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

And now, the rest of the story...

If you read the previous post before I updated it, you didn't hear the end of the story: we made it to AFAC yesterday afternoon, and they had our bikes! I don't think I realized how much I missed my bike until I got it back...we're SO EXCITED!

I took a few pictures with Brooke's mobile, which she had lent to us for our trip, but unfortunately I must not have pushed the right button, because only a couple of them came out. Here is one after we reclaimed our bikes:Behind us is the lot where AFAC stores all of the confiscated bikes. It had at least a couple thousand bikes there...unreal.

So there ya go. This story had a happy ending.

AFAC

"What is AFAC?" you might be asking yourself. That is a good question. Until this past Friday, Amanda and I didn't know what AFAC was either. It stands for De Amsterdamse Fiets Afhandel Centrale - or, basically, the Amsterdam bike police. They haul away bikes when they don't like where the bikes are parked.

It turns our that our bikes are likely in the possession of AFAC, not a bike thief. We'll find out for sure this afternoon when we head down to their headquarters with our bikes' serial numbers and our passports in hand.

Amsterdam is an interesting place. People leave their bikes everywhere; chained up to anything. Often I'll pass a bike chained in a random place and wonder, "are they allowed to just leave their bike there?"

So this past Monday, when Amanda and I left our bikes at the metro station chained to sign along with a moped (because there were no bike racks left), I wondered, "are we allowed to leave our bikes here?" But then I brushed the fear aside because, after all, people chain their bikes to everything in the city. When we returned to find our bikes gone, we just assumed they were stolen.

On Friday, however, Amanda got into a conversation with a Dutch girl at Julia's birthday party (which was amazing, by the way!), who mentioned that our circumstances sounded more like a confiscation by AFAC rather than a theft by a junkie. After talking to a couple other of our Dutch friends, they agreed. So we're off to AFAC in a couple hours to hopefully reclaim our bikes (and praying that Grayson's bike seat is still attached).

I guess we can chalk this one up as a learning experience. What did we learn? Don't mess with AFAC. The only problem is, I still don't know where I can't park my bike!

For more interesting tidbits on the bike culture of Amsterdam, along with some amusing pictures, click here.

UPDATE: We made our way out to AFAC and they had our bikes! We were so happy to have them back, that we didn't mind the 1.5 hour ride back home...all is right in the world.

8% Sounds Like a Small Number...

Until you fall into that category. Which Amanda and I (and Grayson too, in a way) did just yesterday. You see, Amsterdam is a city of bikes. Almost everyone in the city cycles as their normal mode of transportation. And, in a city that is relatively low in crime, bike theft is uncommonly high. The website iamsterdam.com says that in 2007, 8% of the bikes in the city were stolen (down from 16% in 2001). Count the Nash bikes into that statistic for 2008.

We've had our bikes for a little over a week, and were just becoming comfy. Grayson's little bike seat fit him perfectly...and he loved to ride! (see the picture in the sidebar) But, as of yesterday, someone else in the city has our bikes and Grayson's bike seat.

It went down like this: We were headed to a suburb in the south of the city to do some shopping for our new apartment. It is quite a ways, so we biked to the metro station, and chained our bikes up along with a couple hundred others. To make it easier on ourselves, we chained our bikes together (with two chains, of course!) against a pole. Well, when we got back from our shopping trip later that afternoon, all that was left were a few hacked-off chain links. It was a two-for-one deal. These guys must have been PROS.

It was a bummer. But we have so much to be thankful for:

• We're here in an amazing city doing life with a team that we adore
• The Lord really provided us with the perfect apartment...that is beginning to feel like home already
• Today our internet service was connected in our flat, so we are able to connect with friends and family back home
• Grayson is healthy and adjusting well to his new environment
• And most importantly, I'm reminded of the last sermon we heard at Vineyard Columbus before we left, when Rich encouraged us that the only thing in life that would truly be devestating to lose is Jesus. But God is on his throne, and that is our greatest hope in life.

So, we'll just have to get new (used) bikes - and maybe better locks - and hope that 8% really is a small number.

Also - we're excited to show you our apartment, but are still settling in. We promise that once the dust settles, we'll take a bunch of pictures and post them here for all to see.

A Big Day

Well, this was quite a big day for us. We found out in the morning that the owner accepted our bid for the apartment - so we now have a home in Amsterdam! Right after finding that out, we went down and bought our bike at a nearby shop. We even got a seat for Grayson. Man, I wish I would have gone on some Tour de Highs. That would have prepared me a little for the bike culture here. Anyone planning on visiting should start riding with the crew from Joshua House now!

We rode the bikes home on back roads and Grayson absolutely LOVED it. He couldn't stop laughing and smiling. Even before we had the bikes out of the shop, he was reaching for the handlebars wanting to ride. We then came home, and the whole Nash clan took a nap. It was the first really good nap we've had yet. Gray slept over 2 hours! Prayer after prayer being answered...man you guys really are praying for us aren't you?

When we woke up, we rode our bikes with Brooke down to the Rijks Museum and looked at some Rembrants for about 1/2 hour till Gray got tired. Amazing. Then we rode home...in the DARK! All went well, and Grayson went to sleep like a champ. Wow. What an overwhelming day of blessing from God. We are so grateful - I can hardly express. Thank you so much those of you praying for us...we feel it loud and clear.

-Amanda