the crew: ages 2 till 53!


pub quiz time! (hannah sure made it hard!). I still can't believe the Sahara desert is only 20% desert.


hannah, trav, daniël, mark, and jaap apparently up to no good...


I'm back from a lovely weekend away with some of my favorite people. For our church retreat. We crammed into an old building in Driebergen, once used as a stable for horses. Yes, high class digs. There were large bunk rooms for the men and women... and kids. It was cold but we had candles lit nearly 24/7 and the heat turned up. The kids ran wild all weekend (I was glad I did't have to wake them and take them to school come Monday morning). We explored some nice trails in the woods around the area, played some mad games of Phase10 and Werewolf (kind of like Mafia), completed a 1000 piece puzzle, who's the geek who brought that? :). During the day we had workshops on meditative and imaginative prayer and how to study the Bible, we worshiped and best of all the Holy Spirit really met us and did some great things. It was a weekend that I will not forget quickly. We left Sunday afternoon, some in their cars, other walking to the bus and train, all saying, let's do this again soon! Here are some of my favorite pictures from the weekend, the top one includes not everyone, some had already left by Sunday afternoon.

would you know how to intall this?

Over the past couple weeks I've felt so empowered, trying my hand at a few things that freaked me out or that I simply hoped some kind soul would do for me. There is much I can do on my own but a few things like the installation of this bike rack... I wasn't so sure about. I'd been putting it off for months, had even bought a new one at the market, it would just stare at my as I left the house each day, perched next to my boots. Every time Gloria or Mark or someone needed a ride on the back of my bike, I would remember my broken rack (from too many passengers!) and it would make me cringe thinking of them sitting on there. But yesterday, I did it! And man, did it feel great to get greasy fingers and and figure out how to install my brand spanking new bike rack (there's actually a better term for it, but it's slipping my mind).

This has come after a few weeks of high "You can do it" moments for me! I was terrified to drive in Amsterdam and had managed not to for 2 years, I had also not driven a manual transmission in 2 years either but then I moved and I rented a huge moving TRUCK ... and I drove it remembering how fun manual driving is. To top that off we went to a conference last weekend in the England AND I rented a van AND drove on the wrong side of the road all weekend. I think my shoulders were in a fixed cramp but I did it! And only merged onto oncoming traffic once! But the Brits are so polite not even one person honked as I backed up and entered the correct lane.

Thanks for relishing my "you can do it" moments!

non-violence is beautiful

and so is this cool poster.

Recently, after hearing stories from my parents who are currently in Palestine, I came across this film, Little Town of Bethlehem, about 3 men who were expected to be enemies but are working together to end the cycle of violence in Israel/Palestine. I haven't yet seen the film but I'm hoping to organize a screening/discussion in Amsterdam soon, so stay tuned for details and come out to watch and discuss. If you want more information about what organize the film is about, check out Holy Land Trust's website. This is an organize doing a remarkable thing, seeking to train people in the manner of Gandhi and MLK in non-violent resistance.

I've been having a lot of weekends "away". Last week I traveled to Nottingham, UK to attend the "Cause to Live For" conference. Eric and Julia were invited to speak so a bunch of us in our 20's from Vineyard Amsterdam went along. It was a great weekend. I realize when I'm in the UK there's a sense of "home" I experience for a bit, maybe it's being able to speak English and sound intelligent (unlike my "very intelligent" 8 year old Dutch skills), or listening to a lovely English accent, or more likely the deep kindness and gift of hospitality Trent Vineyard has. They organized host homes and food for us all weekend, while being just wonderful fascinating welcoming people. Their church serves a huge need in the community providing free furniture to impoverished families and immigrants to name just one thing. I left definitely wishing we were a church of 1200 and able to do things like that.

What will be the areas that will define us as a church? They started those ministries more than a decade ago, how will we start serving and loving the people of Amsterdam now, which God will bless years down the road?

This weekend I'm in Utrecht, just down the road from Amsterdam, for a Benelux leaders retreat, getting to interact with other leaders and church planters in the Vineyard movement in the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg) area. Then it's off to Tobi's wedding in Zwolle tonight, Tobi is marrying Geert-Jan! I'm looking forward to celebrating them tonight.

I hope you find yourself also doing what you love and enjoying your weekend whether it's "here" or "away".

With love...

I'm remembering back to Ouarda's wedding today. It was so lovely. Thoroughly Moroccan, meaning fabulous food, dancing, music, and most important gorgeous dresses... yet set in the Netherlands. It was a joy to be there. May you have many happy years of marriage Ouarda and Hamid!

YA and Trash

My "no brain power needed" book of the week is "The Knife of Never Letting Go" by Patrick Ness .. some young adult fiction Amanda recommended. YA is so good when you have a pile of other books that you really need to read and all you want is a bit of something other. I don't know if it's good yet but it's actually provided a lot of food for thought.. and I'm not even a third of the way in. It takes place in a world where there are only men and they can all hear each others "noise" and the main character is the last boy in this town. And one day he discovers a hole in the noise, he discovers quiet. Having lived his whole life hearing the thoughts of the men around him, their "noise," he is overcome by the unexpected"quiet" and has no idea what to do.

Well, I can't hear it, that's the whole point, but when I run towards it the emptiness of it is touching my chest and the stillness of it pulls at me and there's so much quiet in it, no not quiet, silence, so much unbelievable silence that I start to feel really torn up, like I'm about to lose the most valuable thing ever, like there it is, a death, and I'm running and my eyes are watering and my chest is just crushing and there's no one to see but I still mind and my eyes start crying, they start crying, they start effing crying, and I stop for a minute and I bend over and Jesus H Dammit, you can just shut up right now, but I waste a whole stupid minute, just a whole stinking, stupid minute bent over there, by which time, of course, the hole is moving away, it's moved away, it's gone.

This "hole" is later revealed to be a girl. This discover of quiet puts his life in danger and he's forced to flee for his life. So far the book looks to be an interesting social commentary, which coupled with the prevailing presence of large amounts of trash piled around Amsterdam due to the trash collector strike and the images of the still uncontainable oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, has made me keenly aware, yet again of the mess we humans have made of the word and of our lives. We are so in need of cleansing, the cleansing of Jesus' grace and love.

We had our first baptism today at a lovely little Christian community house that had a super nice chapel, including the all important baptismal! It was fun to be in a quaint little place like that, worship together, hear C's testimony, and witness her baptism. It was such a joy to celebrate with her, to see her in so many words say, "Yes, I am throwing my life in with Jesus, I want to be identified with Him forever, and I want to be cleansed and whole."

I know Amsterdam is in need of new life from the weight of this trash, the Gulf of Mexico and the animals affected by the spill, and myself and the whole of the world. Noise and trash: reminders of the decadence of life and the need of a Savior.