7-27: First birthday on another continent

I was just thinking about this…..I have celebrated every birthday of my life in the US, Canada, or Mexico…all on the North Amercian continent. Friday will be my first off continent birthday, 36, yipee(hear the lack of enthusiasm), and it will probably be a pretty normal day. I was thinking of possibly driving to Germany and seeing a castle or something. The Dutch traditionally plan their own b-day parties, so I don’t think any are coming that I don’t know about. I went to Dublin last week(photos coming), so that was my birthday present this year. It is comforting to know though that even here in the Netherlands my Grandma still gets her yearly birthday card to me(never missed a year!) a few days before my birthday! Thanks Grandma!

Three funerals and a wedding

This has been a tough season for the church: in past two months we have had two funerals and this weekend we are having a third. I am officiating the one this weekend on my own because the head pastor is on holiday, and I am very worried about not doing a good job. I also am preaching every Sunday in July as well as leading worship each Sunday, so I feel very overwhelmed right now. I also am officiating my first wedding next Friday(July 6th) and I was supposed to have spent this week preparing for it….so I am behind.

I didn’t realize how much and how regularily pastors deal with death in the midst of all the life giving ministry (weddings, baptisms, counseling, worship, etc…) that they are involved in. It has really made me uncomfortable at times, mostly because of my own issues with death and suffering. This weekend I am doing a service for Henny, an 85 year old saint who was around the church almost every day. She could hardly see or hear, yet she somehow made it to church almost every day and helped with folding the bulletins, etc… I would always have to come really near her and speak very loud for her to hear me, and sometimes she would speak to me in Dutch(forgetting that I am not Dutch), to which I would just nod and smile. She died quickly, surprising everyone when a unknown tumor in her pancreas ruptured. I guess it was a blessing that she died so quickly because she couldn’t handle not being active. Now I have the task of creating a service that celebrates her life and reminds us of Christ’s ressurection. I find my homily being the hardest to write. I want to make sure I talk about her in a way that is true, yet also to look beyond her to the hope that she had, and we all have in Christ….. and that is harder than I thought it would be.
Then after I finish that and my sermon for this Sunday, I need to switch gears and write a sermon about love, committment for the wedding next Friday!

American Football European style

This weekend I went to an arena football game between the Amsterdam Admirals and the Berlin Tigers(or Panthers….or some other large cat). My friend was excited to invite me to an American football game but entering the game I realized that the Europeans interpretation of American football is alittle bit different. Firstly, everything looked smaller…the field is smaller, the arena is smaller, the players are smaller, and the crowds are smaller. Secondly….though all the Euro teams are farm teams for the NFL, most of the game looked like a bad game of highschool football. Not even a bad game of college football…that would have been too good. The most exciting part of the game was watching both teams fumble or intercept the ball during each of their possessions….and all the half time show, which was a Dutch girl group that sang covers of En Vogue and The Beatles… I think Europeans need to stick with field hockey, soccer, rugby, and all the other sports that we have never heard of in the US.

I got conned!!!

This afternoon I got conned by a couple of drug addicts who were posing as Belgian tourists(I should have become suspicious right away!) I was working alone at the church when these two guys started buzzing the church doorbell. I came to the door and they gave me some story about wanting concert tickets. I came out of the church to talk to them and after a few minutes one of the guys asked me to use the rest room. I let him in and then went out to talk with the other guy, eventually even talking to him about Jesus and the church. I didn’t think there were any other exits from the church except the ones I was at, but after a few minutes his friend hadn’t returned and I started getting suspicious…..his friend though seemed as confused and worried as me though, so I thought something was really wrong.
I went into the church with the other guy to look for his friend and he was nowhere to be found. I don’t know why I wasn’t more suspicious, but at the time I thought he just got lost. His friend seemed worried too(he was a good actor) so we start looking for him(me inside and the guy outside…apparently to get away!!) and as I walked through the sanctuary I realized our 1000 euro projector was gone!! The guy in the bathroom had snuck past me and stole our projector while his friend was talking to me!! I ran outside looking for his friend and he was gone, and I then ran back into the church to see if my wallet and laptop were stolen(they weren’t). I also then became worried that the guy might still hiding in the church, so I called the police, a couple congregation members, and then did a search of the church.
Looking back I can’t believe how gullible I was, but they were also really good con men …and good actors! The pastor thinks that one of the guys is a drug addict that has stole stuff from the church before…I guess crack-heads can get pretty creative if they need to! And I just feel violated. And dumb. And way too trusting.

Ah, Paris in the Springtime…….

Well, two weekends ago I had a couple days off so I decided to take a road trip to lovely Paris. Driving down through the Netherlands, Belgium, and France was a fun adventure and strolling along the Seine is just what I needed to de-stress after five very full weeks in Den Haag. Paris is a city of monuments, all trying to outdo the other, and it was interesting to visit this city of opulence after being in NL, which doesn’t have any room for these grand, giant monuments….or they were melted down during the reformation. Anyway… I really enjoyed just taking a laid back couple days of sight seeing and seeing the eiffel tower from many different angles. I also got to top it off by seeing my friend Justin Bell and his mom for a nice lunch and conversation. It was really cool to write Justin by e-mail, “just meet me under the statue of Charlemagne by Notre Dame” and it was even cooler knowing that I can take my time enjoying this city because I can come back any time I want!! It’s only a 5 hour drive/4 hour train ride away!

The quest for cough syrup

So….I have been sick this week..which is the reason I have not been writing much on the blog. Interesting things have been happening around NL… but I have been on a quest for cough medicine. In the states it is easy to find all the medicines you want for anything that ails you, but not here.

They don’t sell any medicines in grocery stores besides aspirin, so I had to ask around where I could find cough syrup. People told me that I need to go to the Apoteek, which is basically a pharmacy, and after looking around for 40 minutes I finally found one. Apparently though they don’t sell anti-histamines here, and the basic dutch response to a cold is: get over it. So I was given some weak medicine that didn’t help and sent on my way. Thank God for my American pastor though. She had brought home a bunch of cough medicines from from her last trip to the states and now I am feeling much better. Yeah America and its drugs!

Queensday, Corrie Ten Booms house and Beautiful Bruge

Monday was the Queens Bithday, which is a national holiday. Basically everyone gets dressed up in orange, has random yard sales on every corner, gets really drunk, and dances to alot of techno music, sometimes on boats in canals. Since I didn’t have a boat or anything orange I didn’t really take part in the festivities this year. Maybe next year.
(the first two pictures in the slide show try to capture the madness in Amsterdam)

Today, which is Thursday, I went to Haarlem, close to Amsterdam, to visit Corrie Ten Booms house. Corrie was arrested during ww2 by the Nazi’s for helping hide Jew’s and you really should read her book The Hiding Place. I didn’t really appreciate it though until living here. Two of the prisons the sent Corrie’s family were here in The Hague, and also in Scheveningen, which is 20 min away.
(the pictures after Queensday on the slide show were taken in Haarlem and at the house. One of the pictures shows the hidden room where they used to hide Jews during ww2)

Last Friday I went to Bruge, Belgium, which is a very cool medieval city about two hours drive from my house. Besides being my first euro car trip I also really liked Bruge. It reminds me of alot of the great Medieval cities in Italy and elsewhere. I’ve included a few pictures below..any canals are in Bruge and also the park and the picture from on top of the bell tower.
More adventures to come soon!

A swear word in any language is the same

Today, as I was sitting on the train on the way to Haarlem to visit Corrie Ten Booms house (The Hiding Place) and I was listening to a couple teenagers talking. They were speaking Dutch, which I couldn’t understand, but they kept saying a familiar four letter word over and over again that kept grabbing my attention. I guess THAT word means the same whatever language you are speaking!!

More Beautiful days in Holland… and Tulips!!

Cool Ranch Doritos, Dutch Style

I had a hankering today for Cool Ranch Doritos but when I went looking for them in grocery stores around here all I could find was “Cool American” Doritos. Same bag, same taste, no Ranch. It is so funny the weird things that get lost in translation!