This weekend the youth group from the home church of Chrisjan and Marieke are here to get a taste of Missionary live.
It was a great pleasure having this group of wonderful young people around,
but we needed to get serious and have a good football match!
The weather wasn’t that good, but both teams showed up and played a wonderful game.

During the game Marcos, from Brasil,
got injured and had to go to the hospital.
In the end everything turned out all right.
(He still has a painful bruise)
The game gave a good impression of an
important part of missionary life.
Winning is not important,
but playing together as a team and having
a good time is! (Redcliffe almost won)
God is good! He gives us this wonderful
opportunities to have fun and learn new things!

Just a reminder that playing football at Redcliffe is an important aspect of the trinity of  the Knowing, Being and Doing framework.
And this is one of the aspects that has been appreciated by the re-validation of Redcliffe College!
More information on that: click here

Just a few days after the G20 we visited London. We came in peace and that was appreciated. We saw everything a tourist needs to see and had a great time. We where doing a ten days course in Seven-oaks and where nearby. For the children it was the first time to travel the underground and they enjoyed every bit of it. We also visited the Natural History Museum! The place where Darwin and Creation meet.
We can learn a lot from Darwin as Darwin learned a lot from Creation…
And you know: God is alive and creating.
Some pictures of our visit to London:

We had a great time and where back at Reddcliffe during Easter. We enjoyed the church service at Good Fridayand Eastersunday. We ate our special “Resurrection-cake” and celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus.
Had a wonder full ‘bring and share’ meal with other students and a good time of worship!

The last term at Redcliffe for us starts Monday. We are slowly preparing our travels back to the Netherlands in June.
Bit sad that we have to say good bey, but also looking forward to see friends and family.
The first year students are on placement this term. Wish you all a blessed time!
See you in week 7 of this term!

Quote from Jesus:
“I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!”

At the end of term 4 a lot of students are very tired…
So are we. It’s funny that we are surprised by it
Redcliffe is a challenging place and doing your reading, studying, assignments, placement, meals, conversations, lectures, socials, prayer nights, devotions, prayer meetings,  and so on….it just absorbs your energy. I just read the book My Halo’s slipping and I can recommend everyone to read this book. It helps you to laugh at yourself and not to take yourself to serious! The last term is coming up after the break.
Our family goes away for a ten days course nearby London.
After that we have a break and then start at our last term. The first preparations for going back to the Netherlands in June are made. A lot of uncertainties, but the promise of God that he is with us.

Deuteronomy 31:6 and 8
The Lord your God will always be at your side, and he will never abandon you.
The Lord will lead you into the land. He will always be with you and help you, so don’t ever be afraid of your enemies.

Sssssstttt!

Wednesday Devotions. Every Wednesday from 11:00-12:00 we have College devotions and because of the different input there is always something new to learn about God, the Scriptures, ourselfs, others, Jesus….
So today! One of the community groups led the devotions today.
The theme was silence. First we had a short introduction(waved), we prayed together sung a worship song, red about Elijah meeting with God at the mountain and that God spoke to Elijah not in the wind, an eartquake or fire, but in the silence. Afterwards we took some time to be in the silence, outside, in the library, in the lecturehall, wherever.

Try out…
Great opurtunity, you can share this devotions with us, please watch the whole 10.24 movie, that we watched today and then take some time in silence and listen…

Student Commitee
The student commitee @ Redcliffe organises several events to give the studens some relaxing time in the midst of their essays about very interesting subjects. Till now we had ‘hide and seek’, mama mia, boys and girls nights, bord games competitions, walks, runs, barbeques, bonfires, snowballfight, even songs,  and lots, lots more different activities. So you can understand why we are really happy with these people who organize all these events for us. Huge THANK YOU to you all!!!!

SUMO-Wrestling
Students preparing for mission and encountering cross-cultural games.
This week we were able to dress up as real sumo wrestlers and fight each other with a good reason
Because the weather was so nice the children could play outside Redcliffe in the garden.  (David Fisher specially cut the grass for this happening). The video is just a compilation of some off the fun we had! (Childrens part) Enjoy!

That is the workshop you need when you have five children and are going overseas

Ready…?
For the children there was a special Ready, Steady, Go… program led by Dawn Weston (Xenos and Interserve) and Yolanda Jerrard (New Tribes Mission).
Our children really liked it! One felt a little bit to old for it, so he had his own program in the afternoon.

Creche+
Our little one went to a special extended version of the Creche in Redcliffe House led by Christine Lewis.

Adults (…and Marcel)
Marion Knell led the adults into the world of transition with kids. Her book: “Families on the move” is a helpful book. We read it before we came to England and used a great number of the practical tips.

Empowering parents
We really felt empowered by this day. We were confirmed in some things we do as a family and we discovered new areas to be aware off. The children liked the experience of being together with other children who understand them and have similar experiences. 

Not perfect
We learned again that we are not the parents described in the ideal situations. We are more like the parents we see in the case-studies . So we try to be open with our children and communicate that we will make mistakes. Together we are on a journey. God is there in good and bad times. We have to trust in Him and make responsible choices.

Children and Mission

Is this realistic for your family? Then you need to visit this

Introduction…
We are happy to introduce ourselves as we (The Kooijmans family) are going to write some posts over the coming weeks on this blog. We are studying at Redcliffe College as part of our preparation for working in South Asia.

Dutch family overseas…
Mintje and Marcel are both doing the Professionals In Mission Course, Four of our children go to Kingsholm Primary School. Our youngest studies at Redcliffe Creche University. We started in September 2008 and are now in our 4th term. We are really enjoying our time here and are learning a lot; not only benefiting from the lectures, but even more from living in a cross-cultural community. The Church we attend here is Kendal Road Baptist Church. We feel very welcomed there. 

I blog therefore I am…
If you would like to read more about our family, feel free to visit our own blog where we post some more personal material.

This blog…
In the coming weeks we will try to give you more information about how a family of seven tries to survive in the midst of assignments and deadlines, sickness-bugs, social life, primary school, toilet training, placements, lectures, more essays and deadlines, or in a short way, a healthy mixture of student and family life.

Whats next?
In the following posts we will cover at least the following subjects:

• Several Harmen Squirrel (DBC-commentator) movies to share more inside information
• Preparing families for life overseas
• “Mafia” game in Redcliffe College
• A day at Redcliffe from our perspective 
• And much more…
                                                                         Stay tuned  God bless!

Well the time is flying. I am already in my last days of my placement. It was fun! It was great! I learned a lot.

Most inspiring for me is the fact that I am involved with setting up training for church planting for ‘lay’ people. The vision is that every citizen of the Netherlands will have a welcome church within 5 minutes walking distance. But also that every church would be contextualized to the situation it is in.

The thing I learned the most is that the grace of Jesus is unbelieveable. Well in the end I believe it. But there is more than enough. Enough for everybody! And nothing is compulsory. Only to believe in Christ as your saviour! Not going to church on Sunday, not doing Bible study on Monday; not taking care of the poor. No, first believe! First trust Jesus! First seek the kingdom and justice of God and the rest will be given! And then maybe to return something for this big present you could go to church, or you could help the poor. But you could do something for God, something which fits you. And you do that because you are thankful! Not to earn the grace! The grace of Jesus is given to you!

Jaap

Did you know that cutting your hair could be part of church planting? Well I discovered last week what hair and church planting have in common.

Last week I had a haircut. I went with Tjerk a team member to the barber. Usually when I have a haircut I talk with the barber and the barber will talk with me and this conversation usually happens during the haircut. That is pretty straight forward.

Last week Tjerk was with me and he talked with the barber as well. This barber was in the centre of Wittevrouwenveld, the neighbourhood where the team is planting a house church. And while I had a haircut we talked with the barber about what we did in the neighbourhood and that we are a church but different than the big Roman Catholic church and that we work together with the Roman Catholic pastor of the neighbourhood. We explained that we are a kind of a family and that we meet together at someone’s home, we will have a meal, etc.

Of course the barber talked as well. And she explained that all her family have shops or pubs in Wittevrouwenveld. And she did not understand why there should be another church if the big church is almost empty. Well at the end we made a new contact. And Tjerk will probably go to her for his haircut when he needs one.

And only God knows what will happened in the future so hopefully she will accept Jesus as her saviour…

It is a long time since I wrote on this blog. Mainly because I was busy with my placement and during the weekends with relaxing and being with my girlfriend…

But last week I got ill. I did not get any vaccinations for this tropical country, the Netherlands! Nor did they ask at the border if I had the right vaccinations. So as a dutchman I got a very common Dutch sickness: the flu. Well I can describe how it feels to have the flu. I can describe what happens when you have the flu. But I will leave it up to you… Probably you already have an image with flu and I guess it is not a positive image, is it? Ok lets write about my placement.

Today two other guys arrived for their placement. They are from the Bible College De Wittenberg. That is the Bible College where I went before I came to Redcliffe. I will stay with them in an empty appartment, withouth any comfort. Just a mattress and that is it… Well its fine for me. A mattress is enough for sleeping and during the day time I will be busy with my placement.

There is some good news and some bad news at the same time. My placement is now halfway. I have had three weeks and I have three weeks to go… But before returning to Redcliffe I will have a week’s holiday and at the same time my girlfriend has a holiday. Well that is the great thing of a placement in the Netherlands: I can see my girlfriend more often.

Well just to close: some pictures of my placement.

Maastricht when I arrived on my first day

The house where I stayed the first three weeks. And of course, being a Dutch man, a bike.

And this looks boring but it is not. This is church!

Jaap