The Second Week In

Monday at noon

I don't know where to start with this post... The last two weeks have flown by and I've really enjoyed it thus far. I'm also extremely grateful that things haven't been so busy over here, but that's going to change as we get closer to the GO Teams outreach in July.

What I've Been Up To

Over the last week I spent two and half days in the Coffee Corner. Youth With A Mission YWAM Heidebeek is one of the few bases that has an area that serves as a gathering place for the base to come together during coffee time (between 10 and 11 a.m. and 3 and 4 p.m.) and fellowship. The Dutch, as a nation, are known for stopping at 10 a.m. to take a coffee break. With this I don't mean most people in the Netherlands, I mean the entire nation grounds to a half for about twenty minutes to drink coffee at 10. Its the same in the afternoon but most people will drink tea then. So Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon I made the coffee and tea. It was really nice being able to see people from the base and talk to them.

The field outside Heidebeek

The Weather

We've also had a lot of really, really cold weather over the last week or so, with temperatures dropping below freezing and staying there. It crazy because when I was in Paris it was warm enough to leave the jacket at home and now I'm having to wear as many layers as I can without restricting my movement too much. The photo on the left was taken yesterday morning when I arrived at the base. Its been beautiful to see the whole world in white, and its been especially beautiful biking through the forest. There's a blanket of snow on the ground that doesn't completely cover the ground so there's still brown leaves and logs that poke through. Its supposed to be getting warmer now and its not supposed to snow again this winter, hopefully (I'm not the biggest fan of snow). I'm not made for the snow and cold! I guess that due to living in Uganda with beautiful warm weather all year round! I can't tell you how much I miss that, amongst other things.

Life At Heidebeek

Sunday afternoon

In regards to the GO Teams, its still quiet in the office, but I'm enjoying how things are going. We've been working through contacting one of the locations, amongst other things. We've had a number of applicants already, which I'm not sure I'm mentioned in my previous post. There's another Discipleship Training School DTS running at the moment, the Mercy & Justice DTS, with nine students. They're almost all Dutch, with one student from one of the Scandinavian countries, Denmark I think. The Classic and Football DTS will be back in a couple of weeks time and I'm looking forwards to hearing their stories of how their outreaches went. It'll also mean that I'll be moving to a new room. I'm currently in the room of one of the DTS staff so when she gets back I'll be in a new bed.

In Other News

I went to the Gementeehuis (the town hall) this morning to register. It was nerve wrecking (a little) because I was sure they were going to throw up red tape due to my being a duel national and not having lived in the Netherlands in a long time and stuff like that, but it went well. I'll be hearing back from them soon, and then I'll be able to apply for a new passport and a bank account...

'Til next time dear reader.

Current Activities

A selfie with Bebe, my Rwandan sister

Greetings.

I know you're wondering what I'm up to now that I'm back in the Netherlands and what the next step might be.

Yes, I'm back in Epe, with Youth With A Mission YWAM Heidebeek and I'm here until the summer. I'm going to try and bring you up to date with why I'm back in Holland and what I'll be doing until September... and what are the GOTeams?

G(lobal) O(utreach) Teams

GO teams are short term mission trips that are run in the summer. I'm not sure how long YWAM Heidebeek have been running them for but they're an opportunity for 15-25 years olds to get a taste of what missions are. Everyone meets together for a few days at the start, in July, at YWAM Heidebeek, at a gathering called the GOFest, and then the different teams depart for seven different countries (Indonisia, Rwanda, India, Scotland, Brazil, Ukraine... and... an unknown destination; I kid you not, one team will discover their location during the GOFest. Its truly a Faith Experience). If you're interested in getting involved with one of these teams by participating, click here... I should mention that the prices are estimations and don't include travel prices to and from your homeland (if you live outside Holland).

So why did I come back?

It all began about two months ago with a question. "Will you staff a GO Team to Rwanda in July?" One of the base staff, Bas, asked me in November, during my School of Intercessory Prayer SOIP. To be honest, I wanted to say yes right away but decided to pray on it. I knew God wanted me to go with this team, so I did yes, the following evening, I think. Bas and Carl run the GO Teams program and discovered I didn't have plans between January and the start of the GOFest in July so asked if I'd volunteer with them. I did and got accepted right before I left for Paris. So I came back last week. I didn't want to post anything until I'd started because I wanted a bit of time to think about what to write... and I was a little preoccupied with being in Paris with my sister, Hannah.

What will I be doing?

Between now and July I'm going to be helping Carl and Bas with preparations for the outreaches. There's a number of teams and we're responsible for processing applications, getting everything ready, and because I already know that I'm going to Rwanda, I'll be contacting people over there to organise what we're going be doing. Its exciting! I've gone on a number of outreaches but I've never been the one responsible for the communication, but we'll get there when we get there. At the moment, things are quiet because we've got time on our hands. As the GoFeast gets closer, things will get busier. I will try to keep you posted with how things are going!

Christmas & New Year's

Me with the Mona Lisa

Dear readers!

I know I haven't written anything for ages on here! Don't worry, I haven't fallen off the planet or anything. In all honesty, I've been meaning to blog about what's been happening in my life over the last month or so, but have been putting it off, due to various reasons. So, in this post, I thought I'd write about what I've been doing since the School of Intercessory Prayer SOIP finished a little over three weeks ago.

On December 20, I traveled to Paris, France, to visit my younger sister, Hannah, who has been living there for almost three years now. During the time I spent with her we did quite a few touristy things, like go up the Eiffel Tower. We went to the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre, the sole reason I wanted to go to the Louvre was to see the famous Mona Lisa. I must say that all the rumours about the Mona Lisa's size is true. She's really small compared to other famous pieces of art. Like on the painting on the opposite wall. Its literally takes the entire wall, and everyone's attention was on the Mona Lisa. I had to elbow my way through the crowd to get to the front. I guess that's the problem when the artist is VERY famous! Though I can't help but wonder what Leonardo Di Vinci would have thought if he was to know that one of his paintings would be so famous, hanging behind bullet proof glass with four security guards and cord to keep the masses at a distance.

I also had the incredible opportunity to go to this museum where this armoury is housed from the middle ages right up to this exhibit on the World Wars. I got in for free, due to a French thing for under 24's (you need valid ID with you) and paid to go into this other exhibit. I had a blast, but its all been about the touristy sites but also spending quality time with my sister, Hannah. Its the first Christmas we've celebrated together away from home (the only other Christmas I didn't spend with my family was when I was in Brazil three years ago). We also celebrated my 23rd birthday together (its weird being 23, but it'll grow on me). We spent Christmas Eve with friends of Hannah's and Christmas Day with Hannah's host family out in the Parisian suburbs, who she'd stayed with when she first arrived in France a few years ago. It was lovely.

New Year's Eve was a little dull in comparison, because there weren't any fireworks, as these had been cancelled due to the bombing in November and there were terror threats in Paris and in Brussels. Hannah had a number of her friends phone her, warning us not to leave my sister's apartment to celebrate on the Champs Elysees (that's were the celebrating and fireworks tend to take place). So a Hannah invited a friend round who otherwise would have celebrated alone.