Today
Dec 30, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: My Feet Hurt
//DRINK: Leffe Dubbel
//ITUNES: Coverville-051220-The 2005 Coverville Countdown part 1 from the album “Coverville” by Brian Ibbott
Here’s a rundown of today.
I slept in bigtime. I don’t remember the last time I stayed in bed until noon. I am going to blame jetlag, though, so it’s OK.
Had lunch with Sam (the guy we are staying with) at an AMAZING japanese restaurant. It’s called Wagamama. It has a mimalmist design to the space, which is cool. The food is very abundant and tasty. Sam told me his life story and it is amazing to hear what God has done with him. He went from Britain to American to Amsterdam. He is in charge of the music deal at Zolder50 and is very good at what he does. Tres cool.
Then, I headed back to the apartment and totally re-wrote my message for tomorrow. Hopefully, the re-write will help me keep the tempo a bit more.
Tonight Steve and I took the long, roughly 40 minute journey across town to a church that was built in the 1800′s. It snowed like crazy tonight, which is weird for Amsterdam. The wind was howling and it was more than a tad cold. My feet have pretty much been cold for the last 36 hours, which is weird for me. Here’s Steve on our way to the session:
The conference hosted a worship service there. It was so cool. Kolya, one of the pastors of our sister church in Kiev led the time and it was very cool. He led it in Russian and they translated it into English. Here are a bunch of pictures. I will post all of them soon.
This is inside the Sanctuary:
Here are a few shots from the service:
Then Steve and I headed home. Luckily it had stopped snowing.
So it could rain.
Here are some shots I took on the way home when the rain slowed down a tad:
Well, it’s time to crash. Pray for my teaching tomorrow and I will tell you how it goes. I will also slap some video up tomorrow.
Peace out, homeys.
Long Day
Dec 30, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Waking Up / Sore
//NOISE: Hubbub Outside the Window
Yesterday was a long day, but a good one.
In the morning, I headed over to the meeting place to teach. It seems to have gone pretty well, but I have to say it was the hardest delivery of a message I have ever had. I had to go at about half of my current pace or slower. My mind kept racing way ahead of my mouth and it just seemed tedious. It took me 45 minutes to knock out what should have been a 25-30 minute message. I heard some positive feedback, but who knows how it really went?
Today I plan on completely retooling my message for tomorrow. I think I have a better sense of what it takes to teach S L O W L Y……
Then, Steve and I wandered the city for a few hours. We calculated that we walked at least 10 miles throughout the day. We finally settled in the same bar I went to the beer tasting in last year. It’s called De Bekeerde Suster, which means “The Converted Sister.” It is an old convent turned bar. We had amazing lamb stew and Chimay. Yummy. Chimay may be my new favorite beer. Thanks to Dan for introducing me to it.
We headed back to the sesion just in time to use my computer to simulcast with the Faithwalkers conference back in the States. It was so cool to have to two conferences talking back and forth. And with the beauty of iChat it was free and easy to do.
Then, we had a session that JR taught (it was his last session). He taught on Social Justice and Loving our Enemies and did a great job. After the session I spent time with Sander (a Chinese – Netherlander) and Nada (a Lebanese – Australian). That was a blast. They are very cool. Sander’s blog is here.
After that we headed to a local pub with approximately a billion people from the conference. That was cool to talk with people I don’t know well and to catch up with people I do. Very fun.
Steve and I then walked Amanda home (a very very long and cold walk), grabs some fries, and headed home. At the fry place a guy hit on me and when I didn’t give him enough attention he called me a bitch.
When we got back, we ended up staying up until 3am talking with JR and Joe about differences in theology. It was cool to find the point on which we agree and I was reminded again how important it is to have a healthy dialog about these issues. A wise man once said (and I can’t remember who it was) that “it’s hard to be an asshole to someone you like.: I think if more people would talk issues out, we would find ways to get along better, even though we have differences.
Anyhoo, slept in until noon today and now it’s back to the grind. I’m going to have lunch with Sam (from England) and then work on my teaching.
Adios muchachos.
Amsterdam Pics
Dec 29, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Good
//NOISE: Band Warming Up
If I can get my upload working (it’s spotty here), this post will contain some pics I took of the session last night.
First, here’s the room. It’s very small and we are packed in. I like that vibe. Hopefully everyone will be engaged this morning, because that will make it tres cool:
This is the room when the session gets going:
Here’s some friends from Florida who are considering doing a church plant in Spain. Their names are both derivations of the name Dom. He is Dominic and she is Domarice (although I am sure I am spelling at least one of those name wrong).
JR teaching last night:
Getting Ready
Dec 29, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Decently Awake
//NOISE: None
OK, so I am going through my message (which I have to give in 2.5 hours) right now and I needed a break, so I thought I would post.
I have no real reason to post.
La de da.
OK…back to work. Pray for me when you read this (although for you Americans it will most likely be a long time from now b/c of the time difference). I am a tad concerned that I will teach too fast for the translators. Last night Steve asked his wife to pray this for me and she said:
“Noel teaches too fast for me to understand.”
True dat.
Lost in Translations
Dec 28, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Thoughtful
//NOISE: Translation Meeting
I am sitting in a translation meeting right now and something is striking me. We are comparing the way some translations of the Bible (in different languages) translate different verses. Apparently, the word “into” is a very different concept in Dutch. The ramifications can be huge.
It made me think about how hard it is to translate the Bible from the original Greek and Hebrew into any language, let alone English. There are so many concepts we lose.
It also made me think about how arrogant it is to think that one translation is “the translation.”
OK…back to my meeting.
Amsterdam
Dec 28, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Rested
//NOISE: JR typing
Well, it was an uneventful trip. We landed around 5:50 local time this morning, then came to a friend’s house in Amsterdam and crashed for a few hours. And by few, I mean 5. I am totally rested and ready to go now. However, this probably didn’t help me adjust to the time change much. Now, I am just testing the internet.
Wee ha. It works. I’ll fill you in on more later when more eventful stuff has happened.
Sitting
Dec 27, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: OK
//ITUNES: In The Heat Of The Jungle from the album “Heart Shaped World” by Chris Isaak
I am sitting in Detroit Metro Airport waiting for Steve to join me right now. I am pretty jazzed about the conference we are headed to. I just got word that they have moved it to a larger facility, and have sold out the new facility. Nice. There will be about 200 people there (pretty big if you consider how far people had to travel to get there). There will be people from Germany, Italy, Ukraine, Spain, Poland, Holland and the United States there. Pretty cool.
I also just uploaded a podcast from the airport. You can check it out here.
Here are some random thought running through my brain as I sit here.
I wonder why my wedding ring and non-responsiveness didn’t keep the male flight attendant from hitting on me on my first flight.
I love flying first class nonetheless. Maybe the “hitting on” was part of Northwest’s way to increase business post-bankrupcy.
Christmas was a blast. We had fun at my parents on house on the 25th. I had great conversations with my brothers, which doesn’t happen that often. Here are some pics:
Then, we spent yesterday with Grace’s dad and brother. Here’s a shot from that:
Anyhoo, Steve just called and said he is in the airport. I’m gonna wrap this up now.
BTW, DTW’s upload times are amazing. I don’t think I have ever uploaded pictures or MP3s this fast. Wee ha.
