Marc's Short Messages

Steve Hill and I just returned from a trip to the Black Forest and Switzerland. At Wolf Simson's place in Feuerbach we connected with American simple church leaders like Tony & Felicity Dale, Neil Cole and others. In Winterthur in Switzerland we hosted a consultation of 15 simple church planters from across Europe who function in a transnational apostolic role. I might report a bit more on the outcomes later.

We made a lovely Autumn walk in 's-Graveland, one of our favourite areas, west of Hilversum. The boys brought their bicycles. More pictures here.

This week in Joel News International an encouraging helicopter view of how the continent of Africa is emerging in world missions. Nations like Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Africa and Zimbabwe are sending out missionaries by the thousands.

Mark de Boer, who directs Agapè in the Netherlands, gave a me an update on Kristus Päivä. Last weekend 10,000 Christians from across Finland gathered in Turku to pray for the nation and ignite and strengthen a movement of local prayer initiatives. There was also a nordic Connect event and a European consultation on prayer transformation.

Often people from other countries who want to start ministry in Utrecht or the Netherlands contact me for an introduction on what's already happening here, who is who, and the specific opportunities and missional challenges of the low lands. Today Alex from South Africa paid me a visit. God called him and his family to Utrecht, to plant a church here.

Floyd McClung uploaded a video of his All Nations project in Capetown, South Africa. His vision is to make disciples who make disciples who make disciples. End of this month he will join us in Switzerland for our European consultation on simple church.

Joined a meeting with the Overvecht group and Tom & Christine Sine, that was focused more specifically on creating a missional community in our area. Good questions, input and interaction.

I added a few more pics to my Autumn 2008 album.

Went to a meeting of the Dutch Evangelical Alliance with Tom & Christine Sine. I met Tom 22 years ago, when he encouraged me to finish my history studies as a much needed basis to shape the future. These days Tom and Christine are helping Christians to engage with today's strategic economic, ecological and societal questions, and "create the future, one mustard seed at a time". His book 'The New Conspirators' is now available in Dutch.

Karolien and I enjoyed a small Autumn break. More pictures here.

Just finished Joris Luyendijk's excellent and provoking book on the role of media in the Middle East, titled 'Het zijn net mensen' ('People like us'). Luyendijk, who was the Middle East correspondent for Dutch broadcaster NOS and NRC newspaper, makes two main arguments. One is that journalism western style works only in western style societies, not in dictatorships.The other argument is that the promise of objectivity is a harmful myth. More here. The book will be out in English in May 2009, and it's a must-read for everyone who wishes to understand the Middle East better and dares to distrust what you see on television and read in the papers. It's quite refreshing to hear a Middle East correspondent say that most of what's being reported is biased crap. Which I already knew to some extent, but it's nice to get good arguments to back it up. His final conclusion is that media need to become much more open about the limitations inherent in their work, limitations both in the collection of information and in its representation. Now back to you, Jim.

Just got sad news from Belgium that Patrick Scholman died in a motor crash. Patrick was one of the pioneers of DAWN in Belgium, and has been serving the Kingdom in many ways. He leaves a young family. Wolf Fernandez wrote a short in memoriam.

Just read in the newspaper that Dutch TV maker Ernst-Paul Hasselbach died in a car accident in Norway. Quite sad. He was the inventor of Peking Express, an adventurous hitchhiking competition that was incredibly challenging to film, and about which I blogged here. One of the few programs that got me hooked.

Pieter & Helene Bos are 25 years in 'fulltime ministry' and held a reception in Almere. We went there with the boys, and it was a good opportunity to reconnect with some friends and acquaintances in the prayer movement.

Interacted a bit with Wolf Simson about 'corporate hearing' as a 'key of the Kingdom' (see his article here).

Went for a walk in the Vijfherenlanden. Quiet sunny Autumn weather. Berries in bright red.

 

Talked to P. who's planting cell churches among Iranians and helped start a house of prayer for the Arabian peninsula.

Wow, more than 70 friend requests in my Facebook inbox. I turned off the automatic e-mail forward service, so I didn't notice. Plan to be more present in the various Facebook communities from now on.

While working through my inbox at Facebook I noticed that Greater Europe Mission and Agapè are mobilizing prayer for Europe. Donny visited youth prayer networks in Helsinki and reports: "Three different networks came together for the first time, with 25 youth leaders, and there was a real sense of unity and friendship. We had a time of waiting on God, and then the Holy Spirit began to move, and many were being set free, healed or hit by the fire of God."

Caught up at skype with my Norwegian colleague Oivind, to make preparations for a younger European church planting network leaders meeting in 2009.

Isebel mailed me a group picture of the prayer consultation in London.

The Pareto principle can be applied to many situations. Admin for instance. Before the Summer we already simplified the sign-up procecure for Joel News, the website and e-mail communication. Things that were hasslesome, like the two-month trial subscription and processing checks, were cut out. Today Karolien and I simplified the databases (from six databases back to two), which should save another 30% admin time. The basic question to regularly ask oneself is: what is the core of my vision/product/project and how can this be done in the most simple and effective way? We're not there yet, but on a learning curve.