Passion!

We're ready to hit the road on Jan 2nd. We're driving up to Nashville for the Passion-conference. I'm really excited about it. Especially now that we have all of our new promomaterial ... It wasn't an easy task. First we had to get them designed and then we were waiting anxiously to see what they all looked like printed. So far so good!

To get a sneak peak check out our under consruction website. It'll be fully up in Jan. Yay!

Project

The College Mobilizing team is traveling to Nashville in January for the Passion Conference. We are planning to man a booth and talk to many people. One idea we have is to have a 'tree' of televisions or computer monitors playing videos and things. This project was given to me. I spent today running around Fayetteville going to junkyards and stores looking for cheap tvs. None to be found. Eventually, I found that we have ourselves several old monitors in the office that we can use. Problem solved.

Check Mate

This is the southern way of spending time.

Intense.

CrackerBarrel

Erik and Edgar checking out the American stuff you can get in the Sooouthern store/restaurant CrackerBarrel.

INTERNSHIPS

The US Postal Service is quite an amazing orginization. Today on my way home for lunch, the postal lady was putting mail into the boxes of my neighbors. I was thinking to myself,

How many people and trucks spend each day delivering the millions of post each day.

I get on average 2 things a day. That's somewhere around 500 million things delivered each day. Wow.

Well I am going to add to the expanse of post floating in the usa. Today I am working on a mass mailing for members of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities. I am promoting the internship program that we have here at OM USA. It is our desire to challenge students to participate in an internship related to their chosen field of study ina missions envrionment.

The mailing includes an introductory letter with testimonies of past interns and examples of possible internships. But the main strength is that you tell us what you want to do, where you want to go, when you want to do it, and we will do our best to make it happen. Interested? Go to OM Internships, and click "Inquire Now"

Included in the package is several Post Cards. We are currently working on redisigning the card so you may not see these again. So I am speding my day sorting cards, and getting them ready for a large mailing.

North West, Here We Come

December's pretty much down time for our team. Down time meaning no traveling, but a lot of e-mailing and phone calls. In Jan we're heading to Passion 06 in Nashville. Soon after we're flying out Oregon and spending a couple of weeks in Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

Right now we're contacting folks out there and setting up dates for visits in colleges and stuff. Personally, I'm really excited about going to Oregon, because I lived there a couple fo years ago. It's just amazingly beautiful out there plus the lifestyle is quite relaxed. If you've never been to the northwest, book a ticket. Now.

If you have any tips for us or whatever, let us know!

Peace to y'all!

FLORIDA

After Thanksgiving, our trio took a road trip to UNF and FSU in Jacksonville and Tallahasse. We pilled into our Town & Country Van and drove 7 hours to the University of North Florida. There we met the Inter Varsity Chapter Director at Wackadoo's - the local student pub and grill eatery. Edgar and Erik both had Wacky Burgers.

That evening we had a great meeting with the Intervarsity Students. We presented the "Dream Drama". Erik shared about SE Asia, Heidi about Europe and Edgar about the Near East. We shared stories and videos and prayed for each region, and Heidi gave a challenge at the end. We had some great converstations with many students afterwards.

That night we slept in the 'village' which is housing for students. Shawn was a great host for the guys and Kelly was equally great for Heidi. The next morning, just before leaving, JT managed to catch us. We had a great meeting and answered many questions for him as well, and was great to get to know him. He 'warned' us that we would be meeting his former roommate at FSU.

At Florida State we met Taylor & Carissa who lead IVCF at FSU. We did our program again, and had a great time talking to many students. Kathy was especially inquisitive and asked many questions, which we love to answer.

What would life be without good food?

Oops!

Here goes the anchor. Good job Andrew!

Retreat

We just had a team retreat by a lake here in Georgia. Did some planning and deep thinking on the lake. We'll be rocking next year!

Indian and home

Some girls I'm with from Messiah college. We had a missionary/student dinner at an Indian restaurant. It was great! Although I'm not a huge fan of lamb, which they had too.

Got home to ATL today. Red-eye flight and there were plenty of empty seats. Took a nap and got a headset for internet calling and drove to the airport to pick up E and E. Great Friday.

Delayed

It is rare for things to work out as planned in this business.

Geinene and I should have been in Atlanta for hours by now. But instead we just came back to Harrisburg, PA to Messiah college. We're here for another night. Yep. We were flying on stand-by and for some reason everyone wanted to get out of this town today and all the flights were packed. They even had to turn someone away who had payed full price for his ticket.

G and I spent an afternoon at the cute little airport in Harrisburg waiting to get on to a plane reading nespapers and hoping for the best. In the end some very wonderful students came to pick us up and offered a place to stay for the night. Our boss loved that. No hotels.

Tomorrow we're out of here at 6am.

Job Fair

This evening we participated in a Job Fair at Taylor for all the reps. I didn't think many would come, but it turned out to be quite busy. It acted as a filter and those who were serious about doing something or looking for an internship or missions opportunity came by. Edgar and I were quite busy as we spoke with many students interested in opportunites abroad. Some were ready to sign up for 2 years. It was quite exciting.

Dreams and Meals

I had the chance to hang out with a bunch of girls in their dorm last night. I shared about what I've done in missions and they shared about their dreams for the future. One wanted to start a non-profit organization, another wanted to maked great films and yet another one wanted to make a difference in high school kids lives. God has given all of us different passions and the important thing is not where we are, but that we're following hard after Him.

Also last night Geinene and I were invited to a student's home. I mean a real home. She had done an internship through us last summer in England and wanted to have us over. It was a first for both of us! You know, being invited to a real home at a college. Nothing beats a home cooked meal after eating college cafeteria food. Let me tell you!

Alarm

Thunder, lightning and rain. After a beautiful day on campus, we got some pretty bad weather. When I finally made it to the dorms, a siren went off and the guys on the floor said:"Tornado alarm, everyone, go down to the basement!" So I joined the masses down the stairs.
This dorm has 4 floors; only one floor with guys, so we had an interesting crowd.

Girls carrying blankets and stuff to eat, guys with computer textbooks and laptops (complaining about the absence of wireless connection in the basement). One guy told me that the last time they sat down there for about 2 hours... And I didn't bring anything to read!

Last night I shared with the guys on my floor how I got involved into missions. One of the guys came up to me in the basement and said: " I have some questions about your country, maybe now is the right time to ask them..."
So I shared about the declining church in The Netherlands and Europe. And that Europe is a mission field right now. We talked about this for a while, until we got word that the alarm phase was over.

Always be ready to answer questions...

Loneliness

Isn't it funny how one can feel so lonely in a crowd?

It's sad to talk to students and find that they're going to a Christian university and yet feel very lonely and isolated in that enviroment. I guess we can sometimes just be really cruel to another. We don't even necessarily mean to be, but we're too busy to notice the ones that don't have anyone.

Do you have someone in your life that you could reach out to and be a friend?

Appointment

This morning Erik and I went to the Arts building to see if we could meet some of the art professors to show the promo video about Artslink. When we came to the arts department office, we saw the latest Artslink postcard on the counter! (Michael had send a stack of them to Taylor) We were directed to the office of one of the professors. When we walked in, she was about to contact our office to get more information about Artslink...

She was really excited about our vist and gave us an opportunity to share the promo video in two of her classes! She has a vision of sending a team of artists from Taylor overseas. Our meeting this morning was one of those divine appointments. Thank God for that!

Up in Pennsylvania

Geinene and I arrived here in Pennsylvania yesterday. It's fabulous out here. I was ready to by a huge winter coat for this trip - but PTL this year the weather's a lot more agreable. Who-a!

We had a student lead prayer meeting last night and it was cool. Some of the students showed up and it was great to pray together with them. We also had a missionary dinner for all the missions reps. Loved that cheesecake!

Geinene spoke in two art classes today. The professor was really excited about Artslink. He even said he'd go on it if he was just younger. I'm just so excited about seeing more artists raised up to reach the world. But not just artists, I want to see this generation take the challenge and risk their lives for Jesus. Live the barbarian way (check out the book by Erwin McManus). I come back to prayer. It's all got to start with prayer.

Taylor

Erik and I made it safely to Upland Indiana. We are part of the missions week at Taylor University. Last night we had the opportunity to meet with the students and the people from other organizations. We started the week with a time of prayer for the week and the needs of the different missions organizations. We are looking forward to meet the students here at Taylor.

Workwise

So today, workwise, we hung up a magazine rack on the wall. I did e-mails and took care of my receipts I needed to give to OM. Was planning on doing a bunch of other stuff too, which I'll do tomorrow.

We're still unsure whether we'll be going up to Pennsylvania next week. I'd love to go. We'll find out tomorrow. Typical day at work I guess. Got things done, but there's still so much more to do!

The Dutchman

Hoi, I'm Edgar. The Dutchman on the team. I came to the United States in December 2004.
My studies Information Services and Management brought me a job as a researcher for a newspaper. I worked there for 5 years. Then I started searching for a new job.The only restriction I made for my new job was that I could tell people about Jesus. My 'restriction' brought me for two years on a missions ship. 3 continents and more than 25 countries and many more people in those countries. Here I could see Gods work all around the world. I was impressed by the diversity of all the different cultures. On the ship I realized how important the work behind the scenes is in missions. And that everyone can be involved in missions in his or her own capacities.

The Finn

I'm Heidi (pronounced Hay-dee) and I'm the only Finn (a person from Finland) in the team. Yay! I graduated this summer from a university in Finland with a master's in journalism. Worked for television news and quit my job this summer to come to America.

Before spending 6 years in university I sailed the oceans on a missions ship. Saw fantastic places, met amazing people and experienced an awesome God. I desperately want to take risks in my life and trust the God I know going where ever He sends me and doing whatever He commands. I know He is trustworthy and I want to see you all take steps of faith and live life to the fullest with God!

The Idahoan

Hi! My name is Erik. I am an Idahoan living in Georgia. For 5 years I lived on a ship traveling the world sharing the love of God in various ways. I've been to over 50 countries. Now I help students find their place in God's Kingdom. We give an ear to those wanting to share.

Come back and follow us on our journey as we travel around to schools, universities, churches. We meet many interesting people along the way.