August 13, 2022
Half a century of reminiscences were stirred by a recent visit to our Amsterdam apartment from Captain Brian Sloan and his wife Anne. Brian runs the YWAM Maritime Academy, training crew for the twenty eight vessels of the YWAM Ships fleet operating all around the world. For me, that’s a story stretching back to […]
August 6, 2022
Today the Pride Parade will snake its way through Amsterdam’s canals climaxing a week of LGBTQ+ activities celebrating sexual diversity. ‘My gender, my pride’ and ‘Free to be myself’ are among the slogans displayed around the inner city. Government agencies and prominent businesses add the rainbow logo to products and decorations, projecting a sense of […]
July 30, 2022
Who is our Jesus? Here’s Mother Theresa’s answer in her own handwriting. I came across this last week in the Memorial House built to commemorate her in the heart of Skopje, Macedonia, with her letters, meditations (some written on old envelopes) and awards (including the Nobel Peace Prize) on display. The house was built where […]
July 23, 2022
After years of waiting, Albania and North Macedonia were given the green light this week to start accession talks concerning full EU membership. Television news showed officials in Brussels toasting the ‘breakthrough’. So why are the Macedonians not excited? This news was only days old as Romkje and I landed at Alexander the Great airport […]
July 16, 2022
Life in an ‘open-air museum’ like the city of Amsterdam is full of unexpected discoveries. This week I learnt about a Dutch Reformed preacher and theologian who died exactly 400 years ago after facilitating the remarkable era of world exploration and trade which launched the fledgling Dutch Republic into its so-called ‘Golden Age’. He […]
July 9, 2022
The long-anticipated fall of Boris Johnson this week confronts us all with the question: am I a truth-twister or a truth-seeker? Am I shaping truth to my own desires or my desires to truth? Truth matters at every level of life and society – in our bedrooms, homes, schools and offices as well as in […]
July 2, 2022
Two weeks ago in weekly word, I described a broad gathering of Dutch church leaders I attended united under the creed: ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’. However, I suspect that if we had asked ‘Lord of what?’, our unity may have been stretched. Some no doubt would have answered, ‘Lord of my life’, or ‘Lord of […]
June 25, 2022
This weekend finishes Refugee Week, arousing awareness of the vast numbers of those displaced globally through war, climate change, famine, poverty, persecution, terrorism or religious strife. Activities of this growing world movement celebrate the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and asylum seekers. As we are witnessing in Ukraine, the causes of displacement are interrelated. […]
June 18, 2022
To my surprise, the name of a Russian Orthodox archpriest was on the speakers list of an annual retreat for Dutch national church leaders this week. In these days of anti-Russian sentiment, how he would be received? What had he come to say? Little did I expect that many participants would view the archpriest’s talk […]
June 11, 2022
If in these grave days we believe that prayer for Ukraine is a responsibility and a necessity, then clearly so must we also pray for her aggressor, Russia. Parallels in the Bible and in history help us to know how we should pray. The story of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus remind us that rulers are […]
June 4, 2022
The happy sounds of care-free children ring around the playground in the heart of Amsterdam where granddad duty has brought me once more. While my two grandsons join friends playing football, digging in the sand pit or racing skelters, I catch up on the latest news updates from Ukraine sent faithfully for over eighty days […]
May 28, 2022
To the average European today, Ascension Day remains on our western calendars as a left-over from some obscure religious past, another welcome spring holiday along with Easter and Pentecost. Few care or even think about its origin. As believers, however, we can see its significance as the occasion when Christ commissioned his followers to ‘go […]
