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)
