Life is good, eternal life is better - Stellar Kart

Singleness

Singleness. What a great word! I think I have drawn everyone’s attention now, or at least I hope so. I’ve wanted to write a blog about being single for quite some time. But I never really have gotten to a point to actually write one. I’ve no clue what I am going to write at this point but I felt I just had to write a blog about it.
What’s it like to be single? Great? Okay? Or horrible? I personally think it can be all three of those words. Sometimes it’s great; there are plenty of nice guys/ girls on this planet… Other times it’s okay: not spectacular and there are times that you are lonely and it sucks. I think everybody goes through these periods in his of her life. I’m single and I know all about it.

But:

do I need to get married in order to be happy and successful: No. Is there a particular guy in my life at this moment: I don’t know, who knows.. Do I want to get married someday: yes! Would I mind if God has other plans for me: mmm…yes and no. I know that God’s plans are the best ones in life but on the other hand I do want to get married someday.

It’s great to talk with other people about this subject. Normally I don’t talk much about it because what should I say about it? I don’t mind being single. I know how awful dating can be but that doesn’t make me want to stay single. Things that happened in the past happened in the past. I’m looking forward to have my own family later on in life. All in God’s timing! My family basically things I’m going to be this OLD single lady. My friends on the other hand say that I’m way too young to actually worry about these kind of things. What I do believe is that we are living in this love- centered world. Our creator is the one who invented LOVE. Love can be really good but it can be used in a wrong way too. Everyone needs love and that’s why a lot of people are on the search for someone to love. Nobody is satisfied until they find that particular person. What most people forget is that real love comes from the One who is in the heavens reigning over the world. What He did for us: well that’s REAL LOVE! I want to end this blog with a quote from Louie Giglio:

"There's a lot of pressure to find the right one. But how cool would it be to fall in love with Jesus in such a way that He rose up to the top of your satisfaction quotient and He became the thing that satisfied your soul. And forever more you were going through life asking the question, 'I wonder if she's the right two.'"

Passion in Boston 12-13 okt 2007

I finally made the choice: I’m going to Passion in Boston. Passion has been on my heart for so long and I felt that I should go to Passion. I booked my airplane ticket this week and everything is planned. It’s going to cost a lot of money, I can’t afford much but I just took this leap of faith. I’m also working on my dissertation. My dissertation is about Passion, so I hope and pray that I’ll have the opportunity to meet with the Passion staff during this conference.

Flevo Festival: living the dream

Last week was crazy. After working for half the week I found myself on a train to the Flevo Festival grounds. This was going to be my first Flevo experience and I was excited about it! Not only that but I was also part of the webteam. I was excited to see bands as Hillsong London, Chris Tomlin and the Newsboys. I couldn’t wait to write articles about them. But before I tell you all about Flevo I want to tell you something about Ireland. My friend Philip from atiG event management in Ireland booked Chris Tomlin that week. Philip knows that I’m a big supporter of Chris Tomlin’s music and invited me to come over. Unfortunately the day of the concert was on the day that I had to start with my work for Flevo. I would have made the choice to go to Ireland but because I already said that I would be at Flevo on the Wednesday I couldn’t really permit to leave for Ireland. I’ve thought it over & over, because I really want to see Compass & meet up with Philip. But anyway… Chris Tomlin was supposed to perform on the Wednesday in Ireland, then he had a show on the Thursday in England and on Friday he was going to be at the Flevo Festival in Holland. Philip told me that all the bands were arriving on Tuesday and so I was anxious on how everything went. I e-mailed Philip but didn’t really got a reply back. I knew he was busy so that wasn’t really surprising to me. Somehow on Tuesday evening I felt something was wrong. It’s weird… but I had a really weird feeling… I prayed for the situation & continued to pray for it. On Wednesday I still had that feeling and I guess I either text messaged Philip on Tuesday or Wednesday to ask him about how it went. He didn’t reply, so still I thought: well he’s busy… Later I found out that when Chris Tomlin arrived on Tuesday, he got stuck on the airport because somehow he didn’t have the right work permits. The band members were threatened as criminals and were told they had to leave the next day. The whole situation was stressful and very unrealistic. This must have been awful for everyone who was involved and so stressful. It became a whole political issue between Ireland and the US but literally thanks to God they got their passports back on Wednesday and were able to perform that night! Our God is so GREAT! (Note: more stories about this are on the website of Chris Tomlin and atiG and supersimbo

Anyway on Wednesday I was stuck in a train to the middle of nowhere in Holland. Literally, the Flevo Festival is in the middle of nowhere. It took me 2,5 hours to reach the festival grounds. I live in the western part of Holland, in the city area. So going to the southern part of Holland is going to the middle of nowhere, although Holland is small!!
I was excited and nervous because this was my first Flevo Festival and I was going all by myself. My friends were all coming on the Thursday but I was the one who was working at the festival and they were just going because they wanted to see the bands.
On Wednesday morning I arrived, bumped into my colleagues (which I hadn’t met yet) at the train station and we took a taxi to the Festival grounds. We put our tents up. Later I found out that we put our tents up into a swamp...we didn’t know at the time but when it started to rain that evening…well…I literally felt the water under my tent… Anyway we didn’t really felt like we should move our tents, because it took us quite a while to put up the tents. On Thursday my friends offered me to move me out of the swamp, but I waved it away. I thought it would be okay. I regret it now because of the fact that it was freezing at night, and my tent was always wet. So basically I decided to skip sleep every night (wrong idea!!)

On Wednesday I found out that I had to write articles about the main stage artists, I was excited. On Thursday I had my first interview with Rebecca st. James. We talked about dreams, festivals, fans and being single! I also had an interview with John Davis (Supergrass). He told me that he used to be a drug addict and while I'm having a brother in law who’s a drug addict....well John really inspired me!! On Friday I was busy, or at least I was supposed to be busy. I had interviews with Chris Tomlin, Sarah Kelly and Christafari. But they were all cancelled! All the bands were late and so most interviews were cancelled. I was so disappointed. I did meet Tomlin & band members. It was good to actually meet the guys! They are so nice. I guess Philip told them all about me on Wednesday so they all knew who I was. Crazy. Philip, you’re the best!!
So I decided to just hang out backstage and talk with the guys, make some pics of their sound check and while my interview was cancelled I planned to go to the press conference. I guess my colleagues saw me with the band and I soon became the ‘groupie’ of the web team. We all had these names for each other. Embarrassing!! Haha. I wasn’t the only groupie. Robin befriended Psalters and This Beautiful Republic and so when I came back to our web team tent it was crowded. He invited those bands to use our internet and they took up that offer. So at some point I found myself behind one of the laptops of one of the band members of Psalter because he changed, by accident, the language of their myspace page into Dutch. On Friday night I went to see Hillsong London. I love Hillsong. I’ve been to the Hillsong church in London and I love the Hillsong organisation and their heart for God. After the concert I was so tired and asked one of my colleagues if I could join her in her interview with Jeni Vardeneau. Jeni is a wonderful woman and we had a great conversation with her. Then I went to see Sarah Kelly perform. At some point I felt so tired that I went backstage again. Saw the Tomlin guys, wished them a good performance and walked back to the main stage area again… The concert of Tomlin band was amazing! I love their concerts, because they are so God centered, and that’s what it is all about. Flevo is a music festival and people don’t really go there to meet Jesus. I felt God move big time during their concert. Although rain was pouring down I felt that God was blessing us all. It was amazing.

Saturday was a busy day, I found myself behind the laptop all day, writing articles. I also had an interview with Kees Kraayenoord (a Dutch worshipleader) Kees is originally from my hometown Katwijk. It was great interviewing him. Saturday was busy, but I found some time to see the Newsboys in concert. I didn’t expect much of it but again God moved big time! He was really there and he was setting the hearts of young people on fire! Sunday was the last day. There was this service in the morning and then it was already time to leave. It was an incredible but crazy week! I hope I’ll be able to do it again next year!!

Much thanks to the web team: Linda, Christine, Robin aka Remco :-p, Thijs, Roland, Tim, Marcus and our supervisors Irene & Carolien!
Just to let you all know, the stitches have been removed and I’m healed up. Thanks for all your concerns and prayers. You guys are the best!

The removal of the birthmark...

Sometimes things just don’t happen the way you want them to happen…
Well it happened to me again! Two weeks ago I had an appointment in the hospital to let them check my birthmarks, or moles or whatever you call them, you know those brown circle things you have on your body, well I’m blessed with a lot of those… It’s not like I’m all covered with them but I do want to get some removed, just because I thought that it would be better! So to continue my story: I went to the hospital to get them checked and asked the doctor to remove the ones I wanted to get removed. She didn’t want to do it, she saw no point in removing them. Until she noticed a birthmark that questioned her mind and well she wanted to get that one removed.
On Tuesday I had to come back to the hospital for the removal of the birthmark. I was a bit scared though, although I’ve been in the hospital before and I spend the first 3 months of my life there I was still afraid. “It is only a birthmark, why should I be scared?” I thought. I was still nervous but calm when the doctor started to cut my birthmark away. I thought I would end up with 2 stitches and a little bit of a scar but things changed a bit, because the birthmark was about 2cm and she had to cut all the skin around it away(I don’t know why they do that, but anyway…) In the middle of stitching me up her intern fainted so there I was lying on this table with a doctor stitching me up and an intern who couldn’t really handle it….I felt so awkward. I couldn’t really see what they were doing because the spot was right under my arm. Anyway, she stitched it all up and I’ve got 8 stitches and it hurts more than I ever expected. It’s only a birthmark, I feel so stupid! On Wednesday I hung out with one of my best friends and I think I’ve mentioned the pain a dozen times to her. Poor girl. In the end I told her: “it’s not like I want to whine, or complain or that I’m feeling sorry for myself but I just need attention.” She couldn’t stop laughing and said that it was ok. I'm such a drama queen! lol

Paris trip august 2007

















Paris, the city of love. I don’t know if it’s really the city of love but I sure can tell you that it plays tricks with your mind. I know Wade, Jan-Willem and Jolanda will say something different but we had a few really weird conversations. Actually the whole weekend was one weird conversation but we had so much fun! We left for Paris on Friday the 3rd of august. Jolanda, Jan-Willem and I had to work that Friday morning so we left at around 2-ish in the afternoon. It took us about 6,5 hours to reach Paris due the fact that traffic was just crazy near Antwerp. Also we experienced some trouble with getting LPG/GPL (gas) because we found out that every country has its own way of putting gas into a car… But we made it to Paris! When we arrived there, we found this amazing parking spot just outside the city centre, near our hotel. The best thing was: free parking! As we are cheap Dutch people we booked a cheap hotel near Pére Lachaise; the cemetery where Jim Morrison is buried. The hotel was cheap and the rooms were tiny but we couldn’t really complain because we didn’t pay much for it. The subway was right next to our hotel so we decided to go to the Eiffel tower. Seeing the Eiffel tower after being in a car for so long is just amazing! It was beautiful to see Paris by night!

The next morning we woke up early to leave and to explore Paris. First we hit the catacombs, an underground burial place in Paris. The bones of around 6 million people are stored there. From what I’ve understood was that a lot of graves were emptied in the 18th century and the bones were placed in these underground tunnels. It was a bit strange to see all these skulls and bones, but in a way it was interesting too. After the catacombs we took the nearest subway to Napoleon’s grave. Napoleon is buried in the Church of the Dome at Les Invalides. The church is just amazing, it has these beautiful paintings and the top of the church is covered in gold. The gardens around the building are very pretty. Les invalides was near the Eiffel tower so we decided to walk up to the Eiffel tower and take an elevator up to the top. We weren’t the only ones who wanted to go to the third floor of the Eiffel tower that day so Wade and I decided to get in line and Jolanda and Jan-Willem walked up to the fountain to relax a little bit. It took us 1,5 hours to reach the ticketboot and when we finally reached it they changed the sign and we could only go up to the 2nd floor because it was very crowded! I’ve been to the 3rd floor before but I was a bit sad for Wade. Here's this American who comes all the way from the United States and now he can’t go to the top of this building. Although we were only on the 2nd floor, the view from the Eiffeltower was amazing! After we came down, Wade and I walked up to the fountain and met up with Jolanda and Jan-Willem again. It was really warm weather so I decided to get into the fountain to cool down. The next thing on our list was the Nortre Dame. The Norte Dame was amazing too, I love seeing old churches and this one has a great architecture! Having seen the Norte Dame and all the other places we were all very exhausted and decided to go back to the hotel to take a shower and to change into fresh and clean clothes.

On Saturday evening we went up to Montmartre to have some diner there and see the Sacre Coeur. We missed sunset but still it was an amazing view from the Sacre Coeur, you could just overlook the whole city. My all time favorite place is Place du Tertre, the place where all the painters are situated on the street and draw or paint portrets. Such a romantic place and so beautiful. (If I ever find my mr. right guy I would definitely want to go there with him!) After Montmartre, Sacre Coeur and Place du Tertre we went to the red light distric of Paris; the place where people buy love. We wanted to see the Moulin Rouge so we walked up the building and took some pictures. Then we decided to go back to our hotel to drink some beers and get some rest.

Sunday morning was Louvre-time. We took the tube to the museum and while it has free access on every first Sunday of the month there were lines and lines everywhere. But as I already mentioned we, cheap, Dutch were excited about the museum entrance being for free so we couldn’t really care about the lines. It didn’t took long to get into the museum and so we went straight to the 1st floor to see the Mona Lisa. You just have to see the Mona Lisa when you are in Paris. It’s this tiny painting on a big wall and about 1000 asian people are making pictures of it…You just can’t miss it! After visiting the Louvre we walked on the Champ Elysées to the Arc du triomphe walked passed place du concorde and the American embassy. Wade wanted to make a picture of the embassy but the security in front of the buildig got really angry. Arc de Triomphe is amazing too, it’s nice to see the everlasting flame and to walk around the building. We were all too tired to climb the thing so after we had seen it we decided to go back to the hotel, get our stuff and head back to Holland. The bad thing about the whole day was that it was around 32 celcius outside and we were in a car without airconditioning. But we survived and we arrived safe at home that evening. Paris was amazing. I would like to go back again!