July 17, 2021
When rivers burst their ancient boundaries, devastation of life and property results. We watched in shock on our screens this week as turbulent, rushing, muddy waters tore at the foundations of houses, tossed cars aside like toys and overturned rescue vessels in Germany and Belgium. Lives have been lost. Livelihoods, homes, families and hopes have […]
July 10, 2021
Fifty-five years have passed since England won its first and last major international football championship. So understandably the English are getting wound-up about ‘bringing football home’ on Sunday evening’s EURO 2020 final with Italy. The big question is, will the home-game advantage in Wembley Stadium outnumbering Italian spectators four to one offset the Italians’ track […]
July 3, 2021
Germany and France have done it. So have Belgium and Britain. And even the United States. Amsterdam did it this week. But the Netherlands? Not yet. Saying sorry is something we all have to learn. Teaching children to say that word requires patience. Coaxing national governments to do the right thing can be like urging […]
June 26, 2021
Travel is opening up again across Europe at last as corona restrictions are easing. So come with us this summer on an exploratory trip through time and space. No, we are not organising a trip across the continent in mini-vans …yet. But we do invite you to travel to Amsterdam for the Summer School of […]
June 19, 2021
They’re back on the streets of Amsterdam! The rowdy football fans. And all over Europe again, for EURO2020: on the streets of Rome, Glasgow, St Petersburg, Copenhagen, Munich, Seville, London, Baku, Budapest and Bucharest. Thinking positively, they are signs of a returning normalcy. A sporting and friendly rivalry, encompassed by a sense of belonging to the […]
June 12, 2021
Many Christians wonder if God is still welcome in Brussels. After all, wasn’t he banned from the Lisbon Treaty? Doesn’t the EU promote so-called ‘European values’ counter to Christianity? Isn’t it true that the EU ‘doesn’t do God’? Shouldn’t Christians distance themselves from an ‘increasingly secular’ project? What does the gospel have to do with […]
June 7, 2021
The widespread condemnation of the recent forced landing of the Ryanair flight over Belarus led me to ponder the influence of a Dutchman considered to be the father of modern international law: Hugo Grotius. Just 250 metres from our apartment, his statue stands by the former Amsterdam exchange building looking out towards the harbour. Grotius, […]
May 30, 2021
Author, speaker and urban missions pioneer Floyd McClung Jr passed away in Cape Town early Saturday morning, May 29th, after battling an illness that had left him incapacitated and unable to speak for over five years. Floyd and his wife Sally arrived in Amsterdam late in 1973 with their baby daughter Misha after a long […]
May 22, 2021
Pentecost is a feast to celebrate the birth of the 2000-year-old Jesus movement, and the hope of the fullfilment of God’s purposes for humankind. Yet it is one of those events on the calendar many enjoy as a holiday weekend but few understand. Like so many aspects of western life, Pentecost is an indelible part […]
May 15, 2021
I learnt a new word this week: agnotology, the study of the deliberate propagation of ignorance. Agnotology comes from the Greek work agnosis, meaning ‘not knowing’ or ‘ignorance’, and ontology, which deals with the nature of being. The word was coined 25 years ago by researchers who discovered a secret memo revealing the tactics of […]
May 8, 2021
Tomorrow is Europe Day, May 9, a day to reflect on belonging to the diverse European family. It is a day both celebrated and ignored in different European nations. To trace the story of this day, we go to a village called Caux, a thousand metres high in the Swiss mountains overlooking Lake Geneva and […]
May 1, 2021
This coming week European countries will commemorate the end of World War Two in different ways. The Netherlands, for example, will hold solemn ceremonies across the nation on Tuesday, May 4, to remember those who lost their lives. In Amsterdam, the king and queen – without the usual public crowd – will lay wreaths on […]
