So long ... farwell ... Facebook

I'm going on a FACEBOOK / INTERNET fast. I am so tired of being addicted to Facebook! For real! I am spending more time looking on facebook, than that I am looking in my bible... So sad!

My friend said the other day: Why am I asking Google things, I should be asking God?

That's true for me too!

So - until April 30th, I'll only do email (and internet for my job... but not for private use)...

I'll keep you updated on this blog if it's working for me...

FERDI
(tatiana has not made any commitments, so if you need to talk to me... do it through her!)

Phillip Alexander

We feel so far away from NY right now - we felt like we needed to do SOMETHING to show our support to Phillips family... we made a 'memory page' on facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=77719850305&ref=mf

We want people to just write a word of encouragement. Not sure if you can only do this when you have Facebook...

We want to give these posts and pictures to Lolita and Leshone as a memory book.

SAD NEWS FROM NYC

Ferdi and I just received a very bad news from one of our family in NY.
When I moved to NY in 2000, I had a team of young people working with me (Ty-Ty, Justin, Jorge and Philippe) Philippe was my FIRST WORKER. He came with me every friday visit the kids and their families. Today we heard that he passed away this morning, Sunday March 22, 2009.

This athlete and handsome young man died from a heart attack. Some of you may remember his mother Lolita or maybe his little brother Leshone who also became my worker. Ferdi and I grew very close to this family... During our last month in NY we spend specially some good time with Philippe and his family. Ferdi got to go to a KNICKS basketball game with him (prime seats) and together we celebrated the new year 08 in his mothers house.
Right now we are in France, and our heart and head are full of good remembrances about Philippe... How he constantly corrected my broken English, how he was a fan of basketball, how he was an handsome young man with a big heart but didn't know how to communicate it, how he silently showed his love toward us.
Every time I would drop-off his brother Leshone and Philippe was around he would come and sit in my van and chat for few minutes... During our last week in NY, he had Maelle on his lap for a while, just smiling at her. Man we already miss him and would love to fly to NY right at this moment. Phillipe was about to turn 19 years old in September this year even though for 5 years he was 17 years old :-). After being transferred to a very good school Philippe was also on his way to college, playing basketball.
His dad also died from an heart attack when Philippe and Leshone were younger.

Please keep his family (Lolita and Leshone) in your prayers.

Phillipe - you are missed here on this side of Heaven...
Until we meet again, one day...

2008 New Years Party at Phillipes house

2007 - Tatiana and Leshone at the mall.

2007 - Lolita and Maelle

2005 - Phillipe at Teen Boys camp

To France!

Friday morning, before the crack of dawn we'll be driving down to France. We want to spent some time with the family there, update the church on our new plans, meet our friends, and even go do a communication training in the east of the country!

Before we leave, we're moving our stuff back to my dads house, so after we come back we will stay with him with him for a while. Because we're fixing up our own appartment! On the edge of Gouda, just 1 minute away from the largest playground in town! We're so amazed by Gods humor!
Right now a very good friend of our family is helping with all kinds of jobs in the appartment! That's so great! Thanks Geurt!
Soon we;ll be posting some pics of the appartment!

1moreChild in the North of Holland!

On March 28 a good friend of ours is organizing a PRAISE NIGHT in her
church. During their meetings in preparation to it, they decided to do an
offering for a missions project. BUT they didn't have any ideas who to
support! My friend Astrid said: Hey! I have some friends in Gouda, maybe
they can use our help!

CAN WE!!! 1moreChild is about to go into cyberspace with a new NETWORK, and
we can use ALL THE HELP!
For all the Dutchies: see what they wrote! (Sorry for all the French
speaking people, I guess you guys have to organize your own night!

Links to this blog post of Baptistengemeente Hoogezand west:

http://www.bghw.nl/index.php?page=home2&pid=54
http://bghw.hyves.nl/blog/

This was their article!

'1 more child' is het goede doel wat we verbinden aan onze Spring-praise. Wij willen als JGG's (Jongeren Groei Groepen) iets doen voor dit goede doel en dit project steunen.
Dit project is opgezet door een goede vriend van Astrid Wierth, Ferdi van den Bergh uit Reeuwijk (vlakbij Gouda).

Bosco Mukiibi en Ferdi van den Bergh zijn hun project begonnen in 2002.
Ferdi van den Bergh is in Nederland geboren. Hij heeft 8 jaar gewerkt in de binnenstad van Brooklyn, New York. Dit is een project van "Metro Ministries" geweest. Zijn Franse vrouw Tatiana heeft hij daar ontmoet. In 2007 is hun dochter Maelle geboren in New York.
Na dit avontuur zijn ze in augustus 2008 verhuisd naar Jinja, Uganda.

Door '1 more child' kunnen 28 weeskinderen een goede opleiding aangeboden worden.

Op deze manier kunnen zij bij hun familie blijven, in plaats van een weeshuis of op straat...

Help ons nu met uw donatie; eenmalig of maandelijks.

Het maakt een verschil wat we doen. Altijd.
Uw donatie maakt dat wij kunnen helpen.

Zijn liefde voor kinderen en God is hun opdracht geworden.
Ferdi en Tatiana dagen mensen over de hele wereld uit om iets voor anderen
te doen.

Wij hopen dat u dit doel wilt steunen door met heel veel mensen naar de
Spring-praise
te komen. Zo kunnen wij de stichting '1 more child' blij maken met een mooi
geldbedrag, welke wij met de collecte ophalen. Vaak zeggen we tegen elkaar
over zending en evangelisatie... ik ben geen zendeling... dat hoeft ook
niet.

U kunt door een gift deze missie daadkracht geven,
zodat deze mensen verder kunnen met hun missie!!

Tot zaterdag 28 maart?!

Training in Germany!

Last weekend we had the privilege to do a communication training in Germany! In the church of Timon, a former co-staff at Metro in NYC, we got to train several children ministers!

Of course this was a  real joy to do, especially for Tatiana! I think she really misses these kind of opportunities! She shines when she does this! And of course now she shines double!

Maëlle got to spent her first weekend away from us EVER! She stayed with Kyra, our sis-in-law! She also had a great time. Good to have family around!

Timon did a great job hosting us, and helping us spread the word of Tjeko. Thanks to the church in Germany, we are now again a bit closer to launching this project! Thank you guys so much for your support and encouragement!

http://christus-centrum-kempen.de/

George in Holland

When I came on staff at Metro in 2000, one of my first helpers on the bus was George Fl. Jr.! This guy has become such a part of our family! Back than he was just 13 years old. Our friendship grew over the years from a mentoring friendship to a true family bond! When we left Metro Ministries last year, it must have been the hardest person to leave in NYC!

Tatiana, Maëlle and me love this guy! It was an amazing opportunity to have him over at our apartment after a full year!

George, we are so proud of you! I know you will do great things for The KINGDOM! To become weary in doing good. EVER!

__________________________________________
Empowering people to transform their communities

·       www.1moreChild.org

·       www.ferdiandtatiana.com

·       Partner with us now!

 

George in Holland!

Statistic on poverty

Hello Everyone
I have just watch this video on TED "Ideas worth spreading"
The video gives you a great understanding of poverty and the situation of the world today
Please take a look by clicking on the link below

http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.html

hope you enjoy
tatiana

WE GOT AN APPARTMENT!

Just need to let everybody know - GOD MADE A WAY FOR US TO GET AN APPARTMENT!!!

It's a long story for an other time - but we got the keys!