Will be on a prayer retreat until the end of next week.

Yesterday we sent out our personal newsletter and the Joel Ministries update for partners, with information about the Lighthouse movement and growing partnership in the Dutch prayer movement.

Why oh why am I working in the office while everyone else seems to be on holiday? Is it a root of Dutch calvinism I still have to be delivered from, or a healthy, heavenly sense of stewardship?

Several weeks ago, after an intense meeting with the DAWN guys in Switzerland, I suggested to 'call it a day' and do something relaxing. Reinhold remarked: "Oh, great! If YOU suggest to finish the meeting and go to the movies, I'm getting convinced we really worked hard today." Not sure how to interpret this feedback...

Boys like toys. So we took David and Peter to the Firebrigade Museum in Hellevoetsluis. While climbing in one of the old cars I discovered the bell and siren and (of course) manually activated it. It made a lot of noise. The director of the museum came running in, rebuking us that these 'museum pieces' were not meant to play with. When we drove back home David posed one of his typical questions: "Daddy, what happens if the Firebrigade Museum burns down and there's no-one to put out the flames?"

What is on the hearts of the Next Generation in Scotland? What are they praying about? It’s real, it’s radical and it’s captured on 'The SCOT Project', a prayer and worship CD that our friend Heidi Campbell from Edinburgh is working on.

Connect Europe online

Restyled the Connect Europe website. Besides a new logo and background information on the network, I included a section with 50 country profiles, giving an overview of what God is doing through the emerging (youth) prayer and missions movements in Europe.

24-7 missions teams are praying, reaching out and blogging all over Europe.

Taco gave his first friends-only cabaret performance titled 'Perplexiglas'. In this program he explores the question 'what exactly is a girl?' Later this year he hopes to make a big impression at a national cabaret contest. We had a good laugh and the songs varied from funny to tender and thought-provoking.

Worked on the final details of four Connect Europe meetings we plan to have this Summer (in Finland, Czech Republic, Italy and the Netherlands).

Talked with Bart Visser about his youth project in Kanaleneiland, a deteriorating neighborhood of Utrecht, and with Wim van Galen about starting a youth church. I challenged them to think bigger and use a small group multiplication strategy to reach schools and neighborhoods.

Forgot to tell that we went to Antonie and Gerinke Fountain's wedding party. The first wedding without annoying 'stukjes' (songs and acts by well meaning, but highly amateuristic family members and friends) - praise God. The whole service was held in the open air at 's Heerenhof and finished with a romantic garden party.

BTW, I found some nice stuff about Antonie on the web: intimate worship (an interview about the Soul Survivor movement), unity in worship (article in Dutch) and eleven (his new band).

New wine and rice wine

It was good to catch up with friends over the weekend. On Saturday we visited the Oosterkamp family in Doorn. They plan to go to the New Wine festival in the UK, a very dangerous place to be because of the life-changing prophecies you might receive there. Last year Michael Green prophesied over Taco that he needed to 'simplify his life'. Since then God led him to sell his company, close down his church and break off his studies in theology. Now he's preparing to become a better version of Youp van 't Heck, a famous Dutch cabaret artist.

Yesterday we visited Ronald and Mareska in The Hague. Ronald also broke up with his grumpy driving instructor, so we had something in common to celebrate. His Japanese cooking was excellent, and it took us the whole evening to enjoy it. When we left, he explicitly told us not to tell anybody else about the great food we had (like Jesus told the leper: "Don't tell anybody I healed you, just show yourself to the priest"). But telling a blogger not to blog is the same as telling a church planter not to plant churches, so... I think he will get the point. :-)

'Hunger is not a disaster, but an injustice', reads the title of an article by Eelco Fortuyn in one of our national newspapers. To fight this injustice he started FairFood, a campaign organisation that promotes long-term solutions for the world's hunger problem. It was nice to talk to him on the phone, hear his passion, and realise it's now 15 years since we met during a Youth for Christ Summer camp on a rusty boat on the river Meuse...

Debriefed the '10 days for Holland' with the Transformations team. We also discussed plans to strengthen the prayer movement in the coming year.

News from the White House

Our EA/Transformations retreat in 'The White House' in Voorthuizen went well. It was just four people: Pieter Bos, Bert Roor, Eugène Poppe and myself. We prayed and talked about the tensions between the 'prophetic prayer movement' and the 'mainstream evangelical prayer movement' on the one hand and the gap between the prayer movement and local churches on the other. In the process of praying together, sharing hearts and learning to appreciate each other, we reached a commitment to grow in (national) partnership. This is an important step forward.

Broke up with my driving instructor. After four two-hour lessons I was fed up with his bad mood and his chagrined remarks, and he became fed up with me when I told him his style of instructing wasn't really motivating me. So I'll sign up for another driving school. Suggestions are welcome.