Season’s Greetings from Amsterdam!  God has been so good to us, hasn’t he?  It’s hard to talk about the deep spiritual significance of Christmas without sounding like a holiday greeting card—but I do wish and hope for you at this time of the year that you could experience some sense of wonder at the miracle of our transcendent, omnipotent, eternal God choosing to take on the flesh-and-blood, mucous-and-sweat, frail-and-finite form of a human baby, able to catch colds and get fussy when hungry.  And He did it all to serve and save us!  The miracle of the Incarnation is indeed great…

Lately, our church has been trying to celebrate the Incarnation by really seeking to live out our role as the modern-day “Body of Christ” here in Amsterdam.  It's been over a year now, actually, that we’ve been focusing our attention on not just bringing people to our church (though of course we’re still doing this!)—but also bringing the church to the people, reaching out to friends, neighbors, and family members on their turf, in their various subcultures throughout the city.  It's been an encouraging year, but also a challenging one.  It feels like we've been doing a lot of tilling the soil, fertilizing the ground, sowing the seed—but not nearly as much harvesting of the crops (to borrow the analogy from Jesus from Mark 4 and Luke 10).  However, after much watching an waiting, it seems that several new initiatives have been springing up recently, in response to this past season of prayer and challenging each other to think creatively about how we incarnate ourselves (i.e. become the Body of Christ) within various segments of the population here in Amsterdam.

One guy from our home group has been sharing the gospel in internet chat rooms lately.  I know, I know… I would totally understand if you were skeptical about this kind of “cyber-evangelism” (I’ve had my own skepticism at times)—but it seems like it’s genuinely effective!  Our home group has prayed for some of the “regulars” in the various chat rooms, and a number have actually come to faith over the course of the last year!  It was particularly encouraging to read one e-mail report from awhile back when the guy from our home group proudly shared:  “One of the worst mockers I know online has come to faith! For over a year we have been discussing faith and the Bible with him and it seems that he has turned around. I was a bit skeptical and told him that, and he said he could understand that. God is good, prayers do work!”  I guess we could praise God for an ability to experience “digital incarnation!”  Please continue to pray and trust God for what He can do in these spheres of influence…

Another member of our home group has recently felt God’s leading and is actively praying and planning to launch a new fellowship of Spanish- and Portuguese-speakers.  As a native of Venezuela, he knows the language(s) and the culture(s)—and he knows dozens and dozens of Latinos living here in the city who would not naturally fit into the context of a Dutch church (or even a Dutch-and-English-speaking international community like Zolder50).  So he’s hoping to start using our church’s ministry facilities in the city center on Saturday nights and enjoy simple times of studying the Bible, worshipping, and praying together in Spanish and Portuguese.  Again, we don’t really know what God might do through an initiative like this, but we’re excited to consider the possibilities…

In one of the other home groups within Zolder50, there’s another guy who works in a youth hostel right in the heart of the city (which happens to be known for being one of the crazier establishments of Amsterdam)—and he’s recently been energized to share his faith more and more with the guests who pass through the hostel’s doors.  Over the past couple of weeks, especially, he’s been having some amazing spiritual conversations with people—and he’s recently felt compelled to spend the 23rd through the 26th of December fasting and praying for the city.  Again, there’s this sense of mystery and craziness about the ways that God has been leading in this particular environment—but again, we find ourselves praising God for His plans to allow the Gospel to be “made flesh” for young, traveling hippies passing through Amsterdam, and we’d greatly appreciate your prayers for this ministry opportunity…

And then there’s a young student at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), who’s recently felt burdened to pray for his university.  He recently sent an e-mail saying: “Lately God has been speaking to me about the University of Amsterdam, the school I attend as a student. He has been drawing me near to Him to start to pray for the school and its students and staff… The UvA it a spiritually dark place. I find its atmosphere oppressive and uncomfortable. There are no Christian initiatives I know of on campus… I take this call to pray serious. So I decided to start as He has asked me, but I realize I cannot do this alone. That's why I need your help… I would like to pray together with them and see what God wants to do…”  Specifically, this student has asked for us to pray for ”an opening at the UvA for the Gospel to come in; for people who are willing to pray; for (the University’s) spiritual walls of resistance and darkness to come crumbling down; for a spiritual revival amongst students, teachers and staff; for a complete change in the very atmosphere on the campus grounds; and for Truth in Jesus Christ to take a central place at the UvA again.”  So again, if you feel compelled to do so, please pray with us.

Your partnership with us in prayer and in financial support is a critical part of this whole work of practicing “incarnation” and demonstrating the Body of Christ to people in Amsterdam.  The needs in this city are great—but so is the God we serve.  Indeed, at this time of year, it is good to remember that He is the One who thought up this whole “incarnation” concept and demonstrated it for us.  All the best to “you and yours…”

Eric

P.S. – I always feel kind of awkward considering the idea of a “year-end appeal” to raise extra support for our ministry.  You guys already do so much, and we are so appreciative.  But since there are some incentives to give at this time of the year (tax deductions for 2008, Christmas bonuses, etc.), I will mention that if you’d like to help us out in any way, we’d truly appreciate it.  And if this is something you’d be interested in, you could just send in extra funds with your regular giving—or if you’ve never given before, you could find all the practical information that you would need at our Get Involved page.  In any event: Merry Christmas and thanks for everything!

Greetings from Amsterdam!  November can be a difficult month here in Holland.  However, I made a decision this year to spend the month deliberately seeking out the “Joys of November”—actively pursuing the small, significant moments of joy in an otherwise dreary time of year.  And up to this point (granted, we’re only a week or so into it), my journey of joy has been a great success!  It seems like God is already revealing Himself to me in special ways.  In case you’re interested to hear more, you’re more than welcome to follow my progress in the blog section of this website, but in any event, I just wanted to praise God for all that He’s doing in Amsterdam this month!

One recent “Joy of November” was the chance to have Geert-Jan and Anne van Dijk give a presentation of their ministry at a Zolder50 worship gathering.  Geert-Jan and Anne are dear friends who were a part of our home group for a couple of years, back in the early years of our church’s development.  For the last two years, however, this young Dutch couple has been serving as missionaries with an organization called Operation Mobilization—sailing throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans on a ship called the Doulos.  To help explain more of their mission and responsibilities in their first “tour of duty,” I’ve translated a brief excerpt from a recent update letter below:

Our ship has been sailing around the world for the last three decades.  The Doulos is the oldest passenger ship in the world and also the largest floating book store in the world.  We live in a community of 350 Christians representing 50 different nationalities.  Geert-Jan worked as the ship’s purser and was responsible for everything relating to immigration and customs.  Anne worked in the training department:  providing a discipleship course for the ship’s crew.  Besides this, we were also involved with practical projects and evangelism initiatives.  Because the ship is dependent upon book sales and the good-will of the local authorities, we do not receive any salary.  Instead, our friends, family, and Zolder50 (our church) support us with both prayer and finances.  Thus, the work is accomplished together with all these people—and without them, our work would not be possible.

It’s been a privilege to have been able to play a strategic role with their ministry and to serve as something of a “sending church” over these last two years.  I honestly don’t know how much credit we can take regarding their decision to serve God in this way (they were already Christians before they moved to Amsterdam and got involved with Zolder50, and in fact the vision to serve on a ship like the Doulos had been planted in their hearts some 10 years ago); however, there is nevertheless something gratifying about our church’s growing ability to not just see itself as its own mission work-in-progress but also as a real-live honest-to-goodness body of believers that can also send out its own missionaries and actively participate in the Great Commission—both here in Amsterdam and around the world.  From what I’ve seen and heard, this switch from “sent” to “sending” can be a very tricky transition for “young church plants.”  As such, I’m deeply encouraged to see people like Geert-Jan and Anne pioneering the way and pushing the envelope for our church to “go and make disciples of all nations.”

When they shared at our worship gathering on the first Sunday in November, it was fascinating (for me and the church) to hear Geert-Jan and Anne tell stories of their personal experiences aboard the Doulos.  Over the last two years, they were able to visit 15 different countries, ministering to vast crowds of people—as well as developing intimate personal relationships—which allowed for incredible opportunities to share the Good News about Jesus with people who would not otherwise have the chance to hear.  In every port, people would stand in line for hours to come aboard the ship (a book store with 8000 titles and half-million books on board is a huge attraction in these parts of the world), and in every port, relationships were established which led to faith in Christ.  It’s clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is using Geert-Jan and Anne in powerful ways.  I wish you could read the update letter that they recently sent out (though I’m not going to bother to forward it to you because it’s all written in Dutch).  You’ll just have to take my word for it:  it’s a beautiful testimony to how God has been using them.

Next week, Geert-Jan and Anne are going to be rejoining the Doulos in Singapore.  They’ve basically said that their dream is to work for the coming two years aboard the Doulos, hopefully followed by a brief time of living in the Netherlands, and then ultimately spend the rest of their lives in missions work!  Isn’t that wonderful?!?  I really hope that you will join with us in praying for these two young missionaries and seeking God’s blessing on their personal lives and on their work with Operation Mobilization.  They mentioned the following in their update:  “In spite of all the positive stories in our newsletters, life on board is not always easy.  There are little frustrations and miscommunications that are constantly keeping us from reaching our goals.”  And so, they ask us to pray with them.  And so, I’m asking you to pray with us, too!

Thanks so much for your role in supporting our family and sending us out to Amsterdam, so we can be involved in supporting and sending out others from the Netherlands to the ends of the earth.  We appreciate you.

Eric

P.S. - Below are some pictures from the van Dijks' most recent update.

Greetings from Amsterdam!  I’m happy to report that things are going quite well with us and with the ministry of Zolder50.  Marci and I have been trying to organize some home improvement projects.  Our kids are doing well in school (it’s really dramatic, actually, to hear how vastly Olivia’s Dutch has improved in her first couple of months in elementary school!).  And the church seems to be growing nicely, with another new home group starting this month and an especially high degree of interest being currently generated by a new teaching series on Biblical Manhood, Womanhood, and Sexuality.

Of course, there’s always something to keep life a little unsettled.

For our church, this current “something” has to do with the recent announcement of an unfortunate upcoming farewell to some of our church’s most beloved, most long-standing, most dedicated servants:  the Watkins Family.  Todd and Lindy Watkins were a part of the original church planting team here in Amsterdam, and they’ve been living here for the past six years (in which time they’ve also had two beautiful children—Amelie and Gabrian—added to their household).  Todd and I were asked to step into the role of pastors-in-training together, back in 2003, when the founding pastor of the church unexpectedly returned to the United States with his family.  Since then, Todd has become one of our church’s main communicators (bringing approximately 70 percent of the Sunday messages), and Todd has been particularly instrumental in developing and keeping our community focused on our vision to “Know Jesus, Become Like Jesus, and Make Jesus Known.”  Together, he and I have become (if I do say so myself) a pretty effective, balanced leadership team for Zolder50.  But unfortunately, we’ll now have to manage without Todd (and Lindy, and Amelie, and Gabrian).  Perhaps you would be interested to read the following excerpt from a letter that Todd recently sent out to his friends and ministry partners, informing them of his family’s decision:

...After a long process of listening to God, seeking counsel, and searching our hearts, (Lindy and I) have decided to move back to the States in the summer of 2009.  Without going into all the details, it has become clear that the best way for me to care for my family is for us to move back.  This is primarily due to the phase of life we are in (with young children) as well as certain challenges we’ve experienced in living cross-culturally.

This has been a very hard decision to make; as parents, church leaders, and missionaries, our hearts have been torn in different directions.  There is a part of us that would like to stay in Amsterdam.  We love the church and there are still so many people to reach for Christ!  At the same time, we know our first priority is for our family.  In making the decision to care for and provide a better place for our family, both Lindy and I have a strong peace that our decision is the right one.  Because of this, we believe God is going to bless the decision, both for us and for Zolder50.

As for Zolder50’s future… we have a council of leaders (the Servant Leadership Council) who are talking through how to best replace my role.  Yes, our departure will have an impact on the church, but we also know this church is God’s... he is the head of the church, not any one man.  We (my co-pastor Eric and I) are trusting that God will raise up the needed teachers and pastors to replace my role.  

As for our family’s future... we feel a bit like Abraham and Sarah, we know God is leading us to another land, but not exactly sure where... We are trusting God will lead the way...  We ask that you would please join with us in prayer for God’s provision for Zolder50 and his direction for our family...

In Christ’s love,

Todd and Lindy

We are, of course, deeply saddened to think about saying good-bye to such tried and true friends and partners in ministry.  But we also feel great hope and optimism for the future.  Our church has been through so many “crises” in its short history—losing other leaders, being forced to move from facility to facility, squeaking through some precarious financial circumstances—but God has provided for us each time, and this time it seems that we’re better situated than ever to deal with this upcoming loss.  Our home group leaders are now battle-tested and banded together.  And since August, a special set of 11 home group leaders have volunteered to help form our “Servant Leadership Council” (pictured below), to help provide leadership for our two church communities as a whole.

If you would, please pray with us for an effective leadership transition, throughout the coming six months.  Please pray for God’s blessing on the Watkins family as they depart, but also for our family and for the other members of the Servant Leadership Council, who we trust God will use to keep guiding the church from this point forward.  Thanks for your partnership in everything.  We’ll be in touch…

Eric

Greetings from Amsterdam!  Or, to be more specific, greetings from the Transvaalbuurt (Transvaal neighborhood) in Amsterdam Oost (Amsterdam East)!  We’ve been back in the Netherlands for about a month now, following our summer in America, and it’s been nice to become reabsorbed by our neighborhood—the same place we’ve now been living in for over five years…

To give you a better picture of our surroundings (our immediate “mission field,” if you will), the Transvaalbuurt is geographically defined by a canal to the south, a set of elevated train tracks to the north, and major streets on the east and west. The neighborhood was originally developed around the turn of the 20th Century—and it quickly became a major resettling point for the city's Jewish population, after the original Jewish neighborhood in the city center had become extremely run-down. Interestingly, not only were the original inhabitants of the Transvaalbuurt predominantly Jewish—they were also socialists, serving as members and major advocates of the trade unions and idealistic crusaders for a new kind of government in the Netherlands.

Well, as you can probably imagine, in a neighborhood bustling with Jews and Socialists, the Transvaalbuurt was dramatically and tragically transformed during the years when the country was occupied by Nazi Germany. In fact, because the neighborhood already had such a high concentration of Jewish people—and because the natural barriers formed by the elevated train line on the north and the long canal on the south allowed the area to be easily policed—the occupying army systematically funneled large numbers of Jews from around the city and the surrounding countryside into the Transvaalbuurt, effectively creating a Jewish ghetto.

Then, on the evening of June 20, 1943, the occupying army completely sealed off the Transvaalbuurt.  Between eight o'clock and nine o'clock, the neighborhood was systematically emptied, as the residents of the Transvaalbuurt were loaded up in large freight trucks and then driven to the nearby Muiderpoort train station, where they got on trains that took them to the Westerbork concentration camp, where the vast majority of the former residents of the Transvaalbuurt were annihilated.  During the final years of the War the neighborhood was a ghost town, only suitable for increasingly cold and hungry Amsterdammers to seek firewood and whatever kind of food items might be scrounged.  The effect of the War on the Transvaalbuurt was absolutely catastrophic.

And yet, in the years since the end of the Second World War, the Transvaalbuurt has come back.  The neighborhood's 38 hectares (0.15 square miles) are now home to approximately 10,000 people (this is amazing to me, as my old hometown in Ohio holds about the same population in roughly 35 times the area!).  The neighborhood has one of Amsterdam's highest concentrations of young children (which, I guess, is pretty evident if one ever visits one of the many area playgrounds).  And as in the Transvaalbuurt's earliest days, the large majority of the neighborhood's population (64%) is—like our family—not of Dutch descent.  Many of the "foreigners" living in the Transvaalbuurt today are from Turkey and Morocco (in fact, I've heard an unconfirmed report that our street is home to the world's highest concentration of Berber Muslims outside of Morocco!).  We do most of our shopping at a grocery store that is staffed almost entirely by people of Pakistani descent.  The local butcher shop advertises itself as being a French, though it is owned by two brothers who are as Dutch as can be.  For fruits and vegetables, we frequent the Turkish market close to our house.  There's a video store around the corner that specializes in Bollywood films.  And a bit further down the road, there are Caribbean snack shops next to salons specializing in hair straightening.  It's quite the amazing neighborhood to me.

But what's most amazing of all is that it has become home to me and my family.  Our kids go to a neighborhood school.  We've developed familiarity with the shop-owners, who give us advice about how to best use their products.  We trade greetings with the Brazilian Capoeira crew that hangs around outside with our neighbors.  We rejoice with the Dutch / Polish neighbor couple on the other side who is expecting their first baby this winter.  And as time has gone on, we’ve begun to see more and more of the ministry opportunities that exist right here in our own neighborhood.  Ministry really does start with an individual life given over to God, flowing out into a God-centered family, flowing out into a neighborhood—to a city, to a region, to a country, to a continent, to the world!  Somehow, God seems to be capturing my imagination in fresh ways, thinking about how to live this out in day-to-day life, here in the Transvaalbuurt in Amsterdam Oost.  I’ve recently been taking more and more prayer walks through the neighborhood, and I’m actively wondering how God might use us in the Transvaalbuurt of Amsterdam Oost.  If you would, please pray with us.  And thank you, as always, for your support of our family and our ministry, which allows us to be in contact with our neighbors…

Eric

Every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle
on a thousand hills... Call upon me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you will honor me.
(Psalm 50:10,15)

Greetings from Amsterdam! We’re settling into life in the Netherlands, in just our first week back from three months of home service leave in the United States. We’ve had a lot of unpacking to do, a lot of mail correspondence to catch up on, and a lot of physical adjustment to the six-hour jet-lag (with three small children, this can be quite the ordeal!). But things are starting to come together. The kids’ new school year starts this week: Olivia just starting in Groep 1 (a bit like Kindergarten) and Elliot moving on to Groep 3 (roughly equivalent to the American First Grade). The rest of Dutch society, too, is starting to transition from vacation season to “business as usual.” So now we, too, begin the process of readjusting to “regular” life and ministry—which brings both feelings of satisfaction and sadness (anyone who’s ever been on vacation or a long trip can probably relate to this mixed bag of emotions). So far, everything seems to be going about as well as can be expected. All the same, we would appreciate your continued prayer for our family’s transition. The trans-Atlantic transition can be a tricky thing...

Now that we’re back in the flow, I’ve got a lot to catch up on, in terms of my regular ministry responsibilities: meeting with home group leaders to re-establish our coaching relationships and hear what’s been happening in all the various branches of the church’s family tree… resuming management of GCM’s staff team in Amsterdam… blending back into our home group and other friendships within the church—as well as picking up where things were left off in building relationships with friends outside the church… I’m actually really looking forward to getting back up to speed. I feel like I’ve recently been affirmed by God and by others that we have an important and valuable role to play here in the coming season of life and ministry in Amsterdam. However, that being said, I’m not completely ready to “put on the blinders” and plow ahead into full-time ministry here on this side of the Atlantic Ocean— because of one basic reason:

We haven’t yet secured all of the necessary funding.

The support-raising portion of our home service leave went remarkably well, actually. We succeeded in raising over $1500 in monthly support and over $15,000 in special gifts (which is absolutely incredible for the two months that we invested in this direction this summer!). We’ve seen clearly that God can and will provide for our family. At the same time, we still find ourselves needing approximately $500 in monthly support and $5000 in special gifts. And considering the momentum that was built up this summer, I feel like I have to make sure that these needs are fully met before I can fully commit myself to ministry responsibilities in Amsterdam (there are actually still a few loose ends remaining which I hope will develop into further support). This may mean devoting several hours per week to the telephone and keeping strange hours that will perpetuate the experience of jet lag.  But it’s better than letting all the fund-raising momentum drop now and then having to “crank up the machinery” again just six months from now.

There is, however, another possibility. A possibility that involves you responding to this prayer letter. I’m not usually one for doing the “direct ask” via prayer letter. For one thing, it’s not the most pleasant kind of letter which you, our ministry partners, like to read. And for another thing, it’s not typically the most effective way to raise support! At the same time, I don’t want to vaguely hint at our need (i.e. “please pray for the rest of our support to come in”) without coming straight out and sharing the practical ways that you could help to give us the final nudge that would put us at 100 percent of our support goal.

So here’s my request, my humble plea… and then I promise that I will leave the rest up to God’s Providence and more direct conversation (i.e. over the telephone)—so that future prayer letters can be more about sharing stories and painting pictures of the ministry in Amsterdam that will help you to pray more effectively for us. For this month, though, please read the following, and respond as you feel led:

• If we’ve already talked this summer and settled upon the maximum limit of your giving, then please just realize that we are extremely grateful for everything that you’ve done and are doing for our ministry! From this point, please just pray with us that the rest will come in…
• If you’re currently supporting our ministry but we didn’t get a chance to personally connect this summer (sorry about that!), would you please consider if you might be in a position to increase your giving to GCM, on behalf of our family’s involvement with Zolder50 in Amsterdam? Even if you could increase by just $5 a month or $10 a month, your extra support would be hugely appreciated!
• If you’ve just recently connected with our ministry in Amsterdam—whether through sharing a cup of coffee over the summer or just filling out a contact card somewhere along the way—could it be that you are in a position to financially partner with Great Commission Ministries, to allow us to be involved in full-time ministry in Amsterdam? We have people who give $5 a month, and people who give $500 a month—and pretty much anywhere in between—and we are extremely grateful for each and every part of our ministry team.
• If you’ve been praying with us and for us for awhile (maybe a former supporter, or someone who’s previously given a special gift, or a prayer partner), I’d like to ask for you to specifically pray if God might have you commit to helping with some of our financial need. I don’t arrogantly assume that God would have everyone help us in this way. But I feel confident that God wants to provide for us somehow.

In any event, we would appreciate your prayer support during this period of tying up loose ends and transitioning back into ministry in Amsterdam. If you do feel inclined to help with some of our financial needs, please let me know (a simple two-sentence e-mail response is plenty), and we can dialogue from there! Tot volgende keer (until next time)...

Eric