Introduced a new format for Joel News International.

Our aim is two-fold:
1. To keep Christian intercessors and leaders well informed on the main developments worldwide in the areas of intercession, church growth/church planting and revival/transformation.
2. To provide our readers with a good solution for the increasing information overkill we all suffer from.

Our core competence:
1. As a 'special interest bulletin' Joel News' core competence is in monitoring and interpreting the main developments in the above mentioned fields. We keep track of the most relevant media, ministries, mailing lists and networks - over a hundred on six continents. We only select the most relevant reports and offer these in a weekly bulletin of just one to two pages. Our expertise combined with a thorough selection of reports will save our readers a lot of time surfing the web and wading their way through all kinds of mailing lists.
2. We have a team of professional people who are not just good journalists, but also have a 'prophetic antenna' for what the Spirit of God is doing all over the world in our time.

This led us to the conclusion that in order to serve our readers better, we should change the format of Joel News. The coming weeks we will experiment with a new format, based on four components:
1. TYPICALLY GOD - Highly encouraging 'typically God' stories on the advance of His Kingdom.
2. PRAYER FOCUS - A topical prayer pointer to change the world.
3. KINGDOM DEVELOPMENTS - Important developments in the area of prayer, church growth and revival.
4. RESOURCES - Key resources in the area of prayer, church growth and revival.

You can give your feedback at the poll.

Instead of the Last Supper we had a Last BBQ with the Ugandan team. They have been with us for over a month, and it was good to fellowship and bless each other even more.

Really appreciated this article on city church by Wolfgang Simson.

Had dinner with Ton & Irene Kasteleyn. Irene thinks her pasta is the best in the whole world and that I should at least mention this in my weblog. So hereby the whole world is invited to check it out. Drop Irene an e-mail to let her know when you will come.

Eric Olson from Norway, who ministers in prisons, hospitals and orphanages in the Kola peninsula (Russia), just mailed me a precious testimony:

We had just returned from a very long road trip to the new jail in Olenagorsk, the church there, to the prison in Revda, and to three hospitals as the Lord touched people all along the way. But I was nearly to the point of exhaustion. I had to do the driving, the preaching, arrange all the details and make all of the decisions for the team of 5.

At 10:00pm, I decided to go back to the apartment I was using to get some needed sleep, and as I walked out to my car on the street next to Galina's apartment, my heart sank. Someone, it seemed had just run into my car, as I observed a long dent the distance of the door going straight down about a foot and a half long, 6 inches wide, and an inch and a half deep. I just stood and stared, realizing that someone had done something to my car. I knew from previous experience that even in Russia, a gash like this would cost at least a couple of hundred dollars to fix, and I was down to my last 2000 rubles, or 65 dollars! With my sunken head and heart, and tired body I got in the car, giving this situation to the Lord and bidding Galina farewell until the next mornings scheduled meeting in prison number 17.

I then with an empty tank decided to stop at the gas station just down the street and fill up. I got out of the car on my side and again in my dejection, took a glance at the dent in the back door on my side of the car. I went around and filled the tank, and there went another 400 rubles. At this point, I went in to pay and then came out a couple of minutes later. As I was getting ready to get in the car, suddenly I noticed something in the corner of my eye and I had to take a second look. The dent and damage on the side of the car was gone! Immediately, wondering if I was dreaming I took my hand and wiped away the road dirt and took another look. The metal surface was smooth, absolutely like new! I was so tired and began to wonder if I was really seeing things. Yet, something was bubbling up inside of me, it was like this joy and excitement that a kid feels at Christmas waiting for the presents to be opened. So in my near ecstasy and yet dream like state, I decided to go back to Galina and get her to look at the car.

All within the span of 10 minutes I was back, as Galina walked out to look at the car. As she looked her eyes were as big as saucers and her smile so wide too. "Eric, what did you do?", she said nearly yelling. I began to explain to her that I did nothing, and what exactly had happened, that I came out and just saw that it was fixed. She then asked if I was joking. I had to tell her repeatedly that I was not. She wanted to go to the other side of the car and look too. She still would not believe me. "Galina, I will swear on the bible that I did not do anything to that car!" She wanted to know if I had prayed for this, and I said no again, I had done nothing! By this time, a joy and celebration was getting so intense that Olya, Galina, and I were unable to hold back our laugher and smiles. God had done a miracle!

As the story spread to friends and the rest of those who had gone on the trip with us, I heard something later that absolutely melted my heart. Serge, a Sprit inspired and filled ex-prisoner whom we met in the Revda prison a year earlier and was now released had come with us to minister on the trip. He had seen that I was exhausted earlier that day, and in his heart he felt for me. He had seen that I was giving a lot away to others and he had prayed this prayer. "Father, I pray that You will just reveal you love to Eric, this time in a very real and clear way."

Well friends, my Father has really done that. And this missionary believes it, with all of his heart. And maybe I will just get the point this time, His love is deeper and higher than the oceans and the sky and He has even More than that, it is endless and out of sight!

The seminar day was great. About 400 people came. John taught on five principles for breakthrough prayer, the royal and satanic priesthood, and the meaning of covenants. The afternoon was used for focused prayer. Worship was joyful and powerful. The Chinese food arranged by Wim was also excellent. I made a mindmap of the seminars and will put it on the web tomorrow.

Met up with John Mulinde and the Dutch Transformations team to prepare our seminar day tomorrow. Was encouraged by the fact that God is doing more in Holland than John expected.

Joined the blogging team of akingdomspace, a blogspot where people can connect with what God is doing around the world in the emerging culture.

In case you're wondering what happened with my weblog... I changed some colours and measures. What do you think: is it an improvement? Let me know.

Andrew Jones continued his series of articles on postmodernity at THEOOZE. It's about new models of church that resonate with the postmodern experience of time and space. A few quotes:

- The apostle is like a tree, the prophet like a river. Trees grow and rivers flow.
- It is a growing trend that postmodern spiritual seekers would rather be a part of a small, committed order or team on a journey than be an attender in a large, impersonal worship service.
- Often there is a spiritual revival going on around us, but the church is not really a part of it.
- One of the happy postmodern remarriages is church and business.
- Roland Allen, a famous English missionary to China, once said: "I do not trust spectacular things. Give me the seed growing secretly everytime."
- It is the women who will teach us much about how to function in a postmodern world.
- The third wave of postmodern churches are the current house churches, since they have taken the elements of postmodernity beyond the cognitive and into the structure and leadership.

Travelled to Leeuwarden yesterday. Had dinner with Johan Doornenbal & family. In the evening I gave an interactive seminar on city reaching for leaders involved in the Light over Frisia platform (a cooperation of churches in Leeuwarden).

Introduced a new term to describe what I'm doing: 'popcorn ministry'. Take a pan (any given situation), pour in some oil (invite the Holy Spirit), light the fire (cast the vision), add a handful of corn (god-given potential) and there you are... something new and tasty will pop up pretty soon.

Dutch people like holidays. That's why we invented 'Pentecost Monday', an extra day off. We celebrated David's birthday (May 11) with presents, grandparents, visiting the boats and the cows and eating 'patat' (the Dutch version of French fries).

Some political news: the Dutch queen asked Piet Hein Donner, a senior advisor, to investigate the possibility of a coalition of Christian-Democrats, Liberal Conservatives and the newly emerged Lijst Pim Fortuyn. It will be an interesting process.

Yesterday the 10 days of prayer and fasting for Holland ended with a powerful celebration in Utrecht. The people who came were hungry for more of God and the prophetic call to press on in prayer was received well.

Today I relaxed, played with the kids, and enjoyed the spaghetti a la Karolien.

The parliamentary elections in Holland brought an overwhelming victory for the Christian Democrats and the emerging rightist party Lijst Pim Fortuyn (the guy who was murdered last week). The current government parties (Labour, Liberal Conservatives and Liberal Democrats) all lost extensively. The Christian Democrats are leading with an incredible 43 seats (nearly 30 percent of the votes), followed by the LPF with 26 seats.

This afternoon I worked on a prayer focus for the period after the elections, when the new government will have to be formed.

Election Day. This floating voter finally made up his mind. Karolien and I are maintaining our good tradition to vote on different parties. One of the votes is on a solid Christian party, the other is more prophetic (or according to some: pragmatic). For the Dutchies: CU and CDA.

Today I sent out the invitation for Connect Europe, an event for young leaders of emerging national prayer movements. We will gather about 50 of them in Herrnhut, Germany at the end of August. Herrnhut is the place where the Moravian revival started. I've been there on a prayer retreat last year. Great place. Open heaven. Looking forward to it.

With the leadership team of '10 days for Holland' we decided to officially present a copy of Transformations II to the leaders of the 15 political parties that will run for the elections on Wednesday. It's a powerful testimony that God can change a nation IF we return to Him (2 Chr. 7:14).

Yesterday and today I interpreted three intercessors from Uganda who visited the Luke 10 training and Xpoint in Driebergen. They are part of John Mulinde's team in Kampala. They challenged us to move into a deeper level of prayer. The afternoon we spent with the Oosterkamp family.

I'm in my fourth day of fasting now. Would love to have a big plate of spaghetti. And some icecream.

Have a look at these pictures of the funeral of Pim Fortuyn.

Just published my paper on the current crisis in the Netherlands. I'm sorry it's only available in Dutch, but Henjo Hoeksma put down similar thoughts in English.

Yesterday the '10 days for Holland' were started with prophetic prayer in the four corners of our nation. I took a prayer team to Vaals, which is also the highest point in the Netherlands. We had a good time and proclaimed the resurrection power of Christ over the nation.

Some news about the policital situation:
- the elections planned for 15 May will continue;
- the parties agreed to stop their campaings (and the polls) until that date;
- Pim Foruyn will be buried today and there's still a lot of public emotion around his death (yesterday on national television there was a discussion going on whether he is a messiah or not).

Today I will publish a paper to help Christians pray effectively for the situation.

There's a lot of media attention for the 10 Days for Holland. I've been contacted for interviews and details by Radio 1, UCB Radio, Ressourcen, De Telegraaf, Algemeen Dagblad, Nederlands Dagblad, Reformatorisch Dagblad, EO Predikantensite, Eva, Herstel, Visie and Noord-Hollands Dagblad. I also received an invitation to participate in Het Lagerhuis, a debating program on Dutch national television. Anybody interested?

Crisis in Holland. For the first time in Dutch history a political leader was gunned down. The political scene is in turmoil. This is the second shock in the campaign for the Parliamentary Elections. In April the whole government stepped down. Today the main emerging political leader, Pim Fortuyn, was murdered in Hilversum. He was the leader of a new political party that challenged the establishment by speaking out on controversial issues. A research published today showed that his party was leading the polls and he had a good chance of becoming prime minister.

Tomorrow the demissionary government will decide whether the elections planned for 15 May will continue. I guess it's in their advantage to postpone the elections, because when a man is killed on the height of his fame, he will very likely continue a martyr. We already see a 'Diana effect' taking place: people laying flowers and Dutch flags on the footstep of his house, burning candles etc.

Big question for me is: what will happen with the prophetic mandate this man carried? I hope and pray the Christians (who have been pretty colourless up to now) will move into this vacuum. On this very moment (I'm sitting in front of the tele) a guy is interviewed on national television. He says: "Fortuyn spoke out about the problems we are facing because of our tolerance." The reporter: "Who are you, sir, and what organisation do you represent?" The guy: "All I want to say is I'm a Christian and many people are praying right now for this situation."

More than ever Holland needs your prayers. The 10 days for Holland will start on Thursday 9 May. Pray about joining us.

Yesterday we celebrated grandma's 80st birthday in the Ouwehands Zoo in Rhenen. Great fun for the kids.

Back home. Brought some presents for Karolien and the kids, thanks to the Hungarian IKEA.

It's interesting to hear the feedback on Hope 21 from Christian leaders outside West-Europe. Levi Graudins from Latvia wrote: "My trip to Budapest was a mixed blessing. My expectations were high to be in an environment with 1000 European Christian leaders. Overall I was disappointed that there were few people, two when I was there, in the conference prayer room. The results were very evident. Overall the European Union, intellectual and philosophical atmosphere was too often heavy, discouraging and even foolish. On the other hand there were wonderful spiritual moments, mainly relational, and during prayer and worship."

Rubens Cunha from Brazil responded: "You Europeans talk but don't walk, analyse but don't provide solutions, function mainly rational instead of supernatural." I share their feedback. The conference was good from a relational (networking) point of view, but was overall not visionary or cutting edge, providing no clear mandate for the future. Thank God that he is sending Latvians and Brazilians on our way to shake us out of our complacency.

Today was teamtime. A loooooong day. But we accomplished something. Ueli Haldemann and Paivi Heikkila plan to join the team. Brian Mills and Pieter Bos will move out. EPL is developing from a network of national prayer leaders into a partnership to move forward the prayer movement in Europe.

Ioan moved into my room and we talked until 2.30 about starting a worldwide 24hour prayer chain.

The national meeting was pretty good. We started off with the Dutch national anthem and orange bakery, because it was the queen’s birthday! It was interesting to hear short reports from all the different tracks. I did a presentation on the prayer track. The hot quote of the day: “Prayer is sexy!” Bert Roor of the Dutch Evangelical Alliance did a good job processing the feedback and suggestions for the future. It was good from the point of view of relationship and intellectual exercise. I still don’t think an implementation plan will work.

Talked extensively with Marco Vermin, Henk Rothuizen and Paul Donders.