the couch story

A little while back Wim and I discovered that our couches needed to be replaced. How did we discover that? When we started to get holes in our pants because the metal springs had pushed their way out! Still they were useable so we just dreamt of buying another couch, when in reality it wasn't really an option. 

We looked on a 2nd hand website and tried to find a good deal, but either the couch was nice & too expensive, or a decent price & bad condition. Not very helpful for us!

One Sunday a friend from church called me up and asked if we were needing a new couch. Shocked and excited, I told her that actually we really did need one. To which she replied that her mom wanted to give their couch away. Why? Because she tried to sell it on that 2nd hand website but people offered so little money (€200-300) that she preferred to give it away for free to someone who needed it! So we got a couch... a NICE couch, and one that definitely fit in our budget hehe :-)

And the moral of the story is that God cares about every detail of our lives. We always say that nothing is too big for God, but it's also true that nothing is too small for Him! This was just another great reminder for us that God sees us and He cares.We hope that you will experience the same thing even today! Lots of love!

double doubting done

I want to share another experience we recently had with the supernatural (above the norm) provision of God.

We have two kids now... tada! Ezra is obviously a baby and can't walk and Nora can walk, but she's still small enough that she doesn't listen so well and will just run everywhere. So I was looking into buying a double stroller. Some friends of ours generously gave us one a few months ago, but it was a side-by-side one which was next to impossible to maneuver through the grocery store aisles. So we sold it (they said that we could do whatever we wanted with it) and wanted to buy one that had the kids sitting one in front of the other- more narrow and able to fit through aisles for shopping. 

I had been looking on Marktplaats (it's the Craig's List of Holland) and had found some nice strollers, but there was one in particular that I liked- it was a Chicco Together. I emailed with the man who was selling it, he was willing to give me a discount on the price and I almost bought it-- but in the end we decided not to because it was in Amsterdam and that was just too far to drive to buy a stroller. So I let it go and I'm pretty sure somewhere in my heart I was asking God for a stroller like that one. 

A week or so later, I was looking online again and I saw another one of these Chicco Togethers. But this time it was in Harderwijk (much closer) and the name of the person looked familiar-- it turned out it was someone from our church. I emailed with them and in the end they decided to just give us the stroller! The nice thing was that they didn't even know that we were missionaries living from gifts-- they just wanted to bless us! 

So God saw my desire/need and met it in a way that I didn't expect at all- but it was so nice! Thank you Papa!

May He provide for your needs and desires in an above the natural way today!

Mission Possible

In November, Wim and I attended House of Heroes for the first time. We were invited by a friend, and to be honest we were a bit reluctant about attending. For the past four years we didn't have a real home church here in Holland. But we accepted her invitation and decided to visit one Sunday.

I was blown away. It felt so much like home. What did? I don't know. It was just everything-- there were a lot of international people, the worship times were quite free (people moving around, everyone singing REALLY loud hehe). And I met God there.

During the worship time, I realized that I had quite a lot of hurt in my heart because of some challenges we had experienced with a church that supported us in the past. I felt let down, disappointed and because of that I had subconsciously closed down a part of my heart. Which made it difficult to experience God fully (because I was partly closed off to Him). And it was like all of a sudden the light came on, and I saw that I had a door that was locked (and had been locked for a while), and with trembling hands I unlocked that door and invited God in. Wow. After being hindered for so long and not fully realizing it, it was such a relief to experience freedom again.

So in January, we decided to become members. Since then, I've become part of the worship team, and we have started training to be connect group leaders (we plan to host it in our home). It's insane how quickly we've been "plugged in" and how much healing has come to our hearts about the topic "church".

Anyways, I tell all of this because this week our pastors, Mattheus and Rebekah van der Steen, are putting on a conference here in Holland- "Mission Possible". And we are just so honored to be able to say that we are part of that church, that has such great vision (so much so that many people think it's crazy!) and passion for God and for the whole world to Him.  If you want to watch some of the sessions (there is still a live session tonight, and in the morning I think) you can watch it on God TV. 

CHECK IT OUT HERE

Have a great Saturday and we pray that you will experience a miracle today! It will be like a wink (oogknip) from God expressing "I SEE YOU". Cause He really does see you.

from three to four...

So... we had a baby! Actually, I had a baby. And it didn't exactly go the way I had hoped and dreamed it would (note: painless labor that is over before it begins producing the lovely baby that we've been waiting for for 9 months). I ended up having a C-section after there was some confusion about what was going on in my body: I had a fever and they couldn't figure out why. They tested me for everything and there was no clear explanation-- and then my water broke and our lovely little boy had "done his business" in it (aka: pooped). I guess he was just signaling that it was his time to enter the world. And so he did.

On March 18th, Ezra James Dufoort was born. Look at how cute he is...

It's definitely been an adjustment going from having one human being who is entirely dependent on you for their well-being, to having two human beings who are entirely dependent on you for their well-being. Needless to say, it takes quite a lot of energy but of course it's worth it all and more. 

So since we had such a huge change to our family, I figured it was time to update the blog as well-- so voila! New and improved, a bit bright and "spunky"-- I hope you enjoy!  Thanks so much for your prayers for us, and your interest (obviously you're interested because you came to our blog and have read all the way until this line-- either that or you landed here by chance, and in that case: hello). Check out some of the links in our sidebar right there --> and have a great day!  :-)

no words to describe...

... how Father God amazes us over and over again. Seriously the words, "God is so good... faithful... kind" are just not descriptive enough. They don't give enough value to Him because He's just so much more...

We sent out a newsletter yesterday about our upcoming outreach to Brussels and some other news (pregnancy, exams, new car: read it here in English & here in Dutch). We wrote that we needed money to pay off the rest of our car, but we didn't write that we actually also needed money for the outreach to Brussels: €200 ($230) + more for putting fuel in the car and other expenses that come with traveling. Actually we needed to give the €200 yesterday to our team leader, but we didn't have it yet. We said we were trusting and waiting on God.

But I gotta be honest, I was beginning to feel discouraged because it FELT like there wasn't coming much response to our newsletter. Of course there are the faithful ones who always send an email in response just to let us know they are praying and thinking of us-- SO VALUABLE (note: do you want to know how you can encourage missionaries the most? Respond to their newsletters! Even ONE line! Let them know that you are out there and that you remember them!) But we had a need that was immediate and I was hoping for the like immediate answer to come. The night passed, morning came and there wasn't the answer I had been hoping for. 

I sat down for breakfast before my driving lesson and shared with God how I was feeling. I told Him that I really needed a word from Him, somehow-- a Bible verse that He was clearly speaking through, an email, a donation... anything-- just to encourage my heart. I went to my driving lesson (which went very well, by the way) and came back feeling a bit better. As soon as I walked into the living room Wim says, "Hey there was another surprise... God provided again"... a bunch emotions came over me-- relief, surprise, comfort, and most of all just feeling so loved and so seen by Him. It turns out a lovely couple who did a DTS here at Heidebeek gave us a 'New Years gift' of €400! Enough to contribute our share to the outreach and to cover the other expenses.

Wow, just wow. It's surprising every time again. I sort of feel like I shouldn't be surprised anymore, but on the other hand it's also nice to feel that surprise. Almost like God is wooing us!  Sounds crazy, I know, but that's what it seems like! So thank you Papa for hearing our hearts, knowing our needs and being kind to us. Sorry that I get so quickly discouraged and fall tempted to doubt, but thank you for your love that is bigger than my weaknesses! And thank you to our partners out there who are praying for us and sacrificing their own money to help us live the life God has called us to.

And YOU: if you're in a place of need like we have just been, we want to release the breakthrough we just received over your situation as well. God will provide and He will give even more than you need!

Love, The Dufoorts