Dear family and friends,

We have been back in South Africa for over a month now and are doing good. After two weeks, when we finally felt settled in again, we faced the problem of our flat being flooded with sewage water. It has cost us a lot of energy and time but we are finally back into our apartment since a coupe of days!! The sewage problem is fixed as we been told and there has been a cleaning crew in our apartment that has deep cleaned everything and the last thing that was done before we moved back in was the change of carpets. God has blessed us in the midst of these challenging three weeks with friends around us that helped us and opened their homes for us. It feels so long ago that we were home visiting with family and friends and doing ministry at the same time but it has only been 1,5 month! We would love to share some highlight with you from this trip.

Our trip to Europe/US.
The traveling it self went amazing good where God has blessed us with a baby that is made to travel as she has been a dream having to fly so much and changing timezones.

Holland.
Our time in Holland was split up in two parts, the first part was in the beginning of November where we got to connect with our home church and dedicated Yasmin.
The second part was with Chirstmas and New Year where all Mariella's family had a chance to meet Yasmin, which was wonderful.

Slovakia and Austria.
During the first part of our stay in Holland, Kevin flew to Austria and from there traveled to Bratislava in Slovakia to minister there. This was perfect as Mariella and Yasmin could spent some time with opa en oma (grandparents). Kevin got invited and hosted by the head pentecostal denomination leader in Slovakia named Jan Lacho. For 7 days he took Kevin and they traveled through the whole country preaching, going from church to church and showing him the great nation of Slovakia. One of the highlight was when they went to visit the Roma people who are the outcast people of Slovakia. They went and visited their beautiful church on top of a hill surrounded by brokenness and poverty. It was there that God did amazing things (see picture). The church was packed and it was wonderful to see how hungry they where for God. That night we saw over 40 testimonies of instant miracles. We have never seen so many miracles in one service. Glory to Jesus Christ that He still saves, heals and delivers. Kevin loved the people of Slovakia and will definitely make a visit again in Gods timing. 

America.
We stayed for 3 weeks in Ohio and saw our niece Melia for the first time which was such a blessing as well as spending time together with Alex and Lindsay as a family. It was a busy three weeks where we got to speak every Sunday in different churches, did 2 conferences and got to connect with friends and family. We ended our trip with 5 amazing meetings in New Life ministries filled with Gods glory and many signs and wonders following the preaching of the Word. One of the miracles was that, in front of many witnesses, a lady's short leg grew out almost 2 centimeters. Glory to God, we are so thankful to the Holy Spirit for giving us the grace to be part of His ministry. After 2 interviews in the past about our life and ministry on TBN, a Christian TV network, we got the opportunity to preach on the program and our prayer is that many life's to be changed by the message and to God be the glory.

Sweden.
So thankful that Yasmin could meet her grandmother Sarah for the first time and spend three weeks with her! We also got to spend much time with Kevin's older brother Cyrus and his fiancé and Kevins whole family, which was amazing.  This was a time of catching up with family that we have not seen for over two years.

Back in South Africa.
God has clearly spoken to us that we are to stay in South Africa, we don't know for how long but we know that we need to stay and continue to build and be faithful with the things He has given us. We will extend our visa that is about to expire in August this year. We have so much in our hearts for this year and we have really felt that we have entered a new season after we finished our commitment with Bethesda last August. Maybe you are wondering what we are doing now and we would like to share our vision with you for this new season. Our hearts and passion is for evangelism and stirring up a passion for Jesus in hearts that never knew Him or maybe knew Him but have grown cold. This together with our heart and love for the Body of Christ is what we want to carry out in this new season. Many churches have already opened up their doors and hearts for the preaching of the Word and to hear Kevin's testimony. We have ministered in the 2 months prior to our travel in several new churches from different backgrounds, have had tent revival meetings, shared our testimony on the radio and evangelized on the streets. This is what we will continue to do, to spread the gospel and to equip others to do the same. 

New Season 

We will remain as a ministry (flames of passion) working under the umbrella of Youth With a Mission where we are asked to step up into new leadership as well to lead one of the biggest circles (where different ministries come together to connect) Kevin was also asked to join the eldership of the base. We feel blessed to be able to continue to grow in leadership and in the gifting and talents God has given us. We do this together as a family and even though it looks a bit different and Mariella will not be able to go out and minister with Kevin as much as she used to do, she is enjoying being a mom and spending time with Yasmin and when the opportunity is there we go or do things together as a family.