The Buitenkamp family has been raised on the road in dangerous places. From his earliest memories, Brother Gerald has been going with his father, Brother Heino, into the Communist Eastern Block countries to spread Brother Branham’s Message. His work didn’t slow down when he got married and had his own family. The third generation of Buitenkamps are burning up the missionary trail, and still finding those dark, dangerous places to spread the Gospel. This is Brother Gerald’s report of a visit to a staunchly Muslim country. We left out specific information to protect him and his family during their travels, as well as the believers in that country.

We certainly want to thank you for all your prayers as the Lord surely took care of us during our travels in (a strongly Muslim country).

We prepared as much material as possible for our trip to make sure that we had plenty of Spiritual Food to hand out to the believers.

It had been some time since our last visit, so they sure were eagerly waiting for VGR to bring them the latest new French Message books. Especially since it has always been difficult to get any religious materials in by mail. We were only able to get small packages in from time to time, and sometimes mail would get returned or taken by customs due to the fact that it is a Muslim nation.

The only other option that we would have is just try to take as much as we could by plane as we did on our last previous visits, and expect the Lord to watch over His work. One thing we knew for sure, we are not bringing our own message to the people, but this is His Message. Therefore we don't have to worry of how He is going to do it, all we had to do was stand still and see the Salvation of the Lord.

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This particular trip, our main purpose was to take the new sets of French C.O.D., and since these books have already been made available for the French speaking believers in Europe, we wanted to make sure that we took enough copies to make them available for as many believers as possible in that country. Of course the C.O.D. series are by far the heaviest books that are available from the Message. We where somewhat worried about how we would be able to pass Customs with all these extra suitcases. We had so many things to take for them. One other main concern was to take the French mp3 sets, which we knew could be a problem at getting through security, knowing that we cannot send them by mail. Of course we packed also as many as we could in our bags, trusting that God would take care of the situation.

Besides the C.O.D. volumes, and mp3 messages, we took many sets of 20 different titles in the French languages. We came with 4 suitcases and 2 carry-ons that weighted way over 50 pound each. By the grace of God, they never checked the weight on all the extras that we took on board.

Here's a list of French materials we took.

MP3 Vol.1 & 2, COD Vol 1&2 and all the other French bound books. 20 different small book titles, latest French translations, Mother Opossum, 20th century Prophet DVD, Gospel Hymns, CTV Newspaper French edition, All available French Tracts, and small miscellaneous items.

You can imagine how we felt when we checked in all our bags on (an Arabian airliner) when we boarded the plane. We knew we had to pick up all our bags on arrival and go through customs.

While we were sitting amidst all Muslim people with their traditional robes and praying in their own traditional Muslim way, you can imagine how we felt like strangers. Before the plane departed they had a prayer played in the plane from the Koran, which gave us the creepy feelings. I just got out my I-Pod and listened to the Message, “Stand Still And See The Salvation Of The Lord” 57-0629. It sure gave me an encouragement to trust God and commit all things to Him.

As we approached the city of (a large Arabian city), I thought how God has a predestinated Bride amongst all these millions of people in a land where there is a mosque on every corner; a people that know nothing about a prophet that came to this generation and was vindicated with the Message that came from God.

We first had to go trough a passport checkpoint, and then pick up our bags. The plane had about 200 people on board. It was quite busy at the baggage belt. As we kept looking for our bags, the crowd started to get smaller and smaller, and all I could hope for is that we would not be the last ones to walk out with our bags. We wanted to walk out with the crowd towards the exit doors. Of course this was not the case this time, we were actually one of the last passengers that got our bags off the belt. We tried to be as relaxed as we could be and go for the exit doors. As we neared the doors, there were several police officers, and there was one last X-ray machine just before we got out, where people were picked at random to drop their bags for a last final check.

As I arrived before my son, the officers picked me to have my bags screened. As my bags went through, I picked them up again at the other end, and loaded them up on my carriage. I quickly walked out the exit doors, and met our friends that were waiting for our arrival. There were a few people between my son Matthew and me, and as I was already out in the arrival hall when I noticed it took quite some time for him to come. I quickly handed my carriage to the brother that was waiting for me, and told him to quickly take all my luggage (full of Message material) and take it out of the terminal to his car in the parking lot. I went back to wait at the exit door for my Matthew. I then realized that they had discovered he also had mp3 CDs in his bags, and wanted him to open his bags. Matthew's bags were locked, and he was telling me that he needed his keys for the bags to open them up.

Then customs called me in and said, “We know you also have CDs in your bags too. Give me your bags again.” I said, “I don't know where they are; they already took them from me.” The officer kept telling me to bring them back for re-inspection, but I had literally nothing on me. All our documents were in my carry-on and I had already given them to my friends, who had already taken them somewhere in the parking lot. I did not even know where they went.

I walked around in a dark parking lot, but had no clue were to go find them, and returned back to the terminal.

In the mean time they started to check one of Matthew’s bags, and had already started questioning him. I could not get back inside and had to wait at the doors, watching him from a distance until they finally took him away to another office. He had to deal with the situation on his own. Of course we knew that the Lord would be with him and that others were praying for us.

You can read Brother Matthew’s report of his experience with the Customs agents at the Young Foundations website.

When we finally got through with all our belongings and with everything we brought with us, we sure thanked the Lord for leading us all the way, and that He took care of everything! The little car was loaded to the max, and we finally headed for our room, where we were happy to take a rest for a few hours.

We certainly remember many times during our missionary trips in the past years how the Lord always let us pass through many different borders, such as denominational walls and foreign country borders with thousands and thousands of tapes and books, even this trip again how He took care of His work. We certainly appreciate all your prayers, although it is not always easy since we have no idea of how everything will happen. Our family at home knows the risk we are taking when we enter some of these foreign countries. When you call home after arrival, and find out that they and others have been up praying through the night as they knew the approximate arrival time of our plane, it sure does something to you. You can't be the same anymore, knowing that there is a dying world out there that knows nothing of what God has done in this generation. We got little time left to do a quick work to get as much work done as we can and get this Message spread. I believe there is no time to play around anymore, as we see many dark clouds hanging in the skies.

When you know that this is the final and only Message that was vindicated to this generation, and that He will make a way to get it to the predestinated seed of God. We don't have to add anything, but just put it in the hands of the people. We know that God is the only one that can open their eyes. I wish that many could experience what a feeling it is to be able to hand these messages that holds eternal life to a people in a foreign land. It sure is the only thing that can help them on their life's journey. Maybe time will not permit another opportunity to bring them more Spiritual Food, but the greatest thing is that we now know that they have enough Spiritual Food in due season.

And as we went from city to city to visit the believers in (Brother Gerald names the different cities), we just tried to encourage the people to take time to listen to His Voice and read the precious books that we handed to them. Sometimes along the way to a total stranger at the gas station, or people that cleaned our hotel room, or just any person on the street, or a person that watched our car, what better can we give them?

God bless you all at the storehouse in Jeffersonville that provide us with this precious cargo.

We can all say, “Thank you Brother Gerald for being a good steward of what we are sending you.”