More then a year at Noah’s Ark!

Hi all,

It’s great to see how many people have visited this website. I haven’t kept it up for more then a year I think so it’s high time for an update.

Looking back it’s hard to believe what all has happened at the Ark within a year…

We visited 6 places in Holland. We opened to the public in the place where the Ark was built, in Schagen. Then we went to Rotterdam where the three of our Ark team were living together in a flat above a Greek restaurant and a Pizza Hut next to it!:) We had a really great time there. Working with volunteers from a local church in Rotterdam was something new but very nice. After three months in the beautiful “fairly new” city of Rotterdam we went to Sliedrecht, a small town but with a LOT of enthusiastic volunteers and many visitors. By that time a married couple was added to the crew, they came to work at the Ark while we were still in Rotterdam, but in Sliedrecht they joined living in the same house with two more girls from the team, one girl stayed with friends. It went amazingly well, we had good times and talks together. Sometimes it was a bit busy and overwhelming, the project seemed to be growing so fast, but then again it was a great joy to receive so many visitors and make friends in that area. Then came Arnhem, a place very close to the German border. By that time it was winter so it was pretty cold at the Ark, even with the heating on. There were many challenges at first with electricity, a generator and the heating, but it was a great time to learn how to handle things and make it work somehow. My family and I celebrated our Christmas on board the Ark with the couple that works at the Ark and some of our friends from Arnhem. Of course just before twelve o’ clock the generator went dead so we used flashlights to take care of the light in stead of the cozy lights that we had at the Ark during that time of year and it got cold, but still we felt that it was very special to be on the Ark with Christmas! The way back home was a real challenge because it was foggy like we had never seen before. On the HIHGWAY on the other side, we heard how a lady walking in front of the car was giving directions to her husband on where to steer!!! We had great fun with the challenge, of course missed the right exit and got home around 3.30am. The next day I had to be at the Ark before eight to open the gate for a guy who came to get the generator to work again. We managed and could open at the normal time for a busy day with a lot of visitors again. After Arnhem the Ark headed for Huizen, pretty much in the centre of Holland. A very Christian community with many encouraging reactions on this project. A great place to take pictures and a beautiful area to walk through forests or heather or along the lake. We had our 200.000 th visitor there!!! That was a few weeks before the Ark had been open for a year. By that time I had my own trailer to live in close to the Ark. A place for myself was necessary and now I could take my dog along which has been great, and still is! But I got a nervous breakdown and had to “leave the ship” for a while. I went back to work after a bit more then a month still having very hard times now and then. And now we are in Lelystad, also a fairly new place with a great mixture of people. This location is closer to all our homes, so it’s nice that we don’t have to travel that far. I still live in my trailer during the week, have my dog with me and love being back to normal and fully working again! Another boy is added to our team, a great guy with wonderful qualities who had been involved with the Ark long before it was finished, so it’s great to have him with us.

In the mean time with all that has been going on with this Ark, the building of an Ark real size has also started! It’s being built in Sliedrecht, and the boy I mentioned last is, after Johan himself, mainly in charge to lead the building project of this BIG Ark…

And sinds some time Johan’s oldest daughter Deborah is joining the “Ark Team” full time. She was a stewardess with KLM before she came to the Ark, but is now enjoying her work at the Ark a lot and we all hope she’ll stay with us! An other daughter from Johan, Jessica, is a faithful part-time worker, together with her friend Yvonne, and Wesley and it’s always great to have them around!

You can follow more news about the project by visiting these websites:

http://www.arkvannoach.com/ - general website

http://dutcharktwo.wordpress.com/ - English info about the big Noah’s Ark

http://tweedearknederland.wordpress.com/ - Dutch info about the big Noah’s Ark

So this is in short what has been going on at the Ark. Thanks again for visiting!

God bless, Jacky

Ark happenings in May

The Dutch ark has had quite some attention already!

Media from all over the world are asking for interviews with Johan, we get articles about the ark from countries near and far, and that’s the same with the visitors we have had on the ark. The fun thing was that some friends of mine that are Americans living in Belgium came to visit, and were on American Television a few days later with CNN. They got a call from their friends in America who were so surpriced to see their far away friends on American TV!! Another friend was presented to me, also an American, but living in Ireland, in an article that someone brought who had just returned from a Holliday, and brought a newspaper called “Gulf Post” along that they found over there! And then it was fun to meet with people again that I hadn’t seen for years, some as much as over ten years! Now they showed up and it was fun to catch up a little bit!

We had a nice place the first two weeks after we opened to the bublic. It was right on the dock in the small haven of Schagen where everyone could see it. We had many visitors from many countries, and a nice mixture of backgrounds. When we talk with people we notice that we have many believers there, many that once knew more about the Bible but lost in on the way and also people who don’t know anything about the Bible. We’ve had some very special talks with people which is the best part of the whole ark! The ark itself is wonderful and far out the most really admire what one man could accomplish, and many say that it must have been God that was behind this great work in such a short time. But the contact with people is so special! Sometimes it’s just a nice encouraging talk, and sometimes it’s just so interesting to see how people respond to hearing that God loves them! At those moments you can almost see peoples eyes grow interested in this message, and we love to share about it!

The highlight was Ascention Day. We were only open during the afternoon, but had 1600 people coming! That was in one afternoon, what we normally had during a whole day before! There are some slower days, also because there was a lot of doubt if we would get permission to stay in Schagen, but it’s going well! We’ve had over 20.000 people in three weeks so that’s great!

In the mean time we got flyers, post cards, posters about the ark, and a nice collection of books and DVD’s for a small bookshop we have on board.

We have permission to stay in Schagen until the end of August. It’s our plan to visit Zaandam after that for two weeks and then head for Rotterdam for three months. Amsterdam is also asking us to come, so we might leave Schagen sooner then the end of August, but we need to wait for some new permissions then. The ark is now located close to the dock where we were before, but it’s invisible from the road. That’s a pity but we are doing our best to make people know where we are, because they all love it when they come in! It was beautiful to see this big boat moving to it’s new place with two tug-boats! It will be quite something when this great and unique Ark will be going through the main canals and cities of Holland!!!

You’re welcome too!! (info at: www.arkvannoach.com)

NEWS!!! on Noahs Ark!!!

Hi all who are interested in the schedule of the Ark that is build in Schagen…

We finally got permission to stay in Schagen! And so we will be there until the 25th of August.

After that we are heading for Rotterdam for a big event, and probably tour through Holland to visit different places.

I have been too busy to update this blog very much, but the fact that we can stay is wonderful news! Everybody was wondering why not, everybody thinks the ark is great and should stay in Schagen. One political party was making trouble, but now this problem is solved and we’re happy to finally be able to tell people where we’ll be the coming months!

I’ll be back later with some new pictures and nice stories!

Jacky Baken

It IS hard to keep up…

I will just write something with the pictures.

These are a few paintings that came in from Vietnam, and that Arie, Anne Gre and I put on wooden plates.

Mark and Johan putting coins in a machine to have electricity.              

 Me being against the rules until Johan advised me to get a ladder. You see Ton, I haven’t changed since working for you…:)

 Johan and I having fun with a fire fighter or whatever it’s called… Where’s the one from Arie??

 First aid lessons. We laugh a lot but also learn things that we hope we’ll never have to use… The girl in the green shirt is our new colleague by the name of Esther.

  A lady just came by the ark to bring a phasant, she said her grandmother would have loved to know that her bird would one day decorate the ark of Noah…

Some more pics of the new location of the ark! It’s quite pretty, but we don’t seem to be getting too much suppoert from one political party to stay there for a very long time, but we hope things will change. We do have several invitations for other places and we want to say; Wherever God can use us best, we want to be!!!

 

Almost can’t keep up…:)

Time is going so fast and the weeks are full!

Something really exciting for me was talking with two different men that can provide books for us to sell. One was Frans from the Dutch AiG  organisation and the other was with someone from the largest Christian publishing company in Holland called Jongbloed.  We have found some really nice things for children and adults on the subject of the ark and the flood.

   Something very exciting as well was working on the paintings today! My brother-in-law Arie was working for the ark for the fist time today and it started off with a good day with a lot of work. All these paintings come from Vietnam, and we put them on wood boards. We did about 30 of them today and had a lot of fun racing each other with the hammer! Anne Gre is a good sport and fun to work with. She’s very committed to her work and her enthusiasm is great to see. It was great to have Arie there, he’s also fun to be with and a very handy guy. He’ll be around a lot more the coming weeks as a volunteer, doing all sorts of things.

TOMORROW… is the weather allows, the ark will be brought to the other side of the canal! This is a very exciting thing especially for Johan who has been waiting the longest for this moment! But we’re all excited!

More things need to be done, but at least people can start coming. It was very windy today, so we pray for nice weather tomorrow, because then there is a boat that can haul the ark to the other side and we don’t know what the next good chance is unless it’s a week later. We’re getting ready now to have people. Next week there’ll be a course for the staff to be able to help people in emergency cases… I am curious how that is going to be, but it will be good to know some things in case of injuries on board…

My life looks very full at the moment. At work there’s all this exciting and new stuff, also a lot of things to learn and to remember and think of. But also at home we are getting ready for the greatest event of the year here at home, when we make a painting with flowers called a flower Mosaic. It’s always a full and busy week, and sinds I am the main coordinator with it, most stress is on me to get everything right. I am very grateful that we have a nice and faithful team coming to help which takes a lot of wondering and arranging away, but it is always a lot of work. Satan doesn’t sit still when it comes to discouraging us during those times where we can wittness so openly about the Lord and take the opportunity to urge people to make a choice before it’s too late. But the Lord knows what we can handle and we need to know that when we can’t He still can!

Remember us in your prayers! Thank you!

Today…

Today I met with a new coleague that started working at the ark today. Her name is Anna Gre, and for a while she will be working part-time at the ark to slowly become a full time worker there. She’s a nice girl, 24 years old and the way it seems right now, we’re going to get along just fine! 

Today we were putting lamps together that I took apart last Friday, because they needed different wires.

I heard that my friend Rob and his friend Rene did a good job on the computers last Saturday!

And here are some pics to show the new elevator, the automats and Johan cutting some nice bread for us with a Stanley knive…:) This is NOT to make fun of Johan, but just to show the calm atmosphere we have at the ark and the use of available resorts.:)

Two more weeks before the grand opening…

Another week has flown by.

There are not any big changes or updates at the moment although it’s busy on and around the ark.

Once again the elevator is nearly finished, the fire alarm is working and will be finished on Monday.

The coffee and snack automats are brought to the third floor.

My painting jobs are finished, but some new ones have already been announced.:)

Yesterday Frans Gunnink was there so we could talk about books and folders that are available on the subject of the ark. A lot of that material is in English, so we are going to decide which books we’ll choose to be translated into Dutch.

We’re talking about some advertisement material now to attract tourists that come to this area.

And we need to work on information about the displays from Bible stories that are on the ark. When these are finished, the ark will really start looking like a Museum and will be very informative and interesting for everyone.

The paintings that came from Vietnam are going to be framed this coming week. Another girl is coming to work on Monday. She’ll be working part time.

I am curious how the boat will look by the end of next week. There are so many jobs and errands that don’t look big, but take time and efford, but still you see things change fast. I would like to see the shop ready and to have the ”signs” with info ready and see the paintings on the walls.

Today two boys are going to see what they can do to get the computers on the ark to work. One of those boys and I worked together at my job in the flowerbulbs business.

I’ll add some pictures later on.

Have a great weekend! – Jacky

My second week…

Happy belated Easter, although for those who live with the Lord daily, it’s always Easter!!

It was fun at work again today. I am getting used to my new working area, am getting to know Johan a bit better and start finding my own stuff. It’s very nice to work there, I feel pretty relaxed and begin to like doing the tours with people sinds I know my story a little better. But, there’s more to learn and know and to NOT MIX UP!!:) I get confused about some names and numbers, but slowly it will all settle and go more smoothly everyday. Keep praying!:) Johan is very nice in letting me be, which gives me a bit more confidence to do things. I always get nervous when I’m being watched and feel the best when I’m just with people that don’t know me so I can talk freely. This is NOT to say I don’t want friends around!!! I’ll LOVE to see each of you on the ark!!! I think that the first friends I’ll be able to show around are those that will come for the flowerdays in a few weeks. (That’s when we make Mosaics of flowers in our town which we use to make a Mosaic that has a message on the Gospel and friends will come to help).

In some newspapers it said that the ark would open for the public today. We won’t be able to open before the 30th of April because some things are still not finished. But people came today and some were persistant to come in, some left a bit disappointed, some left with understanding. People differ so much from each other and I realize that some can be a challence to stay nice to… That’s not my strongest quality , so something I will need to work on. (Keep praying!!:))

I did give some tours for people from far away, all very nice people and touched by the work of the ark and the stories we have to share. I loved doing one international group. It was a group that is evangelizing in this area and they were from America, Greece and Romania and some from Holland. So it was in English and good to practise. I love Americans and am almost sure they’ll always be my favorites! Sorry for those who aren’t!!:):)

Getting to more important info now… Many new animals have found their place on the ark. They’re beautiful! 

The fire alarm system should be finished by the end of this week.

The elevator will also be finished by the end of this week.

I am painting some and hopefully we’ll be able to order some books and toys for the shop that we’ll have near the entry-exit area.

Please pray especially for Johan. This is coming so close and there must be a lot on his shoulders to arrange, wait and get finished. I want to be there as much as I can, but this is a big project and when people start coming when there’s still so much to do it must be stressful. So I am going to take care of the visitors so that Johan can keep working, so pray for wisdom for all this. Two more weeks…

Almost a week passed…

Hi dear all who are interested in my work at the ark…

One week has almost passed by and it’s been very interesting. I have learned to use a hammer a bit more, and yesterday I painted almost ten doors which was also a new event. Today I learned that picking up glass mineral wool with bare hands and arms in NOT WISE!!! It’s still itching, but I didn’t shower yet, so I have some hope…

This week there was the idea that glass was invented a long time before we think it was, so I looked up my concordance and saw that glass was mentioned as early as in Job!!! It’s chapter 28: 17, in English it says Chrystal. Isn’t it amazing? It is maybe not useful for our spiritual lives to know things like this, but one thing I heard this week sticks with me that DOES make a difference in the way we can COUNT GOD!

Evolution teaches that people and animals change for the better when they adjust to their surroundings. Creation teaches that what God created was very good and the Bible tells us that people were getting older in Genesis then they are now! When things specialize (adhust) they get weaker. Mutations have less genetics with information then the parent. I am sure I am not using the right expressions, but it’s wonderful to re-alize! that God is God and that he made things and us with wisdom and for a great purpose. But it’s because we left His ways and fell for sin that made us weaker and poorer imitation of our example- God.

Thank the Lord God for sending His own Son to bring us back to what God created us for in the first place!!! To be after HIS image and to live FOREVER!!! Only through Christ! Without Him there is JUST degeneration, and there’s no evoltution, everything is going downhill, but with Christ we are taken up to new hights of glory!

Today there was a team from RTL4, a TV broadcaster many people watch. Johan was showing them around and doing an interview, while at that time I did my first tour with a photographer from Amsterdam who was taking pictures for a national magazine. She was a nice lady and it was fun to show her around and chat some to kill the time. When Johan was finished with the TV people, he had to pose for this lady, which gave me the chance to take some nice pictures myself… 

Outisde of that I spend most of the day cleaning, because I needed to wait for the paint to dry before I could repaint them for a second layer. I love getting to know my new working place and chatting with the boys and with Johan when there’s time.

As children of the Lord God we are so rich, can’t find such treasures anywhere else!

My first day…

What a unique day!

First of all my drive to work this morning was so nice. For the first time ever, I drove to work the opposite way! I wonder if I will make the mistake someday of going left, in stead of right from our property…:) I drive by a beautiful canal with reeds on the side, past some dykes and even pass by an old windmill. It takes me 15 minutes to get to the ark. My former work was five minutes away from home on the same street.

The day started with a cup of coffee and talking. Then I got an introduction from Johan, telling me things that were going on and the meaning of the things he has displayed in the ark. Then he gave me a job, where I learned to use a hammer. The only experience I had with hitting nails into the wall was here at home, so I was a bit scared to do it, but Johan was great because he left and didn’t watch me! That helped a lot and slowly it went better. After some time Johan came and said it was going well. Then two men from Open Doors came. One of them was Ben H. that my oldest sister Jeannette used to work with when she was working at Open Doors. So it was fun to see him. As children Marlies and I always played that Ben was my father and Brother Andrew was hers..:) I’m glad he doesn’t know that, it would have been a bit embarrassing… Anyway, I was invited to sit with them when I was ready for lunch, and it was GREAT to hear them discuss about many details from the flood, the ark and other themes in the Bible. Ben wrote a book not too long ago about modern sience, very interesting according to my brother Gerard. I even shared one thing that they were talking about and had no answer to, it weas something that I just read in a book from Answer in Genesis, and so I shared this thought with them, and they seemed happy with the thought!:) Now I understand how reading can make you at least a bit smart!:) Look like it anyway… Then I went along with their tour and heard so many interesting things that I wish I could record it all. There was also a man from a Christian Newspaper, so he was asking many questions, altogether very interesting. After that I was cleaning the top floor and from time to time had a little chat with Johan. He was laughing about the smile on my face, but I couldn’t help it!!! It was so unique for me to work with Christians, hear Christian music and talk at the same level about things from the Bible and thoughts about life in general!

In one word… today was wonderful!