Wednesday night the Agape European Leadership Forum started in Spain. This is a conference for leaders from the different Agape / Campus Crusade for Christ ministries in Europe. We left Wednesday morning with 16 Dutchies from Schiphol.

The trip from Amsterdam to St Feliu de Guichols (Costa Brava, same place as we were in October) was a lesson in patience. We arrived in Barcelona about 30 minutes earlier than expected, but 10 minutes too late to catch 14.15 bus to the hotel. Eventually we left at six, so we’ve been waiting for over 3,5 hours in the airport. We spent the time talking, talking, talking… as the rest of the week would be.

There were three people new on the group: coming Athletes in Action leaders Theo and Harmke van den Heuvel and Mirjam Feijer, professional singer/musician, who was in the capacity of Crescendo member. On taking our seats in the plane, Mirjam was challenged by some of us to perform during the flight. She answered too quickly by saying that she would do it if they would introduce her… and there she went. Halfway the flight Cor and Corné (the self-declared funny guys) introduced her as a famous singer, and she sang… very courageous of her, I must say. She sang ‘Oh come ye’ from the Messiah, an invitation to cast your burdens on Jesus, and got good praise for it. (The story does not end here. Read on in the coming posts!)

The second and third lessons in patience were later that night, when we got in line for the dinner buffet. Great great food, but we stood there like forever. The most impressive lesson however was after dinner, when we went to the bar to order some drinks. The poor guy had a hard time managing all the requests from all sides of the bar, so it took a long time before I was in the right position to order. Right at that moment, the guy turns around, walks away and never comes back…