Marc's Messages

An Abrahamic journey

Today Karolien told the boys the story of Abraham, who left his hometown for a journey into the unknown to a promised land he had never seen. It was an adventure of faith, as he had no idea how to get there, but trusted God to lead him on the way.

It reminded me of one of Lucie's paintings in Senozaty: Abraham looking at the sky, receiving God's promise of an inheritance, descendants, and through that the King and his Kingdom. I feel that as a family we're also on a kind of Abrahamic journey. We sense that our time in Utrecht is coming to an end, and see the new land already before us in the Spirit. The only way to get there is to trust the Promise Giver step-by-step.

BTW, the pictures of our trip to the Czech Republic are here.

Herrnhut: home of the Moravians

Through Prague and Liberec (where we met with Petr Cincala, a researcher-teacher who carries a vision for reformation in Czechia) we arrived in Herrnhut, hometown of the Moravian-Hutterite movement started by Ludwig von Zinzendorf and Christian David. It's my fourth visit to Herrnhut, and everytime I'm here I experience a sense of homecoming. Is it the spiritual values and inheritance of this place or the peaceful hilly landscape of the Oberlausitz?



Anyway, I enjoyed our three days here - hiking in the mountain area of Oybin, strolling through the fields to Berthelsdorf, admiring the Saxonian houses, and saying prayers at dusk on the Hutberg watchtower. We also paid a visit to the former hospital, that is currently being rebuilt into a house of prayer annex training centre.

Tabor: town of the Hussites

We spent most of the weekend with Charis and Keith Enns in Tabor. Keith teaches English as a second language, and Charis spent a year in prophetic prayer for Czechia and has a vision to see organic church planting movements in this homeland of the early reformation.

Yesterday we visited the Hussite Museum, which describes how the reformation envisioned by Jan Hus, and initially modelled in Tabor (the chalice in the coat of arms of this town symbolises freedom of communion with Christ for everyone), got off-track by the Hussite Wars that broke out after the Council of Constance where Hus was trapped and executed. Under the leadership of general Jan Zizka the Hussites literally turned their ploughs into swords and developed an advanced style of warfare to defend their beliefs and properties.

The reformation turned into a revolution; what started in the Spirit, ultimately ended in the flesh. But the spirit of Hus is still alive among the Czechs today, who hate organised religion and hold onto truth. Hus takes the third place in the top-10 of Czech national heroes. If the 'hidden seed' is still there, new Life can spring forth.



Today we enjoyed the woods, meadows and lakes east of Tabor. Thank God for sunshine, friendship and Czech beer!

Senozaty: a walled garden

Because of roadworks we didn't reach Czechia yesterday and spent the night in a family pension in Austria. In the course of the afternoon, over the patchworked country roads of South Bohemia, we arrived in Senozaty, a quiet village in the middle of nowhere, where Vit and Lucie Skala started a house of prayer. They literally rebuilt the old ruins of a farmhouse into a pittoresque place of prayer and hospitality, with a beautiful walled garden. And thanks to Vit's efforts the whole village is wifi connected, which is quite incredible.



Tomorrow we'll visit Petra and Mirek Cejka of the house of prayer in Jihlava, 40 km east of Senozaty, on the border with Moravia.

Bye bye Switzerland

We had such a good time in Switzerland, that I feel a bit sad to leave. But hey, tomorrow we're heading for the Czech Republic, to connect with friends, which should be good as well. All the Switzerland pictures are here.

The e:merging church

The emerging generation of Jesus-followers prefer a rule of life over a statement of faith, a table over a pulpit, a story over a sermon, the Kingdom over the Church, the gospels over the epistles, dynamic worship over static worship, teaching to obey over teaching to agree, the reflective practitioner over the scholar/orator, the apostle/prophet over the teacher/pastor, missiology over theology, global over western, new media over old media, and team leadership over a single leader. These preferences also create 12 (actually 13) tension points with church-as-we-know-it, says Andrew Jones, aka Tallskinnykiwi.

The big walk (2)

David was determined to climb a real mountain, so we headed for the 2190 meter top of the Stockhorn. A great walk from the Oberstockensee, where the Swiss were blowing their alp horns, to Matten, from where we hitchhiked back to Thun. It was David's first seven-hour trip, so he deserves a medal. And the view from the top was wonderful.

Swimming in Lake Thun

This week was sunny and even quite hot, around 28 degrees Celcius. Most days we took a swim in the cristal blue water of Lake Thun.

The big walk

Today I made a long walk in the Jungfrau region, from First (2,000 meter above Grindelwald) to Schynige Platte (2,000 meter above Interlaken). Great views, great nature, and an incredible ride down by rack railway.

A house well-built

It's a blessing to live in a house that is so well-built with eye for detail. Every living-block architect from the Netherlands (especially those who designed Overvecht) should come to Steffisburg to check this place out.

Karolien would probably say the only downside are 'los hundos', the two Colombian chiwawa's in the basement, who put their teeth in one of her legs. And of course the beetle flies who attacked her on the balcony one evening - they came with a dozen of comrades, full-speed, like if it were an action scene in the latest Starwars movie.

Wild streaming water

Today we visted the Aareschlucht, a 1400 meter long and 180 meter deep gorge that is made accessible by a system of paths and tunnels. Really cool. We also took the little cable train up to the steep Reichenbach waterfall, where Conan Doyle's hero Sherlock Holmes fought out his deadly battle with archenemy professor Moriarty.

Mountain marketing

Which of the mountains in the Lake Thun and Jungfrau region will we climb? It's hard to choose. The Swiss market their mountains well. "Come to us, we have the most romantic walking tracks!" "No, come to us, we have the best panorama views!" "But we have the most high-tech funicular!" "And only here you will find mammal (Murmeltier) colonies!"



Because you pay crazy prices for the mountain railways and funiculars, the boys quickly found out that there are two kind of mountains: expensive and free mountains. The former are more touristic, but offer you an easy and exciting way to the top; the latter are quiet but take more energy. So when we go for a walk they ask: "Dad, are we going to the expensive mountains, or the free ones?"

Mega-church controls state

Satirical e-zine Lark News reports that in 12 short years, Christian Family Center, a church of 8,500 in Idaho, has purchased large swaths of cheap land with surplus tithes and effectively taken control of the state. This includes the state highways, which the church maintains as toll roads. Church members drive for free, others pay $7-12. For now, one can drive from Oregon to Montana and never leave the church's 'Area of Ministry'. Great story.

Jesus bored in church

I saw this picture in Reinhold's study: Jesus got so bored with those typical church services that we throw for Him every Sunday morning, that He fell asleep... (click on the picture to enlarge)

Walking in the rain

We had a great first week. Although it was rainy and too cool to sit outside, we enjoyed the nature in-between the showers. In Schwanden we ended up in a cow shed, while the rain was pouring down, and Karolien rescued us in her 'white taxi'. In Fahrni we lost the way, and climbed down a narrow path to a waterfall - the boys like this kind of 'jungle' stuff. In Zweisimmen we drove the car up to 2,000 meters (didn't know this was possible) and David and I walked all the way down, being chased by two porks.

Joel News and Friday Fax

It's no longer a secret: Joel News and Friday Fax will combine their strengths. On 1 January 2006 Friday Fax will cease it's news service, and Joel News International will fill the gap. This means that from this date on we will also serve the German-speaking world (Germany, Switzerland and Austria) with cutting edge stories of what God is doing in our time.

Wolfgang will launch two new products: Friday Fax 2, which deals specifically with the so-called 'prophetic-apostolic reformation', and Mammon Fax, about money and work.

The London bombings

When I was in London last week, it crossed my mind how vulnerable people are in a tube. While the Underground was a safe place against Nazi bombings during World War II, in the decennium of Al-Qaida it's the last place you want to be when a bomb goes off.

Si Johnson writes on his weblog that he had a deja-vu: "It feels like I'm back in Northern Ireland. All I can hear is a cacophony of sirens and helicopters whirring overhead." And about the G8 meeting in Scotland: "Around 50 lives have sadly been lost in London yesterday, but 10 million will be saved in Africa over the next 5 years because of the decisions today." More here.

Talking about terrorism: Switzerland is probably the safest place to be. The Scharnowski's have an atomic bunker under their house. No kidding, Reinhold told me it's obligatory when you want to build a house here.

Changes on this blog

It's raining, and Karolien and the boys are doing an afternoon nap. A good moment to work a bit on my weblog. I added some new family pictures, wrote the reports of my UK marathon, and reviewed my typelists.

I noticed that everyone at Soul Survivor stopped blogging. That's a real pity, now I have to call them more often to stay updated. Hey boyz and girrrls, blogging is a spiritual discipline. A deliberate choice to reflect and communicate. Don't know why it isn't mentioned in Richard Foster's book 'Celebration of Discipline', but it should be included in the next edition.

Talking about discipline, I have to admit I have a hard time staying away from my notebook. Reinhold has wireless internet all over the place, and who can resist that? Wolf Simson, whom we paid a 10 minute turbo-visit just before we came here, mailed me today: "Hands off the computer, put it somewhere on your wife, you are on holiday, man!!!" OK, but can't we do both? ;-)

Missionary house-sitting

It's becoming a new holiday trend for us: missionary house-sitting. This year we stay in the Scharnowski residence in Steffisburg, Switzerland. A modern chalet with a view on the mountains, a trampoline in the garden, two crazy dogs (if you can call chiwawa's dogs) in the basement, and a quite addicting coffee machine.

In or out of the house?

Tonight I met up with the team of the Dutch house church network, and we made two clear decisions:

1. We keep the website strictly as an information point on new expressions of church, not as a defined network. The network is too loose to be able to shape it into an intentional community, because the different groups don't have a shared history. While in the first two years of the network there was a clear interest in conferences and seminars, because the whole 'house church thinking' was quite new, today many people go organic, liquid, relational, simple or whatever the buzzword is. Even more websites have sprung up, like HetNetwerk.net and Paradigm Shift.

2. We focus on the forming of mobile apostolic teams, involving younger leaders. This is where God is moving, and these teams will kickstart simple church movements.