Day in Leiden

One of the projects that Crossroads is working on is a churchplant in Leiden, a little north of The Hague. So yesterday I headed north 20 minutes by train. This is a university town of 100,000+. Quite a nice town it is. Very stereotypically Dutch with lots of canals and bridges. I went up there with my colleague Remko and a group of 7 people from Spokane, WA. Most of them are in the process of exploring what God would have them do in the area of mission. 3 of them are actually in the pipeline of becoming staff with Christian Associates. So we went into the center of the town and surveyed a number of people as to their perception of spirituality, Christ, the Church, and their town. After a debriefing session for that, we walked the town praying for the city, the people, and what God might have us do in that city. It was my first experience doing this sort of thing. It's not the most natural thing for me to simply approach someone on the street and ask them questions. At the same time, this is an area in which I am growing--as Renata can attest. I only got to two surveys, but once we got going, it was a good experience. The Dutch tend to have opinions and are quite willing to talk to you if you ask. They do tend to have a rather brusque exterior that can put friendly North Americans off. Get passed that, and they are quite friendly. There was nothing extraordinary or revolutionary in the responses gleaned yesterday, but they were the first surveys done and were helpful nonetheless.
It was a good day and a good introduction for me to the initial stages of church planting in European cities. We will continue to do this sort of thing in Leiden in the months to come as well as when we return to Warsaw.
Leiden is a place you could be praying for especially over the next year as the process continues of putting a project in place. Being a university town it is very oriented towards knowledge and the esoteric. Towards spiritual things it tends to be highly ambivalent or, at the most, oriented towards a buffet-style spirituality where you simply take and do what suits you.

So needy, but relative wealth and comfort obscures their awareness.

Role Call

We are finalizing what shape our ministry here in The Hague will look like over the next year. In a few meetings with the Kevin Johnson, the lead pastor at Crossroads, we sculpted our roles based on our individual giftings and experience and areas in which we really want to develop ourselves in the months to come. So…

Together, we will be putting together a 20-something’s leadership team in order to establish a real sense of community and connection with others at Crossroads.
We will be starting and leading a small group (hopefully in our home here) together.

Renata will be networking with women at Crossroads to plan 2 or 3 events directed toward initiating an ongoing ministry among women. She will prepare and develop a women’s Bible study on the book of Esther with another experienced woman. She will also be an active leader on the Crossroads Communications team as they raise the level of awareness of the Crossroads in the community and the level of excellence in its communication materials and venues.

I (Tim) will be working directly with Kevin and the associate pastor Scott Curley in developing services and improving artistic expression within (along with developing myself artistically personally).

Also, where possible, we will be assisting in Leiden, town 15 minutes north of The Hague, in a church-planting project taking shape there.

So there you have it. That’s the gist of what we’ll be up to for the next little while. Thought you’d like to know.

Cows and Beaches

Today, Kaleb and I gave Renata a chance to get some much needed rest. Being an absolutely beautiful and sunny day (take 'em when you can get 'em in this part of the world) we went to one of the many children's farms the city has to offer. Kaleb was very happy to see cows, goats, chickens, ducks, and sheep. For the rest of the day whenever I mentioned that we got to see animals, he starts "moo-ing". Once we were done with the animals, we headed northwest to the dunes and the beaches. The only part that Kaleb actually walked was over the dunes--both directions. When I suggested that he put the sea shell, that he had chosen for his mommy, in his pocket, he had to pick up a second shell as he realized he had two pockets.

Just a funny thing

We saw this the other day while riding to church on the bus. So here you go.

In The House!!

We are in our new apartment now. We are settling in and getting all the little things that we need to make our home here (mop, bucket, dishwasher detergent, etc.). Our sofa was delivered from the second-hand store yesterday and that was the final major piece of the puzzle, although we would love some more chairs for the dining room table. I am even getting more used to the bike ride to and from the office (25 min.). Today was the worst ride i ever had as there was very strong wind and rain on the way home (lowest gear on the bike all the way). I was soaked by the time i finally arrived. Will be finding rain gear within a couple of days.
I mentioned Kaleb's race car bed in an earlier post. So i am including a couple of pictures i took yesterday with my phone. We had just assembled it (Kaleb was so excited he wanted to get in it almost before we had the pieces together). He's not sleeping in it yet, but he thinks it's incredibly cool. Pictures of the house (exterior) and what we did this last weekend to come in a later post.

Tomorrow

So tomorrow is the day we move into our new apartment. We have moved a fair bit of stuff in already (mainly kitchen stuff and a couple of chairs and lamps), but tomorrow we move matresses, some short cabinets, and Kaleb's new (for him) race car bed. On Monday our sofa arrives (we bought it today at a wonderful second hand store). So, exciting stuff. I even got a pretty retro rotisserie and a gourmet set for free yesterday. All i need is a fondue set. Also still looking for my "lazy-boy" chair. Kaleb is also very pleased with the stuffed toy poodle that he snagged yesterday.

After moving in,i'll be pretty busy Saturday and Sunday as a music instructor from the U.S. is coming to work with the worship bands at the church here. Should be a good time.

Kaleb has a cold now and has been getting up very early the last few mornings. So that's taking it's toll on us, especially Renata.

That's the latest. Sorry now pictures yet. Soon they shall come.