Festival:Mors (NL)
October 29, 2010 at 11:17 am | Posted in church, mission, The Mors | Leave a comment(English version in previous post)
Nou, eindelijk kan ik aankondigen dat met Hemelvaart 2011 gaan wij een grote straat festival en wijk-actie evenement organiseren, Festival: Mors.
In samenwerking met Serve the City in Leiden, zijn wij van plan om drie dagen te houden met het schoonmaken van de straten, schilderen, het helpen van de armen en bejaarden, kids-activiteiten, enz., culminerend in een straat festival op zaterdag 4 juni. Teams uit kerken dwars door de stad zullen samenwerken om de Mors wijk van Leiden te dienen. We hopen ook een gast team van ergens anders aan te trekken.
Het festival zelf zal attracties inhouden zoals een draaimolen, podium met bands spelen, kramen voor lokale organisaties, eten-kraampjes, sport wedstrijden/coaching, tiener pret met springkussens (sumo-worstelen of ‘op ware grootte tafelvoetbal’), enz.
Wij streven om dit evenement ook de lancering te zijn van een nieuwe permanente bediening in de Mors. Er is momenteel een wanhopige tekort aan jongerenwerk in de Mors. Dus een suggestie is om een jeugdgroep die gericht is op tieners die ‘s avonds rondhangen op te richten.
Waarom? De kerk in de Mors is niet echt zichtbaar meer. 4 jaar geleden werd de PKN Maranathakerk gesloopt en, terwijl er weliswaar twee kerken in het gebied zijn gevestigd, is er tegenwoordig geen duidelijke sporen van de kerk meer in de Mors. Het gebied zelf is gemengd, met een aantal wijken die relatief welvarend zijn, maar met een centrale gebied van achterstand. We willen de bewoners van de Mors laten weten dat de kerk hen niet is vergeten, en dat wij samen met hen willen werken aan de verbetering van de levenskwaliteit in de plek waar ze wonen. Hoe beter om dit te doen dan door het organiseren van iets leuks voor iedereen.
Dit is allemaal nog in een heel vroeg stadium, maar we zijn toegewijd om dit waar te maken. Wij zijn net begonnen te praten met de stads overheid om dit evenement tot een werkelijkheid te brengen.
Wil jij graag voor ons bidden! In de komende drie maanden moet het team nog flink groeien, en we moeten enthousiaste reacties van potentiële partnerorganisaties ontvangen (kerken, gemeenteraad, politie, bewoners verenigingen, het buurtcentrum, sponsors, enz.).
Heeft u nog ideeën of suggesties? Graag feedback geven door middel van een commentaar te laten.
Festival:Mors (EN)
October 29, 2010 at 10:39 am | Posted in church, mission, The Mors | Leave a commentWell, at long last I can announce that on June 2/3/4 2011 we will be organising a big street festival and community action event called Festival:Mors.
In collaboration with Serve the City in Leiden we plan to hold three days of cleaning up the streets, painting & decorating, helping the poor and elderly, kids activities, etc., culminating in a street festival on Saturday 4 June. Teams from churches right across the city will be working together to serve the Mors area of Leiden. We are also hoping to have at least one guest team from somewhere else (more details later).
The festival itself will have attractions such as a merry-go-round, stage with bands playing, stalls for local organisations, food stalls, sports competitions/coaching, teenager fun with inflatables (sumo wrestling or life-size table football), etc.
We aim to also make this the launch event for a new ongoing ministry in the Mors. There is currently a desperate shortage of youth work in the Mors. So one suggestion is to establish a youth group aimed at teenagers who hang around on the streets in the evening.
Why? The church in the Mors is not really visible any more. 4 years ago the PKN Maranathakerk was demolished and, whilst there are two churches based in the area, there are currently no obvious church buildings left in the Mors. The area itself is mixed, with some parts that are relatively affluent, yet with a central area with much deprivation. We want to let the residents of the Mors know that the church has not forgotten them and that we want to work with them to improve the quality of life in the place where they live. What better way to do this than to organise something fun for everyone.
This is all still in the very early stages, but we have committed to make this happen and are now starting to talk to the local authorities to make this event a reality.
Please pray for us! We need to see the organising team grow over the next three months and we need to have enthusiastic responses from potential partnering organisations (churches, city council, police, residents associations, community centre, sponsors, etc.).
Do you have any ideas or suggestions? Please feed them through by leaving a comment.
Being a family
September 2, 2010 at 9:36 pm | Posted in church | Leave a commentWell we’ve officially left our church of two and a half years here in Leiden and are in the process of getting to know a new one, Crossroads Leiden. We’ve known the leadership of the church for most of the three years that we’ve been here.
Incidentally, we reached our three years milestone just this week.
Last night we hosted the first of two vision sharing evenings for people who are wanting to get to know more about who Crossroads Leiden are. We found it to be a very refreshing evening and was encouraged that the basic tenets of what I think it means to be a church are pretty much the same as I would have stated. The highlight for me was that one of the central values of the church is building relationships with each other. This is what I have sadly missed in church for the last 5 years or so.
A rather sober indication of this I encountered just a few days ago. The discipleship group that I lead recently helped one of our members, a single mum on benefit income, to move flat. Someone else in the same church had heard about this and was startled to learn that other Christians in our church would give up a whole Saturday and a discipleship group evening to help a fellow believer move flat.
Why should this be so surprising? Didn’t Jesus say that people would know that we were his disciples by our love for one another (John 13:35), and Paul taught us that we should do good to other people, especially other believers (Galations 6:10). If these are lacking in God’s family, then surely we’re not much of a family. This is why I found it so great to hear that Crossroads Leiden have relationships at their heart.
I look forward to seeing this in action!
P.S. sorry for the long silence, I have more to share soon. Watch this space!
Cultural differences
May 15, 2010 at 9:12 pm | Posted in culture, general | Leave a commentI took a step forward the other day in my understanding of the differences between Dutch people and English people. One I had already noticed for some time, the other has been becoming clearer until I solidified it recently.
Firstly, Dutch people are definitely not good at apologizing. There are three ways of saying sorry in Dutch: sorry, het spijt me, and neem me niet kwalijk. However, the Dutch really do not like to use them!
If you bump into someone the rule is that you must try as hard as possible to ignore the other person so that you don’t have to acknowledge that you have made a mistake. If you upset someone, then use the same tactic, etc. Sounds harsh, but this has been a continued observation.
Secondly, Dutch people have a very different view of friends and acquaintances than British people. I reckon that everyone has a kind of system of circles. Maybe there is a psychological or anthropological word for it. Dutch people have distinct circles, roughly in the following order of intimacy:
the family circle
the circle of friends
the circle of work colleagues
the circle of neighbours
the circles of acquaintances (from church, sports clubs, school, etc.)
British people have similar circles, however the main difference is that Dutch people rarely let these circles overlap. If you’re a work colleague then you wouldn’t tend to get invited back to someone else’s house because that would bump you into a more intimate circle than is fitting for ‘work colleague’ status. I once heard that a British person who had been working with a colleague for two years finally asked him to come for dinner one evening. This certainly happens with close colleagues in Britain, but the surprised Dutch colleague replied, “No thanks, I don’t want any more friends.” This clearly put the workmates in a category of colleagues rather than friends. Why? Because colleagues are not friends, those are two distinct circles here.
The puzzling question for me is how do you ever get promoted from an acquaintance level circle to a friend level? We have been living here for nearly three years now and have found it very difficult to get promoted from acquaintance to friend (i.e. make friends!). Initially Dutch people seem very friendly. I think this is linked to one of their favourite words, nieuwsgierig, which means curious. Dutch people love to know who everyone is, to be in possession of some basic details about everyone. This info is usually elicited through a friendly introduction chat. You then become acquaintances.
However, a major difference between Dutch and British people is the thickness of the skin of the circle. It seems that British people accept new people into a friend circle more easily than Dutch people. Maybe British people have a more ‘centred set’ system and Dutch a more ‘bounded set’. In simple terms, in the British system it’s easy to be classed as a friend but everyone knows how near or far away from the intimate centre you are. This suits the polite British who would hate to reject someone, but not necessarily allow all the privileges of intimacy. In the Dutch system you’re either in or out. This suits the Dutch sense of clarity, which often is experienced as bluntness to foreigners.
So there you have it. Whilst I still regard the Dutch and British cultures to be two of the closest in Europe, there are often huge differences which are really hard to navigate as an incomer.
If anyone has tips on how to become friends with Dutch people then please let me know! I suspect that coffee plays a crucial role though…
WMD program
May 15, 2010 at 9:11 pm | Posted in general | Leave a commentI can reveal here that I have uncovered a secret weapon of mass destruction under development here in the Netherlands.
Dutch teenage girls on bicycles are being trained undercover, ready to be deployed to destroy civilised nations. These cyclists appear together in groups cycling three, four or five abreast on the narrow cycle paths. They ignore anyone else and are oblivious to other oncoming cyclists. They are even cheerful about their evil intentions, laughing and joking as innocent travellers are sent to their doom in the ditches alongside the cycle paths.
Beware, these teenage girl cyclists are pernicious and everywhere, especially dangerous and abundant just after 3pm.
New Dutch WMD
Leven in Leidens Rijn?
January 31, 2010 at 10:46 pm | Posted in general | Leave a commentVorige woensdag was ik bij een bidstond voor christelijke leiders hier in Leiden. We waren allemaal bezig met bidden, nou behalve mij, want ik voelde me niet zo lekker vanwege een verkoudheid. Weet je dat gevoel als je in een groep probeert te bidden, en je probeert te bedenken wat je hardop kan bidden, maar degene die naast je zit bidt inmiddels dezelfde gebed dat jij wilde bidden? Dat had ik meerdere keren toen. Dat gebeurt met mij mede omdat ik ben bezig om wat ik wil over bidden, maar ook omdat ik ben bezig met hoe ik het in het Nederlands kan formuleren.
Zo, toen ik bezig met mijn gedachten was, een beeld in mijn verstand begon te vormen. Het begon met de Rijn die door Leiden vloeit, althans vloeide. Deze beroemde rivier vormt nog steeds een belangrijke deel van de karakter van Leiden zelf. Net voor dat het aan Leiden komt, splitst het in twee armen. Deze armen dan ringen de binnenstad om voordat ze precies in de midden van de stad weer samenkomen. Daarna vloeien ze weer samen door de rest van de stad heen, richting de zee.
In de tijd van de Romeinen, de Rijn die door Leiden vloeide was de hoofdstroom naar de zee. Het voerde regenwater dat in de Alpen en de rest van Germanium viel en bracht het door de stad heen en naar de zee. De rivier verzandde tijdens de middeleeuwen en besloot verder stroomopwaarts om een nieuwe koers via Rotterdam te vinden. De rivier was toen zo groot en belangrijk dat de Romeinen besloot om hier te stoppen en dit hun noordelijke grens te maken.
De Oude Rijn, zoals het nu bekend is, is grotendeels landbouw water, vol van vervuiling. De rivier is ook nu bij Katwijk afgedamd, waar het de zee ontmoet. De Rijn is nu veel kleiner dan vroeger en is vervaardigd in een kanaal door menselijke handen.
Terwijl de waterwegen in Leiden blijven mooi en zijn een belangrijke charme voor toeristen, zijn de wateren zeer langzaam bewegende (een deel van de rivier heet nu de Stille Rijn) en grotendeels verstoken van het leven, zelden boten vervoeren, met uitzondering van plezierboten. Merendeel van de grachten in de stad die werden voor de handel gegraven zijn nu ingevuld.
Zodra deze beeld volledig in mijn hoofd had gevormd, wist ik dat het goed was om het met de rest van de bidstond te delen, net zoals ik weet dat het goed is om het met u delen. Echter, precies wat deze beeld betekent ben ik nog niet zeker.
Persoonlijk voelde ik tot twee interpretaties geleid. Ten eerste, voelde ik dat God wilde schoon zoet water door onze stad weer brengen. Dat dit water dat toeristen komen zien, geen stil kunstmatig en dood water zou zijn, wel leuk om naar te kijken, maar niet de real deal. Maar dat het leven gevende water zou zijn. Ik werd later dezelfde dag apart herinnerde van Openbaring 22:17b
Wie dorst heeft, mag voor niets het levenswater komen drinken, als hij dat wil.
Ten tweede, voelde ik dat God kanalen voor zijn stromende water nodig heeft. Dit is zijn kerk; zijn volgelingen; ons. Zullen wij open zijn voor het door ons stromen van zijn leven gevende water? Of zullen wij verzandde zijn (misschien door de eeuwen oude argumenten) dat betekenen dat God andere koersen voor zijn water stromen moet vinden?
Zou u nadenken om in gebed dit beeld over te wegen? Als u daarna uw gedachten, indrukken of woorden met mij wilt delen, zou ik dat echt op prijs stellen.
Ten slotte, mijn excuses voor het slecht Nederlands!
Life in Leiden’s river?
January 31, 2010 at 9:42 pm | Posted in general | Leave a commentLast Wednesday I was at a prayer meeting for Christian leaders in Leiden. We were all busy praying, well most people, I was feeling rather unwell from having a cold. You know the feeling when you’re in a group praying and you’re trying to think of what to pray out loud for and someone else jumps in and prays about the topic that you were thinking about. Well I had that happen to me a few times. That happens to me partly because I am not only thinking about what to pray about, but how to formulate that in Dutch.
Anyhow, as I was wondering what to pray about a picture started to formulate in my mind. I got thinking about the river Rhine that flows, or rather used to flow, through Leiden. It’s a famous river and it forms an important part of the character of Leiden itself. Just before it arrives in the city it splits in two and the arms then surround half the city centre. These two arms then come together right in the heart of the city and then it continues flowing on through the city centre and towards the sea.
In Roman times the Rhine through Leiden was the main channel to the sea. It carried rainwater that fell in the Alps and throughout Germania and directed it through the city and out to sea. The river silted up during the middle ages and further upstream it decided to find a new course and flow through Rotterdam. The river was so large and important that the Romans decided to stop here and make this their Northern border.
The ‘Old Rhine’ as it is now known is largely agricultural run-off water, full of pollutants. The river is also dammed at Katwijk where it meets the sea. The Rhine is much smaller than it used to be and has been crafted into a canal by human hands.
Whilst the waterways in Leiden remain pretty and are an important charm for tourists, the waters are very slow moving (part of the river is now called the Still Rhine) and largely devoid of life, seldom carrying boats other than pleasure crafts. Most of the canals in the city that were dug for trade have now been filled in.
Once this picture had fully formed in my mind I knew that it was right to share it with the rest of the prayer meeting, just as I know that it is right to share it with you. However, exactly what this picture means I am still not sure.
Personally I felt led to two interpretations. Firstly, I sensed that God wanted to bring clean fresh water through our city once again. That the water that tourists came to see would not be still, man-made and dead, nice to look at, but not the real deal. Rather that the water would be life giving. I was reminded separately the same day of Revelation 22:17b
Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life.
Secondly, I felt that God needs canals/channels (same word in Dutch) for his water to stream through. This is his church; his followers; us. Will we be open to let streams of life-giving water flow through us? Or will we be found silted up (maybe through centuries old arguments) that mean that God has to find other courses for his water to flow through?
Please would you consider praying about this picture and share with me what thoughts, impressions or words you feel that God is revealing.
Groeistuip
November 24, 2009 at 10:41 pm | Posted in books, general | Leave a commentMy first post in Dutch! This is a short article about spiritual growth I wrote for the church newsletter.
Toen ik werd gevraagd of ik dit groeistuip wilden schrijven, dacht ik “wat grappig, ik ben nu een boek over geestelijke groei aan het lezen.” Onze nieuwe kring in de Mors bestudeert op dit moment een boek door de Amerikaanse schrijver John Ortberg, Het Leven waar je naar Verlangd, echt een aanrader!
Ja spirituele groei – een heftige onderwerp! Als je serieus bent over groeien betekend dit veel vroomheid, gebed en energie, toch? Inderdaad, niemand kan groeien zonder wat moeite, maar moet dat altijd moeilijk zijn? Ortberg daagt ons uit om te groeien in vreugde (wat een van de vele facetten van groeien is).
Vreugde is geen optie in het leven, het is een noodzaak. Ezra zegt in Nehemia 8:10, de vreugde die de Heer u geeft, is uw kracht. Vreugde geeft ons een kracht in ons leven. Ortberg leert ons dat als we vreugde kennen onze zonden ook duidelijk minder aantrekkelijk worden. Kampt u met verleiding in een bepaalde plek in uw leven? Probeer maar de Heer te vragen om opnieuw bijgetankt met vreugde te worden, want helaas lekt vreugde langzaam ons leven uit.
Natuurlijk vanuit vreugde komt vieren! God is ongetwijfeld een God die viert – dit is in de bijbel onmisbaar. God bracht voor zijn volk veel feestdagen op gang. Zelfs beveelt God ons te vieren. Maar als u naar een terugblik over de historie van de kerk na de reformatie kijkt, ziet u dan een volk die bekend staan om hun vieren? En is het ook nu hier in Nederland anders? Vaak niet, naar mijn mening. Ook in Nehemia 8:10 zegd Ezra, Maak een feestmaal klaar met lekker eten en drinken, en deel ervan uit aan wie niets heeft. Wanneer heeft u, bijvoorbeeld, voor het laatst een feest in uw huis gehouden? U hoeft toch geen bijzondere reden te hebben! Alleen maar dat u blij in de Heer bent.
Maar hoe begin ik met vreugde vinden in mijn leven? Begin vandaag! Psalm 118:24 zegt, Dit is de dag die de Heer heeft gemaakt, laten wij juichen en ons verheugen. Een echt handig ding dat ik van Ortbergs boek heb geleerd is aan het eind van het dag, als ik naar bed ga, even het afgelopen dag te herinneren voor de Heer. Wat ging er goed, wat minder goed. Dan dank ik de Heer voor deze dag en ik vraag hem voor meer kracht en vreugde voor die momenten waar het niet zo goed ging. Juist hiermee, zie ik veel vaker echte tekens van groei in mijn leven.
Dus, geestelijke groei kan wel leuk zijn, ookal moeten we er zelf wat moeite instoppen.
Walking under an umbrella
September 30, 2009 at 11:25 am | Posted in culture, general | Leave a commentHave you ever wondered what it is like to speak a foreign language?
As I was cycling along a few days ago coming from a full day of speaking Dutch, an analogy sprang to mind. Speaking a foreign language is like walking along in the rain under an umbrella having a conversation with the person holding the umbrella. We’ve all done that and it is a distinctly uncomfortable experience.
The person holding the umbrella (the native speaker) holds all the cards, and you are just tagging along. They have much more control over where you go and control whether or not you remain under the umbrella or not. You, on the other hand, are desperately trying to tag along and stay under its cover, hoping not to fall out of line.
The whole thing is certainly do-able, but you end up tired after a short time, and you’ve almost definitely got one wet shoulder from where you didn’t stay close enough!
Then the sun comes out! You switch to your native tongue. Aah, the relief of it! The difference is enormous, no more walking along in a funny fashion trying to follow someone else’s lead. You can now go where you want and with no hindrances again. Wonderful.
So there you go, the joys of living and operating in a non-native language. Fortunately the umbrella gets bigger and bigger every week!
A significant day
September 30, 2009 at 9:56 am | Posted in family, mission, personal | Leave a commentMonday 28th September 2009 – a milestone in my life here in Holland. Why? Two reasons:
1. My wonderful wife had her own milestone – she became 40 years old! Had lots of fun celebrating, too many details for here.
2. I said to God, “No more using the phrase my Dutch isn’t good enough as an excuse. What do you really want me to be doing here?” Maybe a dangerous thing to say, but better than going round in circles saying, I can’t do this or that. For goodness sake, I’ve just started on a Dutch course for ‘far-advanced’ speakers. I battle with two thought patterns: I am constantly being complimented on my good Dutch and am pleased with my progress in the last two years, and; my Dutch is still the biggest frustration in my life, trying to express myself or explain something to someone. However, I am going to settle for the compliments and push on.
I recently had a meeting with the community centre in the Mors area to discuss the next computer course for beginners, hoping to carry on as an assistant. However, they persuaded me that my Dutch was perfectly good enough for teaching my own class and that people are not there to learn Dutch from a foreigner. Good point. So I start teaching my own beginners class in four weeks. Yikes!
During a quiet time on Monday I remembered the hymn that we sung at our wedding, “O Jesus I have promised” which contains the following line:
My hope to follow duly is in thy strength alone
I was reminded that if God is wanting me to do particular things here then he will give me just as many skills and abilities as I need. I was reminded of the following (Exodus 4, NLT):
Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.”
Then the Lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.”
So what can I do, except rely on him. And look what Moses achieved with his mumbled words. I’ll just keep using the excuse that I’m a dumb foreigner and rely on the Dutch folk’s goodwill – works every time!
I hope to follow duly, and in his strength alone.
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