Pancakes and bracelets--

During the holidays, a week ago, one of the little boys from the baby house went to stay with his mom. During that time, there was a violent episode where the mother was at risk of being hurt. When we heard, we were worried for the little boy, as he was always one of the quiet ones who took a while to open up for us. One time when the children were singing, he looked out so shy and the tears filled his eyes, and he couldn't sing a word. After the holiday, when he came back to Lar Feliz, we knew that something had happened that had made him upset because he became sullen and hardly smiled or laughed like before. Then one morning a Canadian volunteer and myself decided to make the babies American pancakes for breakfast. He was very curious and sat on a stool watching everything that we did. Finally, he was able to taste the maple syrope, and we finally heard his old funny laugh. Later in the morning we were braiding strings to make bracelets for them, and he choose his favorite colors and wanted one for his ankle too. Now, he is laughing and smiling again.

The Three Blessed Churches in a Row

When I first noticed that there were new churches being built down the road from our house, I found it odd that they were so close together. The three buildings are all built alike only are painted different colors with different names on each one. It almost looked like a three for the price of one church sale. I wondered how it was all going to work, would they all have to sing the same songs at the same time in order to avoid an overlap in sound? It was a baptist, pentecostal and Assembly of God church. The past year, we were able to visit these different churches and found the services to be very good, and the members to be very friendly. It also seemed that the pastors of the different churches were friendly to each other. At the end of the services everyone greeted their brother from not only their own church, but from the other church next door as well. What I noticed most of all after driving by the past few Sundays was how each of the buildings were absolutely full, and it was even difficult to find a parking space on the street! One time, Paul made a joke and said that he was going to build a fourth church next door to the other churches, to which the one pastor laughed and said, "God bless you brother!" Psalm 133:1-3--How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity...For there the Lord bestows his blessing."

The trees of love--

At the project we have several large mulberry trees that are completely filled with berries. They are called "amora" trees, a word very similar to the word "amor" which means "love". At almost any time of day, one can see all the children of all ages as well as adults picking all those berries off of the trees. Whenever a child is missing, we can usually find him picking berries, as much as he can eat. The babies come to the trees at certain times of the day, and come back covered from head to toe with the purple juice, and each have purple little hands. Like the berries on the trees, the children of Lar Feliz are looking for love. Many times, they know exactly where to find it, and who has it, and who doesn't. They can tell right away when someone says they love them, but are indeed false. Most of the children have been let down so many times that they are really careful. Once they have found the person who truly has love for them, they keep coming back to him or her again and again. "...Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails..."

She is a sweet little beautiful friendly child.....

It has been a hard couple of weeks that passed, but I want to write again the stories that God has placed on my heart. It was a Saturday morning, and we were preparing to go to the square in Holambra with our worship band. Paul received a call to come quick to see one of the little girls who had been with us in the baby house, but since had been returned to her mother. We were waiting for news while we were at the square, she arrived with Paul and Jeremy. She had bruises on her little body, and when I approached her the first thing that she told me was, "my mom and my grandma say that I am ugly." She was returned to us at the project during which time, she cried for around two weeks. It was one of the saddest things that we ever saw. One time when we went on an outing a waitress from the restaurant saw her crying, and we were all taking turns holding her, and the waitress started crying too. The child had touched her heart. Today after a month later, she is laughing and smiling again, playing and giving hugs. She is a sweet little beautiful friendly child.

A child raising a child

A seventeen year old girl without a mother or family close by, gets pregnant and has a beautiful little girl. She is brought to the baby house at Lar Feliz because she is unable to care for her by herself. Suddenly she has ten mothers, the monitors, telling her what to do, when to do it and how. She is still a child who still has so much to learn about life and how to make the right choices. She is fighting to keep her baby, but some days, she is losing the battle. We are trying to teach her a little bit each day, also through our examples, how to care for her precious child. Yesterday was one of the better days, when I saw her preparing her child for an outing and also to see how she is helping out others as well as herself. We pray for her the victory.

May news and prayer request..

Holambra, May 2011




Dear friends and family,


10 years!!! It is hard to believe that
Last week it was the 10th anniversary of Project Happy Home. It is unbelievable when I think about all the things the Lord has done during these 10 years.

We started with nothing but the blessing of the lord and He just opened the flood gates of heaven!!

We are so grateful for what the lord has been doing among our kids. Since two months we have a new music teacher and the lord has just done miracles through him. We now have a rap gospel band, and two worship band, one with girls and one with boys. Even Jill and Elisa are involved in the worship.
Every Friday night we hold a short service
And it has been wonderful!



The Transitional home for the youth has been going really well as well. We have 10 youth living there and they all are working, studying and participating in maintaining the home. We have been working with them on their monthly budget and I am really encouraged how things are going. We are preparing men and women to make a difference in the world! God is good.

About one month ago we received 5 boys from a town about 30 minutes away. In their hometown they are known as the most broken down family in town. The boys were sent out to steal etc. Their living conditions were terrible. At first the judge sent 4, because the fifth one didn´t have a birth certificate. The brothers told us that he was 10 years old and hasn´t gone to school for one day in his life. We kept calling the court house to ask when the boy would finally come. We just could think of the fact that a 10 year old boy on the streets without education and proper care. Finally he came with a birth certificate. Strange was that on now they gave him the same date of birth as his 12 year old brother. Now we will have to have him undergo some medical exams to find out his real age. He loves going to school. We are so excited!
Pray for these 5 boys; Maicon, Vagner, Igor, Bruno and Lucas.
The last two months we have been renovating the home of the teen-age boys. We have added on a beautiful bathroom, renovated the locker room (see picture)
Now we are going to put new tiles in the whole house and then on the 20th of June we have a company come in with volunteers who will be painting the whole house, putting up curtains and paintings. They will also donate new beds and mattresses.
What a blessing!!



Finally I would like to ask you to pray for Paul´s sister and family. Joke has been a missionary in Cambodia for a long time, started having some heart troubles last month. Her insurance flew her to Singapore and they ended up putting stents to resolve the problem. She still has a lot of medication to control her heartbeat etc and to get a rest she decided to go to Holland for a month. Some of her daughters live in Holland and one of them is called Anna. Last week Anna suddenly got very sick and for the last days she has been on the IC in a coma on life support. Today they found out that she has a tumor on her ovary and this tumor is producing poison which is making her very sick. Tomorrow they will be doing emergency surgery to remove the tumor. Then she will undergo treatments to purify her blood of the poison the tumor was producing. The surgery is dangerous because of the deadly situation she is in right now!! Would you pray with us for a miracle from the Lord?

We will write more later about the family!! God bless!!

Paul, Jill, Elisa and Jeremy

If you want to support us financially monthly or with a one time gift then you can make your check out to The Gospel house Church and send it to:
The Gospel house Church
14707 Alexander Road
Cleveland, OH 44146-4924,
Please include a separate note saying the gift is for The Van Opstal Familie

Painting nails

Many of you remember when I worked with a ministry in Amsterdam called “Shining Lights”. The purpose of this ministry was to evangelize all the different prostitutes who were working in the infamous Red Light District by giving them free manicures and serving them coffee and tea. Most of the time the women would open the doors for us for a free manicure, and we would be able to share the gospel with them and pray with them. As we would do their nails, we would hold their hands in ours and we could pray for them silently. I think there were very few times in five years that I didn’t have a good conversation with more than one woman about Jesus. With the baby house little girls, I also started the habit of doing their nails, just a little bit of quality time for them and making them pretty seems to leave a lasting impression that they remember always.