Boerenroem blog

// July 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // (uncategorized), family, travel

- Posted using MobyPicture.com

// March 3rd, 2009 // No Comments » // travel

Stories to follow; more pictures here.

// February 27th, 2009 // No Comments » // Agapè, israel, travel

Well, there is one prayer answered today! It is raining from early morning to late at night. We set off for Lake Galilee, where we want to spend some time today. Getting out of the city is quite a challenge, but after a while we find the right road: first down to Jericho and then north along the Jordan river to Tiberias. We notice how quick the scenery changes: just outside of Jerusalem the desert starts – a funny scene when it rains! The road winds down, we see poor nomadic people living in the hills, under one shabby roof with their cattle. Signs indicate the sea level: 0 meters, minus 150, and minus 300. To the right the Dead Sea appears: it is raining there as well. On the horizon we see the mountains of Jordan, to the right we see Jericho in the last sunshine of the day… We take the turn left towards Jericho. A couple of kilometers onwards, another classic picture: an accident between a car, a tractor and a donkey-and-cart; one of the wheels of the tractor is completely demolished, boys pull the cart away.

We are stopped at a checkpoint at the northside of the Westbank. The car is completely stripped down and four of us get a body check. My Dutch passport shows its value: I get it back without any question. And honestly, the way in which the checks are done are good: serious but friendly.

// February 26th, 2009 // No Comments » // Agapè, israel, travel

We return to the hotel to have dinner close by, in an Arab place recommended by our friends. It is a good place, and we all enjoy the humus and eggplant salads. We have made a list of topics to discuss: personal life, future of the ministry, movement building, and Agapè Europe. When we start talking it turns out that they are not so easy to separate. Tonight we end up talking about what we are actually trying to achieve as a movement. The international pay-off is ‘Movements everywhere’, which indicates that we want to see things getting stirred up, on the move, progressing. All that sounds good, but why would we want this? What things need to be moving? And where should they move to? Compare it to the civil rights movement: it is not about the movement as such, but about the goals of justice and human rights. Their slogan is not ‘civil rights movements everywhere’ but more something like ‘Justice for all’ or ‘Stop the traffic’. So, what is our movement about?

Most of us agreed that, although it surely has a good meaning, ‘movements everywhere’ is actually not a goal in itself, but rather a means, a strategy. Agapè UK talks about building people who want to ‘changing the status quo’, which comes closer to the goal, but still leaves the question open as to what the change is about. Although we don’t answer all these questions rightaway, it is very good to discuss, think and pray together about the focus.

// February 26th, 2009 // No Comments » // Agapè, israel, travel

While on the walls, we saw a Bar Mitswa taking off. It is Thursday, traditionally one of the days that Bar Mitswa’s are celebrated at the Western Wall. So we set off to see what’s going on there. It turns out to be one big photo opportunity – the sunshine, the many colourful people, the traditions… it is almost too much to take J. We spend much time at the Wall, watching the celebrations. Things we know from books are reality here: men dancing together, kissing the Torah, fully into tradition, while modern-dressed and stylish women stand behind the fence cheering and taking pictures. Inside the closed part of the Wall to the left, we enter into yet another world: there are men everywhere reading and citing Torah, some sitting down, others standing in reverence. We walk out again, and notice an increasing crowd on the square. Many children (boys!) are around, entire school classes are together. As we don’t know what is happening, we walk out towards the City of David. When we asks someone what is happening, it turns out that there is indeed an event happening: school classes are gathering to pray for rain – which is much needed. We can hear the citing and singing all around the place.

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// February 26th, 2009 // No Comments » // Agapè, israel, travel

Thursday: our first full day in Jerusalem. In the morning we join Bart Repko with his walk on the Jerusalem Wall. Bart and his wife Joke are Dutchmen who through their ministry ‘Never Be Silent’ go on the walls every day to proclaim, prophesy and pray for Jerusalem and the people of Israel. I was quite curious to see how this would go. Sure enough, when we get to the meeting point there are some acquaintances from our former church in Amsterdam!

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// February 25th, 2009 // No Comments » // Agapè, israel, travel

Today is the day: I’ll be flying to Israel for a 6-day trip together with 5 colleagues from different countries. I have an early flight, and even before take-off Jerusalem is calling again. This time it is my Arab friend, with whom we will have dinner tonight. We set the details and I am off for Vienna. There I meet Greg, who is National Director for Italy. There are some good things happening there, so while flying to Tel Aviv we have enough to talk about.

In Tel Aviv we hear about a severe incident in Amsterdam this morning. It turns out that shortly after I left Schiphol, a Turkish Airlines plane has crashed close to the landing strip. An extra reason to be thankful for a safe arrival. When the others arrive, we get the rental car and go to Jerusalem. We are staying at the Christ Church Guesthouse in the Old City. A beautiful compound at the border of the Christian and Armenian Quarter. After a short tour in the Christian Quarter we meet up with our Arab friends for dinner. We talk about their life and work in Gaza, Nazareth and Jerusalem, where they try to share the love of Christ with the Palestinian and Arab people. There are only a couple of thousand followers of Jesus among the 3 million. They often face threats and difficulties, with people on the frontline even being in outright danger. Compared to the real danger of death and persecution, the logistical problems due to the war in Gaza seem only minor. This is the reality that our friends face, and it is very encouraging to see the commitment and faithfulness of our friends.

We also talk about the relationship with Jewish believers. A topic even more sensitive and complicated than I had thought, but it was good to get some understanding of it. To put it simply: the ideals of reconciliation are not understood by many, and pushing this too much would be counterproductive. Apart from that, there are also huge cultural differences that require different approaches. Sad as it may be, this means that there is not much cooperation. On the bright side: our friends have some wonderful stories of what God is doing in different places. And it is my privilege to pray God’s blessing over them in closing our meeting.

(Click here for the pictures!)

// February 23rd, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Agapè, travel

This Wednesday I will travel to Israel for the first time in my life. Expectations are skyhigh. I still have to meet the first person who thought I would not like it. I will be there for only a few days, but with an interesting group of people: leaders from 5 different national Agape-ministries. We will be meeting people, traveling around the country and trying to get some feeling with what’s going on.

Today was an interesting foretaste. In preparing the trip I read a call by passionate christians for an unconditional support to Israel – which I sure would like to respond to. Israel is Gods people, and they will always be, and I know that many times the information passed on to us about Israeli agression is false. But, reliable information from other sources reveal deliberate Israeli obstruction of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Many aid programs and organisations are ready to enter, but are not allowed access. What to think of it? At least that it is not black and white… We hope to have the privilege of meeting both Israeli and Arab Christian leaders to hear from them, learn from them and pray with them.

// October 29th, 2008 // No Comments » // Agapè, travel

Busy as never before… physically challenging, but mentally fully alive. I should update on Finland, where I visited the Christ Day and forum on prayer, over a week ago. Actually it was better than I had thought, but in a different way. The forum on prayer was inspiring, but less concrete than I had hoped for; at the other hand, the vision that was cast was much stronger than I had expected. The Christ Day itself, on Saturday 18th, was an interesting experience. I guess we really saw some Finnish culture: very quiet, introvert, but friendly and helpful people. A wide range of christian traditions were represented on stage as well as in the program. The most intriguing thing was to have traditional hymns at the start and a charismatic prayer for healing near the end of the program. I thought it was quite bold not to go for the lowest common denominator, but to seek the breadth and variety of christianity. The extra dimension to the trip was the Dutch company – of different backgrounds, we quickly felt at ease and saw new friendships grow.

Below a few pictures; see the picture gallery for more and see also here for more pics.

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// November 23rd, 2007 // No Comments » // Agapè, travel, video

As you see, it was fun in Greece…

// October 31st, 2007 // No Comments » // Agapè, travel

Wow, that was quite a trip. Travelling 46 hours and 20.000 km in 6 days, from 12 C to 32 C, by plane, rental car, taxi and golf cart… But it was fun. We travelled from Amsterdam to Atlanta to meet with a couple that are interested in our ministry. They have a fantastic place about 2 hours north of Atlanta, in the midst of the Georgia woods. The next day we travelled to Phoenix to attend the World Briefing Conference, a conference for Campus Crusade for Christ partners to update them what is happening around the world. Not only did we attend, we were also able to present some of what we are doing here in The Netherlands.

It was good to be there, establish new relationships and friendships, and seeing that God is moving through the entire world. Now read the other posts for the whole story…

// October 29th, 2007 // No Comments » // Agapè, fun, travel

Okay, one or two more stories from the States. The conference theme was ‘Proclaiming the mystery’ (derived from Colossians 3), and to add some fun to it there was a mystery to be solved, somewhat like the game Clue. Mira had the privilege to play Hercule Poirot and present the solution of the mystery, which she did in a marvelous way of course. And guess what, our team won! The prize was even a nice one: the recently released ‘Discover God’ Study Bible. On the picture you see Ron and Christy, co-hosts of the event, dressed up in a twenties-style zoot-suit. Cool!

Throughout the conference, we heard many stories of how God is moving in Africa, Asia, America and Europe. Steve Douglass shared how he saw a church planting movement in India, growing from one a few years ago to thousands today through rapid multiplication. We also noticed that there seems to be more fear for the rise of Islam among Americans than we have around here. The topic was brought up frequently, and although I think awareness and factual knowledge is needed, we should focus primarily on proclaiming Jesus. Love casts out all fear, so to speak. Anyway. We traveled back home together with Javier, which guaranteed a lively talk just about anything. It was a good time.

// October 25th, 2007 // No Comments » // Agapè, travel

At 1.30 pm the second episode started: travelling to Phoenix. And guess what: long before rush hour, we hit a jam because of a traffic accident, downtown Atlanta… so we ended up running through the hallways in the airport, hitting a 2-kilometer long line for Security, running back, looking for another entrance, and then Mira made just a little mistake at the security gate: she said we were in a hurry. Lesson no. 1 when going through Security: NEVER SHOW THAT YOU ARE IN A HURRY. They made us go through the full body check, leaving us even less time to catch the plane. So there we went running again, this time with loose shoe strings, belts lingering, open bags… but we made it at the second precisely. One minute later and the doors would have been closed. If you have the chance, go and nearly miss a plane one day. The faces of all those people in the plane, nicely seated and on time, are priceless

// October 24th, 2007 // No Comments » // Agapè, travel

The United States are a nice country. Really, I like it. The only thing is: you have to be ve-e-e-ry patient to get in… It took us ages to leave the airport: first of all we had to get through Immigration – about 50 minutes waiting time. When we got through, we took the luggage and went through customs – not mentioning some of the stuff that we carried, oops – but then they had us re-label the luggage (waiting time 15 minutes), since it was already checked in for Phoenix. Then we had to… well, long story short: when we finally got the rental car, heading North, we hit rush hour… so we were kinda tired when we arrived at our hosts’ place. Fortunately, from there things went better! Dean and Kara live in a beautiful place, out in the woods. Just lovely. And as I said: the US are a nice country, because when we went out for dinner, the place opened up especially for us (and served us some superb food as well!).

We were supposed to leave for Phoenix early next day. We decided to change the flights, so we could have a little more time with Dean and Kara, that we were just getting to know a little bit. So after a good nights’ sleep we had another morning in Georgia. We took a walk to the actual Cannon Falls, a very beautiful river with a fall of some 20 meters, right below the cottage, and talked some more about our little country and what God is doing around here.

// October 20th, 2007 // No Comments » // Agapè, travel

Currently making preparations for another trip: next Wednesday Mira and I will fly to Atlanta, and the next day to Phoenix, to meet with potential supporters for Agapè, and especially the Rotterdam developments. I think it’s safe to say this is a unique opportunity, as many of the people we’ll meet have a heart for missions and are involved in some way with Campus Crusade for Christ already. It also shows the paradigm shift that’s taking place: we are going to present The Netherlands as a missions ‘target’; we’ll be receivers instead of senders. It’s not just about money, by the way. I like the model that challenges people to give their L.I.F.E.: their Labour, Influence, Finance & Expertise. There are many ways in which people can be involved, and I sure would like them to be. The other good thing about the trip is that Mira and I are going together, and that it’s going to be about 30 C in Phoenix. The bad thing is that by the time we are checked in into the hotel, we should start heading back. Anyway. We’ll trust it’s worth it.