The Reason...

So today I (Amanda) was contemplating the question we get a million times here. “Why are you here?” It’s a simple question that can be answered in so many ways…but today I was thinking about a reason I haven’t really gone into.My favorite lake - minus the snow I remembered that day in the snow by a lake at one of my favorite places in the world where I decided I wanted to get to know this person Jesus. It seemed like a harmless experiment at the time. I picked up a bible at the nearest Christian bookstore when I got home and started reading about the life of this person Jesus. I wasn’t prepared for what would happen after that. I met him…

I felt like I had finally come home after a long long time in a foreign country. I felt like I was finally myself. I felt hope that things were going to be made right…that Evil would not have the final say. I felt passion like I never had before. I felt that I found what I had always been looking for…even though I didn’t know I was lacking anything. I remembered the first time that I felt the thrill of emotions well up in my heart that I didn’t know I could feel. I remember feeling the shame of who I was when compared with this person I loved…so amazing, so beautiful, kind, full of grace and truth…the embodiment of everything right and good. And I remembered the feelings of shame wash away in His love and how overwhelmed I was as I contemplated the terrible and glorious sacrifice He made…for me…so I could know Him. And I realized today…that was my reason for being here. I have experienced something so amazing – and I cannot keep from connecting Jesus’ people back to Himself.

Paul writes in a letter to the church in Rome, "Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ?" His answer: "I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us."

I pray that we can be instruments of God’s love here. That we can share with people “the incredibly appealing person of Jesus”…that we can help the Church be who she was meant to be. With the grace of this God we follow…I have all the hope in the world.

Moving into Stage Two

Amanda, Grayson and I have been in Amsterdam now for a little over six weeks. While we are certainly still in a bit of a "honeymoon" phase, enjoying all of the little quirks of a different culture and city, the first official stage of our life here is coming to a close.

I would call this first stage, "settling in." Getting settled has involved:

• becoming comfortable moving around the city (bikes, trams, metros, etc.)
• making our apartment a home
• learning how to live every day life, such as buying groceries

Though our learning curve will continue, there is only so long one can spend merely getting settled. It is time to move on to Stage Two.

Let's call stage two, "language learning." Similar to settling in, language learning will be something that takes quite a while - it will actually take our entire time here. But, these next few months will be devoted to spending the vast majority of time to the process of language acquisition.

Here is a brief description of what (we expect) our lives will be like. I will be in class four days a week, for four to five hours a day. Amanda will spend that time with Grayson (as he is doing some language acquisition of his own!), and will potentially be able to develop some friendships that she's made so far. I'm expected to put in as much time studying per week as I am in class, so Amanda and I will do a fair bit of studying together. That way not only will we get to spend time together, but she'll be able to get a head start for when she starts classes next quarter. For the most part, the only other things that we will be able to give our time to is our team, small group, and church.

Please be praying for us, because we're about to enter into a very busy and diffucult time! But we are incredibly grateful, because without the Lord's provision this certainly wouldn't have been possible. About a week ago we thought that we would both have to wait until February to start language school...but here we are.

And God has been so good to have blessed us with an incredible weekend as we are ending Stage One. We got to spend time with our team: eating homemade Chipotle burritos together, talking about church, and laughing a lot.

We also got to visit a great bookstore in town, Amsterdam's version of "Barnes & Noble." Grayson loved the Kinderboeken section. We even bought him his first Dutch book. On the way home from the bookstore, the little guy fell asleep in the bike seat for the first time! In a proud parenting moment, Amanda even got him all the way upstairs and into his crib still sleeping.

But the highlight of the weekend by far was the arrival to the Netherlands of Sinterklaas. Yes, today is the day that the "Sint's" steamboat from Spain docked in Amsterdam. He, along with his helpers, paraded through the streets to much joy of all the children - most of whom were dressed for the occasion. Grayson will never remember this, of course, but we got plenty of pictures to prove to him that he saw Sinterklaas when he was a baby.

All I have to say is, I feel sorry for those of you in America waiting until Thanksgiving day to see Santa ride his over-sized sleigh through the streets of NYC. We've got the real guy here in Amsterdam! And yes, this is a picture that we took of Sinterklaas as he rode by...

Be sure to check out our facebook pages over the next couple days, as we're sure to upload a ton of more pictures from the last week or so. You're not gonna want to miss some of the Grayson pics - way too cute!

UPDATE: For a great description of my first day in language school, along with the very philosophical question, "what would you say," please read Julia's blog entry for the day.

Movie, Map & More

Movie

For those of you who know me and Amanda well, you know that one of our great joys in life is to watch a movie at the cinema. Well, after more than five weeks here in Holland, we were finally able to make it out last Saturday night. Rachel Baransi came over to our flat to watch Grayson as we made it out to see the new James Bond film. Here's a quick recap of our adventure:

• 8pm - Leave Grayson & Rachel; bike to the metro station
• 8:15 - Hop on the metro
• 8:25 - Arrive at our stop & walk to the Pathe' movie theater
• 8:35 - After waiting in line for almost 10 minutes, we find out that the two showings of Bond in our time range are sold out...sort of. Apparently there is an online reservation system, and so all of the seats were accounted for. However, if you reserve a seat online you have to arrive at the theater at least 20 minutes beforehand to buy your ticket - if you don't, the ticket is up for grabs!
• 8:36 - Wander around outside trying to kill time until 8:55 (20 minutes before the showing we wanted)
• 8:45 - Impatient, we get back in line
• 8:55 - Buy two tickets that were left unclaimed!
• 8:56 - Wait in line 20 minutes for popcorn & soda
• 9:16 - One minute late, we enter the theater and find our seats (Row 7, Seats 17 & 18...they are assigned)
• 11:30 - Leave the theater fat and happy, and make the metro/bike ride home.

It's a bit of a different experience than back home. Plus, there are Dutch subtitles during the film. That makes it sort of difficult when the actors on screen speak a language other than English - yet another reason to learn Dutch!

All in all, though, we had a great time, and were so happy to finally get to see a movie. And now that we've had our first movie-going experience, I think the next time will be much smoother.

Map
For some reason, Grayson loves maps. Here's some evidence:
Too stinking cute. If you keep reading, there is a link down below to a video of the little guy crawling around on the map. Why was he crawling on the map? He just loves Amsterdam so much.

More

• Language School Update: I got in to the class this quarter! One spot opened up, and I just got an email today inviting me in. So I start this coming Monday (the 17th). Very exciting, and very scary at the same time. Please be praying that I'd be able to absorb it all quickly. Amanda will be waiting until February to jump in, but I'm sure that she will help me study until then. Julia is still sorting through her options.
  
• The Netherlands football (soccer) team is newly ranked 4th in world! The USA comes in at 24; down a few slots from the last rankings.
• Along with the video referred to above, I have uploaded several more videos (mostly of Grayson) onto youtube. Check them out.
  

Exodus 33:15

As we enter into this new era of American politics, it is clear that hope in some is mingled with anxiety & fear in others. This dividing line is seen almost as starkly in the Church as it is among party lines.

I'd like to share an open letter to President-elect Obama by my pastor back home in Columbus, Rich Nathan (though I know many of you have already read it...likely on Facebook). It is a very gracious letter while at the same time calling President Obama into a Christ-like model of leadership.

His encouragement to the future President, as well as reminder to us who are followers of Jesus, that "whithout God's help we cannot succeed," and "with God's help we cannot fail," should be written on our hearts...no matter who holds the highest office of our nation.

It reminds me of the beautiful passage in Exodus, when Moses pleads with God: "If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here..." Let that prayer unite us, Christians. Let's place our hopes squarely on the throne of Jesus, and lay our fears at his feat.

President Obama, on behalf of the Vineyard Church of Columbus, I offer our sincerest congratulations and encouragement as you assume the awesome task of providing leadership for our country and our world. As a Jewish-Christian pastor of a congregation that includes blacks and whites, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans, the able-bodied and the disabled, old and young, rich and poor, Republican and Democrat, we come together now to support you as our president. We pledge to pray for you. Without God’s help we cannot succeed; with God’s help we cannot fail.

The greatness of our nation will continue to be measured by our treatment of the least and the last. In our country the least and the last surely include the unborn and their mothers, immigrants, the medically uninsured, and those who still go to bed hungry in this land of abundance. Our congregation urges you to fulfill your commitment to reduce the number of abortions in our nation. Around the world, America is our brothers’ keeper of those suffering in the Darfur and the Congo. Please work on behalf of those enslaved by global sex trafficking, the billion people who live on less than $2 a day, and those who are the victims of religious persecution. As you lead, remember Jesus’ words: “As you have done to the least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto me.”

America has an extraordinary capacity to reinvent herself, rarely more so than in this election. We remain the screen upon which the world projects its greatest hopes and its most noble aspirations. Live a life worthy of our hopes. Be a reconciler. Be a peacemaker. May God bless you and your family. And may America bless God and the world.

As we continue to pursue the Kingdom of God and his righteousness in our nation and abroad, we should all commit - with Rich - to pray blessing on the President and his family, no matter our political affiliation or ideology.

St. Martin's Day

On a much lighter note, tomorrow is St. Martin's day! Time to make your paper lantern and go from door to door singing songs and collecting candy...oh wait, we don't do that in the States. Did you even know there was such a thing as St. Martin's day? Did you even know there was a Saint called Martin? There is so much I have missed out on in life because a) I'm American and b) I'm not Catholic. But now as an American Protestant living in Amsterdam I get to enjoy it all!

Love from across the Sea,
John

President v Prime Minister

If you haven't heard by now, the entire WORLD was very interested in the little event that took place this past Tuesday in the States that we like to call the Presidential election. Gor the past couple of weeks, when folks here in Amsterdam find out we are American, that is all they have wanted to talk about.

Not only are they interested because the results would inevitably have a global impact, but also (I think) because the system works so much differently here in the Netherlands. They are intrigued by the campaign process & how much money is spent along the way. The are intrigued by the electoral system. They are also intrigued because, well, they don't vote for a president here.

The Netherlands is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy (i.e. they have a queen, citizens have rights based upon a constitution, and they vote for a representational parliament). Allow me to be technical for a moment or two. The Dutch vote for their parliament based upon a "proportional representation" system...and they vote for parties, not candidates. So hypothetically, if one party got 80% of the votes, they get 80 members of parliament, 10% would get 10 members of parliament, and so on. This is overly simplified of the actual system, but that is the basic idea.

To the point. The Dutch only indirectly elect their Prime Minister. The party which receives the most seats in Parliament (based on elections) is given the power to form a coalition government with two other parties. And the leader of that party becomes the Prime Minister once the government is formed. The current Prime Minister of the Netherlands is Jan Peter Balkenende of the Christian Democratic party.

We elect our President through the system of the electoral college...which is only slightly less indirect. At least we have the illusion of voting for a person when we're really just voting for a vote. I leave it to you to decide which system is better.

So there you go. Your cultural lesson for the day. I suppose, of course that there are a few other differences between the US President and the Netherlands Prime Minister besides the election process (for example, a Dutchman I chatted with yesterday said that ours is "basically the President of the world," not just the States), but those are just details.

Until next time,
John

Language School

Just a quick update/prayer request. Julia, Amanda and I have all hit a slight road-block for language learning. The three of us were trying to get into the Winter quarter at a university here in Amsterdam for a Dutch as a Second Language program - but we have all been wait listed! Please pray that we would either somehow sneak into the course, or find something else soon...

With language learning in mind, I thought I'd pass along a blog I just found called Dutch Word of the Day. Check it out, and learn some Dutch with us!

Month One

Today marks the Nash family's one month anniversary of living in Amsterdam (and also Grayson's nine month birthday)! I thought it would be an appropriate time to recall some of the things we've experienced in this new city/country/time zone/continent. We have:

• traveled across the Atlantic Ocean with an eight month old baby and 16 pieces of luggage
• attended a national Vineyard conference one day after entering the country
• spent two weeks as roomates with Brooke & Allie
• figured out the difference between a 1 and 2 Euro coin
• rented an apartment
• already begun to feel at home in our new place
  
• bought bikes
• thought our bikes were stolen
• found out that they were really just confiscated by the "bike police"
  
• ridden bikes in the rain
• bought rain gear
• also ridden on trams, trains, buses, metros
• posted a lot of videos of Grayson on Youtube
  
• made dutch pancakes, aka crepes, for the first time
• made apple turnovers (almost) from scratch
• shopped at a few different outdoor markets
• attempted to use what little Dutch we know at appropriate times (e.g. "Een zone, alstublieft." Translation: "One zone, please," when getting our ticket stamped on the tram. Easy, yes...but also a confidence builder!)
• learned how to work our oven/microwave
  
• read a lot of instruction manuals that are written in Dutch
• become familiar with the layout of our street's Albert Heijn supermarket
• found a place to watch soccer
• became experts at "skyping"
• checked our facebook pages way too often for news back home
• avoided most of the election mudslinging
• bought a pumpkin for Grayson the day after halloween
• worshiped in Dutch
• registered for language school
• continued to build relationships with our friends here in Holland
• written more blog entries than I ever could have imagined

It is obviously difficult to put into words everything we've experienced thus far. But in everything, we have felt the grace and love of God - that is the most important experience of our time here so far.

I'd like to quote a short passage from the book My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. In the October 27th entry he says, "the challenge of the missionary does not come on the line that people are difficult to get saved...the one great challenge is - Do I know my Risen Lord? Do I know the power of His indwelling Spirit?"

Even in our first month here, we have the deep realization that that is the great challenge. Not how successful we are at navigating a new culture, but how connected we are to Jesus. So hopefully, at the end of month two we can add to the bullet-point list: "have known our risen Lord and the power of His indwelling Spirit in a deeper way."

Thank you for your continued prayers and support from across the pond. We truly could not do this without you...

Tot ziens,
John