Marc's Short Messages

Today we paid a visit to Darren & Lizzi Hight and the YWAM Celtic-style ecological community in Einigen. The boys went on a ride with Scoobydo and Grisha, the two donkeys.

We're enjoying our time in Switzerland with hiking, rock climbing, swimming, reading and connecting. Yesterday we made a nice canyon walk along the Sense river. We had to wade the river several times. Karolien thought is was more efficient to throw her shoes to the other side instead of carrying them around her neck. The shoes landed in the middle of the river and floated out of sight. Happily they got stuck behind some stones a few hundred meters downstream. It was funny.

Every morning at eight Peter and I cycle along the Aare river to Thun to get our daily bread. On our way we pass a military training camp. This morning a whole company of soldiers was running to work on their physicial condition. I asked Peter: "Do you know why these soldiers are running?" He replied: "Yes, these soldiers are preparing for war, so that when a war breaks out they can run away really fast."

Spain did it again. They won the EURO 2008, they won Wimbledon and now they won the Tour the France. I'm not much into 'sports prophecies' (read: don't take them very seriously), but my friends of the Nightwatch for Europe are convinced these are 'signs of God's favour'. They have been praying specifically into Spain this year and plan to have a European prayer conference in Mallorca this September. Well then, may God's Kingdom advance in Spain as much as their sportsmen perform abroad. At least for the time being. As soon as Spain starts loosing matches and tournaments, we should change that prayer. ;-)

Our car is still in the garage, but our insurance arranged a nice replacement, a Ford S-Max, which brought us to Switzerland allright. Now we're in Steffisburg in the Bernese Oberland, in a house on the shore of the Aare river, and a large garden with a goat and rabbits.

Yesterday afternoon two friends who are both in their eighties called in. One was our intercessor Jon who's praying for us daily and wanted to hear how we're doing. The other Frans Horsthuis, a 86-year old Catholic priest who has been 'doing Luke 10' for the past 40 years. We met in the evening and caught up on being on the journey with Christ and the 'real Church' that is emerging in Europe. Refreshing and challenging.

We were supposed to go on holidays today, but on the A12 our car broke down. At the same point more or less where it happened two times before. There must be some territorial demon on that spot with the assignment to take missionary cars out, and of course we didn't pray enough and he caught us off-guard. ;-) Looks like the engine is damaged, the car has to be brought to the garage tomorrow for a real diagnosis. Let's see.

Dutch satirical website Goedgelovig.nl is holding daily Revival Fire Nights, a parody on Todd Bentley and Lakeland. They labelled it the 'Dutch Humor Outpouring'. Quite funny and thought-provoking.

Marcus from Budapest just mailed me this nice panorama picture of our roundtable at SLOT, and Gabi had good reports from the global Connect meeting in Sydney.

One thing I like about SLOT is that it's not a Christian festival, but an arts festival organized by Christians. Note the difference. It's not about creating a holy and safe place for churched young people. Even with a clear 'no drugs no alcohol' policy the festival draws more non-believers than believers. About 5-10 percent of the content is related to following Christ, and 90-95 percent is an encouragement to develop artistic skills and discover your unique expression in life. Still every year 50 people have an encounter with Jesus on the festival. I guess because Jesus likes to hang out with creative people. :-)

Just returned from the SLOT Arts Festival near Wroclaw in Poland, where we hosted a small European roundtable for emerging pioneers. It was held on the grounds of this monastery in Lubiaz. During this five-day festival people can learn real skills that vary from playing drums to learning Czech, from batik painting to Irish dance, from juggling to overcoming addiction. The great thing is that it's not programmed top-down, but the festival is shaped bottom-up. Or as we say, it's emerging.

On my way to Poland I paid a visit to the Laegels, who are developing a 24-7 community in an old school building in Ramsdorf, a small village south of Leipzig. They live a simple lifestyle of prayer, community and mission, by which they also inspire visitors and trainees to form similar communities in other parts of Europe.

We fixed our holidays, so no more offers needed. We'll go mountain climbing and cow jumping in the Alps. :-)

Met with Eric Leijenaar (Manna Vandaag) en Theo Aerts (Highway Media) to discuss issues related to Christian media and internet publishing.