staring out my window

This is today's view out of the kitchen doors to the balcony.

Why am I sharing this photo with you? Well lately I've been standing at the doors and just looking. What do I see? I see the cat on the balcony of an appartment closeby. I see the surfboards in a backyard. I see the trees blowing in the wind. I see kids playing in the park. I see rain falling on the roofs of sheds. I see lives being lived around me. I've been taking in the view and thinking. What do I think about? I'm not really sure. I watch people. I look at their houses and I wonder how their lives are- what they treasure, what they do, if they're happy. I think about the weather and wish that it was sunnier and warmer. I think about the life I've been living here in NL and how I've changed. I think about how I'd like my life to be. I think about what life might be like when I return to Aust. I think about the people I miss and the people I'll miss when I leave here. I think about God and how He's working in my life and how I can best follow Him.

Sometimes, for a different perspective, I sit on the ledge and look out the front window.

showing friendship

Since moving away from Australia, I've been thinking a lot about friendship. I've moved a lot in my life and made many friends along the way, but leaving a place is always hard. It makes being a friend to those you've left behind a difficult situation. When living in the same city as a friend I love being able to spend time with them, attend special occassions and basically just live life with them. This is, for obvious reasons, not possible when you don't live in the same city, let alone the same country. On my holidays in Aust, I would try to visit friends that I haven't seen in a while. It's part of keeping up with them, because I believe that friendships blossom when you can actually spend face-to-face time with someone. These days the internet has made it easier to keep in contact, but I think it's also decreasing our quality of friendship, but that's a story for another time.

Since living in NL, I've been trying to work out how to best be friends with people back in Aust. It's one thing to remember their birthday, when Facebook reminds you, yet I believe friendship is so much more than that. In the 9 months that I've been living here in NL, I've missed the weddings of about 6 couples that I've been good friends with. And it's almost killed me. Such an important milestone in their lives, and I couldn't be there with them to celebrate. So I've been wondering how to be a friend from afar. Is it enough to have Facebook chats once in a while, or send letters/emails/cards? Is a phone call or a Skype chat enough?

I'd love your thoughts and ideas on the subject. Is there something that you do to stay in touch with friends, or some way that you show them that you're thinking of them when you can't be with them?

IFES Spring Retreat 2013

As mentioned in one of my earlier posts I helped to organise a 'Spring Retreat' for International Students within the Netherlands. The theme was 'Grace and Rest' with guest speaker Lauran Bethell. It was a great time of fun and fellowship with students from around the world, and was such a joy to be involved in it. I could write some more things about it, but this short video on Youtube is a much better way of showing you what the retreat was all about!

tiptoeing through the tulips

Well spring has sprung in NL and it was time to enjoy it. Although it's still less than 20 degrees celcius, it's amazing what a bit of sunshine can do for one's spirits! The other week Bethany, a friend from the US, and I went to the Keukenhof. This is a massive flower garden that is only open March-May for the showcase of spring flowers, such as tulips, daffodils and hyacinth. While I was on the look-out for the perfect purple tulip, I was suprised by the variety of tulips (let alone other flowers) in the garden. Variation with tulips is in colour, size (both of petals and stalks), patterns, doubling or not and even the way that the flower opens. It was truly amazing to see. So basically I just wanted to share some of this variety with you. Our God is a creative god.

 

Escapism

I've been having some problems with this blog, in the form of uploading photos, so I'll stick to a purely text orientated post.

I've been thinking lately about escaping. I don't mean escaping literally, like an animal escapes the zoo, but more metaphorically. There are things in everyone's life that they want to 'escape' or that they run from. It may be doing the dishes, a hard conversation that needs to be had, or at times the outside world. My musings haven't been about what people escape from though. It's been about what people use to escape, how they 'get away' from things for a while. I've realised that I use TV. I escape into other people's lives (even if they're not real) to avoid dealing with mine. It might sound a bit dramatic, but following the lives of others makes me forget about what I should be doing, what I'm not doing, or how I wish my life was different.

What about you? What do you use to escape? What do you fill your life with when you're avoiding something? Hopefully it's much more healthier than mine. It then gets me to thinking...what should we be running to? Should we be running at all? I wish I was the type of person who just dealt with things and did what was needed, when it's needed. I don't know many people like that. Actually come to think of it, I don't know if I know anyone like that!

Anyway, I'd love to hear form you about what you use to 'escape' your reality.

the Phenomenon that is Queen's Day

Today, the 30th April, is Koninginedag, or Queen's Day. Let's start with a bit of history. The Netherlands has a monarchy and since 1890 this monarchy has had a Queen as the head. For the last 33 years Queen Beatrix has been at the helm of this small country. Queen's Day is the yearly day of celebration of the Queen, and is pretty much the biggest day in NL. Although the 30th April is really the old queen, Juliana's, birthday, they've stuck to that day, because Betrix's birthday is in the middle of winter, and therefore not the best time to party. Anyway, for Queen's Day the Dutch (and many international visitors) dress up in the national colour- orange. So the whole day you can see people walking around in orange in every form. Sunglasses, hats, fake hair, leis, pants, stockings, t-shirts, scarves, earrings, feather boas.

Just an example!

Now, onto what makes this year's Queen's Day a very special one. Today Beatrix abdicated and her son, Willem-Alexander, became the king of the Netherlands. This is the first king in over 100 years! This means that it is the last Queen's Day!! Well at least for a while. Next year will be the first Koningsdag or King's Day and it will be on the 27th April, which is the new king's birthday. I find this change a bit crazy. I mean after a century of women on the throne and about 60 years of celebrating on the same day, things just change. That said, it's also an exciting time as it ushers in a new era in the life of the Netherlands. Here's some photos of how I spent Queen's Day. Happy last Queen's Day!!

Lunch with friends

Drinks in the Grote Markt with the TV coverage of the offical Queen's Day stuff on the big screen

Temptation

The subject of FAT (see my earlier post for a description of FAT) this month was 'Temptation'. It was very thought provoking and an interesting topic to investigate. Here are some of the thoughts that stuck out to me:

Being God's Children

The way that we relate to God influences how we live our lives. If we see him as a demanding controlling entity in our lives, we will most likely rebel against him. If we see him as someone who will judge and punish us, fear and guilt will be our motivation to obey him. Although God has all things in his control and he will be the one to judge us at life's end, these are not the way that Christians should see God. Those who believe and trust in God have become his children. As God's children we should want to please our Father by obeying him and living for him, not becuase we fear him, but because we love him. I think that this is an important distinction when it comes to the motivation for obeying God's word. It's not because we want to work our way to heaven, or because we're afraid of what God will do to us if we don't obey, but it's because we love God that we want to obey him and his word.

Knowing your enemy

It may seem a bit harsh saying that we have an enemy, but it's the truth. As a follower of Jesus, you will be attacked in various ways. Some of these ways may be obvious, but the vast majority will be subtle. The Bible says that 'your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour' (1 Peter 5:8). We need to be aware that our enemy doesn't just want to hurt us a little, or make life a little hard for us, but that he wants to devour us, to totally destroy us. To do this he has a lot of tactics, which include lies, slander, accusations, temptations, and many more.

Society itself is at many times also one of our enemies. There are things that socitey says are 'correct' or ok, but are against what God wants for our lives. Socitey will often present it's views in ways that make them seem harmless, which can easily lull us into believing that they are harmless. We need to make sure we know what parts of society are with God's word (such as helping those less fortune) and what parts aren't in line with God's word (such as sex outside of marriage). We need to be critical of our society in order to know what we agree with and what we don't. 

How to deal with temptation

We are tempted to believe the lies of the devil and the lies of our society. We need to resist these lies and temptations and to trust in God's word. In order to do this, it's important to know what God's word is for us. Each time we are tempted or challenged, it's hard. Once that challange is over, another one comes at us. It's not an easy life, being a Christian, but it's a worthwhile one. It's one where we have the strength (from God) to overcome and to live the way that God created us. It's a life where we already have victory because of Jesus and his victory over evil and death through his death on the cross and his resurrection to life.

These are just some of the thoughts for the workshop, and I wanted to share them with you. I hope they have helped!