when the sun comes to amsterdam you.. sail!

This weekend, in an attempt to be culturally relevant (!!) we accepted our dear friend Menno's invitation and joined him on his wonderful sail boat for a restful Saturday on the Markenmere (Marken Lake) just to the north east of Amsterdam. It was just what the doctor ordered! Sun, wind, lunch on the boat, water, exploring a small fishing town called Marken, keeping the kids from falling overboard. In all, it was a 10 hr. adventure on the water and quite exhausting! It was so good to have some silence and be out in beauty and just be a part of the wind and the world.  There were tons of boats out with us due to a 24 hr. sailing race that was going on. All the boats in the race had gps systems which would log the distance they'd gone. They just had to be back at a particular port at 22:00, and then they would decide the winner by the distance on the gps. A quite intriguing race! 

I'll add some pictures here so you can see some of the fun! It was also the day of public transport usage. We (Allie, the Pickerills, and I) left the house at 9am. We biked 30 min up to the main train station where we caught the #32 bus out of the city, switched to the #30 bus which took us to a small fishing town where Menno met us with his boat. That also meant we were biking home at midnight through downtown Amsterdam.. pretty crazy! Especially when you're swerving around people who've had too much to drink and can't tell a bike lane from the sidewalk, let alone the street! I'm happy to say I didn't hit anyone! 

Sunday I woke up with a mad headache and a sun burn! I went to the Utrecht Vineyard, my first time there since officially living here now! It was so fun to be there! It felt like home in so many ways. They even have coffee time like Joshua House! I got to see lots of our friends from the Amsterdam small group, enjoyed the dutch worship (I'm starting to pick up a few words!) and even bought a dutch Bible to help with my language learning. A very sweet woman named Ina, translated the message for me. I sat next to her and she whispered it in my ear! That got me so excited for our church and how we'll eventually have sermon translations into English! Everyone was so warm and very welcoming! I'm so thrilled we get to work along side Utrecht in this adventure!

So, it's now Monday and it's almost been two weeks since I've been here. Man, does the time fly! So far today I've had some down time to read and think, went to the grocery, called our broker, again.. and again about the apartment.. I'm still waiting! Ahh!! Help me God! Now I'm going to do some language school research. So, that's the scoop! Just wanted to fill you in on the news!  I had my first hint of missing home last night so I looked at some pictures and reveled in the amazing community I come from! Love you all!