Passion coming to Europe

I've known this news for quite a while and I'm sure most of you also know about it but for the ones who didn't: Passion is coming to Europe.

Here are the dates:
May 16th Kiev, Ukraine
May 19th Stockholm, Sweden
June 3rd Paris, France
June 5th London, UK

We are going with a Dutch group to Paris (and a few will continue to London.)

If you are want to go with us, let me know!

Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown, are the desire of our hearts.-Isaiah 26:8

My latest creation...

I made this for a youth conference in my hometown. It's not finished yet...but here it is:

In memory...

1979-2008

Yesterday evening I read the news of Heath Ledgers death. I was in shock! I still am. Ledger was one of the actors I really liked. And to think of the fact that he was only 5 years older than me....! I find it hard to believe he's really gone.

"See The Morning" GOLD

See The Morning by Chris Tomlin is certified Gold this month by the Recording Industry Association of America. This is Chris' second Gold record.

I love Tomlin's music. Actually he was the one that made me love Christian music. Three years ago I got his album 'Arriving' for my birthday party. I wasn't a big Christian music fan those days, but I got to appreciate Christian music more after I listened to his album. I like his music because it's simple but yet so powerful. Anyway I don't want idolize his music or Chris himself, just wanted to put this up here to celebrate this moment. God has been good to him.

Ireland!!

(C) V.Decker

Yeah, I'm finally going to blog about Ireland. Haha. I wanted to do it last week but didn't really know what to write & I was still processing it all!

Not a lot of people actually knew that I was going to Ireland. Some did. But if I tell that I'm going away, I always get these weird looks: are you going away, AGAIN! So if somebody is reading this & is surprised about it...well sorry for not telling, now you know ;-)

Anyway my trip to Ireland....I did some stuff for atiG, an Christian artist & event management company, and hope to do some more in the future, but I never met the people behind atiG. So going to Ireland and meeting (almost) everybody at atiG was really cool. It was a 3-day visit, so way too short, but loved every moment of it. Philip, the guy behind atiG, arranged everything that weekend. (Thanks man!) And I got to stay at Wendy's house (a friend of Philip), Wendy was great! We had some loonngg talks! (Yeah, that's what women do ;-))And I couldn't have wished for a better host.

atiG organised a Shaun Groves & Ginny Owens concert that weekend. Never heard of Shaun & Ginny before, so it was all quite new. But I loved every moment of it and both artists are very gifted!

I also did some sightseeing. Saw a bit of Ballymena, went to Belfast and got to see the Giant's causeway and a castle. Ireland is just so beautiful!! So green! (Oh and I love Guinness)

Anyway it was great. Great to get to know everybody. It felt like I knew everybody for a very long time. The only bad thing about the weekend was the weather on Sundaymorning, but oh well...at least I had (and hopefully we all had) a great time!!

Our desires are His desires

Phil 2: 12-13
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

I was reading this the other day and it really spoke to me. I do believe that God is a dreamgiver and that He gives us dreams and desires. He put desires in our heart to lead us the way, to His plan for our lives.
John 15 tell us that if we abide ( live with God and become like Him) in Christ, if we continue our relationship with the Lord and dwell with Him over a period of time, His word will abide in us. If we ask Him what we desire He will give it to us. Matthew 7:7 says "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you."

So now you probably ask which desires are from God and which ones are your own. If you're not sure, pray about it. That's what I do. Sometimes I have very strong desires and I pray for those desires. It's up to God what He wants to do with it. But remember no matter how much we may desire something if we don't have peace deep in our hearts about it, then it's not right for us.

Rules & regulations in the church

Last weekend I was in Ireland (which reminds me I still have to blog about Ireland)

So it was my first time in Ireland and I loved it. Got to meet some amazing people, had some amazing long chats and not to forget got to experience a little bit of the Irish lifestyle.

During that weekend and actually during the past few weeks I've been thinking a lot about christianity. It's not that I'm doubting my faith, definitely not. But it's just that the church is so messed up. I grew up in a church where I had to wear a skirt & hat. I had to attend church twice a Sunday, if you didn't you weren't a christian. We weren't aloud to buy stuff on Sunday and watching TV on Sunday was not done. Our TV was even hidden in our livingroom(even during the week).

Going to concerts was going to parties of the devil and going to the cinema was something you just didn't do because if Jesus came back He would find you in the cinema, how awful that might be...

This might be something very unreal for people who aren't raised like this. It does sound so unreal, but this is how I grew up. My parents were raised like this, even their parents. They only taught me what they were taught.

It's sad that most churches are still like this. The one thing I've learned is that christianity isn't about rules. It's all about having a personal relationship with God. Spending time with friends and talking about faith can be church. Praying with somebody or for somebody can be church. Church isn't always the church building you see in every town. I don't say you all should quit church, definitely not. But what I wanted to say is that we have to stop all these church rules and regulations. Churches can get so caught up by these rules. They are constantly fighting about certain rules and regulations and even some churches split and new churches are formed. Isn't that awful? People forget the real meaning of church and that is community, being the body of Christ.

God loves us for what we are. When he looks at us He doesn't see our failures or sin, He sees His Son, God gave His only Son for the sake of our sins.

The girl rockstars sing about

A friend of mine send me a pin the other day and it says: "You're the girl rockstars sing about."
Okay, so now I wonder: do they sing about me in the correct way, or in a very sick wrong way?;-)

It's funny that these pins even exist. I'm totally not the girl rockstars sing about, nobody has ever written a song for me or dedicated a song to me. Mmm..thinking about that....wouldn't it be cool if somebody writes a song about you or dedicates it to you? (Don't start to write a song for me now..hehe) It would definitely be flattering... but to be honest I already think it's cool when my name is printed under an article I've written. THAT excites me!

A little miracle

I've been part of this Worship community called 'Worship Frequency' for some time. One of 'my fellow Freq's' Nate is married to Tricia who has CF. When she became pregnant, they both feared the worst. Their baby girl Gwyneth Rose is born at 24 weeks, two weeks ago. It was a miracle that Tricia was pregnant and it's even a bigger miracle that Gwyneth Rose is born and doing well!

Please keep Tricia, Nate & baby Gwyneth in your prayers

http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/

When we were young...

If a parent, a grandparent or someone else says: "When we were young...." you just know you're in trouble.

I'm a very stuborn person, have been stuborn my whole life and will probably stay that way for the rest of my life. I know what I want and I stick to it. And I always get in trouble because of that. Esp. with my parents. Officially I moved out, which means that I have an apartment somewhere else, but unofficially I still live there in the weekends and sometimes during the week. I travel a lot back and forth. Not that I can't live without my parents or family but I love being in my old hometown and love spending time with my friends there.

Living with your parents at a certain age can be a little bit difficult. They nag about everything. I know they love me but sometimes it feels like they can't stop nagging. They support me in everything I do (almost everything) They know that if they don't support me, I'll do it anyways, haha. But their way of saying I love you is nagging about certain things. The one line I get to hear every single time is: "When I was your age, I was already married and had two kids."
Right! So should I get worried now? Haha. I always answer: "I'm glad that I don't have two kids at this age." And of course then hell breaks loose and I get to hear more about life when they were young and how much better that was! I personally think it's funny and normally I just let them say their thing and everything is all right after that. But I do wonder if this is something we will say to our kids in the future. Can you imagine?

Numbers 12:6 - he said, "Listen to my words: "When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams.

Tricky Angel

Sometimes you just come across a song that speaks to you in a way, well that happened to me with this song.

Thank you!

To the people I have been friends with for a long time and to the ones I got to know last year, all of you are dear to my heart &

I love you

I'm thankful for all the birthday messages I received yesterday. Through e-mail, text messages, phonecalls, facebook and hyves. Wow, it feels so special to know that so many people think of me on my birthday.

Thank you all, for all your supports, for praying for me for being around when I need someone or for putting me into contact with other people that can help me further in reaching my dream.

You all know who you are! And I won't trade you for anything in this entire world.

I nag you

Nagging about certain things is common in my family and esp. in my friend group. We nag about everything. (ok- so it’s not only a female thing, trust me!!) If one of my friends is wearing something ‘not cool’ we nag about it and make fun of it, even if it’s cool. If I wear make up, my friends always nag about that too, they always say “Do you have a black eye?” “Did someone hit you?” I do the same thing. It’s our little way of saying “I love you” but it sounds like “I nag you”. I know that for some people this might seem strange. Maybe it’s Dutch? Maybe it’s just our little way of communicating.

Happy Birthday to myself

I'm back in the land of wooden shoes and tulips! Ireland was amazing! Will fill you in about that later (with pics!). Just wanted to say: it's my birthday today! It's not great to turn a year older but it's amazing how many people think of me on this 'special' day. By the way my colleagues at work made me wear this today and made a picture of me! LOL
Have an amazing splendid day and be grateful towards what God has given you!

Hebrews 3:4

Every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.

The power of words

I'm obsessed with hair.. uhuh, yes....I said it! I am! I drive my friends crazy. When we go out on saturday evenings I always ask: how's my hair? Not once, not twice...NO....about fourteen times an evening, until they say: get over it! Then I'll stop. I don't know what it is, but mainly that helps! haha.

The same thing with my colleague at work. (just for the record...this is not related to my hairdo)
My colleague is the producer of the kids tv program I work at. This week he's in Israel together with the presenter of the program to film some Bible stories. To make a long story short. I happened to run into him on Monday morning when I arrived at work. I got my coffee, wanted to settle myself in front of my amazing noise making Apple computer and there he was! I was in shock: I really thought he was already at the airport, but no...he was trying to find out if he had everything packed and asked if I could name a few important things so he could check if he packed everything(He did the same thing on friday and when I mentioned camera tapes, he was like: Oh....NO!!!....I forgot the most important thing!!) So I named a list of things that came to my mind but he was prepared. Then he asked me something. He asked, if I could ask him, if he was all set, packed everything and ready to go.... I think I looked at him like he was a complete weirdo! Then he explained to me that that always helps when he's going away. So I did what I was asked to do and he's now safe in Israel (hopefully he packed everything!!)

Old and new

I'm not much of a blogger. I always have these brilliant thoughts and ideas of stories but I just forget to write them down and then I forget them and never think about it again. Or I can't because of the lack of time.

So what happened in the last month of 2007? I left my 'old' job a few weeks ago and started to work for television again. Before I left my old job my colleague asked: Jac, do you have time to relax? You seem so involved in everything and always on the go, but do you really find time to relax? That made me think. I like to be involved in everything, for some reason I always get involved in things I really don't want to get involved in. Not because I hate it or don't want to do it, but mainly because I'm already involved in a lot of things and I don't want to leave something unfinished.
But to ensure everyone: I do get some time to relax! I try to shut my door every night when I get home from work and turn on the TV, prepare dinner and then eat it in front of the TV. It's my way of relaxing. In a way I feel bad for my roommates. The only time they get to see me is at night. But sometimes I just have to shut my door. My new job is hectic and it's more stressful. Not to mention that I have to travel almost 4 hours each day to get to and from work. But I don't mind, I like my new job and I always wanted to have a real job in television. I feel so grown up now. haha.

Christmas was weird this year. My sister and her 5 kids spend Christmas with my parents and I. So it was a bit crowded at the dinner table. Not only crowded but because she had a really rough year with the divorce and the abuse and stalking going on it was weird to finally sit down and have a nice dinner with each other. I think my nephew thought the same thing so he ran off, disappeared and went home.

Next year: not celebrating Christmas at home, so invites are welcome!

December 31st was great! Had an amazing time with friends, we talked, played board games and just watched the fireworks and stuff. I always love the New Year, although it's not very different than every new year.

2008 is starting off as a busy year, it will only get busier but I'm excited about this year. A lot of music, festivals and writing is on my agenda, not to mention: getting my driving license and finishing college. A lot of my American friends keep asking me why I don't have a driving license. Well in Holland it's just incredible expensive to get one. Mainly because the country is so small, and there are already too many cars. Taxes are high and getting your driving license is expensive. But I'm finally getting there and hopefully I'll start soon.

I'm flying to Ireland in 7 days. 'm very excited about that. Have never been to Ireland and can't wait to see and meet some friends there. Also I'm turning 23 in about 12 days! WOW. I'm getting old. I still remember the times when I was 12 and thought that 23 was old. Oh well I just have to get over it.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!