not be able to go to Thule only 60km away. I was already preparing my little blurp to beg the airhostess to let me off to get a stone, when we were all told to get off for refeuling. The big runway dwarfed the little group of passengers, as they rushed us into the airport building through the biting wind. The scene was appropriately bleak and sterile. As we waited with 4 guards around us to return to the aircraft, the Lord showed me that there is an active little group of believers there whom He loves very much. On the way back to the plane I got a stone and thanked the Lord!
Day 1: The destroyer and the 40 stones
On the early morning of 22/7, after I returned from the icecap I filled the little plastic bath with hot water and tried to ensure that my muscles get their best chance at avoiding being stiff for a week. In the still bright day light I slept for a few hours and woke up feeling fresher than expected.
When I woke up I started noticing a strange hissing sound in the little room where the central heating and the water tank is kept. More activity than usual on the water pump made me uneasy, but looking as I might, I could not see anything wrong.
Around 10 am a quiet and resereved couple knocked at the door. Iidu had told the wife that she should come and speak to me, and since she doesn’t speak English, she brought her husband to translate. I offered them tea, as I did baffledly with all the baffled guests that had come during the week. They accepted and when we sat down the husband explained that his wife had lost 3 babies in advanced stages of her pregnancy and she was pregnant again now. She wanted to know from me if the baby would live or not.
Throughout what became a typical councelling session (involving some repentance, deliverance and prayer for healing and restoration) I was wondering what this was saying about the Highway? The opening of the Highway is declared and within less than 10 hours I’m facing something that destroys new life before it can take its first breath. We ended the time of prayer by her giving the baby to the Lord like Hannah, Samuel’s mother. She commited to come and speak to Tukkumeq, when she is back next week, and to seek Jesus as her saviour. Please pray for them, and the baby, that the Lord would turn this situation for the glory of their name.
When they left I went to the tourist info office where I spent 2,5 hours updating the blog, but not actually managing to write about the Highway at all. On returning to the house the hissing sound was louder. I had a brief nap before I heard Iidu coming up the steps to get the food for the dogs. In my fuzzy state I went to ask her about the hissing. We moved the shelves and boxes in the room where the sound was, and then I saw what I could have seen in the morning had I looked there: the water pipe was cracled and a tiny hole was giving escape to a steady little stream of water… The result of much phoning and fussing, was that the water was turned off and I was left with a bucket of water to make do with for the night. This was OK, because I did not need more, but I was upset about the pipe bursting. In one way my little fantacy of being a blessing wherever I go was scathed. Why does the pipe burst when I take a bath after opening the Highway?
Just as Iidu was in the middle of the telephonic negotiations about the pipe another lady arrived to see me. I had met her at the airport in Upernavik on my way up to Qaanaaq. She is also part of the Qaanaaq house group, but she had moved there a year ago from another town. She had been a believer for longer and my heart recognised her as a mature sister in the Lord. I felt the Lord had sent her for us to pray about the 40 stones. When Iidu went home I explained the whole story to this lady and she was happy to be the witness. As we went out of the house to look for a place where we could burry them under the house I had them wraped in a piece of cloth. Just as we came around the house I saw that the puppy had gotten itself in trouble with the rope its mother was tied up with. It was somehow wound around his body, and in her usual mad yanks at the roap she was slowly squeesing the life out of him. With stones in hand I ran down to them just as Iidu was coming back up the hill from where she stays. I held the mother while Iidu freed the baby. Iido then showed me and the other lady how to get into the enclosed space under the house between the ground and the wooden floor. The now bouncing puppy followed us in as we picked our way beteen the dog-do down there and found a place between the floor above and a beam to put the stones. As could be anticipated we did not feel very spiritual when we prayed in the midst of this whole muddle. But, praise the Lord, the stones were ‘burried’, not only the foundation of the Highway but olso of the church in Qaanaaq.
When I woke up I started noticing a strange hissing sound in the little room where the central heating and the water tank is kept. More activity than usual on the water pump made me uneasy, but looking as I might, I could not see anything wrong.
Around 10 am a quiet and resereved couple knocked at the door. Iidu had told the wife that she should come and speak to me, and since she doesn’t speak English, she brought her husband to translate. I offered them tea, as I did baffledly with all the baffled guests that had come during the week. They accepted and when we sat down the husband explained that his wife had lost 3 babies in advanced stages of her pregnancy and she was pregnant again now. She wanted to know from me if the baby would live or not.
Throughout what became a typical councelling session (involving some repentance, deliverance and prayer for healing and restoration) I was wondering what this was saying about the Highway? The opening of the Highway is declared and within less than 10 hours I’m facing something that destroys new life before it can take its first breath. We ended the time of prayer by her giving the baby to the Lord like Hannah, Samuel’s mother. She commited to come and speak to Tukkumeq, when she is back next week, and to seek Jesus as her saviour. Please pray for them, and the baby, that the Lord would turn this situation for the glory of their name.
When they left I went to the tourist info office where I spent 2,5 hours updating the blog, but not actually managing to write about the Highway at all. On returning to the house the hissing sound was louder. I had a brief nap before I heard Iidu coming up the steps to get the food for the dogs. In my fuzzy state I went to ask her about the hissing. We moved the shelves and boxes in the room where the sound was, and then I saw what I could have seen in the morning had I looked there: the water pipe was cracled and a tiny hole was giving escape to a steady little stream of water… The result of much phoning and fussing, was that the water was turned off and I was left with a bucket of water to make do with for the night. This was OK, because I did not need more, but I was upset about the pipe bursting. In one way my little fantacy of being a blessing wherever I go was scathed. Why does the pipe burst when I take a bath after opening the Highway?
Just as Iidu was in the middle of the telephonic negotiations about the pipe another lady arrived to see me. I had met her at the airport in Upernavik on my way up to Qaanaaq. She is also part of the Qaanaaq house group, but she had moved there a year ago from another town. She had been a believer for longer and my heart recognised her as a mature sister in the Lord. I felt the Lord had sent her for us to pray about the 40 stones. When Iidu went home I explained the whole story to this lady and she was happy to be the witness. As we went out of the house to look for a place where we could burry them under the house I had them wraped in a piece of cloth. Just as we came around the house I saw that the puppy had gotten itself in trouble with the rope its mother was tied up with. It was somehow wound around his body, and in her usual mad yanks at the roap she was slowly squeesing the life out of him. With stones in hand I ran down to them just as Iidu was coming back up the hill from where she stays. I held the mother while Iidu freed the baby. Iido then showed me and the other lady how to get into the enclosed space under the house between the ground and the wooden floor. The now bouncing puppy followed us in as we picked our way beteen the dog-do down there and found a place between the floor above and a beam to put the stones. As could be anticipated we did not feel very spiritual when we prayed in the midst of this whole muddle. But, praise the Lord, the stones were ‘burried’, not only the foundation of the Highway but olso of the church in Qaanaaq.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
SMS 7
2008-07-24 15:44:08.0
Safe and very sound in Upernavic. Finally blogged re Highway's start: http://7highways.blogspot.com/. Thanx so much for your prayers! I'm walking in them! Love! J
2008-07-24 16:39:20.0 27839590863 Lief v jou my kind. T Ronwe
2008-07-24 19:20:53.0 26658777597 Ps.16:6-8. The Lord loves those who obe Him & blesses them. Hold on to His promises.
2008-07-25 Hi Jansie hoop dit gaan goed. Bid vir jou en dat als goed sal gaan. Ek wag in spanning vir ons babatjie om te kom! Sy is due vandag maar niks het nog gebeur nie. Liefde Thelwyn.
2008-07-30 Met groot vreugde en dankbaarheid het die 3kg bondeltjie wat van nou af ons lewens gaan regeer geariveer! Ons dogtertjie Martelize gebore 30 Jul 02h15. Baie dankie vir al die ondersteuning en gebede wat ons ontvang het. Groete Frans & Thelwyn.
Safe and very sound in Upernavic. Finally blogged re Highway's start: http://7highways.blogspot.com/. Thanx so much for your prayers! I'm walking in them! Love! J
2008-07-24 16:39:20.0 27839590863 Lief v jou my kind. T Ronwe
2008-07-24 19:20:53.0 26658777597 Ps.16:6-8. The Lord loves those who obe Him & blesses them. Hold on to His promises.
2008-07-25 Hi Jansie hoop dit gaan goed. Bid vir jou en dat als goed sal gaan. Ek wag in spanning vir ons babatjie om te kom! Sy is due vandag maar niks het nog gebeur nie. Liefde Thelwyn.
2008-07-30 Met groot vreugde en dankbaarheid het die 3kg bondeltjie wat van nou af ons lewens gaan regeer geariveer! Ons dogtertjie Martelize gebore 30 Jul 02h15. Baie dankie vir al die ondersteuning en gebede wat ons ontvang het. Groete Frans & Thelwyn.
The opening of the Northern Highway part II – 22 July 2008
On Sonday the Lord started downloading the programme and what to do and where I had been bobbing from the bed to the couch to the kitchen and back to the bed the first 4 days I suddenly had a lot of energy, focus and enthusiasm. The programme came first and I made long lists of questions to be answered when I get to the internet. I also sent those SMSes with questions that no-one answered, alerting me that no-one had been getting any of the SMSes I thought I sent from my Greenland SIM. So when could use the internet on Monday I spent most of the precious hour I had trying to catch up on all the missed connections on the bulksms website – praise the Lord for bulksms.co.za! Monday was the first really beautiful day, with the bluest sky and such a bright sun in it! All my 40 day cycles start at sunset of the eve of the date. So this Highway was supposed to start at sunset on 21 July, the only problem was that the son never sets this time of the year in Qaanaaq. (I wonder how the Arctic Jews would deal with the beginning and end of the Sabbath in a place where they have days and nights that last for 3 months.) I had a funny urgency to tidy up and pack, so I did that on returning from my internet outing, even though I was not to fly for 2 days. When the dishes and my clothes were washed, and all the papers that I had strewn all over were sorted and put away I humbled myself and sought the Lord. He first gave me Ps 47 to proclaim and I worked with that for some time. Then I started writing out all the scriptures he had already given me on the map. Rom 8:19, Isa 35:8, John 14:6, Johan 3:16-17, Mar 16:15, Gen 13:17, Isa 49:6, Isa 62:11 & Ps 47. Then He started to give the following list of things to do: - At the beginning blow the shofar to declare the opening of the Highway from the Northern Ends of the Earth to Jerusalem - At the beginning and at every border blow the sofar to sound a warning: read Rev 22:20 - At the beginning and at every border blow the shofar to make an announcement: read Rev 22:12-15 - Before coming to each border hear special scripture for country, and at the border write it on the map of the country and proclaim it. - Call the bride of Christ to arise in each country. - In every capitol anoint the Gate for the Bride - At the beginning and at each border tell the gospel to the earth and ask for permission to take stones to Zion to petition for the revelation of the Sons of God. - In every country read all of Revelations aloud - Before leaving a country proclaim Is 40:3-5 - Worship the Father 7 times a day for 20 minutes So I also wrote Rev 22:20 and 12-15, Isa 40:3-5 and for the bride Songs 1:1 & Ps 2:12 When I was done it was after 10 pm but still the brightest day outside. I prepared everything meticulously, I almost did not know myself. Usually I just kind of fall in and go with what I have. I wrote the special scripture for Greenland Is 40:3-5 on the map of Greenland. I wrote the instructions on what to do on a little piece of paper and on the back of the map. I took the map, the extra little paper with the copy of the instructions, my Shofar and the little silver bag that my mother marked so beautifully for Greenland and put them all in my jacket pockets. I also put on or in my pockets gloves, scarf, cap and thermal underwear. Then at about 11pm I set out up the mountain behind Qaanaaq to go to speak to the icecap that stretches from there to the north pole. I climbed to a place from where I could see the icecap on Friday, so I knew a bit of what it looked like up there. So now, after 5 days of being almost exclusively in the Lord's company, I was tuned into Him in a special way and was talking to Him out loud as I went along. When I reached what I thought was about half-way up the mountain, I realised I had forgotten the 40 stones from Zion. I sat down on a rock looking down at the House I had come from, and wondered if I should go back. On discussing the matter with the Lord he reminded me that I had told my currently absent hosts when I met them in Nuuk that I will leaver the stones in Qaanaaq. I concluded that they have to be buried under their house, since their house is the only functioning church in town. Then I continued up the mountain. The rest of the journey to the ice was amazing to the point of miraculous. What I thought was about as high as the Maggalies in Waverley where I live, turned out to be more like Tablemountain in Cape Town. My eyes deceived me on the first scouting trip, and where I estimated that it would take an hour to get to the top it took almost 3. But the Lord got me up there, with much soul searching and repentance along the way. He kept on reminding me of people I have not completely forgiven, then I had to stop and forgive them before I could go on. And the Holy Spirit gave me silly little songs to encourage me: Keep on keeping on we are almost there, Keep on keeping on hallelujah Lord. And on and on like that. Over newly post snow-cover terrain that basically consists of rocks of every size stretching on as far as the eye can see. I was so thankful for the 21 day fast with walking around the farm I did until I flew on the 11th. My body Is really stronger now than it has ever been since my early teens. I could jump from rock to rock up there like I could remember doing as a child – or perhaps it was really miraculous. About halfway, when I started realising that I had totally underestimated this walk, I experienced what had stopped me in my tracks when I came up there the previous time: while I could see around me for miles, and it was obvious that I'm alone, I felt a presence of something that was setting its will against me. It was trying to use fear and intimidation and I felt like it was looking at me from the icecap. I rebuked it and prayed many beautiful things as the Holy Spirit lead, and I felt the Lord come beside me and cover me under His wing. Then I was safe. But I did realise that the battle is on, and I asked Him to wake intercessors to pray (what were you doing 3-7am SA time on Monday Morning? In the amazing power of the Lord I actually started to enjoy the walk. I drank from the little fountains along the way, and took many pictures. When I finally reached the icecap I was amazed at my own faith. I put on all my warm gear, walked to the edge. Put my foot on it and claimed the North Pole for the Lord, called it to attention, and in the ice wind (there were actually little grains of ice coming of what looks like a big ice dune) I turned my back to the North to speak over the length of Greenland. There was a little piece of my human brain thinking 'this is crazy', but it was as if my spirit knew that the whole cloud of witnesses, all the angels, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and all of creation was paying attention – in a non-threatening kind of way. So I thanked Him that He would arrange for all the amplification that may be required for the furthest galaxies toe hear, and I thanked the Spirit for His guidance as I go ahead (by now I was almost frozen stiff). Then I just went through the instructions as I wrote them down. I struggled a bit with my gloves and the reading off the map in the wind. When I came to the point of telling Greenland the gospel and asking for permission to take the stones, I started crying (a very uncomfortable thing to do in the ice wind). I was really under the impression that creation is aware that 'corruption does not inherit incorruption', and that it was willingly resting in the hands of its Creator to be made new in whatever way He chooses. I took a stone from the edge of the ice. Thanked God that the amplifiers were off again, and returned down the mountain with strength that almost shocked me. |
Quiet in Qaanaaq - the emergence of the bigger picture
This thing about the Highway The first time I heard about the concept of the 'Highway' was in 2001 at Jericho Walls when I heard about the San people (one of the first people groups in Southern Africa) who had travelled up through Africa with Elizabeth Jordaan to repent of the things their ancestors did that brought curses on the land. In 2002 when He started speaking to me about the Highways the only scripture I had was Is 35:8 about the Highway of Holiness that will be. In 2003 while I spent the year at the House of Prayer in Jerusalem various visions and revelations started making me aware of how this Highway is a preparation for the Lord's return, and that it is about His Kingdom coming 'on Earth as it is in Heaven'. As I prayed for Africa that year the stark contrast between His Kingdom and what is going on in Africa came in sharp focus and I understood that He wants His church to prepare a 'Way of Holiness' through it. In 2005 when the anointing suddenly struck for me and Eugenie to do the Southern Highway the Lord placed such a strong burden for creation on my heart (Rom 8:19) that I could not speak of the vision without crying for creation. It was clear to me that everything was suffering because of our disobedience and that Creation itself was longing for the Kingdom of God and the return of the King of Glory. I was given the action with the stones to do, and that was enough for me – I went ahead and did it with the gracious help of my beloved sister and the wide-eyed prayers of all our family and friends. In 2006, when he spoke about the other ends of the Earth and the 7 Highways the plight of creation was still foremost on my mind. In May 2007 the Khoi (the other first people group in Southern Africa) told me about the Highway they were called to walk to Jerusalem. I was reminded again about the significance of the 'Ends of the Earth' in various scriptures, and what the people of the ends of the earth are called to do. We went along on the Khoi Highway, and when I was thinking about the other 6 of the 7 Highways I was wondering if they should include the first peoples of all the ends? On praying about it I concluded: no, these Highways are about the Earth telling God how it felt about the Sons of God. Somewhere in he time that I was walking with the Khoi I had a very strong revelation of Jesus Himself actually being 'THE WAY'. He laid down His life to make a way for us to the Father. The church in Acts was also referred to by the Jewish authorities as a sect called 'the Way'. The WAY and the WEDDING I was working at the Convocation in Jerusalem between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in 2006. In this time the Lord started speaking to me about the 7 Highways. I shared my thoughts with the three Chinese ladies that shared the room with me. The Eastern Highway was burning in their hearts and they knew of various prophetic actions that were made along the old Silk Highway. After the convocation they were aware that I was walking around the old city 40 times to collect the stones from mount Zion for the next Highway in the same way as I did it for the African Highway: by praying for Jerusalem. On the last round I did around the city they joined me, and when we came to Mnt Zion where I picked up the stones every time and blew the shofar, the Holy Spirit was all over us, and we cried and laughed. One of them tore out of her Chinese Bible the whole book of 'The Song of Songs' and gave it to me as a personal love letter from Him for me and for His church in China and for His Bride. I have been carrying these pages in the cover of my passport ever since. The stones I picked up with them are now in Qaanaaq. In March this year we did the 2nd Highway (Northern Highway Part 1), basically with the same mandate as the one of 2005 with the stones, but where we did not seek fellowship with any church along our way through Africa, we now looked for believers along the way to submit the vision to. One of the major connections we made was with a prophetic group in Russia who was in preparation for a trans-Siberian journey that would involve prophetic conferences in all 7 regions of Russia. The God given mandate of these conferences was to awaken the Bride of Christ in Russia in preparation for the fulfilment of a prophetic word Hudson Taylor gave more than 100 years ago. This prophecy said that a very large revival would break out in Russia and spread through Europe and all the world, and that this would be the last great revival before the return of the Lord (or something in that vein, I'll try to get the exact words). On the Northern Highway Part 1 I started working on a prophetic wedding dress. In the vision I had of the dress it included the Eph 6 Armour of God, and I spent many a happy hour on those Russian trains embroidering a scripture about our righteousness in Christ on what is to become the front of the bodice of the dress. For this Highway I prepared to do the belt and the helm, with the following words embroidered on the belt of truth: 'Jesus Said: I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through me.' As you may know, Kavod Ministries, the congregation I belong to, is a very busy though not a very big congregation. Almost everyone of the 15(give or take) of us are in some form of ministry, and we are forever sending people out and getting feedback on what has been done. During the July school holidays in SA it was hard to get every-one together to send me out on this Highway, so in the end I got sent out at the wedding of one of our members – a beautiful lady of Jewish birth. She had little silver bags with fudge on the table for each guest. At the end of the evening I had enough silver wedding bags for each of the countries I will be going through, so I can keep the stones of the countries separate until I come to Jerusalem. On the day that I flew out of SA I was also sent by a little groups of ladies at Irene's house. On the way there I ran out of gas. To my rescue came my friends Erna, Olof and Jason, who were all together at Erna's place to make preparations for Jason's wedding… Jason, the beaming bridegroom was the one who helped me get the fuel in my car. I then went to Irene's with my mother, the back-up rescue team who came all the way from the farm and decided to join me at the last moment. At Irene's the whole theme of the anointing oil she prepared was cleansing by the blood and resulting intimacy with our saviour. That night I flew to Egypt with Elizabeth Jordaan, the 1999 San Highway forerunner who was on her way to teach on prayer in Jordan. Much of what the Lord used her to teach me on recently is the need for intimacy in relationship with the Lord we pray to. Many of the testimonies I heard in Nuuk on arrival in Greenland was around the trials and victories that marriages of god's workers in this nation have gone through for the Gospel. The day I arrived in Ilulissat I was given leftover wedding cake that Liz & Kurt had baked for the wedding of Inuit church members the day before. The WAY to Heaven – Burn or Burn In Qaanaaq I was isolated with only 'Heaven is so real' to read. I felt that I had to finish the book before the Highway started because I had the sense that it held some message that needed to be part of this Highway. The message that stood out for me was the urgency with which the Lord is seeking to 'know' each of us personally, and for each of us to know Him personally as the one and only love of our lives. My spirit witnessed with everything she said in the book, and to my shock I had to hear that this little Korean granny is honestly expecting to see Jesus returning in her lifetime. This concurs with some of the words I have been hearing in Jerusalem, and a general sense that many of the people close to me have been talking about in the past year. What my mind always says when it hears things like this is: But, they were expecting Him any minute since Acts, and He still hasn't come. The counter argument that is arising in me now is: If he does come tonight, am I really ready? And the people I know and love? The urgency with which Choo Thomas warns that our half-hearted devotion is simply not enough shook me. Jesus gave everything and He wants everything in return, our all and all and nothing less. It's not as if I did not know or try to live this before. But this is not our lifestyle or way of exhorting one another in the church today normally. So I have been allowing myself to slip here and there, and my message to myself and others have not been a strong 'Burn with Love for Him or burn in Hell forever!' The end of the Earth Her revelations about the rapture and the tribulation and all that left me theologically a bit confused, but spiritually very sure that I want to live in His absolute and perfect will second by second. The question that arose with relation to the Highways was: what is it really that I'm praying for? What is this petition each place I set my foot is 'signing' when it gives its little rock to be presented to the Lord on Mnt Zion to ask for the revelation of the Sons of God? That verse in Revelations about the old Earth that is replaced by a new earth came up, and my old favourite in Is 40:3-5 about the way for the Lord in the desert involves a lot of mountains being made low and valleys being raised up… Are those stones saying they want the old Earth to pass away and the new earth to come? Are these Highways about creation actually accepting the Gospel in the same way as we each have to do individually, giving our all for the one who gave all for us? Is creation declaring publicly that it is now ready for the old to pass away and the new to come? If this is so, the significance of these Highways in the bigger scheme of things is far more weighty than I imagined before. I'm actually struggling to believe this myself, but I am starting to feel that this prayer is the voice for creation's testimony of her faith before baptism. Creation is preparing to get baptised and to take part with Him in His death, so that she can take part with Him in His resurrection. Creation is willing to pay the price for the Kingdom of God… are we ready for the mountains to be made low and the valleys to be raised up? For the sky to role up like a scroll? |
About SMSes
| I arrived in Qaanaaq on Wednesday last week and really appreciated the compulsory solitude and weather induced rest. I was a bit surprised that I got so few SMSes on my Greenland number, because I was faithfully sending SMSes to Nelia who would have sent it out. Not knowing she never received my SMSes I thought everybody was in agreement that I should be left alone, and left it at that. It was only on Sunday, when I sent various SMSes to different people with direct questions and did not get a single response that I started realizing that there must be something wrong. Then I had to wait till Monday to find internet somewhere and send the bulk sms myself. The only place available was the office computer of the Tourism office, where the lady allowed me to use it for an hour at a price. |
A brief note about the start date of this Highway
One of the areas I often struggle with the most in getting it right is the timing of doing the things I feel God tells me to do. In November 2006 I felt lead to start a cycle of 40x40 days of focus and since then I have been living in 40 day seasons. Sometimes they involve a fast of some sort, but usually they are periods of prayer with specific focus and actions included. I spent the first 40 days walking around our farm every day praying the psalms over it, and many of you joined me for parts of that. The next one I spent Walking around our neighbourhood in town, also praying the psalms. Then I climbed the mountain where our government buildings are and read all 40 of the chapters in Exodus to them. The next one was spent in preparation for the climb of the Mountain in Ethiopia, and the actual going there and climbing it. So when I have to decide on dates for things like this Highway, I consider my time in terms of these 40s. That is how I knew this Highway should start on 22 July – after I prayed about it of course. The reason I left SA 11 days before the start date, was that there are very limited flights to Qaanaaq, and the only way I could get there on time for the 22nd was to go that much earlier. |
SMS 5 & 6
2008-07-22 17:34:18.0 Thought I'm staying in touch& discovered yesterday that none 2008-07-22 17:58:47.0Ilulisat & Qaanaaq have blessed me past what I can contain |
Reply
2008-07-17 09:10:53.0 27839590863 Jansie, jy is in my gebede. Mag jou pad gelyk en geseend wees. Liefde T Ronwe
2008-07-20 Die woorde "awakening" en "connecting" kom by my gees op as ek vi groenland bid. Rita
2008-07-21 We call the bride of greenland to much deeper relationship with a hunger and thirst like never before for only Jesus our Bridegroom! Rita
2008-07-22 17:35:28.0 27833667863 Who dis?
2008-07-22 17:45:48.0 4522829963 447797803731 Hey Johanna. thanks for this sms. Was the first one I get. Good to hear you are well. See you in Nuuk. love Gudrun
2008-07-22 18:06:48.0 27834082294 Ons bid v jou! Sterkte! Thel se baba enige dag nou. Dorette se Franco word vlg week ingeseen.
2008-07-22 Thought you dropped off the ends of the earth..Am trusting you're being constantly amazed by His love. Hold fast 2 what He has called you to. Linda De M.
2008-07-22 ... Sien 'n highway wat God in die lug bou soos 'n boog na Groenland. Als in gees vars nuwe groen bid vir gees moeders en vaders teachers.
2008-07-23 07:33:26.0 27723423233 Hi ons het gedink jy het v aardbol af verdwyn. Ek het baie aan jou gedink saterdag. Hou ons op hoogte. Groete karen
2008-07-23 08:31:25.0 27839590863 Liewe Jansie. Dankie updates. Het voggend v jou Mat 28 v 20 gebid. Liefde T Ron
2008-07-23 08:51:26.0 27824610460 Sterkte bid d jou roeping eer tot GOD sal bring liefde t WIESKE
2008-07-23 10:21:33.0 26658777597 I'm in touch now. We praise God 4 His gudness.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
I'll tell about the Higway next time...
I just can't do this blog thing fast enough. The Highway was opened epically at the Icecap this morning at around 2am in the bright midnight sun. In the last few days the Lord really spoke about the route, the times and the mandates. I have it all very clear now and I know all the prayers you prayed around this helped.
Unfortunately the lady at Qaanaaq's Tourist info office needs her computer again, so all about the Highway at the next computer I find - hopefully in Upernavik tomorrow! |
Qaanaaq
With its 800 inhabitants Qaanaaq is the main town in the most northern munisipality in the world. It is a very small place with gravel roads throughout. no more than 20 automobils among them for whom the weekly 4km trip to the airport would be the furthest they can drive. To the other side of town they can go the 1km to the graveyard and that is about it. All the houses are built of wood on stilts to lift them above the snow in winter. There are no trees in greenland and all this wood was imported from very far, so though the houses are not big they are not cheap. All pipes would freeze so the town operates with a watercar and a toiletcar (who collects the toilet bags from each toilet in town twice a week). But inside the houses are very nice and warm. Many with TV, computers and everything a house could wish for in Copenhagen.
The day I arrived, after the niece who could speak a little English brought me to the supermarket to get some food for the week. I was left allone in the house of my absent hosts. They were not expecting visitors before they left and only envited me after they were already in the south, so I had to fend for myself with bedding etc. But as soon as that was sorted I went to bed and something like hibernation. Outside the sun did not set, but the weather was so bad that I couldn't go out really. And that deap rest came over me: for three days I slept, ate, read, and slept. My ipod'd battery gave out the day I arrived, and I did not have the energy to figure their sound system out, so it was me and the arctic winds those first days. I finished the only book I brought: 'Heaven is so real' by Choo Thomas and it touched me deaply. I really recommend it, in fact you have to read it.
The urgency of her message about salvation, purity, obedience and the soon coming of our King sent me into a whole new dimention as I was praying about this Highway.
I was left alone this whole week appart from dayly visits from Ido, my host's sister who had to feed the mother dog with puppy at the house. She came at around 5pm every day and brought various of her family for prayer. These visits lasted about an hour every day. We had great difficulty to communicate and we often resorted to drawing pictures, but this made the prayer even sweeter. |
Ilulissat - Upernavik - Qaanaaq
I had to be at the airport at 7am so Kurt and Liz also brought the breakfast picknick and after checking in we had our meal in the hall. I was really quite sad to leave. I had become very fond of them and the unknown of Qaanaaq started to look quite daunting.
AirGreenland seems to fly most of their domestic flights in Dash 7s - small propeller craft that do not fly too high for one to have a great view of what is going on below. The Greenlandic cost is wery rugged. Its mostly mountains that seem to stand on the verge of jumping into the deap blue sea.
At the Upernavic airport we had to get out for refeuling. This was good, because at that airport Naja, the sister-in-law of Tukummeq in whose house I was invited to stay in Qaanaaq got on the flight at Upernavik. Julianne was also at the airport to see them off, and she was glad to meet me because I will be staying with them when I return to Upernavik.
On arrival in Qaanaaq we got out of the dash 7 onto a gravel runway and my heart almost stood still at the wastness of the desert wastland that was before me. Under almost black clouds the dark bay surrounded by high cliffs was so forreign to my eyes, and my mind struggled to take it all in.
All the passengers rushed into the little airport building that was already fulæl of the passengers waiting to depart again on this preacious once a week flight. Amid joyous greetings of many families we jostled for our luggage and I was introduced to Naja's family. Together we waited for their lift to return, and we took the little gravel road to town.
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Ilulissat Briefly
Kurt and Liz, the Danish couple standing in at the church overwelmed me with grace. They brought me to the church building where they are staying in the home of the Danish your worker they are standing in for next to the sanctuary and I got to stay in the sanctuary building in the 'princess room' - the pritty little room with a balcony and a view of the bay with it's spectacular icebergs. Ilulissat is at the mouth of a fyord that has one of the most productive glaceurs (please forgive all spelling problems - the Danish computers jast don't have spellchecks that work for me) in the world, and my view consisted of a beautifull bay with a deep blue see and little Ice mountains drifting accross the view all day long.
On the first evening I was given wale to eat... Deap read meat only vaguely distinguishable from beef. After dinner one of the Innuit leaders of the congregation and her sister that was visiting from Nuuk came to meet me. They both spent a year of their youth one one of the OM ships so they had traveled widely and could help me understand Greenland a bit from an international point of view. They were also telling testimonies of how little revivals were breaking out all over Greenland. The whole evening was just so full of the Highest Praise for the Lord's goodness and breakthroughs inthis nations, that I went to bed with that special peace that comes by hearing of the fruit of faith.
The next morning I wondered out to the bay area and climbed onto a little hill to find an Icberg almost the size of the hill I was on in the water on the other side. This was but a fortaste of what Kurt and Liz showed me in the fjord later that afternoon! Words really fail me in trying to describe such a landscape of stationary violence in ice. They move almost inpercievably and as they melt big pieces fall off them accompanied by a sound like thunder. These sounds made one feel like in a war zone, but when you look at them they don't move. Kurt said when you hear the sound its already a few seconds too late to see the action. And its always on the other side.
It was also in Ilulisat that I encountered the dogs first. Kurt sais there are 11000 souls in Ilulissat, 5000 people and 6000 dogs. It seems as if every family has there own pack of about 10. These dogs are tied to with leads of between 1 and 3 meters to pegs in the ground outside town. Each dog has its own peg and circut and they are mostly prevented from being able to reach each other because of the fighting. They are fed once a day to the sound of the most boistrous jodling from the dogs. In summer 500g in winter 700g. They stay in the same place all year round. In summer they go nowhere. In winter they are used for slays once or twicw a week.
That evening we had dinner with an inuit couple from the church. The fellowship was very sweet and filled with His love. |
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Illulisat
Dan and Gudrun brought me to the airport well in time for my flight, with nice coffee and goodies in a bag to wile the time while we wait for my flight after I checked in. On approaching the checking desk the two ladies behind it asked me if I am Johanna. They said my flight was delayed by two or more hours due to technical problems, but that they would try to get me onto the earlier flight that was about to depart. They checked, and they could, and I rushed out onto the runway with the other passengers leaving dear Dan and Gudrun to take their coffee back home. I’m glad I will see them again on the last night in Greenland.
The flights to Illulisat went well and even though I was on the earlier flight I only arrived 5 minutes before the time that I told Kurt in Illulisat to meet me at the airport. They are also a Danish couple standing in for the youth pastor of the congregation in Illulisat while he is on holiday in Denmark.
This is the second evening herein Illulisat. Its already 23:00 (03:00 am in SA) and I’m off to Qaanaaq tomorrow morning early so I can’t tell of all the awesome things I have seen and what God has done here. Pray that I find internet connection in Qaanaaq and I’ll writh asap.
The flights to Illulisat went well and even though I was on the earlier flight I only arrived 5 minutes before the time that I told Kurt in Illulisat to meet me at the airport. They are also a Danish couple standing in for the youth pastor of the congregation in Illulisat while he is on holiday in Denmark.
This is the second evening herein Illulisat. Its already 23:00 (03:00 am in SA) and I’m off to Qaanaaq tomorrow morning early so I can’t tell of all the awesome things I have seen and what God has done here. Pray that I find internet connection in Qaanaaq and I’ll writh asap.
Nuuk
See how amazing God is:
When I was praying about the rout of this Highway Elizabeth, Lize and Elsa all felt that it should actually start in Canada. One of the reasons for this is that the first rout the gospel took over the Atlantic was via Iceland and Greenland to a point in North America - probably where Newfoundland is in Canada. I did not have any anointing to believe for the amount of money and trouble it would take to get a Canadian visa and rout the Highway via Newfoundland. But, before long Lanie announced that she being sent by her job to Newfoundland for training, and she agreed to bring me a stone from there. This was one of God’s amazing confirmations that He wanted this Highway to go on during a time that my fait was growing thin on the ground – but there was no connection with the church from there, and they did not agree to their stone going, or bless its going…
In the meantime I was earnestly seeking contact with the church in Greenland. Pieter had a man by the name of Errol Martins on the JHOPFAN database as a representative for Greenland at one of the previous ANCJs, but he did not have any contact info. I googled ‘Errol Martins’ and found him to be the head of the YWAM base in Greenland. It took me a turn on some-one else’s blog and facebook to discover that Errol actually lives in Canada and does regular outreaches from there to Greenland. He responded to my request for help by putting me in touch with John of Nuuk. Although John did not respond to my first email requesting direction, he really went the extra mile when I approached him with my accrual arrival date and travel plans. So even though he would not be in Greenland during the time I was here he arranged places for me to stay for the length of my time here.
Dan and Gudrun, the Danish pastor and his wife who collected me from the airport in Nuuk are standing in for John and his wife while they are on holiday. John only told them that I would be coming and that they should accommodate me – they did not know anything about me or my mission. That morning at the church service they were approached by the couple from Qaanaaq who had offered for me to stay in their house in Qaanaaq while they are on Holiday in Nuuk. This Inuit couple wanted to make sure they make contact with me before I left Nuuk again so Dan and Gudrun invited them to dinner that evening to meet me. Also in the house was Joyce Martins, Errol Martin’s wife, who had come to Greenland from Canada to help her friend with a youth outreach, and who would fly back to Canada about the same time as I would fly on from Nuuk to Ilulissat.
So Sunday evening, my first evening in Greenland, I was met and welcomed by believers from the two ‘ends of the earth’ at the beginning of this Highway: Canada and Qaanaaq. After I explained the vision to them Joyce agreed to stand-in for Canada. I gave her the stone Lanie brought from Newfoundland and she prayed for the revelation of the sons of God in Canada and gave it back to me to take to Mnt Zion.
The believers from Qaanaaq also assumed their position as priests for God in the place where He placed them. They gave me permission to leave the 40 stones from Mnt Zion in the north of Greenland, and they blessed me to take a stone from there to go to Jerusalem to cry out for the revelation of the Sons of God.
It was awesome to see how the Lord brought all of this together, because even if I might have know that this is the ideal, there was absolutely no way in which I could have arranged this with human skills.
We spent much of the time in Nuuk around the dinner and breakfast tables wondering about the amazing way in which the grace of God manifests in letting people be blessings to each other. One of the amazing pictures that emerged looked like this: Dan and Gudrun, who are now pasturing a congregation in Denmark, were the missionary couple who was at this congregation in Nuuk before Johan took over. They were in Nuuk 24 years ago when Errol Martins bade his first visit to Greenland. They where the first believers he found and they opened the door for Errol and his family’s ministry in Greenland. The Martins family spent more than a decade in Greenland after which they returned to Canada to face a very difficult time during which they nearly gave up on Greenland. God’s answer to their prayers came in the form of a connection with another couple with a counselling ministry who are pilots and able to fly wherever they need to go in Greenland. It was this Errol and this couple’s outreach to Qaanaaq that saw the couple, in whose house I will be staying, saved among the first born-again believers in Qaanaaq 3 years ago. It was also one of the first times that Joyce Martins returned to Greenland after the hard time they had on their return to Canada. And it was Dan and Gudrun who opened the door for her - just as they had done for Errol in June 24 years ago.
These things excite me so much! The testimony of His awesome deeds in our behalf comes with so much healing and restoration to the teller and the hearer. ‘They were saved by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony.’
When I was praying about the rout of this Highway Elizabeth, Lize and Elsa all felt that it should actually start in Canada. One of the reasons for this is that the first rout the gospel took over the Atlantic was via Iceland and Greenland to a point in North America - probably where Newfoundland is in Canada. I did not have any anointing to believe for the amount of money and trouble it would take to get a Canadian visa and rout the Highway via Newfoundland. But, before long Lanie announced that she being sent by her job to Newfoundland for training, and she agreed to bring me a stone from there. This was one of God’s amazing confirmations that He wanted this Highway to go on during a time that my fait was growing thin on the ground – but there was no connection with the church from there, and they did not agree to their stone going, or bless its going…
In the meantime I was earnestly seeking contact with the church in Greenland. Pieter had a man by the name of Errol Martins on the JHOPFAN database as a representative for Greenland at one of the previous ANCJs, but he did not have any contact info. I googled ‘Errol Martins’ and found him to be the head of the YWAM base in Greenland. It took me a turn on some-one else’s blog and facebook to discover that Errol actually lives in Canada and does regular outreaches from there to Greenland. He responded to my request for help by putting me in touch with John of Nuuk. Although John did not respond to my first email requesting direction, he really went the extra mile when I approached him with my accrual arrival date and travel plans. So even though he would not be in Greenland during the time I was here he arranged places for me to stay for the length of my time here.
Dan and Gudrun, the Danish pastor and his wife who collected me from the airport in Nuuk are standing in for John and his wife while they are on holiday. John only told them that I would be coming and that they should accommodate me – they did not know anything about me or my mission. That morning at the church service they were approached by the couple from Qaanaaq who had offered for me to stay in their house in Qaanaaq while they are on Holiday in Nuuk. This Inuit couple wanted to make sure they make contact with me before I left Nuuk again so Dan and Gudrun invited them to dinner that evening to meet me. Also in the house was Joyce Martins, Errol Martin’s wife, who had come to Greenland from Canada to help her friend with a youth outreach, and who would fly back to Canada about the same time as I would fly on from Nuuk to Ilulissat.
So Sunday evening, my first evening in Greenland, I was met and welcomed by believers from the two ‘ends of the earth’ at the beginning of this Highway: Canada and Qaanaaq. After I explained the vision to them Joyce agreed to stand-in for Canada. I gave her the stone Lanie brought from Newfoundland and she prayed for the revelation of the sons of God in Canada and gave it back to me to take to Mnt Zion.
The believers from Qaanaaq also assumed their position as priests for God in the place where He placed them. They gave me permission to leave the 40 stones from Mnt Zion in the north of Greenland, and they blessed me to take a stone from there to go to Jerusalem to cry out for the revelation of the Sons of God.
It was awesome to see how the Lord brought all of this together, because even if I might have know that this is the ideal, there was absolutely no way in which I could have arranged this with human skills.
We spent much of the time in Nuuk around the dinner and breakfast tables wondering about the amazing way in which the grace of God manifests in letting people be blessings to each other. One of the amazing pictures that emerged looked like this: Dan and Gudrun, who are now pasturing a congregation in Denmark, were the missionary couple who was at this congregation in Nuuk before Johan took over. They were in Nuuk 24 years ago when Errol Martins bade his first visit to Greenland. They where the first believers he found and they opened the door for Errol and his family’s ministry in Greenland. The Martins family spent more than a decade in Greenland after which they returned to Canada to face a very difficult time during which they nearly gave up on Greenland. God’s answer to their prayers came in the form of a connection with another couple with a counselling ministry who are pilots and able to fly wherever they need to go in Greenland. It was this Errol and this couple’s outreach to Qaanaaq that saw the couple, in whose house I will be staying, saved among the first born-again believers in Qaanaaq 3 years ago. It was also one of the first times that Joyce Martins returned to Greenland after the hard time they had on their return to Canada. And it was Dan and Gudrun who opened the door for her - just as they had done for Errol in June 24 years ago.
These things excite me so much! The testimony of His awesome deeds in our behalf comes with so much healing and restoration to the teller and the hearer. ‘They were saved by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony.’
Monday, July 14, 2008
SMS 4
2008-07-14 15:28:43.0
God is really looking after me!About to leave Nuuk for Illulisat. Church there will get me@airport. Pls pray for meeting..My new Greenland cell nr: +299224199.J
Relpy
2008-07-14 04:03:37.0 27836807557 Boodskap gekry, sal bel. Werk jou epos en internet nog? Jes 22: 20-24, Jer 29:8-9, Zech 10:2-8. Lief jou! Ma
2008-07-14 11:19:40.0 27828800001 Bless you with much favour around you. With a shaper insight and wisdom as ever before to brake open rich spiritual ground. Jansie ek sien n prentjie asof jy besig is om grond voor te berei soos om diep te ploeg en skielik kom jy op baie ryk vrugbare grond af. Bly bid en seen jou. Rina
2008-07-14 12:34:50.0 27824610460 Ek bid v jou liefde
2008-07-14 16:23:41.0 27827529994 278200700211007 Ons bid dat alles goed sal verloop. Geniet elke oomblik daarvan. X
God is really looking after me!About to leave Nuuk for Illulisat. Church there will get me@airport. Pls pray for meeting..My new Greenland cell nr: +299224199.J
Relpy
2008-07-14 04:03:37.0 27836807557 Boodskap gekry, sal bel. Werk jou epos en internet nog? Jes 22: 20-24, Jer 29:8-9, Zech 10:2-8. Lief jou! Ma
2008-07-14 11:19:40.0 27828800001 Bless you with much favour around you. With a shaper insight and wisdom as ever before to brake open rich spiritual ground. Jansie ek sien n prentjie asof jy besig is om grond voor te berei soos om diep te ploeg en skielik kom jy op baie ryk vrugbare grond af. Bly bid en seen jou. Rina
2008-07-14 12:34:50.0 27824610460 Ek bid v jou liefde
2008-07-14 16:23:41.0 27827529994 278200700211007 Ons bid dat alles goed sal verloop. Geniet elke oomblik daarvan. X
Sunday, July 13, 2008
SMS Update 1 2 & 3
2008-07-13 21:07:59.0
In Nuuk, Greenland. 4Hour time dif. Pastors met me@airport &arranged dinner with CanadianYWAM leader & the Inuit couple of Qaanaaq inwhose house I will stay. J
2008-07-13 12:11:50.0
Had good flights via Cairo & Vienna. Awesome time of Danish blessing last night-Blog. Now I fly Copenhagen-Greenland. Pls pray for time with believers tonight.J
2008-07-11 17:10:49.0
I'm off to Greenland tonight. The 3rd highway starts from there 22/7. Love Johanna aka Jansie
+27825298668 jansiefourie@yahoo.com http://7highways.blogspot.com/
Reply
2008-07-11 17:11:48.0 27833667863 All the best - praYING For you love b
2008-07-11 17:13:12.0 27727407096 Baie baie seen vir jou Lief v jou Carona
2008-07-11 17:14:42.0 260966555609 My dearest JANSI- may The Way be your way. Love you will be praying. Miss you much. Welma
2008-07-11 17:15:30.0 27842266713Blessing and safe journey to you. May each step of the journey be filled with a knowledge and experience of our Lord, Jehovah Jireh, when do you plan to return, and will we get progress reports?
2008-07-11 17:18:51.0 27845000068Prepare the Way of the Lord make straight a highway for our God. (HE IS WITH YOU) SHALOM morag
2008-07-11 17:26:32.0 27836010793 Hi Jansie, baie voorspoed. Ho\nmy asb ophoogte. Groete Danie
2008-07-11 17:28:17.0 27845883647Mag jy gseend wees! Ek ga j mis.
2008-07-13 06:39:08.0 27823731358 Bid vir jou. Liefde, Annelise
2008-07-13 12:28:36.0 27828510614 HALLO JANSIE,EK STAAN NET IN VERRASSING, OM TE SIEN HOE ONS VADER BAIIE SAG-TE EN VROULIKE VROUE, MET EKSTRA 'KLEIN'HARTJIES; SOMMER IN EEN OOMBLIK IN LEEUS VAN JUDAH,KAN VERANDER, WAT MET DURF WAAGMOED, SOMMER DIE WERELD-SELF BEGIN AANPAK, VIR DIE KONINKRYK!!!!!!! EK BEWONDER JOU EN IS TROTS OP JOU..!!!MAG YHWH JOU RYKLIKE GUNS SEEN GEE, OP ELKE TREE VAN JOU PAD!! BID VIR JOU,BAIE LIEFDE, RIANA. XXX.
2008-07-13 21:09:39.0 27836331919 Bid vi jou jansie. R
Jy vertrek vanaand! G'n wonder ek voel jy word vorentoe gedruk. Mar het nie besef dis al tyd. Immanuel n Sy uitgekose engele!Sal bid! Baie seenwense n liefde. Denise
Blessings and safe journey to you! May each step of the journey be filled with a knowledge and experience of our Lord. Johovah Jireh, when do you plan to return and will we get progress reports?Lisa Mcnair
Sterkte vir die trip. Geniet dit baie. Mag jy 'n baie geseende tyd he! Rika
Baie lief vir jou baie baie seen v jou Corona!
hi! Yansie. i received yr msg. thanks 4 every. i will always remember u.i'm on my way to goodland. Susan (goodland)
My dearest Jansi - may The Way be your way. Love you will be praying. Miss you much. Welma
Copenhagen - Nuuk
Its 21:36 in SA nou, but here it is 17:36 and bright day. I'm sitting in the empty church sanctuary of the congregation that agreed to host me at the computer normally used by the sound guy. In 20 minutes the dinner guests will arrive to meet me and the pastor's wife is upstairs cooking.
I'm in Greenland and I think this fact has actually blown my mind...
Nicklas took me to the airport at 6:30 this morning. As we drove allong the quiet Sunday morning streets I had the impression that I could see many ancient Normen standing in expectation, longing for the Kingdom of Peace. The norman blood in me seemed to respond to the soil and I felt a deep identification with the longing.
Everything went well at the airport and I had some time just to sit in a corridor and look at and pray for the hundreds of people rushing up and down to catch their flights. Just before I boarded the plain I felt directed to tell the soil of Denmark that he is comming and that it will not be long anymore.
During the flight the I struggled to enter into the presence of the Lord, and the Lord showed me that I was experiencing some of the effects of blood covenants made by my ancestors in Denmark. Even though this might have happened more than a thousand years ago, it still had an effect on me. Once identified it was easy to repent and the deliverance plunged me into a deapth of intimacey with Him that i can't remember experiencing before.
Appart from eating and drinking whatever they wanted to give me, I spent most of the 4 hour flight to Kangarlusaq sleeping. In Kangarlusak I had to wait 5 hours for a connecting flight to Nuuk. I journalled a bit and slept some more. After a one hour flight I arrived in Nuuk where i was collected from the airport by the Pastor and his wife and brought to the mission house.
I'm in Greenland and I think this fact has actually blown my mind...
Nicklas took me to the airport at 6:30 this morning. As we drove allong the quiet Sunday morning streets I had the impression that I could see many ancient Normen standing in expectation, longing for the Kingdom of Peace. The norman blood in me seemed to respond to the soil and I felt a deep identification with the longing.
Everything went well at the airport and I had some time just to sit in a corridor and look at and pray for the hundreds of people rushing up and down to catch their flights. Just before I boarded the plain I felt directed to tell the soil of Denmark that he is comming and that it will not be long anymore.
During the flight the I struggled to enter into the presence of the Lord, and the Lord showed me that I was experiencing some of the effects of blood covenants made by my ancestors in Denmark. Even though this might have happened more than a thousand years ago, it still had an effect on me. Once identified it was easy to repent and the deliverance plunged me into a deapth of intimacey with Him that i can't remember experiencing before.
Appart from eating and drinking whatever they wanted to give me, I spent most of the 4 hour flight to Kangarlusaq sleeping. In Kangarlusak I had to wait 5 hours for a connecting flight to Nuuk. I journalled a bit and slept some more. After a one hour flight I arrived in Nuuk where i was collected from the airport by the Pastor and his wife and brought to the mission house.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Cairo - Vienna - Copenhagen
I slept really well last night because of the little sleep I had the night before. But they wok us at 4 for breakfast and we landed at 6 in Cairo. It was already 24 degrees just as the sun was rising.
I had to greet Elizabeth, who went on to get her connection to Jordan, and surrender my passport and boarding pass to the Egyptian border control. In their usual mysterious fassion they let me and the two other South Africans on their way to Vienna sit in the waiting area for 3 hours before we could get our passports and go and enjoy the transit zone.
There I started my embroidery, and when I put on my new littly IPOD for the first time my spirit rose to puer happyness. I could ´see´ the angels dancing to the Fisher Folk singing that the joy of the Lord is our strength. I enjoyed the chinese on theit way to Morrocco and the Sudanese and the Ghanayans.
In the Transit area I washed my hair and subsequintly forgot my wet towel on the flight to Vienna. In Vienna I listened to a teaching about the covenants of God and felt very clearly that I would have to pass there again and go to Hungary before I go the Switzerland and Italy.
The food on the Austrian Air flight to Copenhagen was wonderfull! Even though it was already 8pm when I got out of the Airport it was still light and Denmark looked as if someone had washed it to a gleam. Nicklas met me at the airport and brought me to his house, where his father joined us to pray for me, give me a stone and send me with their blessing. It was all so beautifull and awesome and amazing - words just doesn't seem to describe the flow of the favour and the blessing apon blessing.
Tomorrow we leave for the airport at 6:30 am. I'll reach Nuuk at 15:30 their time, 19:30 ours...
I had to greet Elizabeth, who went on to get her connection to Jordan, and surrender my passport and boarding pass to the Egyptian border control. In their usual mysterious fassion they let me and the two other South Africans on their way to Vienna sit in the waiting area for 3 hours before we could get our passports and go and enjoy the transit zone.
There I started my embroidery, and when I put on my new littly IPOD for the first time my spirit rose to puer happyness. I could ´see´ the angels dancing to the Fisher Folk singing that the joy of the Lord is our strength. I enjoyed the chinese on theit way to Morrocco and the Sudanese and the Ghanayans.
In the Transit area I washed my hair and subsequintly forgot my wet towel on the flight to Vienna. In Vienna I listened to a teaching about the covenants of God and felt very clearly that I would have to pass there again and go to Hungary before I go the Switzerland and Italy.
The food on the Austrian Air flight to Copenhagen was wonderfull! Even though it was already 8pm when I got out of the Airport it was still light and Denmark looked as if someone had washed it to a gleam. Nicklas met me at the airport and brought me to his house, where his father joined us to pray for me, give me a stone and send me with their blessing. It was all so beautifull and awesome and amazing - words just doesn't seem to describe the flow of the favour and the blessing apon blessing.
Tomorrow we leave for the airport at 6:30 am. I'll reach Nuuk at 15:30 their time, 19:30 ours...
Preparing to go
In an effort to get my house in order before I for such a long time, my mother and I worked day and night in the 48 hours before my departure last nigh. After not sleeping at all on Thursday night I left Goodland yesterday morning to go to Irene's for the last send out prayer... and ran out of petrol just after I came through Mamelodi on the Hans Strydom extention.
This strange little disaster brought the wonderful blessing of seeing Erna, Jason and Oelof who came to my rescue. And by God's grace I was still able to catch the end of the prayer time at Irene's with my mother. After Jopie and Nelia also prayed for my I went to Dickenson Ave to get the last few things, and I wanted to cry when I greeted the dogs and the cat.
Back to Goodland for the last scuttles and off to the airport quick quick quick... Ma dropped me, Ethie met me and escorted me around as I checked in, changed money and bought water - het calm wherewithall in the new aitport building was such a help, because by this time I was feeling like a rag wrung dry. And I really miss Eugenie.
Elizabeth Jordaan and I discovered that we were on the same flight earlier in the morning, and she got them to put us next to each other before when she checked in. So after I passed through passport control I found her waiting at the gate - it was a real honour to fly with her, and a comfort.
This strange little disaster brought the wonderful blessing of seeing Erna, Jason and Oelof who came to my rescue. And by God's grace I was still able to catch the end of the prayer time at Irene's with my mother. After Jopie and Nelia also prayed for my I went to Dickenson Ave to get the last few things, and I wanted to cry when I greeted the dogs and the cat.
Back to Goodland for the last scuttles and off to the airport quick quick quick... Ma dropped me, Ethie met me and escorted me around as I checked in, changed money and bought water - het calm wherewithall in the new aitport building was such a help, because by this time I was feeling like a rag wrung dry. And I really miss Eugenie.
Elizabeth Jordaan and I discovered that we were on the same flight earlier in the morning, and she got them to put us next to each other before when she checked in. So after I passed through passport control I found her waiting at the gate - it was a real honour to fly with her, and a comfort.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
The Northern Highway Part II: The Plan
Mission
To fly to the northern ends of the Earth and travel from there to Jerusalem overland (as far as possible) claiming each place I set my feet for the Kingdom of God, picking up stones as far as I go (and collecting the stones from NH1 in Istanbul) to present to the Lord on Mount Zion in Jerusalem in a prophetic act proclaiming that the stones of the North are crying out, because the people are not worshiping God, and that all of creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
Timing
To start from the northern most town in Greenland on 22 July and finish in Jerusalem 40 days later on 30 August. Due to the way flights aligned I am already departing for Greenland tomorrow, 11 July. I’ll fly via Cairo and sleep in Copenhagen on Saturday night, before I leave for Greenland on Sunday. After arriving in Jerusalem I’ll have some time to catch up with friends there before I return to SA via Jordan and Egypt on 10 September.
Route
SA-Egypt-Denmark-Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Islands-Norway-Scotland-Ireland-Wales-Cornwal-England-France-Belgium-Netherlands-Germany-Poland?-Austria-Hungary-Switzerland-Italy-Greece-Turkey-Syria-Jordan-Israel
Companions
Eugenie indicated early on that she would not be able to join me for NH2. In Istanbul at the end of NH1 a friend prayed and felt that I am to expect various interesting companions to join me for parts of the way. None of these have been revealed yet, and I am currently making all arrangements as if I will be travelling with the Lord alone.
To fly to the northern ends of the Earth and travel from there to Jerusalem overland (as far as possible) claiming each place I set my feet for the Kingdom of God, picking up stones as far as I go (and collecting the stones from NH1 in Istanbul) to present to the Lord on Mount Zion in Jerusalem in a prophetic act proclaiming that the stones of the North are crying out, because the people are not worshiping God, and that all of creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
Timing
To start from the northern most town in Greenland on 22 July and finish in Jerusalem 40 days later on 30 August. Due to the way flights aligned I am already departing for Greenland tomorrow, 11 July. I’ll fly via Cairo and sleep in Copenhagen on Saturday night, before I leave for Greenland on Sunday. After arriving in Jerusalem I’ll have some time to catch up with friends there before I return to SA via Jordan and Egypt on 10 September.
Route
SA-Egypt-Denmark-Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Islands-Norway-Scotland-Ireland-Wales-Cornwal-England-France-Belgium-Netherlands-Germany-Poland?-Austria-Hungary-Switzerland-Italy-Greece-Turkey-Syria-Jordan-Israel
Companions
Eugenie indicated early on that she would not be able to join me for NH2. In Istanbul at the end of NH1 a friend prayed and felt that I am to expect various interesting companions to join me for parts of the way. None of these have been revealed yet, and I am currently making all arrangements as if I will be travelling with the Lord alone.
The Northern Highway Part II: Recap on the Vision
Foundational Scriptures:
There is a Highway
Isa 35:8 And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it.
Jhn 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
The Creation and the Great Commission
Jhn 3:16-17 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Mar 16:15 “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.”
Rom 8:19 “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.” Jesus did not only die for mankind, but for the world.
The ends of the Earth
Isa 49:6 “I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.”
Isa 62:11 Indeed the LORD has proclaimed to the end of the world: "Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Surely your salvation is coming; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.
Vision
To travel along the Highways from the ends of the Earth to Jerusalem:
- claiming the highways of the world for the Kingdom of God,
- interceding on behalf of creation for the revelation of the sons of God in every nation along the way, and
- bringing the message to Zion that her salvation is coming.
Strategy
The strategy involves the following:
- fly to the “ends of the Earth” as the Lord directs and makes accessible,
- build an altar there with stones from Mnt Zion to proclaim that the foundation of the Highway is in Zion,
- travel over land and sea from there to Jerusalem claiming every place we set our feet for the Kingdom of God,
- collect stones along the way to present to the Lord in a prophetic action on Mnt Zion saying that “creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed”, and
- meet believers along the way who can testify of Isa 49:6 and confirm Isa 62:11, pray with us and send us along our way.
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