new art work/life

house guests, love em!

The past few days I've started to feel a bit homesick. Homesick for family, the known, for history with people. Bam, God is so kind with his timing! Thursday I met up with Julia, Gigi, Bram, and Deborah at the airport and we welcomed the Nashes to Holland! I can't describe how happy I was/am!!.. (and there was the added bonus of Starbucks in the airport, yippeee!) They didn't look at all like they'd been up all night. What studs.

We got them home in two cars, had some breakfast and coffee with everyone. At that point John and Amanda started to droop so the party left and they slept (Allie and I played with Gray until he finally crashed out on my bed nestled between pillows). Later that night everyone came back for dinner! Rachel B. (who'd arrived the same day) and the Pickerill gang made it through the driving rain. Our dryer was working overtime! We ate yummy food, toasted, and laughed and talked... and missed the Larsens (can't wait for you to be here!) At one point I was laughing so hard I started to choke and it felt so good! (the laughing part!) It's been a while since I've laughed like that... it was so good being with "old" friends that have known me for longer than 2 months! 

Friday was also a treat! We attended our first ever Vineyard Beleux conference (the region we're a part of). And guess who was there? Don Williams! It was so good to worship, really worship and then hear from Don. The theme was Kingdom Journey... all about who we are as the Vineyard. What distinguishes the Vineyard? The emphasis on the Kingdom of God. He started with the large scope... in the Old Testament and then slowly moved to the NT. For maybe the first time I really got it in a whole new way! I felt like he was speaking straight to me! There were only 50 of us there (leaders from the near by Vineyards in Lithuania, Belgium, Estonia, Luxembourg, Sweden, etc..) so it was very free and Don really preached it!... and told lots of wonderful stories (my favorite part!) And in lovely Dutch fashion every hour we had a break for coffee and cookies/ lunch or dinner... so we had lots of time to meet people from all over Europe and share stories! I even got to practice some of my Dutch with some from Utrecht. 

So, things are going well! It's wonderful having the Nashes staying here... seeing Gray's toys everywhere and doing life! It's one of my favorite things! It's now Saturday and we're going to maybe take Amanda and Gray exploring after his nap.  

little Grayson playing in the kitchen

today you get: stream of consciousness

Dutch is trucking along. Here's a picture of my book and dictionary... my close friends these days. I spent a while at a great little coffee shop 2 blocks from my apartment today. It's been so fun being able to get the gist of newspaper articles and understand some of the things people say around me! Speaking of articles, here are a couple I read (skimmed with the help of my dictionary!) today. I thought the article's accompanying images communicate well:

The first is about Ramadan and the debate over whether the next two days (Eid Ul-Fitr) should be considered an official holiday in the Netherlands. I've been thinking about this idea a lot. In a city like Amsterdam where half the people are internationals; sensitivity to religious and cultural traditions is a hot topic. My class had a big test on Rosh Hashanah and a class party was planned during Ramadan (which ruled out more the half the class). I'm not saying we need to tiptoe around everyone's traditions but I do think in a place like this where there's a sort of "war" of misunderstanding, especially between Muslims and the secular culture, effort needs to be made. I'm not talking about just tolerance... I think it's something more toward appreciation and celebration. It reminds me of a video my pastor showed one time, "Celebrate What's Right With the World." I think holidays and special occasions are something to appreciate; and to celebrate their importance to a group of people, even if you believe radically different things. Plus at a very simplistic level it means tasty new foods to try and words to learn!

The second article visually depicts what's happening economically in America... perhaps the world. It's been strange to watch CNN at night, hear people talking in cafes, and skype with folks who are wondering what to do with their money... and feel so far away from it all. I woke up Monday and was scared thinking about what could happen. I plunged into the fear for about 5 minutes and then I felt the Lord check my spirit, and almost say "hey" and point my chin back up toward him. Fear is not from me [God]. Never. And so I took a deep breath and tried to pray instead. This is no surprise to God. The banks have lost control, the government doesn't know what to do, but God is in control, and even if everything tumbles, that fact gives me amazing comfort. He's in control of me, my parent's retirement, my time here, the church etc...

        [new train of thought]

Every morning I wake up at 7am, spend some time with the Lord, eat, get ready and leave the house at 8:30 for a 20 min bike ride down to class. The ride is beautiful... along a bustling market, through Vondelpark, the fancy neighborhoods surrounding the park, under (literally) an old school, and under the A10 freeway to the Vrije University. The 10 min. that it takes to cycle from the park to VU smells like parsley. Strange but so beautiful.. I want to bottle up the smell.

On Saturday I was invited to a little cottage that P & C from small group own/live in most of the year. P invited me for lunch and I had a sweet time getting to know her, playing with her pets, enjoying the garden, and learning new dutch phrases. She taught me some great ones:

      Ik houd van jou (I love you)

      Oh, jongen jongen... (oh boy oh boy...)

      Precise (exactly!) For some reason this is one of my favorites!

I also wonder if one day I'll be able to look back to this time and clearly comprehend all that's happening. It's all going so fast. I don't feel like I can process enough or think enough or remember enough.  I want to save everything. All the details. All the good conversations. Even the moments of confusion and embarrassment (they may make sense later!)

the weekend

view from my window

the sun comes to vondelpark (sunday after church)

"artemis" comes to amsterdam 

in an instant the city seemed even smaller

getting some love

change

I don't have a lot of time to make art these days so I took a "30 min" break from studying and let loose on my blog. You may have been confused. Some of you may know that I thrive on changing my environment. I get it from my mother. I'm always moving a picture or rearranging couches anywhere I live... 

It's been a good few days here:

1. Saturday Allie and I had our first little hang out at our apartment! It was so fun! We had a very dutch brunch... hard boiled eggs, breads, cheese, fruit, and lots of coffee! Allie's friend from school came, the Pickerills, the V's, and even Connor's friend and mom from his school. After breakfast we all went to an outdoor market.

2. Sunday I went to Utrecht Vineyard with everyone. We carpooled with our friends the V's and the N's. It was a little crazy since no cars were allowed in Amsterdam on Sunday due to a big marathon. It was so good to worship, to enjoy 3 coffee times during the service, and to spend time with new friends. Eric preached which was fun as well.

3. Monday was my brother's birthday and I had the best time skyping with him and the rest of the family! My sister even happened to call from Chicago, so she jumped on skype and we had a three way conference call! I was so happy! 

4. Language school was so awesome today (even though we found out half of our big test is on Monday.. ahhh). During the break we all stood around and shared how old we were... weird, right? Well you would have had to be there. Saying numbers in dutch is kinda hard for some of us (me included!) so we were dieing with laughter! It was really fun! It's been so sweet getting to know such an eclectic fascinating group of people... and it makes learning a new language way better. We even have a party this weekend.

5. Tonight Allie and I had some great time praying for each other. I needed it so bad!

6. Tomorrow Eric, Julia, and I are hanging out with T to practice dutch! I'm glad to have a friend willing to listen to my broken messed up dutch and lovingly correct me!  We also have small group. Another fun group of people. 

Ok, well... that's all I've got. I'm going to hit the sack... Good night!

my toes

No pictures for this one. They were really blurry. It's better though, I want to remember how I felt at the show. Bon Iver. In Amsterdam. Last night (Friday). With Allie. Gewoon prachtig (a dutch phrase I like alot=simply fantastic!) Allie has loved this group for a while so I gladly accepted when she asked me to come along.

First, I want to quote two tid bits I read recently.

1. A book Julia loaned me called Simpler Living Compassionate Life. There's an excerpt by Cecile Andrews that says, "In living mindfully, we pay attention to whatever we're doing and "suck out all the marrow," as Thoreau said. We become deeply absorbed in what we are doing, appreciate the people we are with, being conscious of the wind on our face... taking the time to notice, slowing down, sitting peacefully, and just being."

2. A book by Bill Johnson called Dreaming with God. "God never intended the believer to be a puppet on a string. God actually makes Himself vulnerable to the desires of His people... while much of the Church is waiting for the next word from God, He is waiting to hear the dream of His people. He longs for us to take our role, not because He needs us, but because He loves us."

The theme of dreaming/creativity/mindfulness/simply living has been in my face a lot lately. These days my life consists of very simple things: going to school, studying, eating with new friends, listening to a new language, being quiet a lot, getting to know my new city, reading, praying, buying food, cooking food, sleeping. And it's been difficult at times coming from a pace of life that was not at all like that. I hardly had time to eat, let alone be quiet and pray sometimes. God's been quieting me down asking me to be still. Remember who He is and that He is God and He loves me and has a plan for my life and an amazing plan for the church, way better than something I can make up. 

So, it was last night that I got a glimpse of God, again! Of worship.  As J (the singer of Bon Iver) walked on the stage, I thought, "who let this guy on?" He looked like a mountain man, wild hair and a beard, plaid flannel shirt. Straight from the Mid-West. He sat down pulled out his guitar and started to sing... a light gut wrenching note. And I though, "oh, never mind.. I see now..." I was in a daze the rest of the night... as J went from a quiet whispery song to yelling and almost roaring in the mic as his band mates hammered on drums behind him. Every inch of his body was a part of the music. The muscles on his face, his legs and arms. I saw King David in this guy. And as I stood there with the music swallowing my body. I thought about worship. About what it means to really worship. This emotion is in my head when I worship but this guy just gave me permission to let it out for good. To really give in to worship. To let it out of my toes, my ears, and the top of my head. 

beauty I've seen lately