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.