Thanks be to God!  He gives us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
(1 Corinthians 15:57)

Greetings from Amsterdam!  Let me start by saying, “Beste wensen voor 2011” (Dutch tradition is to always offer someone “best wishes” for the New Year, when one first encounters a friend in the New Year).  And because it’s a New Year, I return to our annual tradition of publishing a “State of the Ministry Address”—using the first prayer letter of a new year to write a more extended overview of our lives and our ministry.  In so doing, I realize that I’m throwing a lot of information at you—yet, I want to my best to keep you aware of everything that your faithful support in prayer and finances is enabling us to do, simultaneously equipping you with the information to be continually praying for us in an educated manner.  Don’t feel guilty if you prefer to skim. :-)  But in any event, please know that we deeply appreciate your part in making our ministry possible.  It’s a great honor to report all that God is doing in our lives and in our ministry…

Amsterdam Life

This month marks the beginning of our ninth year in Amsterdam.  As of this coming summer, Lord willing, I (Eric) will have lived in Amsterdam longer than I’ve ever lived in any other place on Earth!  This is obviously also true for our children; so in a lot of ways, this place has simply become home to us.  We continue to evaluate our family’s long-term trajectory (particularly in light of our children’s eventual transition to secondary education), but at least for 2011 we remain fresh, focused, and fiercely committed to the task of making disciples in Amsterdam.  It’s a great honor to serve as a pastor to people through the most basic rhythms of life:  coming to faith, getting baptized, falling in love, getting married, having babies, enduring illnesses, and grieving death.  Bringing God into all of these rhythms—not to mention the everyday stuff—is a beautiful and mysterious process that never gets old.  This is our life in Amsterdam. 

Communities

As you may remember, it was about a year ago that we completed the process of adapting our small group system to create a network of “Communities,” with each group united around a specific mission and grounded within a broader sub-culture in Amsterdam.  Basically, as we studied the way that our city works, we realized that the most cohesive social units are not geographic / neighborhood groupings—but rather sub-cultural groupings centered upon a shared demographic or field of interest.

Because of this, it seemed wise to structure our small groups in such a way that we could tap into these natural networks.  With God’s help, we sifted through 114 different sub-cultures that we could identify with representation from among the people of our church, and we ultimately formed a dozen different communities reaching out to the sub-cultures that we found to be most prevalent and most strategic, including Artists, Families, Musicians, Persians, Professionals, Social Activists, Students.

The results of this strategic approach to ministry have varied from community to community, but overall it seems like there are some really strategic opportunities that have popped up or are just waiting to be cultivated.  In part through the work of these new communities, six individuals made first-time professions of faith in Christ—and there are countless other people throughout the city who are being exposed to the Gospel for the first time.  Please continue to pray with us for the growth, development, and multiplication of these communities throughout Amsterdam (and beyond).

Worship Gatherings

In addition to our smaller communities, held throughout the week and throughout the city, we also continue to gather every Sunday for worship gatherings at our ministry center in the heart of the old city.  In 2010, we studied the themes of Spiritual Disciplines, the Book of Jonah, the Book of Galatians, and we did an Advent series on the Gospels.  I did more of the preaching this year than ever before, but it was also neat to see three young Dutch men get their first experience in preaching as well.  Another two guys (who already had some experience) also continued to hone their skills in studying the Bible and communicating its truths publicly.  So I’m very encouraged to see a team of people developing in this area.

All in all, we’ve got some great momentum with our worship team and our teaching team, and we’re praying that our times of corporate worship will be very life-giving, Spirit-filled experiences in 2011.  One of the specific plans that we have for the coming year is to spend some more significant time teaching through the Old Testament of the Bible.  But rather than just looking at the Old Testament from a historical perspective, we also want to really examine the ways that the Old Testament points us to Jesus and to the ongoing role that we play as the Body of Christ in 21st Century Amsterdam.  So would you please pray with us for God’s movement through our worship gatherings?  We’d appreciate it!

Special Events

There’s much more to our church community than our weekly events.  I don’t even know if I’d accurately be able to provide an exhaustive list of all ministry activities!  But at any rate, here are a few highlights from the last year…

In the summer of 2010, we welcomed a summer intern from the University of Illinois, named Jeff Spencer.  As Jeff benefited from the opportunity to explore the possibility of a career in full-time international missions, we also benefited from his energy and enthusiasm in building up our church community through service projects, strategic support of our Students Community, and research on the overall health and well-being of our church.  It ended up being a really positive experience for us all, and it made us look forward to the possibility of hosting other interns in the future.

In July (in part due to Jeff Spencer’s organizational assistance), twenty people traveled from Amsterdam to the Italian Alps for a week-long experiential learning initiative called ReBoot.  Seemingly everyone who went on this trip came back with a fresh sense of things that God is doing in their lives and in our church community as a whole.  In many ways, the reverberations of that week in the Alps are still echoing through people’s lives today, and I’m excited to see how God will continue to work in these young people’s lives.

Another thing that stands out to me from 2010 is the partnerships that we were able to foster with other ministries in Amsterdam.  Stichting HiP (Help in Practice) and Serve the City provided us (and other churches) with strategic opportunities to serve others in need—and we look forward to continued partnership for various service projects in the future as well.  In addition to working with these two organizations, we’ve also developed a special relationship with two other churches in the city center, which has led to us deciding to partner together to offer a special edition of the Alpha Course, coming up from February to April 2011.  Every time that we’ve organized an Alpha Course in the past, seekers have become believers—and we’re really praying that the same will be true (just on a larger scale) with this joint initiative starting next month.

There were so many other special events throughout the course of the last year:  seminars, retreats, conferences, and councils—not to mention three weddings and two new babies born.  God really did a lot in and through Amsterdam50 in 2010.

Ministry Team Development

Things were scary last February, when our ministry funding took an unexpected hit and we found ourselves scrambling to raise some extra support even prior to our planned time of Home Service Leave in the summer.  But God totally provided for our needs, working through all of you:  the individuals, families, and churches that make up our ministry team!  It was a huge faith boost to see the way that everything came together.  By the end of our Home Service Leave in August 2010, we were back to 95% of our support goal.  Today, we still have a little bit of support to raise (approximately $250/month) in order to be fully funded; but overall, financial support for our ministry remains relatively strong and consistent.  We are confident that God will continue to care for us.

In light of all this, we just want to say thank you for the incredible thoughtfulness, consistency, and generosity that you’ve demonstrated throughout our years of ministry.  It sounds clichéd and hollow, but I sincerely mean it when I say that you are a vital support to us and our ministry in Amsterdam.  Thank you so much, for everything.

Our Personal Lives

Our family got to do a lot of traveling in 2010.  In March, we went to a conference in the Slovenian Alps.  In June, Marci and I were privileged to celebrate a special wedding anniversary in Rome.  We got to take a family vacation to Belgium in November during the kids’ fall break.  And we got to visit the United States more than once (for a funeral, our Home Service Leave, and a chance to celebrate the holidays with family)!  What a blessing!  This is definitely one of the “perks” of doing ministry in Europe.

Marci and I celebrated our twelve-and-a-half year anniversary here in Amsterdam this November—which, in the Netherlands, is a bigger deal than the 10th anniversary or even the 20th!  The road has been long and winding, with many unexpected turns, but we’re really glad that we’ve gotten to travel together.  Marci continues to teach English as a Second Language to kids at the elementary school in our neighborhood, and she manages our household with grace and skill.  Apart from my role as the pastor for our church here in Amsterdam, I’ve kept working on a couple of different writing projects:  one a creative day-by-day study of the Biblical Proverbs, and the other novel about an Albanian mobster coming of age in the lawless era immediately following the fall of Communism (a story based on a friend of ours here in Amsterdam).  I still help to facilitate a critique group for other international writers here in Amsterdam, and I’ve also started organizing a weekly morning of basketball with other friends at our kids’ school.

The kids are, as always, a great source of joy.  Elliot, now almost 9 years old, has started playing organized basketball on Saturday mornings—in addition to playing soccer almost every day on the school playground.  He also has a voracious appetite for reading, and we scramble to keep him “fed” with books in both English and Dutch.  Olivia, now six-and-a-half years old, loves to think up new ways to wear her hair (Are the 1980s-style ponytails as big in America as they are in Holland right now?!?).  Her reading skills are also noticeably picking up steam, and she was thrilled to get her first real Bible for Sinterklaas (the Dutch gift-giving holiday in early December).  Cor started pre-school—and thus, seriously learning the Dutch language—shortly after his third birthday in September.  He loves to sing and make funny faces to keep his older siblings and parents entertained.  Even though there can be times of frustration and difficulty, Marci and I are really happy with the people that our children are turning out to be.

There’s always more that we could write—but I think I’ll draw this letter to a close here.  You can, however, find ongoing updates of pictures, videos, news, and anecdotes about our family on my website:  www.ericasp.com.  Thanks again for the part you play in our lives and ministry here in Amsterdam.  We’ll be in touch…

Eric

P.S. – I’ve also compiled a “Picture Page” for this month’s prayer letter, which can be viewed electronically at http://www.ericasp.com/ministry.php/2011/01/14/january-2011-picture-page.  Sorry that it requires an extra step for you to access it, but it would have been just too large of a file to try to transmit via e-mail. :-)

Our newest family portrait, taken in November 2010

Friends at our family’s Christmas Open House in December 2010

Our Community of Young Families watching Sinterklaas’s arrival in Amsterdam

Amsterdam50’s Servant Leadership Council in June 2010.

Marci teaching English to kids at the Frankendael Elementary School.

I bring you good news that will
bring great joy to all people.
(Luke 2:10)

Greetings from Amsterdam!   It’s the third week of the Advent season, and I’m enjoying it greatly.  I love Christmas lights and Christmas music and Christmas cookies and Christmas presents.  I love special time together with family.  I love observing traditions that tie us into the bigger picture of history, culture, and family…  But did you know that it’s actually kind of an American thing to be so into Christmas (or at least to celebrate it for as long and with as much gusto as we do)?  At times I have to apologize to my Dutch and international friends, if my holiday exuberance becomes annoying. :-)  But so be it:  I just love this time of the year!

This is also a great time of the year for ministry.  It’s a unique opportunity to meditate on the miracle of God coming down to earth and dwelling among us.  And it’s especially meaningful to be able to do this in the context of a Christian community, both local and global.  This year, our church is swimming in the bigger stream of Christian history and culture by lighting Advent candles, singing special songs about Jesus’ birth, and by soaking ourselves in the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  Specifically, for each of the four Sundays of Advent, we’re looking at one of the four Gospels written about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  Usually, we take several weeks to go through a book of the Bible, chapter-by-chapter, piece-by-piece—but this month we’re cruising through at a very rapid pace:  four (very large, very significant) books of the Bible in four weeks.  We have to sacrifice some subtlety and some of the details by going about things in this way—but what we gain is a big-picture perspective about what each of these Gospels has to teach us about Jesus.

For the first Sunday in Advent, we walked through the Gospel of Mark, which is perhaps the most succinct, most raw, most primal version of the story.  It connects us with Jesus as the Suffering Servant prophesied in Isaiah 53 and confronts us with the image of Jesus as an individual—fully God… but also fully human.  Consequently, when we read the Gospel of Mark, we’re forced to consider how we will respond to Jesus on the individual level and not just as some theological concept.  It’s a powerful portrait, commanding our attention.

For the second Sunday in Advent, we studied the Gospel of Matthew.  Matthew uses much of the same material that Mark included in his Gospel, but in a sense he takes a step further back and tries to round out the picture of Jesus.  In effect, Matthew’s Gospel says: “Yes, Jesus is an individual.  Yes, he is the Suffering Servant from Isaiah’s prophecies.  But don’t you see?!?  He’s also the long-awaited Messiah—the King of the Jews!”  Jesus is shown to be a fulfillment (and an extension) of everything that God set out to do through His special relationship with the Jewish people.  Even though most of the people in our church (including myself) don’t have much of a Jewish background, there’s something really enriching to see this aspect of Jesus’ Advent.  It shows us a picture of a God who keeps his promises.

For the third Sunday in Advent, we turned our attention to the Gospel of Luke.  Luke is the last of the three Synoptic Gospels (“seeing together” into the story of Jesus), also drawing significantly on the materials from Mark and Matthew.  But again, we see that Luke helps us to take yet another step back, rounding out the picture of Jesus even further.  In a nutshell, Luke says:  “Yes, Jesus was an individual.  Yes, he was the Suffering Servant from Isaiah’s prophecies.  Yes, he was the long-awaited Jewish Messiah… But don’t you see?!?  He’s also the Savior of all mankind!  The implications of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection don’t just apply to Jews.  They apply to all of humanity!”  In a sense, Luke is the one who says to us in Amsterdam—“Hey listen, this story is for you, too!”  As I preached this particular sermon about God embracing the outsiders, there was a tangible response from the others in the room who were seeing the Gospel with fresh eyes.  We were impressed with this picture of Jesus as the Son of Man, who came to seek and to save those who are lost (Luke 19:10).

For the fourth and final Sunday in Advent, we will be looking into the Gospel of John.  Once again, a different Gospel gives us a different angle on Jesus’ Advent—and in this particular story, we zoom all the way out to see Jesus not just as an individual, as a Jewish Messiah, or as a Savior to all mankind… but also as the cosmic Creator of the universe, the beginning and end of all things.  Understanding Jesus on this level helps us to not just relate to God on a personal level, but also to worship him with a sense of awe and wonder.  John’s portrait of Jesus shows him in all his power and glory.

And as our church has gone through this progression of studying the life of Jesus, I’ve come to feel like I really can’t get enough of this whole “Jesus story.”  It’s a beautiful, rich, colorful story, and it’s a great privilege to have been drawn into the story as a person, a family, a church community, and as a worldwide movement.  Isn’t that amazing?!?

Thank you for your involvement in our particular, Amsterdam-based sub-plot of the big Jesus story.  We feel so blessed and encouraged by your ongoing generosity and faithfulness.  We wish we could come over to each of your houses, sing you some Christmas carols, and give you a nice plate of home-baked Christmas cookies—but in lieu of that possibility, we’ll just include a recent family picture. :-) In any event, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year… And we’ll be in touch.

Eric

Let another praise you, and not your own mouth;
someone else, and not your own lips.
(Proverbs 27:2)

Greetings from Amsterdam!  Holiday season is starting to settle in—except for us here in the Netherlands, it’s Sint Maartens and Sinterklaas, instead of Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  I’m amazed to realize that we’ve now been here in Holland long enough that the Dutch holidays actually stir feelings of fondness and nostalgia for us (even while we still miss the American holidays a bit, too).  What was once so foreign is now familiar!  It’s good to realize that God has blessed us with a sense of home and family on either side of the Atlantic.

One of our “family” units here in the Netherlands is the group of missionaries who work with us in Amsterdam through Great Commission Ministries.  We’ve been through a lot together since the church was started, and God has given us a strong sense of brotherhood and sisterhood in the process.  At one of our recent staff meetings, we came up with the idea to take a turn writing prayer letters for each other—going off the principle to “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips” (as it says in Proverbs 27:2).  Thus:  the primary content for this month’s prayer letter is coming to you, not from my own hand, but from my friend and colleague, Eva Ellingsworth, who ministers here primarily through her gift of evangelism, her skills in coaching, and her natural talent in music.  I’ll let her take it from here:

*     *     *     *     *

Dear ministry team of the wonderful Eric Asp,

You don’t know me but my name it Eva Ellingsworth, and I have the privilege and honor to work with Eric as a full-time missionary in Amsterdam.  There are a lot of things that I like about Eric: his humor, wisdom, patience and grace.  He is also an amazing example of being a caring husband and Father.  Over the last 6 years of working with Eric, I have seen him grow as a ministry leader, pastor, teacher, discipler, and friend to many people in the city of Amsterdam.  He is a faithful shepherd that has an amazing passion for this church and to see people unleashed to reach unbelievers for Christ.  Some of the greatest insights I have received from Eric that I carry with me and teach to others are: Own who you are, live life in balance, and the greatness of the so-called “simple”. 

I remember when Eric came to terms with being a guy from Ohio, no longer running the race of conformity, Eric come to terms with his uniqueness here in Amsterdam, which he displayed by pulling out his buried baseball cap and Carhartt jacket, then proudly wearing them as he biked through the city.   He didn’t just make this step for himself but also as a way of unleashing others to own what also makes them unique.

The second lesson, “living life in balance” came out of a conversation where he said very poignantly “I am becoming more convinced that life is about balance”.  He shared how easy it is to bounce to extremes in so many places in life: religion, money, relationships, etc – and that it’s good to look at the two extremes, then find the line in the middle and walk there.  When I think about it, this is also about walking in grace!

The third lesson is displayed in Eric’s leadership style and his desire for plural leadership.  Eric is not about “doing what the experts do,” but he really believes that in our church we have the resources we need to hear from God about the “what”s and “how”s of community life.  He does not disregard outside wisdom and input, but instead takes note of it but also trusts that the Holy Spirit is working inside our community to lead and guide us.  In a time of experts and hypes, especially in church planting, this is a great insight and asset to complement a culture that tends to become skeptical of big ideas.

I am grateful for the opportunity to share with you only a slice of what makes Eric such an amazing leader, pastor and friend.  I want to also thank you for all that you do that makes is possible for Eric and his family to be here in Amsterdam.  We are all thankful for Eric, his family and you - his ministry team.

Ways that you could pray for Eric:

1. That God would continue to bless and grow him as a husband, father, pastor, friend, mentor, teacher and disciple maker.
2. Protection for the whole Asp family.
3. That God would continue to speak to Eric’s heart and fill him up so that he can be pouring back into others.
4. That Eric would find some solid male’s support here in Amsterdam, men who would be an encouragement and be willing to challenge him where it’s needed.
5. That Eric would continue to own who he is, find the balance in all things, and call out the greatness in the so-called “simple”.

*     *     *     *     *

It’s interesting to hear the perspectives of someone else—isn’t it?  I appreciate Eva’s kind words, and I hope that it was enjoyable for you, too.  At any rate, please know that your support for our ministry is much appreciated (not just by our family but by the “extended family” here in Amsterdam, too)!  Thanks for everything, and I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving holiday.  We’ll be in touch…

Eric

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father,
who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal
encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts
and strengthen you in every good deed and word..
(2 Thessalonians 2:16-17)

Greetings from Amsterdam!  As you may remember from last month’s prayer letter, we’ve had a kind of rocky transition from our summer in Ohio to our autumn in Holland.  But recently, I’ve been blessed with a special boost of encouragement in an unexpected and extravagant way.  And I thought I’d pass the encouragement along to you this month.

So here is the basic story:  I made a friend this past June at a “Meeting of the Mighty Men” from our church community.  His name is Dani.  His face had been vaguely familiar to me (from having seen him at church worship gatherings), but we never really got to know each other until that day.  And while I recollect that most of that day was kind of discouraging—because we didn't get as many men to turn out as I might have hoped for and because I ended up coming down with some kind of gastro-intestinal virus—Dani was a bright spot.  He was enthusiastic, friendly (both to me and to Elliot, who had come along for the Mighty Men festivities), and it was obvious that God was at work in his life.  We had some good interaction on that day, in between sports activities, group discussions, and personal conversation, and I just felt encouraged to see some of the spiritual fruit that our ministry in Amsterdam was producing.  But a few weeks later, the encouragement increased when Dani sent me an e-mail.  In this message, he shared more about his life and his experiences as a part of our church, and he invited me and Elliot to be his guests at an Ajax game (Ajax is the big professional soccer club here in Amsterdam), and he explained his reasoning for the invitation as follows:

The reason i wanna invite u to this game is because i work at the Amstedam Arena...and I would love to show u a place that is dear to my heart... U can also see then how i work as a steward in this beautiful stadium... It's not a difficult job though...although, i absolutely love it... i actually study accounting in amsterdam, precisely because of soccer...my motivation was to be as near as possible to the Amsterdam Arena when i would come here to study all the way from aruba... So, i really feel blessed that the Lord has blessed me with this mini dream of mine...

i do hope u can make it here, cuz i feel a genuine connection with the two of you last time at the mighty men thing on Sunday... U are a good teacher, ur messages are real and down to earth...i feel like there's no pretending in u as a person...u are REAL...and that's nice... I feel like i have a genuine connection with u and ur son...

Later in the post-script to his e-mail he said, “i would like to call you "BIG E", cuz u are a big influence in my life.”  So of course I felt honored, and I responded immediately that Elliot and I would love to have the opportunity to get to know Dani better and to see an Ajax game at the ArenA.  A few weeks later, Dani responded that he had figured out a way to secure us tickets—not just to any old regular season game, but to a game in the UEFA Champions League (where all the top teams from across Europe compete against one another), which happened to be against AC Milan (one of the top clubs from Europe and also, coincidentally, the team that Ajax beat to win its last Champions League championship in 1995).  To roughly paraphrase the context for Americans, this would be like getting tickets to watch a game in a game of the American League Division Series between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox... Seriously big time stuff.  Sold-out stadium.  Absolute pandemonium.  Elliot and I were ecstatic!  And when all the plans were confirmed, it turned out that Dani was ecstatic, too.  In further e-mail communication (addressed to “Big E,” of course), he wrote:

Thank u for making some time for being interested in seeing the game of soccer and being interested in where i work... Neway....i'm kind of an introverted person...but i am really excited to see my "spiritual father" see me work in the Arena (inwardly)... So yea....it's gonna be a beautiful night...probably sold out... "A night to remember"

And indeed, when the time came for the game, it was a beautiful night.  When Elliot and I arrived at the stadium, Dani met us and ushered us into the rapidly-filling stands.  He pointed out his post in Section M and then proceeded to guide Elliot and I to our seats... and we were absolutely stunned when we discovered that our seats were actually in the front row of the stadium, about ten meters from the goal-line!  The seats were amazing!  We could see individual blades of grass on the field.  We could see beads of sweat on the foreheads of the players.  I've never had such a privileged vantage point for any sporting event in my life!  And yet here, Dani had personally arranged for these seats for us.  It was an extremely generous gift, but he wouldn't even consider the possibility of letting us chip in for some of the costs.  It was pure generosity.  Pure kindness.  Pure encouragement.

What's craziest of all is that Dani never made it seem like he was doing us a big favor.  He actually made it seem like we were the ones doing him a favor by coming to the game, seeing where he worked, and enjoying an unforgettable experience that forms an ongoing part of his day-to-day life.  In another e-mail, Dani wrote:

I was thinking about the excitement u two showed me through emails and in person.... And it REALLY touched my heart....... I haven't seen this kind of energy and excitement since forever.........around me that is... Again....thank u for showing interest in my life.....

Even as I write these words now, I smile broadly as I think about the ways that God has blessed me and encouraged me through Dani.  All throughout the planning and preparation for this special soccer match, Dani continually spoke words of respect and encouragement, affection and affirmation.  And in everything, he ministered to me and Elliot in a special way that just cannot be put into words.  That night when we finally got to watch the game, Ajax ended up with a 1-1 draw against AC Milan.  But we weren't disappointed by the outcome in the slightest.  We had gotten to experience an unforgettable evening, and we were unspeakably appreciative.

In much the same way, we are unspeakably appreciative of the critical support that you provide for our involvement with people like Dani here in Amsterdam.  Thank you for helping to create a culture of blessing, which I hope and pray will go on and on and on for generations to come!  Please keep praying for us and for Dani.  We’ll be in touch…

Eric