I don't believe there are any photographs of the initial staff team that moved over to Amsterdam in 2002-03 to help establish Stichting GCM-Netherlands.  At least I don't have any.  The above compilation of images from a staff boating excursion (in June 2003) is the closest I can get, when looking through my own archives.  But I still remember that team well:  Steve, Chris, Todd, Lee, Patricia, and me.  Five married guys, and one single woman.  It was a good team; but it started changing within a month of when these photos were taken.

Steve (and family) left first.  Eventually Joe (and family) moved over.  Linda, too.  And we also welcomed two interns from GCM's One Year program:  Erica and Jen.  Bret eventually came on staff, too.  So in the first officially-posed Stichting GCM-Netherlands staff team group portrait (taken in February 2004), we had six married guys and three single women (Linda was also living in Amsterdam at the time, but her role was not yet related to Stichting GCM-Netherlands activities).

Well, time has passed and teams have changed.  To the point that our current staff team is as seen below:  Naomi, Patricia, Eva, Leslie, Linda, and me (photo from summer 2009).

That's five single women and one married man.  And the demographic shift is not just a staff team thing!  The original church-planting team (which also included many people who came to Amsterdam as students and professionals), started out with a total of 36 people (not counting children).  Then, over the following two years, an additional 10 "reinforcements" were sent over to Amsterdam from the United States -- thus bringing the total to 46 people (though there were never more than 35 of us here at the same time).  Of those 46 people, there were 28 women, and 18 men.  A total of 14 married couples.  So women have always been the majority -- though men have historically been the majority on the GCM-NL staff team -- and historically speaking, there have been slightly more married folks than singles.

So it strikes me as ironic that I'm now the only male left, and Marci and I are the only married couple (though Heidi, also from the original team, has since married a Nederlander).  Ironic, and yes:  sometimes a little bit sad and lonely.

But more than any kind of disappointment or disenfranchisement, I think our staff team's demographic shifts are simply a poignant demonstration of change.  In a good way.  Our ministry has changed a lot through the years.  And yes, it is possible to be sad and wistful about the changes.  The church we came to start has become a dramatically different church since 2002-2003 -- but that's simply because it's a living organism.  A growing, adapting, maturing, dynamic organism.  And our staff team changes have paved the way for these developments.  Our staff team changes have opened the way for young Europeans to take on leadership roles and develop a sense of ownership for what's going on in the church, while the staff of GCM-NL have been able to start branching out in other directions of ministry.  I have to believe that our times (and our teams) are in God's hands.  And that's a comforting thing to realize.