Like cold water to a weary soul
is good news from a distant land.
(Proverbs 25:25)

Greetings from Ohio! Our family has settled in on the western side of the Atlantic Ocean for the summer. It’s been a whirlwind couple of months since we finally succeeded in securing a way for Elliot to get out of school and pull together the final logistical details for our home service leave—but here we are! Over the next couple of months, we’ve got a lot of people to see and a lot of support to raise, but we’re really looking forward to the rest of the summer. Hopefully, somewhere along the way, we’ll get the chance to connect with you on a more personal level (so don’t be surprised if the phone rings one of these days, and it’s me on the other end of the line!)...

One of the members of our staff team in Amsterdam calls her monthly ministry correspondence (i.e. prayer letter) the “Cold Water News,” referencing the above verse from Proverbs. So to borrow from her terminology (even as she borrows from King Solomon), you could say that our goal for this summer is to serve as “The Cold Water Express,” chugging like a train from church to church, home to home, person to person, throughout the United States, bringing good news from the distant shores of the Netherlands and celebrating everything that God has been doing through our ministry over the last several years. Yes, yes... I realize how that word picture might be a little bit cliché and cheesy—but so be it. I like the train motif. :-)

In keeping with this analogy, I wanted to provide you with a bit of a train schedule, or time-table, listing out our plans for the coming couple of months, again in hopes that it might help to facilitate opportunities for personal connection. Plans are still solidifying, even as this prayer letter is going to “press,” but here are a few of the dates currently on our (tentative) schedule:

• May 20 – June 10: Mansfield, Ohio
• June 11 – June 17: Cleveland, Ohio
  • Information Table at Grace Church in Middleburg Heights on Sunday morning, June 15, followed by an open house in the Grace Church Chapel on Monday evening, June 16
• June 18 – June 22: Mansfield, Ohio
• June 23 – July 3: Upper Midwest Road trip
  • Includes stops in Illinois, Minnesota, and the Dakotas
  • Speaking at First Presbyterian Church in Rapid City, South Dakota, on Sunday, June 29
• July 4 – July 17: Mansfield, Ohio
  • Speaking at the GCC Columbus-area Pastors Gathering on Wednesday, July 9
  • Tentatively scheduled to speak at Berean Baptist Church in Mansfield on Sunday, July 13
• July 17: Bowling Green, Ohio
• July 18: Detroit, Michigan
• July 19 – July 20: Lansing, Michigan
  • Speaking at Riverview Church on Saturday evening, July 19 and Sunday morning, July 20
• July 21 – July 28: Mansfield, Ohio
• July 29 – August 3: Dallas, Texas
• August 5: Fly back to Amsterdam

Of course, if there are any other stops that you’d like for us to plan into our schedule for the summer, please let me know as soon as possible. Even if it’s only a “potential” opportunity to talk with a particular individual or group who might be interested in hearing more about our ministry in Amsterdam, please contact me. I’m available either by e-mail (eric.asp@amsterdam50.nl) or by borrowed mobile telephone (419-353-5313). I would be very excited to hear from you—if you don’t hear from me first, that is!

In the meantime, please pray with us for God’s protection and provision this summer—both for our family traveling here in America and for the church in Amsterdam in our absence. To this end, I’ve copied below a recent “prayer card” that we’ve developed. As we travel on the Cold Water Express over the next couple of months, we’ll be handing out photo-quality printed copies of these prayer cards like candy. But at least now you’ve got one in case we don’t get to see you, or in case you just can’t wait to have one of these on your refrigerator! Thanks as always for your support of our family and our ministry! We hope to be seeing you soon!

Eric

Greetings from Amsterdam! I don’t know about you, but we are in a very busy season of life and ministry right now. In the last month or so, I’ve enjoyed some very fruitful ministry opportunities in both large groups and small personal interactions, I’ve participated in two week-long conferences (outside of Amsterdam), Zolder50 celebrated its five-year anniversary, and our family celebrated a birthday (can you believe that Elliot is now six?!?!). It’s been quite a bit to take in—but what makes us feel especially busy is the fact that we’re now only about a month away from our three months of home service leave (a.k.a. furlough, a.k.a. deputation) in the United States!

It’s actually been quite an adventure getting everything prepared for our home service leave. In particular, we’ve had some problems arranging for Elliot’s leave from the end of the current school year (which, in the Netherlands, goes all the way until the first week of July). Although Elliot’s teachers and school administrators have been very helpful and supportive, we encountered quite a bit of resistance from city government officials (there’s a very long, but interesting, story here illustrating the complexities of cross-cultural life—but if you really want to read all about it, you can get the entire story on my blog at http://www.ericasp.com/blog.php/2008/03/30/america-or-bust). Suffice to say: in dealing with the Dutch bureaucracy, we’ve almost felt like Moses imploring for Pharaoh to “let our person go!” The whole process has taken over two months—but in the end, just about a week ago now, God provided a way for us to go.

We were very relieved to figure out a solution for our home service leave—since we felt we really needed the extended time to connect with ministry partners and with our families. But to be honest, it’s been frustrating for me. I’m normally a very planned and precise person; therefore, to have been forced to maintain a holding pattern for so long—only to have everything come through in such a way that we end up with just one month to plan for everything—has been very, well, “stretching” for me. In this uncomfortable position of being stretched, however, God has recently encouraged me with a reminder of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt (particularly Exodus chapters 11-17). Can you imagine what that must have been like? After 430 years of settling in—generations upon generations of establishment—the Israelites were converted to a nomadic existence overnight (literally!). And yet, the exodus was not a traumatic experience for the Israelites (though they were sometimes tempted to remember it as such); rather, it was a glorious miracle memorialized in song and dance and ceremony! And though I’m sure there was some stress involved with mobilizing the nation of Israel (we’ve got enough troubles with our family of five!), God not only provided their bare necessities on that one fateful Passover night: He plundered the Egyptians for every kind of material resource they would need for the coming four decades! Isn’t that encouraging?!?! At least I know that it helps me to check my thoughts when I feel tempted to groan about having “just” one month to prepare for a “whole” three months in America… God is good, and He provides everything we need at the exact moments in which the needs arise.

Looking back, God provided plenty of reminders of His goodness and provision during Zolder50’s five-year anniversary celebration as well. As we swapped stories about the last five years, we recalled that we’ve gone through numerous leadership crises, financial crises, personal losses, and other various hardships throughout the past five years—and yet, we’ve survived by the grace and abundance of God! And now, we have a beautiful, living, rooted community of faith here in the center of Amsterdam that continues to grow and influence the city for the Kingdom of God. I wish you could have been there and heard the stories of the various men and women in Amsterdam who have been positively affected by the ministry of Zolder50 (if you are interested, though, you could watch a picture slideshow from our anniversary weekend celebration on my website: http://www.ericasp.com/blog.php/2008/03/16/z50-1st-5). It’s so beautiful to see the ways that God has provided and protected our community.

And I’m even more encouraged to think about everything that God will do in the future. I think of one young woman who’s studying International Development at the University of Amsterdam who “just so happened” to be at one of our worship gatherings when I was teaching about Jesus’ strategies for helping the poor, dealing with the world’s economic systems, and trusting God (Matthew 6:19-34). And even though this woman still has a lot of questions about faith to overcome (primarily relating to her Austrian Catholic upbringing), I trust and pray and God will provide a way for her to know and trust Him fully… I think of another friend (a mother of one of Elliot’s classmates) who is understanding more and more of the gospel—through divinely led conversations with me, Marci, and another good friend of ours—but who still needs to feel some special, super-natural sense of direction from God. And even though her doubts are persistent, I trust and pray that God will provide a way for her to know, in her deepest being, beyond all shadow of doubt, that He is real… I think of two young Dutch men who are feeling God’s pull on their lives to commit themselves more fully (perhaps even vocationally) to the work of evangelism and church ministry. And even though there are still a lot of questions regarding the practical details, I trust and pray that God will provide answers to all of their questions and a clear path for the future…

Again, in my own situation—and in the lives of those around me—I am reminded: God is good, and He provides everything we need exactly when needed.

Thank you for all of the ways that you embody God’s provision for our family and our ministry! You’re a great encouragement to us. It may take me a bit longer than I would like for me to get organized and get to the point when I can contact you further, on the personal level—but I sincerely hope that I get to see you this summer, while we’re back for our home service leave. If you have any particular questions or comments relating to our home service leave, please feel free to contact me through any of the means below. God bless, and hopefully tot ziens (until we see you)…

Eric