June 1st 2009



Dear friends,


Greetings from Copenhagen! Here is a short update on the lives & ministry of the Hinge family:


COMMUNICATION: I am sorry for the lack of communication from us in recent months. I know many of you pray for us often, and are concerned about us, and I feel bad that we haven’t kept you up-to-date on a regular basis. My health situation has been increasingly difficult to deal with and in recent weeks I’ve become more miserable. As a result we don’t have much energy left to work on the computer.


TBILISI, GEORGIA: After having cancelled teaching engagements in Kenya and Kazakhstan this spring, we were thrilled to travel to the capital city of Georgia 2 weeks ago, to teach at the YWAM Discipleship School (DTS) in Tbilisi. We enjoyed getting to know the students from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan and to share with them our experiences with children & youth ministry. It was our first visit to this beautiful and fascinating country, and I certainly hope it won’t be our last.


BUDAPEST, HUNGARY: Last Tuesday Shanie and all 3 girls went to Budapest, while I in the last minute decided to stay at home. Shanie had meetings with the leadership team for YWAM in Central Europe, followed by a conference for about 50 Central European YWAM leaders. Last night we set up video-conferencing through Skype (where we could hear & see each other) and I followed their meeting and worship time from an apartment here in Copenhagen. At the end they gathered around all 4 girls and prayed for our family. It was almost like being there. This conference ends today, and the next 4 days Shanie and the girls will have some time to relax and enjoy the beautiful city of Budapest, that we called home for 10 years!


THE NETHERLANDS: The week of June 8-12 Shanie will teach at the PCYM in The Netherlands (Holland). The PCYM School is a training program for children & youth workers, with students coming from all over Europe. I am supposed to go as well, but will probably stay home because of my health.


HEALTH UPDATE: I recently spent 5 full days in complete isolation, in order to spend concentrated time alone with God. It was a wonderful time of praying, worshipping, meditating and just being quite in His presence. I felt strengthened in my spirit, soul and mind, but experienced no breakthrough in my body. As a matter of fact, the past 3 weeks have been some of the worst of my life. The itching is intense and constant, making it impossible to sleep or even rest. My skin is so torn, and the nerve-endings in my skin damaged. It’s hard for me to sit still or to “be” anywhere. During the past week here in Copenhagen, I’ve seen one of the leading dermatologists in Denmark. She prescribed some medicine to me, that may help reduce the itching (so far it has helped very little, but I will give it some more time), and she recommended I got “UVB light” 3 times weekly, which I will start with June 10th. I’ve tried hundreds of products & ideas, over the past 2 ½ years, to reduce the itching, and will keep trying until we hopefully find something that works. On Tuesday & Wednesday this week I will be back at the hospital I was at in January, for follow-up blood work, and to hopefully get them to do some testing for the ”other disease” we think may be involved. While in Georgia I was (unexpectedly) able to get a CT scan. It was much cheaper than in Denmark or the US, yet the quality was excellent. The scan showed that the cancer had neither grown nor spread, but it confirmed once again that there is no cancer in the neck or in any organs. It showed 3 large tumors in my chest, two by the heart and a large mass in the middle of my chest. The large one had shrunk 1.4 cm since January this year (from 10.7 cm to 9.3 cm.). I was VERY thankful for these good results!


I will finish with a few statements that have impacted me lately:

• Some things can only be settled in the presence of God.
• God is more passionate about my intimacy with Him, than He is about my comfort.
• I cannot afford to have a thought in my head about me that is not in His.
• Gifts are free, maturity is expensive.


I so appreciate you all. Thank you for your continued prayers, meaningful friendship and faithful support. I often thank God for the amazing friends He has given us. We are so blessed!


Peter