Crossroads Bible Church, Team Holland 2006 Official Blog Site
Dates of our trip: July 12--July 30, 2006.
The team has been assembled and preparing since January, 2006.
Departing Flight Information July 12: British Air Flight #2192, Departing DFW 4:20PM. Arriving London Gatwick 7:20AM. Connecting flight from London Heathrow, British Airways flight #434 to Amsterdam Schipol arriving 1:45PM.
Return Flight Information July 30: British Air Flight #8110, Departing Amsterdam Schipol 7:00AM, arriving London Gatwick 7:10AM. Conntecting flight from London Gatwick, British Airways flight #2193 to Dallas/Fort Worth arriving 2:30PM.
You can also use the links on each of these sights to find out even more information!
In order to prepare for the nature of direct outreach in a postmodern culture, our team read the book "How Should We Live Then" by Colson & Pearcy. It's an excellent read for an introduction to worldviews, their effects and their results.
Some of the most influential books on the subject of postmodernism would be by Francis A. Schaeffer, including "The God Who Is There," "Escape From Reason," & "How Should We Then Live" (which obviously influenced Colson). If you're interested in some basic quotes on postmodernism, you can get them here:
2003: Brent McKinney, Rob Edwards, Deb Stevenson, Jess Semmelbeck, Liz Stevenson, Alicia Garcia, Jude Miniat, Christy Thrasher, Abby Lorenc, Cristina MacGilvra, Matt Eaton, Justin Bascue, Faith Oldenburg, Kayti Edwards, Kim Church.
2006: Brent McKinney, Steve Davis, Debbie Schmidt, Michelle Davis, Thomas Egbert, Schuyler Crabtree, Kayla Russell, Alex Ehrich, Keila Lorenc, Bailey Price, Olivia Schmidt, Maria MacGilvra, Alicia Garcia
First and foremost, this trip is 17 days long and for many team members it's the longest they've been away from home. We'd love to hear from you, so feel free to check back often and comment by clicking on the spaces beneath each entry!
Secondly, pray for the team members and those they'll come in contact with. This ministry is entirely relational...and each day we'll simply be waking up and trying to find someone to share the Gospel with. We'd truly appreciate your thoughts and prayers!
Finally, when this team left, we were short of our financial goals. If you're so inclined to donate, simply go to the church website and click on "contact us," send an e-mail saying you'd like to contribute, and you'll be given the necessary instructions.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
A Couple of Quick Things
The nature of this mission is like a baseball game: Plenty of abbreviations and parentheses followed by turns of events at lightning speed. Take yesterday for example.
In one of the greatest understandings of human nature, The Netherlands starts their Monday work-day at 1PM. That's right. Sleep in! Eat slowly! Ease into your work week! Since nothing was really open and they couldn't really do much, we did the same thing. You know...when in Rome...
We met with Peter Hays at 11AM, just a nice time for him to get to know the team a bit and for them to meet him. They got to hear the history of the EKV church and the nature of the work the Hays family does. Needless to say, it only reiterated what they've already experienced.
Then they went to get groceries home (Mrs. Debbie shops without all the kids in her ears saying, "Hey those look good. Get some of those!" Lesson learned from the first day shopping) and there wasn't much to do. I read a good bit. The teens went out looking to minister or do chores or find or whatever else might bump them into locals.
While I was reading, Roy asked me what the nature of the book I was reading. It's Eugene Peterson's book called "Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places." It's a theology book...but not like you're thinking. It's designed to make theology practical for today's living. In fact, I was reading a section of meals and how valuable they are...which I'm seeing first-hand as our team eats around the same table nightly and has dinner--with amazing benefits to all of us.
Anyway, Roy asks something like, "Does that book talk about the Bible and how it can help today or something? Because I need something like that. You guys have been telling me to read the Bible and when I do I don't understand it how something that happened 2,000 years ago matters to me now."
The conversation didn't stay on that topic, say, 5 minutes. But more seeds were planted...and the conversation went merrily along for about half an hour, then we came in and had dinner at 6:30PM.
Then more waiting.
Then, at 10:15PM, I wound up having one of the most meaningful conversations this trip. Sorry, can't give details here. It was over by 10:45PM.
That's more or less how it works...pauses with lightning-speed interjections of importance.
Brent 6:55 AM