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!!!

 

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…

Welcome to this new blog!

Hi all, welcome to this new blog from Jacky Baken.

This coming Monday (April 2) I am starting a new and quite interesting job. I’ll be working at the ark of Noah, build by a Dutch man named Johan Huibers. Since many are interested in the ark I decided to use this blog just for info and updates concerning the ark, and my work there.

Enjoy!