August 13, 2001
Summer seems to have come and gone already in Holland. But I’m not complaining about the grey skies, wind and occasional rain. It’s great weather for knuckling down to some writing. Besides in two weeks’ time I’ll be in sunny Kenya for our annual YWAM Global Leadership Team meeting. That gives me a short window […]
August 6, 2001
Expectant throngs were beginning to fill the streets of Edinburgh last week. The world’s largest annual arts festival was about to begin, under the shadow of the city’s imposing castle perched high on its craggy pedestal. Every August crowds from all over the world double the Scottish capital’s population in search of summer entertainment. “Laughter […]
July 30, 2001
Expect the unexpected while driving through Ireland, they warned us. It was a warning worth heeding. Whether it was a sudden confrontation with a menacing piece of farm machinery on a narrow country lane, or the equally abrupt discovery of monastic ruins linked with the 8th century Celtic missionaries to Austria, or pre-Christian stone circles, […]
July 27, 2001
Northern Ireland has to be experienced to be believed. We’ve read about the “Troubles” for years. Persistent reports of bombs, angry clashes on the streets and failed peace talks stir a tired sense of déjà vu. Secretly we’re glad this all happens in a remote corner of Europe separated from most of us by a […]
July 16, 2001
Suppose we had an event where we gathered students from east and west in Europe… Suppose they could be imparted with a vision of Europe’s future in which believers played proactive and vital roles in politics, journalism, business, law and public life… Suppose they could realise they didn’t have to become pastors or missionaries to […]
July 9, 2001
An old friend of YWAM wrote to me in near desperation a while back. He gathers information about mission opportunities from the internet to put on his website www.mfinder.org, and gets several thousand ‘hits’ each month. When he started this almost two years ago, he had fully expected to steer lots of people to YWAM. […]
July 2, 2001
The bodies were black, brown and yellow, with a sprinkling of palefaces, jammed into the conference room at De Poort in Amsterdam last week. On the big screen more black-brown-yellow faces sang, clapped, danced, prayed and communicated from the distance of thousands of miles via a GENESIS link-up with Kona, South Africa, Lausanne, Sweden … […]
June 25, 2001
Help! not just anybody. Help! you know I need some-one. He-ee-elp! Nostalgic strains of classic Beatle songs waft through the house these days as a younger generation discovers the Lennon-McCartney genius. Particularly poignant is this 1965 hit – “when I was younger, so much younger than toda-a-a-y….” – which conjures up from my subconsciousness a […]
June 18, 2001
Nothing special draws attention to the narrow cobblestone Latin Bridge spanning the Miljacka River flowing through Sarajevo. Local Bosnian pedestrians bustle routinely across its four arches to and from the town centre. Trams rattle along the riverside, stopping at the bridge to exchange passengers. Other wider bridges up- and down-stream seem to be much more […]
June 11, 2001
The future of the Church in Europe belongs not to the caretakers (those simply maintaining the status quo), and certainly not to the undertakers (those engaged in ceremonial burials of the dead). No, the future will belong to the risktakers: those daring to challenge the established disorder of things, those willing to make bold efforts […]
June 4, 2001
Despite the collapse of communism, investment in disaster-prone Russia is still a risky venture for most businesses. But after visiting Europe’s eastern-most city, I’ve been reminded of the urgency – in our line of business – to invest in this great land. Perm is a mega-city twice the population of Amsterdam, built on the banks […]
May 21, 2001
Did you hear the one about…? Probably not, because I’m making this up as I go along. You see, there was this imam – a kind of Moslem pastor – who last week dared to say on Dutch TV that homosexuality was a sickness. Poor man. Obviously nobody had told him about political correctness. Suddenly […]
