Back to the swing of things

Yeah, we did all survive Christmas (and the food did taste as good as it looked in the pic's in the blog before this one) ;-D so now the normal life is back in full power, with some extras added...

Studying theology is a source of happiness, new things, thoughts, getting to know God's ways better, receiving stuff enough to be present in any discussion... These days are filled with Early Church History, so I'm very into reading the Apostolic Fathers and Eusebius' Church history. Does that time look like this time!

Last weekend we had a seminar about social justice, with Carl Raschke. He was our guest for one night, and we had lots of good talks... to be continued for sure. And, oh my, a good friend of ours is photographer, and he was assigned to take some official pictures of Carl (for a Christian opinion magazine), but after the photoshoot with Carl, he announced that there was time for others to get a little photoshoot too.... -sigh- ... and of course our oldest daughter got me that far... I was in FRONT of the camera to get my face pictured in a serious way (not the freaky things that they accept on passports ;-d) ... for the first time of my adult life... My goodness, was that scary, but after some time I just saw some lens, and my grinn was not that unsure anymore...

Music is a little too much behind: need to finish my introduction course to the part time Conservatoir I'm involved with... my poor sax is hiding behind some dust... just like my piano... and drums... and flute... -sigh- .... even singing is not as much a relaxing thing as it is stressfull... What is that? I used to live on music, and now it's 'too much work' for crying out loud. But, as a lovely teacher of mine always says: "For several artists there is a season for everything, and you have the seasons more strictly seperated than others" So I guess I'm not in the music season then.

Painting is going strong! I did organize the Winteracademy (part of the Christian Artists Union in The Netherlands), and the first weekend was a succes! The new way of doing this course is getting some attention now, so next year will be even more succesfull. The only thing is, though, that I am not allowed to advertise with the course in my own church... too bad I still don't know the painters in our church, so how do I find them then??

Our little group of arts students is happy with the initiative to get them together, talk about life issues and work together on some project or so. They are lovely, kids, in to anything, and vague ;-D so next time there will be more to feed and welcome in our home.

Just church is not what it's supposed to be. The emphasize is on coming to the sunday service. No community stuff. Not able to talk about that too.
I'm dying in there.
So now it's time for the last options to keep the relationship alive.
I feel like trying to stay, because it is a group of people that doesn't have much in common, just the sunday services (two of them). I know there are people suffering from that, not knowing how to change it other than walk away, to protect themselves from spiritually dying. I know there are spiritual gifts among the members of our church, that are not being used for the benefit of others, just because there is NO WAY of talking about it, let alone help eachother with learning it. I know there are artists among us and they don't know how to be the christian artist they want to be without hiding in their own homes, stating their art is just a 'hobby'.

But for me it's time for the last options. I'm slowly dying spiritually. It's in the final stages.

chirstmas dinner for the family

Now this is how it's going to look!

Today I had a nice and busy day of thinking about a Christmas dinner for our little family of now 10. First get into count our little kids, and the even younger kids of my little brother, so: no fancy tasts, no surprises in taste or texture, but almost normal food. Well, to be honest, I did fancy in the thinking, and I really do believe the kids will love this!

The meat is somewhat sweet, the three kinds of veggies are sweet too, and the dessert is just an old jummy typical Dutch "vlaflip-grandma-Karsijns"

we don't accept any more bookings ;-D

Take care, and have a very blessed Christmas, and some super holidays!

H'm

Well... it's almost a year now since I've blogged anything... about anything...

maybe I just don't have enough thoughts...

I really do think that I just have this blog in the vain believe that someone outthere is willing to read it. To really have the desire to know what I think. Too bad I don't think that much, hey.

So, from now on (here's another promise) (again) I will just write down what I think (yeah, little secret: I DO think once in a while!) because I'm the only one who is interested, and sometimes it's just fun to look back and discover the sheer fact that I really DO think. Therefore I am. Proof.

Continental Art

Ever heard of Continental Art???

Just some weeks ago, after I tried all I could think of to get to talk to YwaM Europe, but everything bounced back with more questions for me, and less answers to solve those big questions, I had a wild idea: let's send Mr. Continental Arts an email, talk about our even wilder YwaM plans, and see what I am able to learn (usually I'm not that teachable)

Now, thát's interesting! Try to get your nerves out of the way, act like you are crazy, because the known world already is aware of that, and be brave! All sorts of funny, never thought of, surprising and exactly what you needed, things explode in your face.... The only thing for me to do was: catch!

Now I'm into that Arts Community, trying to get into how things work, to understand fellow artists, and even better: finding all kinds of cool workshops and courses! Finally I found some like minded souls out there: trying to express themselves, music, visual arts, christian.... and they love to help each other to become a better artist. I love this.

And the best part is yet to come, but that's something for another time.... I still have to be accepted to work things out.... here in our hometown.... yeah, has to do with music, singing, dancing, big stages, big production, kids..... (and I sneaky dream of helping to set this up in more places than just Dordrecht.... or the Netherlands.... and maybe our Continental Arts Centre is also dreaming this..... (pss: maybe our Boss is dreaming this with us too....))

'my' church

.... would be Jesus Christs church!
Every believer would say 'amen' to that, I pray.

But what exactly ís Jesus' church looking like these days? Sort of the same as it did some two thousand years ago? Does it take into account those two thousand years of possibility to grow? Did Jesus' church by the way learn anything during those two thousand years? What do we believe to be the best representative of His church today, in our own neighbourhood? Does that even matter: surrounding neighbourhood, culture? Is Jesus' church here with me in Holland, Dordrecht even, different, in style or expression or so, from the church somewhere else? Even somewhere else in Holland? Is Jesus' church a city church or a nature church? Is that all Jesus' church? Or are on different places different churches of Jesus? How are we as humans able to be accountable to each other? Is there a sort of blueprint to find, what the basis is where to build the church of Cornerstone Jesus on? Can we help each other to build 'our' churches while we are so different? Do we need all be the same, think the same, dress the same? Did God create culture too? As He created different environments, created different languages, created different people, created different colours..... etc., did He gave us the possibility to create His church on His earth in the same pluri-form way? Did our Creator even give us the possibilities to create ourselves? Are we Creative too? So what to do with our (lack of?) creativity; in life, in culture, in church?

I wonder what 'my' church would look like....