The Yarden Travels

Brother Shahar and Sister Kim Yarden have been home in Texas for a few weeks of rest, recuperation, and grand-parenting. But they will leave in mid-February for another season of travel—encouraging communities overseas and bringing the love and grace of God to all they encounter.

In December the Yardens returned from India. Before their time in India, they traveled from Finland, across Sweden and Denmark, back to the Netherlands and across France.

They traveled in Europe for a month with Brother Micah and Sister Jessie Borman, a joyful, friendly, down-to-earth couple. Brother Micah led worship with his guitar and hearty singing.

After an eight-hour ferry ride through the archipelago between Finland and Sweden in the Baltic Sea, the Yardens and Bormans visited in Sweden and Denmark before driving back to the Netherlands, where they met and encouraged our Dutch brothers and sisters.

The Yardens rarely take time for sight seeing, but they took the Bormans to tour Leiden, the town from where the Pilgrims set sail to America, and Zaanse Schans, an old village with a variety of working windmills: a sawmill, a paint mill, and a clog mill.

Micah and Jessie, Shahar and Kim spent an afternoon on a historical tour of Amsterdam. The Israeli national soccer team was in town for an important match, and the Yardens hoped to meet a relative who had traveled for the game. Their tour eventually brought them to Amsterdam’s iconic Dam Square, where the lively pep rally for the soccer match seemed overshadowed by a growing, ominous tension. Unable to locate their relative and feeling uneasy, Brother Shahar suggested they leave early.

It wasn’t until later that they fully understood the significance of what they had experienced in the square. The undercurrent of unease they’d felt was a prelude to a night marked by unrest, racial hatred, and violence.

Thankfully, their relative had also sensed the brewing hostility and returned to his hotel before the situation escalated. But due to the unrest that unfolded later that evening, many people had to be hospitalized, and others sustained minor wounds. The incident underscored Europe’s shifting social landscape—and the continual need to remain attuned to God’s Spirit.

The Bormans then flew back to Deary, Idaho. Meanwhile Shahar and Kim traveled across Belgium and France to Brittany, a region in northwestern France. There they gathered with Brother Jacques and Sister Adriana Broquet at a friend’s home for a week of prayer, worship, and fellowship. (The Broquets shared about this gathering in a recent post.) They were joined by Brother Gary and Sister Sue Linzer, Brother Nathan Tittley, and Jacob Cobb, who were returning from a visit to our community in India. They were also joined by a group of believers who are friends of the Broquets, several of whom have visited our communities in Texas, Israel, and Idaho. Together, they prayed, shared fellowship, and witnessed God’s Word working powerfully to bring repentance and deliverance.

After a week in France, Brother Shahar and Sister Kim drove back to the Netherlands to catch a plane to India. They stayed for three weeks with our brothers and sisters in Coimbatore.

Sister Kim writes, “In India we felt God drawing us closer and bringing us into greater unity as He forms a local expression of His body there. Now, after enjoying the holiday season with our family in Texas, we are preparing to return to Europe and India in mid-February.”

The Yardens deeply appreciate the generous contributions that make their journeys possible and are especially grateful for your unwavering prayer support and love.

“We have been upheld by God’s grace through your prayers. Thank you.”