Chapter 1: Goodbye, kindda

When you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this house.' If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them. - Luke 10:5,6

The day we leave our little house in Wageningen has finally come. We moved to our even smaller house, our car. We left for the road, on to the horizon.

The last month a lot of people encouraged us by keeping us in their prayers. During the hectic time of packing and planning, it was a relief if people stopped us and asked: 'can we ask a blessing for your journey?' For example, during the Sunday service of the ICF (International Christian Fellowship) - Wageningen, there is a goodbye-moment for members that are leaving; we are not members in this church, but attend it frequently, and told our story of the two years ahead of us. We were invited on stage where two good friends of ours prayed for us, and the church sang a blessing over us.
In all the churches we attended last month, people offered to pray for us when we told about our journey. It encourages us to know that people all over are praying for us, where ever we go.

'Do you like coins?' Gideon asked. 'That depends, coins how?' answered the desk lady at THUIS. 'We've got a jar of small change worth of €47,35 and want to donate it to you.'
THUIS (en: home) is a local charity place in Wageningen where people can meet each other, share stories, have dreams and change the world; and we want to support these kind of places. The ladies at the desk were rather astonished by our gift. Because we know God can give more than just money, we asked to pray for THUIS. They accepted, and we prayed for peace for this house. It filled our hearts with joy to see the impact all of this made and it felt like we already started our journey right at home.
This kind of shared happiness is what we would call 'a Kingdom Tale.'

During the last week we had a day of fasting and prayer. This day we only lived on water and tea, and the mealtimes we devoted to prayer. It helps us to seek our dependency on God, and it strengthens our will-power to follow God as opposed to our will-power for our own needs. This is something we will need when we want to follow Jesus' footsteps.
We ended the day with a time of prayer with some good friends. Saying goodbye is always hard, but this moment made us see that God will watch over us, and over the people we leave behind. With the last hugs we realized that we're really leaving now, that is will be goodbye for a long time, for a lot of people.

The first stage of our journey however will be Netherlands. Gideon has to pass for his driving exam, so we will stay here for another week. A nice couple, living in the middle of a forest welcomed us to stay with them, on the condition that we help them repaint the living room. They are also Gideon's parents.

It is good to see how much impact the last years in Wageningen made on us and the people around us. We said goodbye to our student group, Ichthus Wageningen, to our friends, to our family and to our house. One of the goodbye moments that stood out was that of a good friend of us. He wrote us a letter, by which we were very moved. He made us see how important we both are to him. He even made us share in the little he has, because we and our plans are so near to his heart.
Many people helped to make our dream possible by supporting us financially, we are so very grateful for all of this, and for knowing that our dream is shared by so many of you. And now the time has come to see the world.

- Irma and Gideon