Freedom Within (La Liberte)

A few weeks ago, our team had the opportunity to welcome, Hannah Booth, a fellow Grand Valley alumni, and current staff member with Jesus Film Media.  While she was here, she showed us a culturally relevant way we could initiate spiritual conversations with students by using our mobile devices.   

We've been showing this video called La Liberte (only 5 mins long and totally worth the watch!) and then asking students what their thoughts are.  So far we've had some really positive results!  My last post about the great conversation that I had while initiating with a dutch student occurred while we were using this tool!

One of the things that this video does really well is it illustrates the natural human desire to help others after we've been helped ourselves.  I often find myself telling students that, I'm here to be the guy who points the other guy in the direction of freedom, because I've been freed myself.  From my experience this seems to sit better with dutch students who are have no desire to explore Christianity for themselves.  I've really enjoyed using this new tool, and I'm sure we will be using it more in the future!

Making progress towards the goal!

Our team's long term goal is that by five years from now there will no longer be a need for American staff workers to come to Tilburg anymore, because the ministry here will be completely sustained by Dutch staff workers and student volunteers.  

While on campus yesterday, I had the opportunity to conduct survey's with a Dutch student named Gijs (pronounced hice).  He's a great guy and he is really wanting to share his faith with his peers on campus!  I lead the first conversation, which didn't amount to any interest.  So then it was Gijs' turn to lead; something he'd never done before!  

A picture of Gijs!

We went up to 3 different people who all told him they weren't interested in talking to us, and I could tell he was getting a little flustered.  After a small suggestion, he initiated another conversation with a dutch student named, Carl.  Carl said he would do our survey, and so we took our seats.  After chatting with him for a bit, he told us that he hadn't felt completely free since his mother died a few years ago.  And that as a result of her suffering he didn't believe in God anymore.  We told him that we had found complete freedom before and that it is found in Christ.  And that we would love to share more about that with him if he wanted us to.

I could tell that Carl was deeply moved by our offer, and he said he was going to consider taking us up on it!!!  We gave him our contact information and now you and I get to pray that he follows through.

Even if we never that great conversation with Carl, the step that Gijs took yesterday was very significant!  We often quote Bill Bright and say that "success in evangelism is by faith taking the initiative in the power of the Holy Spirit to share the Gospel, and leaving the results up to God."  Gijs did exactly that in his four times today.  Three times people said no, and one said yes, but even if he got 12 no's he still would have been successful.

It is also really exciting for me to see Gijs step out in faith like he did, because he was the first male student at Tilburg University to do that.  We are hoping and praying that he is just the beginning.  And that soon we will have more and more students sharing their faith, giving Jesus more notoriety and hopefully a second thought from these spiritually apathetic students.

A Student's Perspective...

Here is the facebook status from a PhD student here in Tilburg from October 17 written after he joined us in practicing one of our evangelism tools called Soularium.  It's really encouraging!!!!

"I have been thrilled by what I have experienced today. It is not that I visited the planet Mars nor it is because I greeted a dinosaur. Far from it! It was just an ordinary day bound within the rising of sun and its setting. In the ordinary, however, there was something that made it different, extraordinary people. It was anecdotal evidence that what matters ultimately in life is relationship, both with God and People. It is not that they fetched a lot out of life as they turn gray amassing wisdom from everyday interaction, painfully learning from experience the hard lessons of life. They were indeed young and energetic American missionaries who are enthusiastic to share, the relationship they have experienced with their Lord. Their approaches were indeed ingenious. You cannot help but be overwhelmed by the love they have to the Lord and their attempt to make God at the very center of life. Their communication is a simple love that cannot be misunderstood.

In the interactions that I have they do not pretend “I have figured it out” mentality rather openly admit the fact that life is full of dazzling complexities. They are full of faith, not in the sense that they are sure of what is ahead (the customarily static understanding of faith as cognitive assurance), but in trusting the Lord (faith as dynamic relationship where at times an honest doubt being a means of refining it) even in the midst of confusions. Their friendship is not closed rather embracing, the invitation is extended generously.

In a sort of a creative game, a kind of projective test, we talked about our spiritual Journey. We all were presented to choose pictures from. In terms of representation the pictures range from concrete realities to abstractions. Indeed the pictures were a sort of stimuli or windows towards deeper understanding of self and God. At times we did not even know exactly why we have been attracted to the picture but once we picked it up quite an impressive insights unfold in a very fragmented manner.

The reflections were characterized by honesty with the spirit of openness among brothers and sisters. It was indeed a deeper introspection and of all we dare to share them even if they are not stories of victory. We have seen in our weakness also the presence of the Lord. In the stories told God always comes to the center. It was indeed an encouragement. After it I felt experiencing a true fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ. It is my prayer for all of us to exhibit such a character and be a blessing to the people around us. It was indeed a blessing day and blessed individuals were the reasons to realize that."

Video Update!

Check out this video, where Nick describes a little bit of what we are doing here in the Netherlands!

Dreams do come true!!!

Everybody has dreams and goals that they hope to see become reality in the future.  I began to dream while reading a book called, "The Finishers" by a guy named Roger Hershey.  Thanks to Mr. Hershey for sharing his dream of one day being able to complete God's Great Commission, which commands all his followers to 
make disciples of all nations.  While reading, my heart was moved to the point that I began to share that same dream.  I mean, why wouldn't you want everybody in the world to experience the fully satisfying life that Jesus offers?

I don't even say that, because I'm some super spiritually gifted evangelist.  In fact, I'm not a gifted evangelist.  Most of the time, I'm not on a spiritual high, and wanting to talk to people about Jesus.  I think that in today's "passion" oriented Christian culture, we sometimes think that people who share their faith regularly, have better "spiritual DNA" than the rest of their peers.  That's not the case.  And this whole tangent is not what this post is really about, so I'll try to get back on course.

As I mentioned above, I began to dream about every people group on earth hearing the good news of Jesus Christ.  As I dreamed, I began to look at my life, and see that God has blessed me in many ways.  I was challenged by others and by Mr. Hershey to steward those blessings well, and finally came to the conclusion that I needed to commit to seeing the Great Commission completed in my generation.  That's my dream, as lofty as it may seem, but I do want to remind you that we serve a God who created everything you see, and loves humanity more than you ever could.  

And what a great God He is, because this past Thursday, He gave me the opportunity to travel to Leuven, Belgium to train students to share their faith with their peers.  It's not everyday that you are able to "go and make disciples" of another nation, and I'm super grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of it!  Here are some pictures from our day:

On top of the 5 staff members from the Tilburg team, we brought 2 students and another volunteer with us to help.

Our group preparing to go sharing at KUL a the main university in Leuven that has 40,000 students.  Belgains tend to be more community oriented then Dutch students, and were generally less willing to open up about spiritual things with strangers.  If anything, we at least made them think a little bit.

 As Maarten, our team leader accurately said, "Great revival movements of the past began with prayer."  Revival is what I was praying for many times that day.

About 20-30 seminary students gathered to hear more about sharing their faith!!!

Leuven was also a beautiful city!

One of the most famous Gothic city halls in the world... just don't ask me what it's called. ;-)

  My favorite was Sint-Pieterskerk or Saint Peter's Church.  Check it out!!!

So blessed to have the opportunity to walk through this 800+ year-old church and pray that one day it will be filled again with followers of Christ.  
  

Undeserved Clarity

I think one of the ways that God chooses to bless His children is when He allows them to more clearly perceive how He's working in their lives.  I was able to experience this blessing in a number of different ways this week.  

For much of the time that I've been here, I really felt like my view of God in my ministry was just like the photo below:  

Let's say say that those little orange berries represent my view of how God was working here in the Netherlands.  I knew that we were influencing lives as we shared about Christ's love day in and day out on campus, but I wasn't seeing the whole picture yet.  I wasn't able to really connect with students during our conversations those first few weeks.  I felt disconnected even more with the language barrier and the massive spiritual apathy we see here.  

Thankfully, God takes care of us in just the ways we need it.  And this week, I guess He wanted to encourage me by letting me see a wider perspective of His work.  

On Tuesday night we held one of our bi-weekly openhouse events where we have been hoping and praying would be a mix of Christians and non-Christians.  Our prayers were finally answered when a few international students came.  On top of that we were able to connect with one of them, and play ultimate Frisbee yesterday.  And even more exciting he is interested in discussing spiritual things in more depth!!!  

A Christian international student we met this week, posted  a lot of really nice things about the "American missionaries" in his facebook status.  (I will share it on the blog as soon as I get permission from him.  It's really cool!)

Another spiritually apathetic student got to hear about how I had a community of people in the United States willing to fund my mission.  He was genuinely impressed that people believed in something that much to make them willing to give money to it.

Shelby (one of my teammates) and I, also had two really good conversations with students while sharing on Tuesday.  One student is in his first year, and seemed really interested in hearing more.  He said he used to believe that there was no such thing as God, until his mom died and he had an experience that lead him to believe that everything happens for a reason.  Please pray that I will be able to meet up with him again soon.

Needless to say it was an encouraging week, and I'm thankful that the Lord has blessed me with seeing more of His plans in action.

God has blessed me with seeing how He continues to make things new, just like this picture of the plant making the building beautiful again as it grows.  He truly is the one who knows what we need and when we need it, and I'm grateful to have the opportunity to experience His grace like that.

Enjoy your apple cider...

Yep today was one of those cold, rainy fall days with nicely colored leaves.  Unfortunately the only kind of apple cider they have here is alcoholic.  Thankfully there is hot chocolate though.

Fridays are our administration days.   So instead of going to campus in the afternoon, like we do Monday - Thrursday, we get to work the computers.  So for me, that entailed using Facebook to make sure all the students we know as a team were invited to our openhuis (open house) that will be taking place next Tuesday night.  I also tied up some loose ends with some of my ministry partners, and had two unplanned conversations with a Jehovah's Witness who is also our neighbor.  On top of that, I got to dabble in a little bit of personal development by reading, The Reason for God by Tim Keller.  

Not a bad day if I say so myself.  But I do miss the apple cider.

∞ Infinite ∞

While meeting with a non-Christian student the other day, I had the opportunity to explain God's infinite love for humans.  These are the notes I drew to help him visualize what we were talking about as we worked our way through the Connect study together:

I drew this part here...

 ...while he read this paragraph aloud:  The Bible shows that sin is the root of all other human ills.  The ultimate consequence of sin is death.

As we continued reading...  In the Bible, death doesn't simply mean that our heart stops beating.  The essence of death is separation: separation from our bodies, from each other, and from God (who is the source of everything good) for all eternity.  This is what the Bible calls hell.  Unless something changes, this is our destiny.  However, we've also seen that God loves us and wants to rescue us from our sin and his judgement.  Like the father of the prodigal son, God wants us to share our lives and hearts with him.  But for this to happen this gulf of sin must be dealt with... I drew this picture:

The object above the word, "God" is a life ring used by lifeguards.  I drew it to illustrate that God wants to save humanity.  The bit to the right of God is a plate, with silverware and a cup drawn to illustrate God's desire to relate personally with us, like we do when we have meals with others.

This story would be pretty sad if it ended here, but thankfully it doesn't!!!  I got to explain that because God loves each of us so much, he sent his very own son to make a way for us to experience him in our everyday lives.  But the way that he made is not an easy one.  I used these two pictures below to show how gruesome and brutal Jesus' death really was:

When you take the time to really think about what it must have been like for God to lay all the sins of the world on the shoulders of His very own Son, eventually turning his back on him in his very hour of deepest need, and excluding Jesus from relating with him like they had done for eternity before that moment, one can only conclude this:

God's love for us truly is infinite and accessible!!!  What a thing to know and ponder!

The Dutch Spiritual Landscape

One the things I wish I could communicate better with people back at home was the spiritual climate here in the Netherlands.  I can honestly say that I haven't seen anything like it before in my life.  
Instead of giving you a bunch of stats, I'm just going to share with you what a typical conversation with a Dutch student sounds like:

Today, we went to the main cafeteria to conduct our spiritual interest surveys.  This week we are using a survey called Perspective Cards, where students are asked to answer questions about their worldview.  The survey consists of 5 larger questions, which open the door for us to ask some follow-up questions as well. 

Ok enough stage setting.  Eric and I went and initiated a conversation with a Dutch student named Kyle, and he politely agreed to help us by answering our survey questions.  So we began with the first question:  "What is your perspective of the nature of God."  After taking a minute to look at the cards, he answered by saying he was agnostic.  After asking why that was his answer he said some things about how there was no way to know if there was a God, but that he respects others who believe He exists. 

When asked about what his view of human nature was, he responded that he thought it was neutral.  He further explained himself by saying that all humans start off as "blank pages" and are influenced to do good or bad things by the environment they are or were at one time in.  

Moving on the third question now:  his answer for the meaning and purpose of life were to live for the betterment of your descendants.   He explained that he doesn't really know why he thinks this way, but it could possibly have to do with some natural human instinct.

His answer to "Who was Jesus in your opinion?" was pretty typical for dutch students.  He said he thought that Jesus was a great spiritual leader, but not God.  He even said that he liked some of Jesus teachings like "love your neighbor as yourself."  

The last question of the survey is, "What is your source of spiritual truth?"  To this, Kyle answered that he uses reason and hard evidence to come up with what he thinks is true.  The discussion then turned to how he used reason and hard evidence to come to his conclusions for the previous four questions.  To which, he responds that he is confident in his reasoning and hard evidence conclusions in all but the third question.  When asked to further explain about how he came to his conclusion for the third question, he responds with, "I don't know, but I just feel like it is that way."  

The conversation ends with exchanging pleasantries, and an offer to learn more about Christianity, which he kindly turns down.  

Now multiply that by 15, and you have a typical week of doing ministry on the campus of Tilburg University.  Please pray that students will be more open and interested in the amazing Gospel of Jesus.  And praise God for the rare (but not extinct) conversations that end in interest and another meeting to further discuss God and spiritual things.

This is my story... Agape Ontmoetingsconferentie 2013

This weekend, I had the opportunity to go to a conference with all the Cru (Agape) staff from the Netherlands.  To be honest with you, I really wasn't looking forward to going.  I would have rather enjoyed a weekend of relaxation and recharging in my bedroom, but after going I can gladly say that it was definitely worth it.  

The theme for the weekend was, "This is my story" (dit is mijn verhaal).  The emphasis was on processing through our testimony, so that we can make it more accessible for non-Christians to connect with and relate to.  My own personal theme for this weekend was, "Where am I?"  I've been here for a month now, and needed some time to think about, who I really am, as an American missionary in a new country, experiencing things for the very first time.  Although, I haven't been able to fully organize my thoughts, it was a great start.

Nestled between sessions on Saturday afternoon, we got to go out and play soccer.  It was a blast!  I think that we Americans represented ourselves well with two of us each scoring goals, and the other placing a corner kick perfectly, so that it could be headed in past the goalie.  After the game, I was told I scored "a beautiful goal" by a Dutchman   Talk about a highlight for the weekend!!!

Sadly, there are no pictures of the goal itself, but here are some from the game courtesy of my wonderful teammate Molly Tolbert:

GVCru Netherlands update 1.0

This was a video update that Shelby and I made for students involved in Cru at Grand Valley!

It is about 7 minutes and discusses some cultural highlights, as well as ministry challenges, and other random fun things.

More Divine Provision

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been blown away with all the ways God continues to provide for me since I got here.  Monday of this week was a perfect example of this:

Heiko knew a guy from his church who is in charge of a retirement home in a town nearby.  All the residents of the home moved out last year, and they were going to change the building into something else.  That's where we were able to come in.  There were still quite few things left in this building that they were just going to through away when they began renovations.  We got to go in an pick through the stuff, and take it home with us if we wanted.  

We took home items both big and small.  From a soft green couch to power strips.  We got another fridge, and a dryer.  The dryer is significant, because due to the lack of space in most homes, the Dutch typically air dry their clothes.  I don't doubt our ability to do it, but that makes washing our clothes much less of a headache.  Which will help us to focus on our ministry even more!

I would say that all in all, we took home about 500 Euros worth of stuff from that place.  That is about $650!!!  Praise God!

Here are a few of the larger items we got on Monday!!!

Description of my ministry...

Ok, I'm going to try it.  I'm going to attempt that no man named Steve Hintz has ever attempted until this date.  I'm going to try to shed some light and clarity into what exactly I'm doing here.  If you are familiar with Cru or any of its affiliates, this should be review.  If not, I hope this will be both educational and concise.

The Theory:
As an arm of the campus ministry branch of Cru, we are trying to build a student-led spiritual movement on the campus of Tilburg University.  Although student-led is pretty self explanatory spiritual movments are not.  A spiritual movement is a group of people who are actively seeking to obey the Great Comission by 'going' and 'making disciples' through evangelism.  And then 'teaching them to obey all that Jesus has commanded them.'  Which includes both biblical principles and very practical ways of implementing that into one's life and walk with the Lord.  For example, a teaching one to obey Jesus' commands would include explaining to someone that we must share our faith, as well as actually going out with them and modeling precisely how one may share their faith.  

I personally really like this model for many reasons. First off.  It's biblical.  Secondly, students are going to be the most effective at reaching their peers.  On top of that, they get hands-on experience in discipling others and sharing their faith.  Lastly, students have their whole life ahead of them in which they can use what they learn now for the rest of their lives to touch the lives of many others they come into contact with.

My Role:
If you are anything like me, you are probably asking, "Ok, so how exactly are you going to get all the nice things you said above to become reality?"  The simple answer to this is: pray and step out in faith as God leads, trusting in Him to bring people to Himself.  Essentially that is what I'm going to be doing, and holy cow is it important.  But I know from experience, that probably doesn't even come close to being a satisfying answer to your aforementioned question.  

So, on top of those things, I first need to meet students in order to begin to get a feel for their interest in the Gospel.  We do that by surveying students we find sitting on campus.  As we "collect information" we are also trying to build a relationship with them, so that we can invite them to events where we can continue to build relationships.  Eventually we want to enter into a discipleship relationship with those students, so that we can teach them Jesus commands.  This may happen with either a Christian or non-Christian student.  So, just as Jesus spent a lot of time with his disciples which included teaching, traveling, healing, hearing, etc. with His disciples.  We want to do the same with ours, and walk with them on their spiritual journeys.  This may be, modeling how to share the Gospel with a Christian student, or searching the Bible for contradictions with a non-Christian skeptic.  

Getting even more specific now.  I will hopefully be discipling 2-3 students this year, leading fellow Christian students in going sharing on campus for 3-4 days a week, as well as maintaining the Agape StudentLife Tilburg Facebook page to keep students connected with information about events and other notes.

How you can help:

• Pray, pray, and pray
• Ask God to incline students hearts to want to learn more about Him.
• Pray for clarity, boldness, and salty speech when sharing our faith on campus.
• Ask God to provide student leaders, who begin to join us in this work to reach other students, and therefore causing our movement to grow.

Transitioning out of transition...

Well, I was finally able to move into an apartment this week.  The reason that it took three weeks to get figured out was because we needed to know exactly how many other guys form the US were actually going to join me.  Thankfully, God provided and both, Nick Kellogg (Western Michigan University) and Eric Coombs (Central Michigan University) were able to come.

As much as God really provided for me in those first few weeks without an apartment, I was ready to move into a place of my own.  Now I can begin to make the transition out of this phase of transitioning, and settle down a bit.  This will be very nice, because I now have a bedroom that I can call my own to go to when I need some time away from people, or just a quiet place to get work done.  This will also help me develop a nice daily routine, so that I will be more efficient and effective in my ministry.  In the meantime, if you so desire, check out these pics of our new place:

Our street number is:

Statenlaan 167

This is what you see when you first open the door.  The kitchen is the first left, and the living room is straight ahead.

This is the shower room.  The toilet has a little room of its own.

This is my bedroom with a nice big, dutch window.  Sorry mom, I didn't make my bed.

Campus... Finally!!!

Yesterday and today in the midst all the craziness of searching for an apartment, and welcoming our last two American teammates, I finally had the opportunity to go on campus to actually get my feet wet in doing ministry!  I will say that it was both nerve wracking and invigorating at the same time.  Which is no different from my times doing ministry at Grand Valley or sharing my faith on the beaches of Panama City Beach, Florida.  (Yes, even missionaries experience nervousness at times when sharing their faith.)

As I was saying, before I decided to get on my soap box, we made it on campus... finally!!!  Yesterday my teammates and I spent a good 2 hours praying outside all of the major buildings on campus.  What a great use of our time!  As we prayed, we asked God to lead us to the students He wants to use to build His Kingdom at Tilburg University.  Sure enough, I heard that Shelby and Alyson met a first year Christian girl, who was very interested in hearing about what we were doing on campus.  (This may not seem like such a big deal.  But consider the fact that there are only 200 Christian students at the University of 14,000.  It really was like finding a needle in a haystack!)  Where did they meet her you ask?  Yep, you guessed it!  They met her in the same spot we were praying earlier in the day!!!  God does provide in amazing ways!

Today, I had the opportunity to join Shelby after lunch and initiate spiritual conversations with students using surveys.  Not only are we collecting the information about what student's views about God and His role in their lives, but we are also trying to develop relationships with them, so that we may have the opportunity share the Gospel with them in the future.  Out of the 9 people we surveyed, only 2 or 3 said they believed there was a God.  Two pre-grad students said they wished there was a Heaven, but there was too much scientific information out there that made it impossible.  Please pray that students in Tilburg will have listening ears as we try to explain that science and God aren't opposites that counteract each other.  

A beautiful university on a beautiful day!

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any perish, but that all should reach repentance.  (2 Peter 3:9)  God wants these students more than we ever could.

Pray that the students who ride these bikes and walk these paths will come to come to an understanding of true satisfaction and truth in Jesus Christ.

Grace through generosity

God has really been teaching me a lot about His grace since I got to the Netherlands almost two weeks ago.  And this is just something that only He could do, because after a summer of raising support, I thought I would be done experiencing His grace through the generosity of others.  But no, God had other plans; better plans.  

As I mentioned, I got to experience the essence of receiving undeserved gifts all summer as God provided all the financial and prayer support I needed.  This is exactly what He did as He sent Jesus to pay for my sin as He died on the cross.  I did nothing to deserve any of if, but I was very grateful to receive all of it.  Thankfully He wasn't done teaching me, and I hope he never gets done teaching me about it.  

Naturally, as I boarded the plane to fly over the the Netherlands, I thought I was done learning that lesson.  Since I've been here, I couldn't tell you how many things people have given to me or my team.  I have been so blessed to live in the home of a very sweet woman from Heiko and Agnes' church.  She has given me more than I need in terms of food, and a place to stay that includes internet access.  On top of all of her selfless hospitality, my team and I have been given tons of kitchen supplies, as well as other supplies for around the house.  The list could go on and on, just like the forgiveness the Lord so graciously gives us.

Is this really my job?

Last week marked the first week we actually were expected to be places and contribute to discussion.  Every morning we started off with a time of team devotion.  Then we would either break off for time to explore the campus, the city, or have meetings.  The meetings were generally composed of setting goals for the year, as well as learning the context for student ministry here in Tilburg.

A few times throughout the week, I thought to myself, "Is this really my job?  We haven't even been on campus much to meet with students, and I'm already really enjoying myself!"  Now, I know that most weeks won't be like that, but I really hope to have that thought more times throughout this year.

This is a picture of the delicious dutch apple pie we enjoyed at the windmill below in a smaller town outside of Tilburg.

This is one of the lakes we hiked around as a team on our fun day trip out of town.

One week in!!!

Hagolslag (pronounced ah-hole-slagh with a deep throaty h sound at the end) is a common breakfast item here.

Bike riding is much more common here. They have special bike lanes, as well as traffic signals for bikes.

The view from one of my bike rides around Tilburg.

Here is the after church fellowship time.  They we very welcoming!!! (the man in the center with the white shirt holds a Guinness World Record!!!!

First Reactions

Yes, we finally made it to the Netherlands at about 9:30am (which was 3:30am Michigan time) Tuesday morning.  Since then I've experienced many things that caught me off guard.  That first day we arrived, we were picked up by your team leaders Heiko and Agnes at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, and drove an hour and a half to Tilburg.  I was sooo tired.

After a quick lunch we ventured out into the city center where the Top Markt was located.  The Top Markt was where all the student organizations set up booths to raise awareness for their respective organization.  The new students were invited to go around check out what interested them.  There was a lot of orange, and it smelled like beer.

After almost falling asleep on the bus on the way back to Heiko and Agnes' home, I was allowed to take a short nap.  I woke up to hear kids outside playing and shouting, all in a language I couldn't decipher.  That was pretty overwhelming for me.  On top of that, I had no idea where I was going to be staying that night.  All I knew was that it was going to be in the home of an elderly woman who knew Heiko from church.

I was truly awed by God's provision when I got to the house to find it was very nice, and quiet (the woman is on vacation).  Just what I needed after a week of constantly being around people.

Yesterday morning, I was again awed by the Lord, when we had a worship and prayer session at Heiko and Agnes' home.  It was really amazing to me to know that even though I was so far away from home, God was still the same God I knew there, and people worship him here just like we do there.  As my teammate Molly put it as she prayed, "Lord, thank you for being the only constant in our lives these past few days."

Photos of flying

My life in 3 bags...

Stats about our plane and flight.

Getting on the plane!  I was so excited.  It was the first time I flew since sixth grade!!!

Arriving in Amsterdam! We made it!!!