A new day for a new generation. 100,000 people attended The Call New York City on Saturday 29th June. The prayer/worship event ran from 6am until 6pm and was held at Flushing Meadows - also known as the field of dreams. 16,000 people attended The Call England on Saturday 13th July. The prayer/worship event ran from 10am until 9pm and was held at the Madejski Stadium, Reading. 200,000 people attended the Catholic World Youth Days in Toronto between 22 and 28 July.

Also read some stuff on the internet on 'churchless faith'. Gives good insight in why people leave the church. Alan Jamieson interviewed 108 people who have left churches in New Zealand and was surprised by what he found: people were not leaving 'mainline' or 'traditional' churches, but evangelical or pentecostal/charismatic churches, predominantly between the ages of 30-45, the vast majority held key leaderships positions before leaving, and had done either full-time Christian study/work, they had been involved in churches for an average of 15.8 years and the majority retain their faith while leaving the church.

What more did I do today? Cycled in the forests near Amerongen at 30 degrees Centigrade and chilled out in our children's plastic swimming pool.

Our first day in Rhenen. Trying to find our way in a house with 20-30 rooms and a chapel.

Check out the Etrek site. Leonard Sweet says: "Etrek is at the forefront of the new wave of learning. It’s reality-based, experientially oriented, and highly intentional in its academic design, combining peer-to-peer learning and leading academic and faculty advisors. I would keep an eye on this innovative program. I think it offers something for all of us to learn." I like this concept. A combination of peer group mentoring and real innovation, targeting a new generation of leaders.

Yesterday we had Ronald and Mareska over for dinner. They lead a churchplant in The Hague. We ended up telling romantic stories. Ronald shared that he sent Mareska's dad a letter to ask permission to kiss his daughter. He was very amused.

Wim de Knijff from EO television mailed me that he visited Herrnhut and was encouraged that we plan to have a young prayer leaders retreat there. Years ago he presented a children's program and used pictures from Zinzendorf to pass the Moravian story on to a new generation.

Took some time with Pim van Arnhem to prepare the upcoming retreat for local prayer leaders. We sense it's important to make it experiential and use practical and interactive work forms.

Got up at seven o'clock to continue my cycling tour. Today's 85 km track was from Amsterdam along the Amstel and Vecht rivers to Utrecht. From Utrecht I followed the Merwede canal to Vianen and reached Leerdam just 10 minutes before the rain came down with buckets. Enjoyed a pancake with summerfruit close to Loenen and a little nap in the greens of Zuylen castle.

Today the new prime minister will try to finalize our new goverment.

The weather is nice, so I took two days off to cycle from Egmond aan Zee to Utrecht. Today I cycled the first 70 km from Egmond to Amsterdam, via the well known Zaanse Schans. The place was crowded as usual with American tourists. But the 69 remaining kms were more quiet. Made some pictures with my new Sony Cybershot DSC-P71.

Today Rob and I worked on the new database for Joel Ministries. This will help us to connect better with our friends and partners.

Nice quote from Ronald's blogspot: "Servant leaders don't think less of themselves, they just think about themselves less..."

Also check out the website of Crossroads Rotterdam.

Morning conversation with David...
David: "Daddy, the sun has been turned on and the light [in the corridor] has been turned off."
Daddy: "Yes, it was God who turned on the sun."
David: "God turned on the sun with a little rope."

Today we planned our holiday time. We will take care of an estate in Rhenen, about 40 km south-east of Utrecht. It's a nice place, with a prayer chapel, a large green and a cock that will wake us up at 5.30 every morning. :-) The owner has a vision to turn the estate into a prophetic-apostolic centre for Europe.

Modern-day idolatry in Berlin. But it is declining as the Church is gaining ground. Kerstin Hack reports in her weblog: "Just came back from a prayer event where several hundred young Christians from all over Germany had come together to pray for the youth of this nation and the city of Berlin... praying for something better to rise up than the Love Parade... an event that has become more and more perverse over the years. This year the first float showed a heart with devils horns on it advertising condoms (and free sex with it)... Anyhow we had a great time of worship... spending time in His presence and rededicating the ground of Berlin to the Lord... It was interesting to hear that there were only 400.000 people at the Love Parade... half the number of last year... and news reported 'the power has left the event!' and 'the climax is over!' Don't tell me that my God is not moving in the city, He is very active in reclaiming ground... I love this place..."

Forget about boring church services. On Sunday morning we took our extended family to the playground to jump on a bouncy castle. This is soooo liberating! Later on Karolien proved her courage by having herself catapulted in a little boat, hitting the water from a height of ten meters. David looked at her wondering 'is this really my mum?'

Yesterday Peter had a high fever. Today Karolien was ill and had to stay in bed. Some good news is that my laptop came to life again after I replaced the adaptor... So at least I'm now able to mail you that we could use some prayer. :-)

It's a blessing to have an office manager! From this week on Rob Piket will handle the administration of Joel Ministries.

It's raining cats and dogs... I hope the roof pane in my office will hold...

Last week has been one with ups and downs. An 'up' was the Luke 10 BBQ (the church meets when it eats). During this Luke 10 course about 40 people from all over the Netherlands were geared up to start 'organic churches' or house churches.

A 'down' is the fact that I'm pretty tired and need to refill. This week we will decide on how to spend our holiday time. Any suggestions?

Yesterday I took Karolien for dinner to a Greek restaurant. We still smell the romantic odour of garlic and feta cheese...

What's new today? The Dutch edition of Joel News deals with spiritual leadership and 'covering' (part 2). The international version has some great stories of what God is doing today. The pentecostal renewal in Baptist churches is one of these interesting developments. Last week in Prague I noticed that the Baptists are also quite open for ministry in a postmodern context. My guess is that churches that are both Word-based and moving in the gifts of the Spirit and experimenting with new expressions of church, will do the best job in the coming moves of God.

Interviewed Jan Pool, a Dutch leader who is very much on the forefront of the G12 vision in Holland. Check out the G12 websites at berea.nl and g12harvest.org.