First few days

Michelle and I have been in the Netherlands for four days now, and are starting to get a sense of the town, the people, and the needs. I think a lot of our trip will be spent praying- prayerwalking around hopefully two college campuses, though I think one is locked, so we'll stand and pray in front of it. :) Praying for the schools, which are so central to kids' mindsets and beliefs. Praying for the churches, most of which are not teaching the Truth. Praying for this church, Cross Culture Calvary Chapel, that they would be a light in this dark country.

It's a beautiful country, actually; I think the quaint houses and the canals (and mini-canals, whose name I can't pronounce) add a lot of character. :) The people are tall. And fast bikers. They don't all speak English, and they don't seem to have as much self-consciousness in public- the referee, scorekeeper, and several spectators of a volleyball game we caught yesterday were dancing to the techno music- and they seem to be very friendly toward people they know. All this makes me think that if we can strike up conversations with people, they might be open to talking and even talking about God. I certainly hope so.

On Thursday and Friday Michelle and I recovered from our awful jet-lag (we arrived her at 7am!) and saw some of Hoofddorp and Niew Vennep, which is the town we're actually in. Yesterday we got our study/lesson ready for the youth study on Tuesday; Joey's letting us lead that, since it's our best bet for talking to the most of Cross Culture's youth. We'll talk about unity & community as the Body of Christ, and how that leads to obedience & produces boldness in our faith as individuals and as a community.

Then we walked around ourselves, past the big shopping center and all the way down to what we guessed was Niew Vennep station- tons of cars and tons of bikes parked near train ticket machines. We noticed kids with soccer balls running around, and hope to start the youth meeting every week to play soccer and attract town kids to play with them. Soccer here is social, and I know from experience that you actually can have good conversations with people when you meet to play. They won't just kick each other. :-) We spent the walk back praying for the town, specifically for the churches and schools, vital places in every town.

Today was church, and now it's naptime; I think Michelle and I will go prayerwalking some more, and maybe see if we can strike up any conversations. They don't really meet for coffee or anything here, which is why soccer could be such a good thing, so we don't know where to find people who are just hanging out; but please pray that God would send us people all week to talk to, and to pray for, and that He would show us specific needs. Also pray that God, not us, would speak on Tuesday; our goal this trip is to get the youth to grasp the importance and possibility of missional living here in their own town. We need Him to do that because right now we don't have that many opportunities to be with many of them- but there are a small group of them we should be seeing alot, so pray especially for them. They're pretty solid now; they just need help getting things like campus Bible study, etc. off the ground.

This is already long, and it's only Sunday! I'll post as I can, and mostly I'll probably post day-by-day posts when I get home. Pray for good conversations and effective prayer. Thank you!

~Michal

Hoofdoorp, Here I Come

In sixteen days I fly off to Holland with my friend Michelle! Oh my goodness. I'm really excited. Nervous, too, of course; I've been responsible for a large part of the trip and it's partly my choices that decide how the trip turns out. It's looking different than it did last year and even six months ago; I thought there would be several more people coming, giving us a "normally" sized & "normally" functioning missions team. Why I wanted the additional stress of being in charge of other people in a foreign country I don't know. :) What I do know, though, is that this missions trip is turning out how God always intended for it to. It's His good pleasure that Michelle and I go; many other people were given the opportunity, and despite some other interested friends, it'll be the two of us. 

Despite my flaws -- read procrastination and indecision- as a trip planner, I really think God will be working a lot during our two weeks in Hoofdoorp, Netherlands. We'll be working with the youth at Cross Culture Calvary Chapel there, serving with them and showing them how to make servanthood for Christ a daily part of their lives and faith. What a challenge for us; that's what Michelle and I are still learning to do, of course. But God has called, and He is faithful to complete through us what He's asked. 

We'll be going to their school to pray, going to the college to help them begin ministry on campus much like what we've been growing at Hillsdale, doing a lot of prayer walking, identifying needs in the town and ways to meet them, and doing some evangelism. Please pray for boldness; Michelle and I are both quiet people who don't like to inconvenience others or be turned down. We need words to speak. But we have the Living Word; pray for us to be filled up with the Spirit so we do speak. 

Still working out daily plans; but they're coming together. Planning small group discussions and Bible studies to go through with the Dutch kids in the evenings, and what we need most to study. I'll be updating frequently, I hope, until I'm back and have lots to say. :)