Have 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!

Monday 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.

How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!  (Psalm 133:1)

Monday evening I went to a prayer meeting called together by the pastor of International Church Leiden, my good friend Andy.  It was aimed at getting as many local church leaders together as possible to pray together for the city.  The premise was that if local leaders are praying together then we should start seeing some interesting things happen within the Church of Leiden as a whole.

Now ok, we didn’t get too much actual praying done, nor did we have very many church leaders turn up (2 actually, with three missionary workers), but nevertheless we did have a very encouraging meeting where the presence of God’s Spirit was evident.  Indeed it is noteworthy that there is very little inter-church contact amongst the church leaders in Leiden, and previous efforts to get this going were unsuccessful (to understate a little).  There is currently a group of the more traditional church leaders that meets, but reports are that the meetings are stuffy and that they discuss little other than their differences in dogma!  (Come on guys…?)

The most significant line of discussion was that it is not just desirable but essential to make firm efforts to get the pastors of the individual churches in Leiden together to meet, enjoy spending time together, and pray together.  During the meeting we recalled the story that Ed Silvoso tells of the ‘Church of Resistencia’ in Argentina (in his book ‘That None Should Perish’).  This book begins when the local leaders all meet together for breakfast and share communion.  This has a dramatic spiritual effect and is the beginning of a spiritual awakening of the church in Resistencia, largely outworked through everyday missional activities within the local society.

Here in Leiden there is now a visible sign that there is more emphasis on the need to be actively working in society.  There are several initiatives here in their early stages which offer practical help  (Serve the City, HiP – Help in Practice, and Stichting Present – the Present Foundation) with the idea to show the love of Christ through serving the local population through practical means.  What is still lacking is a clear sense of unity amongst the local leaders.

The outcome of the meeting was basically to carry on meeting and keep inviting local pastors.  We’re shifting to a morning spot so that leaders can attend more easily.  On the way home, one of the attendees, a missionary worker with The Navigators, had a visual picture from God.  As he drove through a village a lift bridge opened in front of him and he had to wait (unusual at 11pm!).  He felt God say to him, “Watch for the name of the boat that’s coming.”  He waited a while and then saw the name – Union.  He sensed that God was impressing to him that as we move forward towards union, God will open gates/doors/bridges.  What a tremendous sign of hope and encouragement!  Thank you God.

If you pray, please pray that we will get a growing number of local leaders to these meetings and that unity will grow in Leiden, rather than division.  There is a sense that things have been building up for that last few years in Leiden and that we are now on the brink of something.  This next step is crucial for tipping us over the edge.

For the last couple of weeks our team that is working in the Mors area of Leiden has been hosting fun afternoons for local mums and their kids.  Most of these families are isolated from the bulk of society.  The central part of the Mors area where we are active is roughly split half white Dutch working- or under-class, and half Muslim immigrants, mainly from Morocco (with some from Turkey, Egypt, Afghanistan, Iran, etc.).

Many, if not most, of the residents of the Mors will not get any kind of summer holiday away, something that us Westerners take for granted.  We thought it would be a nice idea to just gather on the grass field by the youth centre with some juice and games/craft ideas. These afternoons have been organised on the back of the regular weekly Tuesday afternoon Moroccan mums group.  However, for these holiday afternoons we have also had another white Dutch family coming along too, actually the mum is a member of the discipleship group here that I lead.

What has been interesting to see is that, other than the female leaders, the group has been basically split Muslim-white and the two have not been able to effectively mix.  For my part my efforts to integrate with the Moroccan ladies and their kids have really not worked.  I could speculate on several fronts here as to why, but basically it boils down to culture differences.

All this has made me think about whether I am called to work with immigrants here in Leiden.  It’s certainly not what I envisaged before we left the shores of England.  However, I didn’t want to ignore the call of the poor and rejected here either.  Not sure what lies ahead in this respect.

Just as I was wondering where I fit into it all I got an email from the above mentioned Dutch mum in the discipleship group who came to faith last year.  Here are a few translated extracts:

You all know how negative I was (and still am) about this area.

You guys really are a picture of people living in God’s will.

These kinds of ‘pictures’ give me genuine hope again, just like I used to feel.  And you really need hope to live in an area like this!

I had lost this sense of hope for the last few years, but now it’s creeping back – thank you Jesus!

Great to read when I was personally wondering if I was being of any use here.  Thank you Jesus.

The second little encouragement was that we had only planned 6 such afternoons, partly because we wanted to start fairly small, and partly because of our own holidays.  How wonderful then to hear that the Moroccan ladies have organised another similar afternoon all by themselves for the following week.  Just what we had hoped for.  We are being catalysts for growth in the community.

On a separate note, I have enrolled on an advanced Dutch course starting September.  It’s called ‘Dotting the Is and Crossing the Ts’.  This should take me properly to level 5 language.  I still find language is my biggest hindrance and I really need to keep improving.  My fears that my learning would stall after I finished my previous course last October were well founded.  I also need to be speaking more Dutch through the week.  I am really looking forward to getting back in the classroom again.  I haven’t seen any higher level classes than this.

I’m just dipping my toes in a book that a friend has lent me called “Watching the English”.  Very funny to read about our unconscious habits as English.  I was wondering how much I still don’t understand the basic rules of the Dutch society.  Fortunately the same friend has lent me another book called “Waar Zijn de Bitterballen?”, which roughly translates as “Could you pass me another sausage roll”.  Written by a German who has married a Dutchman and settled here.  Looking forward to getting started on this second one.  My main hesitancy is it’s thick and in Dutch!

As I was reading about the English I got thinking about a homework club that I have recently started getting involved in.  There are between 6 and 26 kids turn up, aged 7-11, most of whom are girls, and pretty much all of them from Maroccan families.  I’ve been having some trouble striking up conversations with the girls, and I’m not sure why.  They seem very reluctant to chat with me, and often will not answer pretty innocent questions such as ‘where are you going on holiday?’.  I assume that it’s because I am male and they are Muslim girls.  Anyone know?  I realised that I am trying to jump two culture gaps in one step.  They are Maroccan girls, born and raised in Holland, and I am still trying to figure out the rules of the Dutch, let alone a third culture.  What I really need is someone who can guide me in this to show me how to interact with these kids and give me some insights into their cultural norms.

In case you didn’t know, the general population in Holland have little respect for organised religion, especially the reformed Christian church.  It is generally regarded as being old fashioned, strict, a kill-joy, irrelevant, hypocritical, etc.  Thankfully, many reformed Christians are trying their best to portray Jesus in a positive light, and demonstrate the love of Christ in a country that needs lots of love.  However, there are still some short-sighted Christians who just don’t seem to have caught up with the 20th century (sic) yet.  Have a look at the following from the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7949140.stm

I am now a volunteer assistant computer teacher!  I am currently helping teach a couple of old ladies in a local community centre, here in Leiden, once a week.  Only done it the once so far, but turned out to be good fun and a great way of getting to know people.

If all goes to plan I should be starting to teach my own English conversation class in the same community centre straight after Easter.  The centre manager is currently putting together a flyer to advertise the new course.  Please pray that I will have the 6 required people signed up soon.

Quick update (14 April 2008) – I was supposed to do my first English class this evening.  However, I have only had three people sign up so far.  I am planning on extending the advertising, and doing some local publicity in the area where I am currently focusing (the Morswijk).  Please pray that I will have enough people to be able to start in the next few weeks.  I’d really love to have 10 or 12 people signed up, but 6 will do.  In the meantime I am still enjoying working on my online course to learn more about teaching English.

Just to keep you up-to-date, I got my certificate yesterday to prove that I really can speak Dutch!  Well, actually listen to, speak, read and write Dutch.

For those who understand these things, I am officially “on the way to level 5″, or somewhere between B2 (vantage) and C1 (Effective Operational Proficiency).  For those of you who don’t have a clue what this means, basically I can get by in most situations pretty confidently.  As far as I can tell no-one really teaches above this level, so I ought to find something else worthwhile to do with my time now…

The scary bit is that I should be writing this blog in Dutch now.  But then you probably wouldn’t understand a word of it, right?

Alles is Liefde

For our 15th wedding anniversary in September, our next door neighbours bought us a very popular film called Alles is Liefde, which translates as Love is Everything.  Basically it’s re-write of the British film from 2003, Love Actually, but tailored for a Dutch audience, full of famous Dutch personalities.  What is striking though, as a Brit watching an essentially adapted film, is the cultural differences between the two.

OK, so Love Actually is no morally pure film – it features two extras in a porno film, and the Prime Minister falling for his tea lady.  However, in the Dutch film, it seems that love, actually, is about jumping in bed with each other.  Like the UK film, this one follows several couples in various stages of their relationships.  The two central characters, or couples rather, are the promiscuous Crown Prince (quite close to the bone here, given past royal male performances!) falling for a perfume counter girl at a department store – you can see where that one ends up – and a gay couple who are getting married.

When our neighbours asked us how we got on with the film, I tried to be honest but diplomatic.  However, what I hadn’t appreciated was that this film is somewhat of a national institution.  Dutch blockbusters only appear every couple of years and everyone goes to see them and is bedazzled.  This film has never been dubbed into English so I now understand why it got a pretty high rating of 7.4/10 on the Internet Movie Database.  Only Dutch people have ever seen it, and they are not exactly spoiled for choice.  Although it picked up a best Dutch film award, I would say that if this was a British film it would have flopped.

Our neighbour looked surprised at my suggestion that the morals were somewhat loose.  “But that’s typical Dutch,” he retorted.

Watching this film certainly gave Ruth and I much to chat about, both in terms of it’s quality and content.  It made us realise how the two cultures see things differently, providing a useful insight.

Want a quick laugh?  Have a look at this YouTube video – a self-named modern parable:

I like it.  It’s pretty funny, don’t you think?  Well read on…

What disturbed me more than a little though was that if you visit the blog that it’s advertising www.beyondrelevance.com you see that the guy who has made this video isn’t necessarily trying to spark a debate about more relevant forms of church.  No no, rather he is advocating that we need to be smarter at marketing the church brand!  And he’s your man.  Yes, he’s a church marketing guru, advertising his own services to churches, and is proud to boast that he has loads of clients, and more frequent flyer miles than he knows what to do with.

Man, why do so many evangelical Americans still make my skin crawl?