My friend Andrew Jones from Prague started a series on understanding our present postmodern world. Read his first article on postmodernity and the global worldviews.

Outline: There are three global kinds of thinkers: Traditionalists (who inherit truth), Rationalists (who discover truth) and Mystics (who experience truth). They are reflected in the Book of Job (Bildad, Zophar and Eliphaz) as well as in teachings from philosophers and missiologists. There is also a transitional worldview (Elihu in Job) which is the postmodern worldview (which constructs truth).

There are three kinds of postmoderns - Skepical, Affirmative and Intuitive. Many Christian teachers have got stuck on the first one. Many of Andrew's friends are surfing in the last wave of intuitive postmodernism and don't even like the word 'postmodern'.

Also check out Andrew's weblog with news on the Emergent event in Prague, June 24-30, 2002. I plan to go there.

We visited friends in Hoek van Holland, enjoyed the fellowship, the sunny weather and a good walk on the beach. At the same time I was somewhat distressed about an issue relating to unity and integrity in one of our teams. I cannot share much about it, but would value your prayers for the Lord to intervene mightily.

Time flies... this week I've been working on the 10 days for Holland. And I should prepare a fundraising letter; after all we have a gap of close to 2800 euro a month. Several people offered support, which is encouraging.

David is gradually overcoming his language arrear. Yesterday we heard that he is selected for a special school that can help him in this area. Every evening we read 'Opa Knoest' (a story about a granddad who goes fishing and encounters a swarm of bees). After the story we play a game called 'bijen' (bees). Daddy is playing is swarm of bees, and David is running. Of course the bees finally get on him. Big fun, even more for dad than for David.

Luke 10 was good. Anointed and good fellowship as well. In our housechurch we talked about the 'incarnation of Jesus in today's culture' and the role of hospitality.

I was blessed by the clear prophetic direction the Lord gave in the city leaders meeting yesterday. He wants to release the Spirit of prophecy in all ministries (teachers, pastors, evangelists, apostles), so they will start flowing with His purposes for the city. From Ez. 37 the Lord spoke that we can prophesy that the muscles will cover the bones, meaning that God wants to put ministries in the city in place. We also confirmed and encouraged each other to grow in our respective ministries.

This afternoon I will teach at the Luke 10 training on 'the history and future of the church'. It will be prophetic and practical. More about it tomorrow.

This week was quite busy. I've been working on the '10 days for Holland'. David Sörensen designed a dynamic logo. A press release was sent out to the Christian and secular press and I did some additional networking. With the Luke 10 team we've been discussing the format of the training. Because it's a pilot, we might make some changes along the way.

At 14.00 h I will meet with city leaders in Utrecht to discuss how we can re-ignite the city wide process of prayer, unity and evangelism.

The basic information on the '10 days for Holland' is now also available in English.

Yesterday Wolfgang Simson was over from Germany and we talked intensively (this guy ís intense) about apostles and money, servant leadership and mentoring, and the development of Luke 10 (a training for house church planters, currently in a pilot phase). The quote of the day: "The resources are in the harvest. The best way to raise funds is to raise people, and the best way to raise people is to raise churches."

Earlier in the afternoon I had a meeting with Marcel van der Mooren, the publiser of JOY!, a lifestyle magazine based on Christian values. He's looking for good writers/journalists to help develop JOY! It is currently for sale in 2.500 shops all over the Netherlands. Also check out our report in Joel News.

We spent the weekend in Enschede. Very nice weather.

Today I had a meeting with Theo Aerts and Martijn Moens to prepare the '10 days for Holland', from 9 to 18 May. It is a prophetic call to pray and fast for Godly change in our nation. In the middle of the fast the elections for Parliament will take place, and already it's clear that these elections will thoroughly change the political landscape.

After lunch Henk Vink introduced two friends from Estonia. We will teach in their church next month (on house church, city church and leadership). Nice couple.

Interested to join Joel Ministries? Have a look at our vacancies! I also reformulated our mission statement.

The DAWN European Network also launched a new website. Interesting logo. :-)
An inspiring quote from the homepage: "The DAWN European Network tries to encourage the planting of many old and new expressions of church - in a healthy and creative way. Many new challenges have to be met. New cultures emerge right in our midst and have the right to 'hear, see, touch and smell' the love of God. A new generation is creating their own expression of church - will we set them free to do that?"

Do you see it, hear it, smell it... Springtime is in the air!

I'm still very joyful about the conference. Something happened in the heavenlies. I put some testimonies on the web and announced the 10 days of prayer and fasting for the Netherlands.

Yesterday evening we had a good time of fellowship with the network team of the housechurch movement. We prayed and prophesied over each other and the Chinese food was also excellent. David stayed up all night and had his first housechurch experience.

Yesterday Ana gave an excellent teaching on the prophetic and apostolic. Again there was such a freedom in worship, prophetic expression and generous giving. We challenged the people to make a covenant with the Lord to pray 'without ceasing' for their city and the nation. At the end of the day we collected hundreds of written commitments; it was an act of worship, ending in a joyous time of apostolic commissioning. We definitely entered a new phase for the Netherlands!

The prayer conference with Ana Méndez is quite awsome. There is a strong anointing on 'worship in spirit and truth' and for the 'Gideon's Army' in our nation to rise up. It's a pity I had to miss most of today's meetings...

I met in Doorn with my friends of the company I'm involved in to pray and discuss how we can get out of debt. One of the solutions (and decisions) is that I will move out. That means less burden for the company, but also 55% less income for the ministry. I'm wondering how God will sort this all out.

When I arrived at the conference at the end of the afternoon, there was a tremendous offering going on as an act of worship to the Lord. People gave generously, even rings and necklaces. The deacons needed a full hour to count all the money, it was the biggest offering they had ever collected, over 21,000 euro.

Three lessons from Numbers 12:
1. great leaders have humble hearts because they died to their own ambitions;
2. recognize and respect people who know the Father;
3. God always protects his friends.

Tonight I met up with 13 young radicals in a 'werfkelder', an underground meeting place at one of the canals, formerly used to store goods. We had a great time of worship and I shared about God's destiny for the city, evangelism and relevant church planting. These occasions are always a blessing, even more for me than for the young people.

At the end of the evening a young lady told me they started a day of prayer once a month. But she was not satisfied with this. She said: "I want to pray every week for a whole night, but haven't found a place yet." I said: "Don't you think there are Christians in this city who are willing to open up their house for a night of prayer?" She said: "Yes, but... I cannot keep my mouth shut when I pray, I NEED TO SHOUT!"

Yesterday we had the first evening out of nine of the Luke 10 training. This is a kind of Alpha-course for people who want to start a housechurch. It's all about the impartation of 'spiritual dna', of prophetic and apostolic teaching that can help people to birth and multiply healthy groups. About 40 people joined this training that runs till July.

The format is like this: we meet at 16.30 h for coffee and fellowship, from 17.00 to 18.00 h one of the people from the network team (fivefold ministry) gives input, from 18.00 to 19.00 h we eat together (after the Holy Spirit food is probably the most important ingredient of housechurch), from 19.00 to 20.00 h there's another hour of input and from 20.00 to 22.00 h we meet in small groups (housechurch format).

With the network team we've been brainstorming to find another word for 'housechurch'. It does not really cover the movement (there are more places of social life than just houses) and is not very 'sexy' either. Any suggestions?

To beat the busyness I made a big decision: I'm gonna clean up my agenda and cancel all meetings I don't necessarily have to be. Not just for next week, but for the next five months (big deal, big relief). Is this a good idea or what? Should give me more time to pray and write.