Marc's Short Messages

Spent most of the day with Tomas Sandell and and international group of leaders in the Hotel Royal in Evian on the French side of Lake Geneva. This was the location of the infamous Evian conference of 1938 when the nations of Europe, the Commonwealth and North and Latin America turned their back on the Jewish people by not allowing refugees from Germany and Austria to immigrate, giving Hitler more or less green light for the holocaust. God has been speaking to me (and as we found out also others) about a second Evian, when very soon we will find ourselves in a similar situation when our attitude towards the Jewish people really matters - will we stand strong, or compromise again? We had an inspiring prayer time and fellowship.

I'm in Geneva, hanging out with Lammert & Conny Vrieling and getting to know Nuno Barreto from Portugal who moved here last Autumn. Good conversations on coping with crisis and transition, missional community, and internet developments.

In the international edition of Joel News some encouraging stories of how God is using children in prayer.

Will be travelling the coming week. First to Geneva and Evian, then to Brno and Bratislava, all Connect Europe related.

We paid a visit to the pittoresque IJsselmeer island of Marken. The walk along the grassy dike to the lighthouse was very nice.

Was good to catch up today with fellow shifters Douwe and Mattias. One of the topics: why change and God's work in our lives, the church and society can take soooo much time.

"Your task is not to find a community that meets your needs! That is shopping! Your task is to create community for those who do not have it! That is mission!" (My friend Steve in one of his always provoking emails.)

The Connect Europe roundtable at the SLOT Art Festival is shaping up. It will be held 9-13 July 2008 in Lubiaz, Poland (west of Wroclaw). An official invitation will be sent out this week. It will be our main connection point this year for pioneers from across Europe, and you are warmly invited! Make sure to be on the Connect mailing list (info [at] connecteurope.org) if you want to stay in the loop.

After the Netherlands and France also Germany saw the birth of an emerging church network that seeks to inspire, network, coach and train missional pioneers in German-speaking Europe. The network is called Novavox (new voice), and Stefan Lingott and David Schäfer are coordinating things.

Thousands of people in the Netherlands flock to conferences where the Holy Spirit is at work. There's a growing hunger for more of God, especially among the youth. More in the Dutch edition of Joel News.

The European DAWN team is in a process of critically evaluating it's effectiveness and will hopefully make some bold decisions: either dissolve or pro-actively reshape. Oivind is leading us in this strategic review, and the moment of truth is next month when we meet in Kristiansand.

Gijs took the initiative for a first meeting of the Emerging Network Utrecht. The idea is to kickstart various local-regional networks of missional/emerging church planters. I planned to go, but my interview ran out. Report here.

Had an interesting interview with author Teus Schep about his prophetic novel 'Tesjoewa'. It is about a handful of unlikely people who find each other and how God uses them to turn the heart their village back to Him. I will edit it into an article for the Dutch edition of Joel News. Teus also wrote this story, a taxi driver's diary.

The trip to Malta was also family time. We enjoyed several coastal walks and visited the old capital Mdina. Already in early May the island is very dry and dusty, though the many Spring flowers and cactuses bring colour and life, and some of the cliff scenery is stunning. Everywhere in the landscape you see little houses from where the Maltese exercise their national hobby: shooting birds. It's also hard to ignore the rubbish, as the Maltese throw everything they don't use anymore out of their houses and cars. This is pioneering territory for environmentalists. More hiking pictures of Malta here.

On Tuesday and Friday I met up with several Jesus followers who shared their heart/vision/calling and updated me on the status of Kingdom and the Church in Malta. Nick, who pastors a charismatic church in the south, shared his insight into the Maltese identity and ministry in a Roman Catholic context. He estimates that out of Malta's 400,000 inhabitants about 7,000 are charismatic Catholics (who have a personal walk with Christ) and 700 are Evangelicals. Claude, who regularly travels to North Africa, started a 24-7 prayer room in Floriana, the old centre of the capital Valetta. As Malta has only one university where most young people go through, this is a strategic hub to reach this generation. Vanessa, a young Christian, shared her vision to equip and realease children and teenagers, and is quite keen to connect with others in Europe. Eve is focused on simple church and hospitality. We are currently discussing the possibility to run a training weekend for young people in Malta on prophetic evangelism and community development. The Maltese seem to be quite open for prayer and the supernatural.

The last two chapters of Acts describe how the apostle Paul shipwrecked on the shores of Malta, and how out of this disaster a healing revival broke out among the population of the island who received him warmly. Healing of wounded pilgrims on their journey has been the ministry of the monastic order the Knights of St. John (also called the Hospitallers as they started the first hospitals from Jerusalem), who clearly left their marks during their 300-year rule of Malta. In the famous Great Siege of Malta they showed heroic bravery in defeating the Ottomans, while greatly outnumbered. Healing and mission seem to be part of the Maltese Church's calling to the nations. As Malta is so close to North Africa and the language has Arabic roots, the island - the smallest and with 1300 inhabitants per square kilometer also the most densely populated EU member state - seems to be also quite well positioned as a beachhead into the Arabic world. Btw, talking about Paul - Swiss prophet Andrea Xandry sees in the shipwreck of this Roman vessel a parallel to today's (Roman) church structure that needs to be wrecked by God for a true revival to come forth. You can check out his article in German here. The picture below shows the view from our apartment over St. Paul's Bay.

We spent two days on Gozo, Malta's more beautiful sister island. The landscape is quite particular. More pictures here.

Peter (6) in a thoughtful pose. Taken during a stroll today on a dike near the IJssel river.

We had a good time in Malta. Will post a small report and some pictures later. Yesterday, on Pentecost, we celebrated David's 9th birthday.

Roger Mitchell writes in this week's Nightwatch for Europe: "God has asked for his church back. The only head of the church on earth is the Holy Spirit. He is in charge of his work. We look foolish when we organise ministries, take charge of networks and accept hierarchical roles. Perhaps it is sometimes necessary in order to influence and change things from within, but we still need to be humbled by the stupidity of it. Soon his fire will destroy all the empire way of doing things. Our task is to discover and live now in the way of life of the kingdom that belongs to and brings the new heaven and earth that is coming." (based on 2 Pet 3:11-13)