Tuesday - Netherlands

It was a rather quiet day today: I made arrangements for visits with friends for next week. Reinie and I spent some time in the kitchen in the morning to prepare for dinner later. I made my mother's recipe for a Belgian Andive casserole dish, and Reinie made an awesome Tiramisu for dessert. I am taking that recipe with me for later use! Reinie and I also went on a walk in the town and enjoyed the narrow streets with beautifully maintained small old homes. We also ran into the most colorful parade of school children... Queen's Day was celebrated 3 days early for them because of vacation starting on Wednesday... I was so sorry that I had left my camera at home because it was quite a sight to behold: adults and children in red, white and blue outfits, orange hair, orange pants, orange shirts, (did I say orange hair?), lots of orange... it was great!

I was expecting two of my girlfriends for a visit this afternoon, and they will stay for dinner. Both these women I have known for a long time... I first met Jacqueline (on the left in the picture)when her dad came to the small town where I lived as the new head master of the elementary school I went to. My dad was on the school board at the time and the new head master came to introduce his family. I was 11 and Jacqueline was 9 at the time...

The other Jacqueline (right in the picture) I met when I went to an orientation meeting for a school/college in Amsterdam. I wanted to become a book publisher and this was the only school in The Netherlands that would train young people in that particular trade. So I went to the orientation meeting with my sister Klasien and met Jacqueline who was there to check out the school with her mother. She was more interested in the bookstore aspect of the school. We talked and both of us thought: well, she could be my friend if I get admitted to this school! I was 17 at the time and she was 18.


The Jacquelines only got to know each other because I was friends with both and when Bob and I got married in January of 2006, they contacted each other and decided to come to California to celebrate with us.


It was great to see them both and catch up on each other's lives and family event. I have known these women for a long time, and I am very grateful for their friendship!

Monday - Netherlands

This morning, Ab walked out the front door of their apartment to get the newspaper downstairs and had the number "60" dancing on his head! He enjoyed the full effect of the flags and balloons in front of his house and in the elevator, and came back in the house with a very happy smile, convinced that Reinie and I had pulled off this massive trick. Well, no, we had not! It took a little bit of time and confessing that I take sleeping aids every night, and it would be rather impossible for me to get up, get my act together and put up decorations without falling all over myself and off the stairs...

After debating the possibility that the neighbors were behind it, we came to the conclusion that that was not very likely either since most of them were on Ab's side of 60 and not on our side of 60, if you get my drift. That left only one candidate: Ab and Reinie's youngest son Marijn and his wife of 1 year Corinne. They have a key to the apartment, and they would be the only lean and limber people to climb up things and get it done. And sure enough, they admitted their crime!

During the morning Reinie and I prepared all kinds of food items for the birthday party that would start that afternoon. After good tradition, we made "bowl", which is basically a salad made from fresh fruit and from canned fruit, depending on the season. Our mother Lena used to make this for each adult birthday and solely from canned fruit. I applaud the fresh fruit addition; it tastes much better! The other tradition is something you can compare with potato salad, but with a lot more ingredients... Reinie and Ab made an enormous amount of this together on Sunday (it was almost 8 kilos which comes to about 17 pounds) and on Monday morning we put it on a platter and decorated it with eggs, little sausages, lettuce, pearl onions and tomatoes.

The first visitor was my sister Klasien who lives in Utrecht (I will be with her from Thursday until Saturday), the next visitors were my sister Hannie and brother-in-law Hijmen and next their oldest son Machiel who will be leaving for the States this Thursday to go on a 3-week trip visiting Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon and he will also go river rafting on the Colorado river for 5 days! I really appreciated it that he would come to visit his aunt!

By the end of the afternoon, three of four sons (Sander, Christian and Marijn - Lennart came already on Sunday) were in the house with their respective wives (Carola, Marieke and Corinne) and the four grand children (Hannah and Ruben are Sander's, Daniel and Joel are Christian's) and the mayhem was going in full force! It was delightful and eerie to see my nephews operate in their status as fathers and my sister and brother-in-law as grandma and grandpa. I guess we have moved up a generation and the grandkids love their opa and oma, and opa and oma love their grandkids!

But after drinking coffee, tea and other things, and eating birthday cake, chocolates, peanuts, chips, sausage, cheese, and then moving on to dinner with tomato vegetable soup, the potato salad, and dessert, the kids got tired and all the packing began. Klasien and I sat and watched it all happening: the crying, the bags, the car seats, the lost children, the lost parents, the high chairs, the sleeping tent. It was like a beehive of activity! And lo and behold, after a while all was quiet for 15 minutes at which time the adult party began with the arrival of two of Ab's sisters with their husbands, and Ab's brother and his wife. They all welcomed their little brother to their side of 60! And then we did it again: coffee with cake, coffee with chocolates or cookies, something to drink ("bowl" was a winner here) and lots of snacks to eat...

Well, finally all was quiet in the house again around midnight! We went to bed quite exhausted, but very satisfied: it had been a great and fabulous 60th birthday!

Saturday and Sunday - Netherlands

Saturdaywas a beautiful day in the flat lands... the first warm day in a very long time after a long and snowy winter! We enjoyed it and had our morning coffee with a "Bosche Bol" on the balcony at my sister's place after my brother-in-law and I cleaned the stairwell and landings in their apartment building... Doesn't that sound familiar? Didn't I do that last Saturday? I guess traveling does something to the brain or the truth is that all people clean their stairwell and landings every Saturday... It was fun and of course, we laughed a lot while vacuum cleaning and mopping... And as all people who clean know, within 30 minutes after we were done there were already traces of bicycles and shoes on the tiles. Such is life! And by the way, a "Bosche Bol" is a regional delicacy existing of a rather large cream puff like pastry, filled with whipped cream and covered on the top with a thick layer of chocolate. When I used to visit my sister's family, I would always at some point during my stay treat the whole family and myself to "Bosche Bollen"... it's a tradition!

We went grocery shopping the store right across the street of Reinie and Ab's apartment building and I was in charge of picking some things that I had on my list of food items to eat while in the Netherlands... Of course, I gladly obliged! "Bitterkoekjes" and "Ontbijtkoek" found their way easily into the shopping basket... I don't think I can explain what any of these items are because I don't think anything like it exists in the States. So sorry! By now the "Bitterkoekjes" are gone and the "Ontbijtkoek" is halfway; certainly delicious!
We sat some more on the balcony in the afternoon and around 4:30 we left and drove to an extraordinarily beautiful region of Holland that is close by where Reinie and Ab live. The most gorgeously blooming apple and cherry treest were proudly showing of their blossoms! Spring is really the best time of the year to visit! The grass is green, new leaves on the trees are popping up and you can see the difference in growth overnight... it is absolutely beautiful!

A little after 6 we stopped in a city by the name of "Buren" where a lot of streets and homes were already decorated with red, white, blue and orange in anticipation of the celebration of Queen Beatrix' birthday on April 30. The queen's birthday is actually in January, but that is no month to have a lot of outdoor festivities! When Beatrix became queen 30 years ago this year, she decreed that Queen's Day would continue to be celebrated on April 30, which was her mother's (Juliana) birthday... Everybody was happy about that! Anyhow, "The Pannekoekenbakker" was open and hopping with business on this first warm day of the year. The three of us chose each our favorite pancake and had fun watching throngs of people coming and going... I had my mouth set for a pancake with bacon, ham, cheese and onion, topped of with some nice syrup! Delicious and I had a bit of indigestion after, but who cares! I didn't; it was ssssoooooooo worth it!

We were back home by 8:30 and I was in bed by 10. Sunday morning I drove myself in Reinie's little Fiat to Giessenburg where Rafael Giessenlanden meets every Sunday. It was from this church that I came to Coastlands almost 16 years ago. Each time I am in the Netherlands, I like to visit and say hello to some people that are still there from when I was there between December 1990 and September 1994. Arie van Oudheusden had just returned from the Foursquare Europe Conference in Spain (just like the Swiss pastors and the Albanian Pastors) and it was great to see him!

After church I went to the home of Bertjan and Rinske Krale (yes, Bertjan is Martijn's brother) and there were also some other friends gathered: Jaap and Aartje van Vliet (they and their family were a safe and very fun place for me during the 3 years before my departure to the States and when my mother came for a visit in 1997, Aartje came with her), Rene and Annette van Straten (Mirte's parents - Mirte is now an intern at Coastlands and was about 3 years old when I left the Netherlands), and my friends Margriet van Oord and Ineke Gusseklo. All dear people who I have kept in touch with one way or another. We had a great time sitting in the backyard at Bertjan and Rinske's home, close to the water and under a large tree... I told my story and how all of this traveling came about as well as about the future that the Lord has for me, and not only for me but also for them. The Lord has always something new for us, if we allow Him to. If we decide we are done, then our growth and dependence upon the Lord comes to a screetching halt... I had such a good time!

I was back home around 4 o'clock, where my nephew Lennart had arrived. He studies History and War History in particular and is now in the process of doing research for his final thesis. It was obvious that he is ready to be done, only this last big hurdle... He also has signed up to be sort of a guinnea pig for medications. Yes, you heard that right. He goes to an office in the north of the countyr and takes a dose of whatever type of medication needs to be research. The research people take his blood and make sure they know how he is responding to the medication and then he gets paid a decent amount of euros. Depending on the researched medication, he stays at this place with room and board for a few days or two and a half weeks. The first 24 hours after he takes the dose, they check him every 15 minutes but after that he has plenty of time to s tudy. He says that so far he has had no bad experiences! A funny and amazing way to make some money, really!

Well, I was in bed again by 10... tomorrow is Ab's 60th Birthday!!!

Friday - Switzerland/Germany/Netherlands

Friday was travel day, and travel I did, alright... Fritz and Vreni brought me to the trainstation in Belp and made sure I got on the right train. I will miss these two dear people very much! They have such loving and embracing hearts, and they are such a safe place for me and a whole lot of other people... And what I really like about them is that they are obedient to the Lord above all things, and they are adventurous!

So, in Bern Haupt Bahnhof I switched trains to get on the ICE train to Frankfurt... I found my reserved seat and made myself comfortable. Fritz had insisted upon getting me train reservations for the two long stretches, because of the ash still bellowing around in Europe. The airtraffic is getting on its way, but a lot of people will not take the risk of being stranded and so they take the train instead... It was really good advice, because pretty much all the chairs in first class were taken.

In Frankfurt I switched trains again and found my seat in wagon 28 at the very end of the train. This was going to be a three and a half hour train ride (between Bern and Frankfurt was four hours), and as it turned out we arrived 20 minutes late in Utrecht, where I then missed my connection to Zaltbommel where my sister Reinie would pick me up at a quarter of six in the afternoon. The station in Utrecht has always been a beehive of activity since it is the biggest hub in the country. This Friday afternoon it was even more hectic, because earlier in the afternoon there had been a power outage which then puts the entire train schedule out of order. On top of that, there were announcements that two trains had been in collisions with "a person". Now that is never good. People were walking around trying to figure out which train at what track was going where, and the trains were like sardine cans, so full with people. Since I have not been able to get my cell phone to work, I asked a friendly looking lady if she had a mobile phone and if I maybe could call my sister to let her know that I was coming with the next train, 30 minutes later. The lady was very nice and dialed the number for me and everything. So, at 6:20pm I met Reinie at the Zaltbommel trainstation! She took me home where my brother-in-law was and one of my nephews and his wife. We had dinner, went for a walk in the neighborhood and I was in bed a little bit after 10! It is great to be back in the flat land, and being with Martijn and Ellen in Poland helped tremendously with the transition to speak Dutch...

BTW: Geneva won game 6 in the Swiss Ice Hockey championships. The last game will be played on Saturday, but I don't know if I can get you the end results because the Dutch don't care about ice hockey :-)

Thursday - Switzerland

Thursday was a beautiful day! The sun was out, the sky was blue (mostly) and the trees are getting their new leaves! After breakfast Fritz, Vreni and I went to the Quelle church with enough time for Fritz to give me the grand tour of the Quelle office, the rooms for the kids and youth, and finally we all ended up in the Foyer for the daily Quelle coffee break. It was quite a delight to be with Camille and Lily, with Esther and Karina and their children and see Kurt Kammermann be a grandpa! I said my "see you later" to Robby, Claudi, Joel and Salome and then Aline Waelti with her 3 daughters and I walked the short distance to their home. Aline and Thomas were interns at Coastlands just about 5 years ago, and Aline was pregnant with Hanna, their first one. Now there is also Lena and Nina... On our short walk home, both Hanna and Lena took to me like bees to honey, held my hand and wanted to show me their bedrooms (I believe that now to be the ultimate test of trustworthiness). They actually made me sit on the couch in their living room and read them a book. They even wanted me to do that after their mother told them that I would be reading the book in high German instead of Swiss German... so there I went. I have no idea if they actually understood what I was saying, but they responded in the right way at the right time. I guess that means something!

Fritz came to pick me up around 12 noon and we hurried on home where I set the table and he made the fondue. It was delicious! I had fun telling them about the "Asterix and Obelix in the Helvetica" episode where the guy who looses his bread in the fondue pan is punished by "kiel halen"... I don't know the English word for it, but it involves a long rope tied around a ship (from the deck down the outside and underneath the ship and than back onto the deck on the other side)... with possible death as side effect. Not pleasant. Any how, I spent the rest of the afternoon with Fritz and Vreni. We went to a glass factory in Helgiswil, and had a great time with each other and watching craftsmen blow glass... Remarkable!

On the way home, Fritz and Vreni dropped me off at the home of Thomas and Julia Zahnd where I enjoyed a lovely dinner with them and their kids Antonella and Dario... Thomas and Julia and I all shared about our lives and where we find ourselves in the midst of it. I had the privilege of praying for them, and am so very grateful that we are friends!

I need to let you know that the hockey game on Tuesday evening was actually game 5 (not game 6 as I had told you previously) between Bern and Geneva. Tonight (Thursday) game 6 is being played, and at the time of closing of this blog post the end score is unknown. I go to bed now; tomorrow is Friday and travel day!

Wednesday - Switzerland

This morning I woke up a little bit later than usual; I went to bed later on Tuesday, and my legs were very tired from all the walking I had done on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday... The body said: no, your will maybe strong, but I am not going along! Can you imagine that? So, I was moving rather slow and when Fritz proposed to take me up to the Belpberg, I said: only if there is no walking! He said it would be no more than 200 meters, and that Vreni would come along also. As you may have noticed on the pictures she is walking with crutches at the moment (on Monday she will be a free woman again!). She had corrective surgery on a bone in her left foot and has been in a brace for several weeks now... she can't wait for the whole thing to be over! So up the Belpberg we went in Fritz and Vreni's 20-year old Volkswagen camper! They are quite the adventurous couple, travel all over Europe in their little VW bus and know how to have a good time.

On top of the Belpberg we had a good view of the surrounding area and even the Alps in the distance and parts of the Jura on the Italian side of Switzerland... It's a beautiful country and I told Fritz and Vreni that the landscape sometimes looks like we are in a doll house... it's picture perfect with the little house plopped down in green pastures with cows and sheep. Gorgeous, really!

We were back at the house before 10 and Fritz left again in the bus to go to the Quelle church office and then on to the VW mechanic to have the battery changed. At 11 Matthias Nowak came by to pick me up to bring me to his home in Zimmerwald and have lunch with Franzi and himself. We spent several hours together over sparkling water, rosti, sausage and salad and coffee. We talked about the last year and a half of my life and about Delta church and VBS that is happening at the Delta church in Bern in July. It was wonderful to be with them and make plans for mission teams!

At about 2:30 in the afternoon, Gunter and Cornelia Bruttel came to the Nowak's home to pick me up for the second part of the afternoon at their home! The Bruttel family lived at Coastlands for 1 year in 1996/1997, and now their children Michelle and Philippe are young adults... That is how I know I am getting older! Catching up over homemade Swiss apple pie and a nice cup of coffee was great. I very much enjoyed their stories about their internship and about their life right now...

By 6 o'clock I was back at the Schaller's home where four others were expected to arrive shortly to join us for dinner and have cell group at the house. Two out of the four came to Coastlands with Kurt Kammermann's team in September and said that they had such a good time then and enjoyed very much to taste the atmosphere of our church. It was really funny again to notice that I understood some of the things that were talked about during the meeting... Vreni is always happy to translate a bit, but in these type of settings it is rather distracting I think, so most of the time I just listen and more often than not I do understand a whole lot more than I (and others) thought I would...

Tuesday - Switzerland

Tuesday morning I woke up early and excited about the day ahead! Fritz, Vreni and I had breakfast and by 8:15 Fritz and I were at the train station in Belp to make reservations for the international trains I will be taking on Friday (I will travel to the Netherlands then), as well as buying a ticket to take the train to Bern at 8:35. At 8:55 I was at Bern Haupt Bahnhoff, and met Anna Saurer and Katrin Schiesser. Anna was an intern at Coastlands in 1995 and she and her friend Caroline and I shared a room and many great moments together. Katrin and her husband Flo were interns in 2008. It was great to see them! They got me a cup of coffee and we found a nice little cabin in the train. The first leg of our trip (train ride from Bern to Interlaken Ost) took an hour and I did all the talking. The second leg (train ride from Interlaken Ost to Brienz) took about a half hour and I made them talk and during the third leg (a bus from Brienz to Ballenberg) we laughed and joked and admired the landscape. Ballenberg is a park where the different regions of Switzerland are represented in homes, farm homes and buildings, equipment, vocations and lovely farm animals. We had a great time walking around and watching bread being baked in a stone oven with a wood burning fire underneath, watching someone cook a pot of vegetable soup on a wood burning stove and actually tasting it, and watching a blacksmith at work. It was lovely talking to the very friendly people who baked and cooked and worked the leather of the cow bell leashes (I have no idea how you call those things, but they are beautifully decorated with hand stitching). We had a great time and at the end we visited the Ballenberg Chocolaterie and treated ourselves to some local handmade chocolates.

Around 3 in the afternoon, we did the trip in reverse order: bus, train, train and then arrived in Ostermundingen where both Anna and Katrin live. At Katrin's home, the three of us were joined by Pia Freiburghaus, who was an intern at Coastlands in 2007 when Bob was also an intern and we were living on campus. It was so great to see Pia and catch up with her. We told crazy stories about things that happened in our internships and had a great time together! Pia dropped me off at the Schaller's home and then I watched a little bit of ice hockey with Fritz (who used to play) and Vreni: Bern against Geneva in the finals for the Swiss Championships... The team who wins 4 out of 7 games will be the champions. Tuesday's game was game 6 (Bern had won 3 and Geneva 2)... It was rather intense, I can tell you that! Ultimately, Geneva scored the winning goal in overtime, and now both teams won 3 games. Thursday evening is game 7!