Color printers, International Service, and Bible Study

For those of you who know Kaylie, you know that her birthday party is her highlight of the year and that she starts planning her party typically in October for her February 5th birthday. Well, seeing that February is next week, we have begun planning her party in earnest and last week designed party invitations. This first was quite an accomplishment because we had to design it in both English and Dutch for all of her friends. We had it proofed 3 times and then came to the problem of trying to print it. We usually use the Chapman's color printer; however, theirs is on the fritz. So we tried to figure out where else we could go. So, on Saturday when Kim came over and we were trying to figure out what to do and wanting to get out of the house so Jeremy could finish preparing for his lesson for youth that night, we decided to go over to the next town to use the Hays' color printer. Well, due to 2 missed bus connections and a bit of a walk with a 2 year old, the 15 minute by car/ 30 minute by bike trip took us just under 2 hours! We quickly printed the pages we needed and then turned around to come home - only to find out that there were a few typos on the Dutch copy - oh well - now they'll all see we're still learning! Anyway, we got the invitations done and delivered to all the kids in her class and her friends from church. Her theme this year is Art. Here's what her invitation looked like -in Dutch and English.



On Sunday, we decided to head down to Amsterdam to an international church that Terri volunteers at doing Sign Language interpretation. Since she is usually our Dutch interpreter at our home church and she wouldn't be there to help us understand, we took the opportunity to see more of the church-base in Holland. Crossroads, is an international church that has a very American feel and is in English. Even though it is International, they have an 80% Dutch congregation - whom we've been told are less resistant to an English service because "they can always tell people they only go to learn the English." The remaining 20% are from over 50 countries! Their service started with some great worship songs, and then there was a very good sermon on God, the Healer. This part of God's character still strikes me every time I think of the way He healed Kaylie while we were in Thailand, and the way He was so evident as we went through the valley of her unexplained seizures - especially as I think on how we stopped her seizure medication only 8 days before we came to Holland and we have had no problems since! They went on to talk about how God, being the perfect Healer, does not stop at physical healing, but that He alone can heal the whole man for eternity. They ended the service with communion, in remembrance of the sacrifice that made that healing possible. It was wonderful to experience it in a wonderfully personal way, and yet be surrounded by the body of believers whom we had never met but could share in our thankfulness.

The church itself had an interesting set-up with the platform in the middle of the room circled 360 degrees by the crowd, it made for an interesting and yet cozy feel for the 200 people. Here's a pic:


They meet in a school:
Here us Terri interpreting from an English speaker into Dutch words and then Dutch sign language - she amazes me!
We were glad to spend this time with Terri as she heads for the States for 2 months this week. Chris, her husband, left last week and will be gone for 6 months leaving Jeremy in charge of doing the Bible study lessons for our international cell group. He has started a series on seeing God's character and attributes revealed in the Bible and the correspondence to the Hebrew names of God. Tuesday his lesson was regarding Adonai, which means Master. It was very interesting to see how the Israelites referred to God as Master, putting themselves in submission to him, and yet they complained and grumbled. Jeremy went on to teach through the parable that illustrated that God expects his servants to be useful, Matthew 25:14-30, and encouraged all of us to examine our willingness to be useful. He ended the study by also pointing out that the Master has the responsibility to take care of His servants, or anything in His care, and we closed with Psalms 23. "The Lord is my shepherd . . ."

How good it is to be in His care!