The home group leaders (well, most of the home group leaders) from Zolder50 travelled to Bakkum this weekend for a retreat.  It was a great experience with some great people.  During the time that we were all together I was reminded that this was why I moved to Amsterdam... We spent time talking about our personal lives, talking about the mechanics of leading a home group, as well as talking about the vision and direction of our church and our calling in Christ.  And although I felt that we were able to get a lot accomplished, I also came away feeling a bit rested and refreshed.

Before our final dinner of the weekend, our whole group got to take a beautiful walk through the nature preserve between Bakkum and the North Sea.  Our ultimate destination ended up being this uitzichtduin (look-out dune), a few hundred meters short of reaching the coast itself (there seems to be something somhow symbolic in that).

I wish I would have taken more pictures while we were there this weekend.  I just have this "anti-tourist" complex that inhibits me at times.  However, on the way up to the uitzichtduin, Marco and I had a foot-race... He beat me pretty easily (pictured above).  Still, by being challenged up to the top of the dune, I had the advantage of being able to stop for some rest and some deliberate time taking a bunch of pictures while everyone else climbed up to join us (could there be yet another metaphor in there somewhere?).