Caught a flu for the second time in three weeks. Have to stay in bed. Skipped my plans to visit the Soul Survivor festival at Strand Nulde. Hope and pray that I will be better for the national prayer conference later this week.

The three P's of Brother Yun

One of the books I'm reading at the moment is 'The Heavenly Man. The remarkable true story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun'. It's impossible to read this book with dry eyes. It's about Acts in our time. Not the three P's of pastor's, programs and politics that mark the church in the West, but of passion for Jesus, persecution and power of the Holy Spirit.

At page 54 Yun compares the Three-Self believers with caged birds. "Yes, they are able to sing to the Lord, but their environment is controlled and their wings are clipped. They are free to sing only within the restrictions imposed on them. In the house churches we enjoy the freedom to fly around wherever God leads us and to sing from the depths of our hearts. We have been released from the cage and we never intend to return!" And: "It is a known fact that birds confined in cages have a hard time reproducing. But with the free birds reproduction has been occurring at a rapid rate."

Cycled from Den Helder to Haarlem today. Highspeed with the wind in my back over the long dike in Petten, through the scenic North Holland Dunes Park, along the colourful tulip fields between Bergen and Velsen, and by ferry across the North Holland canal to the Kennemer Dunes. And yes, the poffertjes and cappucino in Bergen aan Zee were as good as they were years ago. Of course no-one believes this was part of my prayer retreat, but for me sun, cycling and prayer go very well together.

Rob got me a new Acer Travelmate 800LCi to replace my old notebook. The Computerpirates in Weesp had the best deal.

Happy Easter! I decided to skip my trip to Rome and instead input in the restructuring of EPL by e-mail. It's getting too busy and I'm quite tired at the moment. Will do a little Easter nap now...

Archbishop swaps robes for towel

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is the first primate in four hundred years to wash the feet of the poor in his congregation. On Maundy Thursday he performed the ceremony on twelve worshippers in a symbolic act of humilty. He washed one foot each, dried it and kissed it.

It was the first time an Archbishop of Canterbury has performed the act since the Church of England split with the Roman Catholic Church. BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott said Williams discarded some of his ceremonial robes - and carried a towel instead. The ritual commemorates Jesus's washing of his disciples' feet - at that time a very demeaning act - just before his crucifixion.

Good Friday is like a baptism, it's about dying, cleansing, deliverance. With thanks to Iggie for the image.

Guess what? After five car-less weeks we bought a 2nd hand Ford Mondeo. Thanks to everyone who contributed to our 'car fund'. Karolien is happy, and I guess the monkeys in the zoo also.

Yesterday something else happened: my notebook broke down. The screen is mixing all the colours together and Dirk-Jan, our IT guy, said it's all over. Even laying on of hands didn't work anymore. Normally I have a special healing anointing for technical equipment (very practical for missionaries), but I guess if it doesn't work God just wants to bless us with something new, faster and lighter. ;-)

Every house a lighthouse

Had a meeting with Theo Aerts and Willem de Vink to talk in-depth about a grassroots prayer and missions strategy for the Netherlands. It links in to the Lighthouse concept in which Christians open up their houses to pray for their neighbours, share the gospel with them and care for their practical needs. The upcoming '10 Days for Holland' are a pilot for this strategy.

Today's political news: after three months of negotiations the Christian Democrats and Labour didn't agree on forming a new government. Now the Christian Democrats turned to their old coalition partner the Liberal Conservatives, but because they don't have a majority in Parliament, they have to find a third party willing to form a coalition with them. It's taking way too long. In the meantime the guy who murdered populist politician Pim Fortuyn last year was found guilty and was sentenced to 18 years (which in tolerant Holland means 12 years in practice). There are things the Americans do better...

Andrew put a little report of last weekend on his blog site. He writes: "The highlight of the training last weekend in Holland was having everyone draw out their ministry context with magazine images, Bible verses, drawing in their input with pens, and then having all the others add to their picture or connect it in new ways with what God was doing in the larger picture. They really liked this and many cut out their pictures to take home. We had a great and fun weekend."

The new '10 days for Holland' website is now online. BTW, Wolf Simson also opened a website. On the picture he is trying to do the thing with the pillars. "I tried with these beginners versions of pillars in Perge, Turkey," he said. "No further comment. I guess it's the hairs."

Are parties central to the Kingdom?

Friday I had a good meeting with prayer leaders at the premises of the Evangelical Alliance. Everyone shared his/her dream for Holland and we had a good time of prayer and discussion.

Over the weekend I joined Ronald van der Molen, Andrew Jones and a group of young Dutch churchplanters. In a monastery in the centre of The Hague we enjoyed interactive teaching, multi-media worship and different layers of sweets. Andrew introduced us to his version of Paul's ministry: prayer (creating an open heaven) and making friends, telling stories of Jesus and His Kingdom, throwing parties and creating new wineskins that multiply, and teaching through giving presents. We imagined we were 'trees of life', discussed post-modern trends, talked about starting subversive churches for the 95% of Holland that hasn't yet joined the party, ate loads of Indonesian and Chinese food, interacted on God's story and Rebecca's piercing, and watched Johnny English ('he knows nothing').

Back in the office again, still coughing a bit. Our staff is experiencing serious discouragement in several areas - pray for us, we need it. Hope we will be able to get our Joel Ministries newsletter out today - the Dutch version is already online.

Watched the deliverance of Bagdad yesterday. I always rejoice when ungodly leaders fall. May this be a year of the Lord's favour for Iraq and the Middle East. I wonder which ministries are ready to start an organic church planting movement in Iraq.

The flu caught me. Will have to stay home today.

Revival outside the church

Just returned from the preparation day for the '10 days for Holland'. We had a good time with challenging teaching and some exciting testimonies.

My statement that 'there is more revival outside the church than inside' proved to be true. There was a guy who shared that he intended to start a prayer group in his workplace, but the Christians he shared his vision with were not really interested in the idea. But to his amazement several non-Christians who heard of it insisted on coming and so he started a prayer group with them. It turned out to be a very anointed time of prayer, in which people really opened themselves up to God and each other. It reminded me of the Bible story in which the king's friends didn't show up, so he invited the beggars, the blind and the crippled instead - and they came!

The focus for the upcoming '10 days' (between Ascension Day and Pentecost) will be 'listen, pray, act', a variation on the Lighthouse theme 'prayer, care, share'. In order to disciple our cities, every house should be a house of prayer, and a place of fellowship and outreach.

In one of our national newspapers I read an article about the 'revival of house altars'. Many people build a personal altar in their house with Mary, Buddha, wiccan stuff, etc. According to the article "people don't want to go somewhere on a Sunday morning - instead they want to shape spirituality in their own house." Are non-Christians picking up something from God?

The Call, a youth prayer movement in Holland, has a new website. They will also join the '10 days for Holland'.

Our Spring newsletter was quite a delivery this time, but I'm glad it's finished. Rob will send it out next week.

Ronald Koops mailed me his concept article on house churches, that will be published in Visie, the main Christian magazine in Holland. It's easy to read and challenging. Glad he survived the interview with Simson. ;-)

Cable & Wireless managed to take all our websites out. "Sorry, little mistake, now you have to wait 24 hours for the dns directory updates to become effective." Don't let their technicians handle your websites...

Matthew Glock from Grenoble, France, just mailed me that he has a weblog and is organising Avant-Garde, a European consultation on the 'emerging church'.

It seems that Reinhold had a hard time at a conference where everyone was a) Spanish by nationality, b) Spanish by language, c) Spanish by food and d) pentecostal by style. He writes: "Poor me. Felt totally lost. 2-4 good conversations, the rest either painful - like with a female prophet by the name of Cindy J. - or boring, in spite of a Latin American Evangelist who reminded me of Hitler's way of speaking. I know, I know - God has many children. Some feel like brothers, others like cousins."

The template of my blog is working again. Thank you, Blogger. I updated my travel schedule, books, writing and more - check out the service column (right side) and scroll down.

The Idols hype is continuing. A new square is named after winning finalist Jamai. For the Dutch edition of Joel News I wrote an editorial about 'Idols and the Church' (or: what the Church can learn from Idols).

Out of the comfort zone

I talked to my 'arrested' friend on the phone. He told me that (surprisingly) the house church leaders are free. A number of them escaped and went underground, others just were released after interrogation.

Talking about interrogation: Patrick Miller (23), a young Christian from Kansas, is one of the POWs who fell in the hands of Saddam's interrogators. Miller, father of a 4-year-old son and a 7-month-old daughter, joined the military just last Summer to pay off student loans. Pray for this guy and his family.

Christian leaders in the Netherlands had a meeting yesterday to talk about the war in Iraq. If anything has become clear it is the fact that it's not clear at all and that it's very difficult for Christians to choose sides. The war has many angles and motives are mixed. Perhaps the main question is: what is God doing at this moment and what's happening in the heavenlies? We have to stay alert, ask for revelation and pray. Very likely God will use the current crisis in the world (that might get much worse) to get us out of our comfort zones, prayerlessness and denominationalism. We have to focus on Jesus as never before.