February 14, 2011
Everybody knows its Valentine’s Day today, but who knows who Valentine was? And how did his name get linked with the global day of romantic celebration? Several martyred saints in ancient Rome were named Valentine. Little is actually known about the one whose feast day is February 14 except that he was buried on that […]
February 7, 2011
Arguing with atheists is boring, says Jari Koivu, a Finn who has been on a journey from his home country to Austria, Russia, Cyprus and most recently to Canada. He met his Ukrainian wife, Tanya, in a refugee camp in Vienna, sometimes climbing over the wire fence to see her, he […]
January 31, 2011
Totally overshadowed by the dramatic events in Tunisia and Egpyt, thousands of Albanians have also been taking to the streets in desperation for just and stable national leadership. Yesterday Christians initiated a Caravan of Peace which gathered in front of Mother Therea’s Monument in the square named after Albania’s most famous daughter. Arian Galdini is […]
January 24, 2011
A friend called my wife recently to tell her we were completely on the wrong track. She had just been to hear a British healer-evangelist speaking in charismatic circles in our country lately, who apparently has been proclaiming that God has finished with Europe. At least, that was the clear message our friend had picked […]
January 19, 2011
Twenty-five of us crowded into the Dwaze Zaken arts cafe a few days ago, at the point where the River Amstel flowed out into the Zuider Zee. We were about to set out on a walk through the oldest parts of Amsterdam (formerly Amstelredam–dam on the Amstel) to trace the story of Europe from medieval […]
January 12, 2011
In England at least, the New Year has made a promising start. Last week I visited an annual gathering of British mission agencies engaged in (the rest of) Europe. Now that in itself is a good start. For Brits interested in the rest of Europe are not such a common breed, I have discovered over […]
January 3, 2011
The New Year is the time for making resolutions and setting goals. So, here’s my first resolution, which in turn will lead to goals for the coming year… and years to come. Sitting on my desk has been a business card of an elder of an evangelical church where I sometimes speak. He first wrote […]
December 20, 2010
Here in the northern hemisphere we are enduring the longest nights of the year as we approach Christmas Day. Politically and economically things are rather dark too. Can we, like the wise men, glimpse a star of hope? Our national leaders have been gathering to decide how best to bolster the Euro against the failure […]
December 13, 2010
What Europe needs right now is statesmen or -women, leaders with vision beyond national interest and who share a vision of Europe as a true community of peoples, with spiritual dimensions. Someone like, well, Jacques Delors. In the 1980‘s, the ‘European project’ threatened to run out of vision, energy and direction until Delors emerged to […]
December 7, 2010
Last week I visited Holland for the first time in my life–Holland in Michigan, USA, that is. Just a 30 minute drive from Grand Rapids and close to the shores of Lake Michigan, Holland is a city of 60,000 today, pioneered by 19th century Dutch immigrants from close to where I live in The Netherlands. […]
November 22, 2010
Last week in Budapest, 28 folk from across Europe gathered at our annual Hope for Europe Round Table to prepare for the HOPE•II Congress in that city, May 9-13 next year. We hope to gather a thousand leaders from across Europe for four days of relationship-building, inspiration, strategising and mutual encouragement. At the Round Table, […]
November 15, 2010
Christians need to champion a culture of hope in the midst of uncertainty, fear and financial crisis. This belief is motivating a Swiss futurologist to conduct a European survey by internet to discover not only their worries, cares and fears, but also their hopes. Late last year, Dr Andreas Walker of Basel launched a national […]
