Pictures of Taize area

Thick as Honey (and sweeter too)

I arrived at Taize on Sunday and as soon as the prayer service started, I felt like I was home.  Taize itself does not feel like home, although it is a very nice community, but it is in the silence, contemplation, and worship in community that my soul felt immediately at home.  I am grateful for this chance to rest in Jesus and to have extended periods of time just to listen or to talk to Him.  The contrast between the distracted motion of traveling and the rest of just being has been enormous.

The community of Taize is Christian ecumenical and over 100 brothers live here currently and there life is centered around communal prayer three times a day with work and ministry in between as they tangibly demonstrate the unity of the Body of Christ.  Some brothers also live abroad in solidarity with the poor and there are sisters from other organizations who live here and run an infirmary and care for the adult and family visitors.  Besides those that live here permanently there are volunteers who stay a month or a year and work at Taize and then there are many many international "young people" who come for a week.  Thankfully this week was smaller with 200-300 visitors (last week being ascension week there were 4000); although I enjoy meeting new people and especially those from so many  different countries, I find myself preferring to slip away after communal meals or sharing to spend more time alone with God.  I am so enjoying the large amount of time with no expectations and the carved out space for worship, that I keep wanting to return to solitude with Christ to enjoy His presence and to ponder scripture I have been reading or issues I have been working to.  I believe I enjoy the gathering at night the best as there are so many people gathered together to praise God and to sit in silence to let the weight of what has been spoken through the Word sink in and there is no meal afterward and so people can stay as long as they like or slip as they'd like. It is the unhurried nature of this worship without a deadline that fills me with gratitude and awe and it is during the night that I have especially felt God's love as thick as honey running through me. I have been reading the gospel of John and trying to take in each verse slowly to let it sink in deeper.  I feel my love for Jesus deepening as I spend this time with Him and I am grateful for the month that I will get to spend here with next week being taken in silence.  I am also enjoying the opportunity to pray for everyone at home; thank you for your prayers as well!

Joy and peace in the Holy Spirit,
Cassie

Taize Bound!

I am leaving for Taize in 10 minutes and I will be there for 1-4 weeks depending on how the Lord leads me. I won't have internet access there so there may be a longer silence from me; I will be praying for you all.
God bless you!
Cassie

Bits and Pieces

As I have been traveling the last several days I have collected a few memorable moments to share.

While on the train from the Rotterdam to Antwerp a couple of Belgium policemen came aboard and as they moved from car to car they noticed the teenage boy sitting across from me who was sleeping with his laptop open and his wallet on top.  One of the policemen took the wallet and hid it behind his back while the other one shook the boy awake and asked for his ID.  The boy looked appropriately surprised and bewildered at the  rude awakening and he hurriedly looked around for his wallet.  The policemen sternly looked on as the boy grew more flustered; finally with a flourish, the policeman produced the wallet and gave a short lecture on the importance of not leaving valuables lying around. The boy nodded along emphatically. The policemen left and I exchanged smiles with  the sheepish teenager.

In the idyllic town of Bruges I stayed at one of the three hostels in town.  Bruges is made up of quaint medieval buildings, canals, swans, and thousands of day trippers.  The town enforces a quiet hour on the streets and therefore my hostel was one of the indoor party spots.  The bar played crazy loud rock music that vibrated throughout the rooms upstairs.  The showers were in one room for guys and girls and only a thin curtain that swayed precariously whenever the door open or closed provided privacy.  Also you had to pull a chain continuously for the water to flow; needless to say I showered quickly and rather frantically.

Stephanie wanted me to write about how I would arrive in France since I had nothing figured out when I left. I was going to take a boring train, but I started looking too late and the boring trains were very expensive, so I ended up taking the bus instead.  Lisanne was skeptical when I told her my plan and so were the other people I met.  I had to hurry to make it in time to check in at the bus station in Brussels 15 minutes before the bus left as the website had said this was very important. I needn't have bothered running through the trains station as the bus left 20 minutes late and the whole check in process was ramshackle.  I met a girl named Megan who was real nice (another fun Megan!) and we sat in the front close to the nervous driver who was pacing to leave. He animatedly yelled at, gestured, and honked at other drivers as we crept through Brussels' city traffic. It appeared we were falling behind the proposed arrival time so I was surprised when we stopped at a reststop and he made everyone get out of the bus and was in no rush to leave quickly (a small kickback perhaps?)  56 kms outside of Paris a copy car in front of us put on its lights and the driver began cursing in both Flemish and French.  The police car guided us to a rest area where two other police cars joined us.  The customs officers came aboard and started checking passports and questioning each passenger on their purpose in going to Paris.  As soon as the officers stepped into the bus the entire demeanor of the driver changed as he gave a pleasant "bonjour" as a greeting.  The whole process took 40 minutes or so as two passengers were randomly selected to be searched outside the bus all the while the bus driver politely had a heart attack aboard the bus. 

Paris is very pretty and the nearby crepes stand chef and I are well aquainted.  I have met many friendly Parisians and tourists but no kindred spirits as of yet (I am excited that I will soon be at Taize).  I was pleased to be able to attend vespers for Ascension Day at Notre Dame as my hostel is only a few blocks away. I still am trying to get used to the spiritual atmosphere of Europe, but it has been challenging.

I guess I shouldn't have complained about the shower situation of my hostel in Bruges as this hostel has no shower curtain.  My roomates and I have a partial curtain improvised from a bedsheet.

One of my favorite moments with the Lord was climbing the eiffel tower at sunset and then enjoying a nighttime snack of a baguette and fairtrade nutella and hearing the cheers as the lights went on (and even louder cheers as they twinkled).  Sometimes it is fun to see how easily pleased we are as humans, but then we tend to be easily displeased too.   People watching in Paris is fantastic (Nathan and Kim I thought of you two).  Watching people flock around the Mona Lisa and try to  take pictures of it over other peoples heads without really looking at it was better than seeing the painting itself (I didn't even try to get close instead  I took a picture of the people taking pictures : )

I guess I didn't have my fill of buses since I took one again to Lyon this afternoon.  I ended up sitting by a friendly Morrocan man who has been living in Spain for the last 15  years, we started taking right away and we kept it up for hours.  We talked about our faiths (he is a muslim), solutions for poverty, the brain drain of nations, the european union, and the current situation in Spain.  Apparently the woman in front of us didn't appreciate our conversation because when I came back from the black hole that is the bathroom she looked at me coldly and said "silence is golden."  I wasn't sure what she was talking about and I must have looked confused because she repeated herself, "silence is golden."  Quite passive aggressive.  I felt bad that she didnt like us talking.  It was awkward in how she went about communicating her displeasure and it squelched my conversation with Youseff; I dwelt on her comment longer than I should have (transforming prayer opportunity?).  The Lord blessed me with the woman who was sitting next to the woman who told me to stop chatting as I was getting off of the bus she said, "you should keep speaking the word of God, I really enjoyed listening to your conversation!"  God is so good to send encouragement when we need it!

I included a few leftover pictures from the Netherlands as I thought a few people would be interested in the prestigious nameplate of the Finnish embassy.

Are You Dutch Enough?

This is my last morning at Lisanne's in the Hague before heading on to Belgium and then France and finally Taize on Sunday!  I have been the recipient of Lisanne's gracious hospitality for going on 11 days now and I smile as Proverb 25:17 comes to mind: "seldom set foot in your neighbor's house -- too much of you, and they will hate you." Hopefully that isn't Lisanne's sentiment : ).

I have so enjoyed my time in the Netherlands, but I have especially enjoyed the conversations I have had with Lisanne.  We had a lovely weekend that started with insight into what it is like to live in a country that uses trains so heavily.  We had planned to go to Utrecht to visit some of Lisanne's old study mates at a local pub Friday night, the signals on the track between Den Haag (the Hague) and Utrecht were not working however so we had to detour all the way to Amsterdam to go to Utrecht (it sounds far but really only took an hour longer).  We had a nice time at the pub and Lisanne's study mates were friendly and we had interesting conversations.  I especially enjoyed my conversation with her friend Eric with whom I discussed his philosophical and world views that were quite Nietzsche-esque (i.e. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche). I appreciated his desire to have a serious conversation with a stranger at a happy hour type setting and I found parts of his worldview to be similar to that of Christian's, whom I met in Germany, as they both focus on the power of positive thinking and the idea that the world is composed of positive and negative energy.  Sorry, I digress, after the outing with Lisanne's study mates we attempted to go back to the Hague only to find that the signals between the Hague and Utrecht still were not working and now the track between Utrecht and Amsterdam was down as well; so we joined the large crowd hanging out in the rail station sipping free tea waiting for news of a fix.  The news was slow in coming, and although our fries and conversation interrupted by a very excited recently born again Christian was interesting, we decided to see if there was a bus option as it was now 11 p.m.  When we got outside the train station we found a couple of coach buses waiting with a few grumpy transportation attendents who had the pleasant job of getting all of the struck rail travelers home.  There was a bit of confusion about where each bus was going and if the trains were running in those towns, but Lisanne directed us to a bus and we waited in line to get on. The bus looked full and I felt the competitiveness rise inside of me as I boxed out the man angling behind me to get in the bus; this was fortunate as there were only 2 seats left and the man whose luggage occupied Lisanne's seat was reluctant to give it up.  We eventually made it home a bit after midnight.

On Saturday we waited for Lisanne's clothes closet to arrive and then after deciding it was too big/heavy for us to carry up the three narrow and steep flights of stairs (whew!) we let the closet be for Tim to move later. We went for a long walk on the beach and watched the kite surfers and kite surfer wannabes practicing.  It was a bit windy and chilly although sunny and I was grateful for a cup of hot chocolate at the end of the walk.  We had to save up a bit of our energy before our big night of dancing so Lisanne made us a fish dinner and we spent some time enlightening each other on the finer points of each of our cultures musical tastes and you tube videos.  I showed her some music by Gungor and some country music as most American pop/rock is regularly played on Dutch radio stations (I relied on some favorites from my nephew Miles and brother-in-law Jim for these).  When it came time to show awesome you tube videos I had to think back to my wonderful days at Target and all of the pop culture lessons I received from so many co-workers without whom I would have never experienced (and neither would have  Lisanne) the delights of such hits as "the backing up song."  From Lisanne I heard some music from the 1 Dutch rock singer and the 1 Dutch country singer: Anouk and Isle de Lange.  And of course since Lisanne also spent quite some time in Brazil we spent much of the week singing "Tchê tcherere tchê tchê, Tcherere tchê tchê,Tcherere tchê tchê,
Tchereretchê" from Gustavo Lima's "Balada." We also listened to comedians; we both remembered loving the Cosby show growing up so we saw some classics from Bill Cosby and then for American comedians I could only think of the duck material from Mitch Hedberg that Julia and I listened to in college -- I looked for the stuff he did on TV as it tends to be edited ; ).  I couldn't full appreciate Lisanne's selections as they were in Dutch, but her translations were funny so I bet it is even better first hand!  I had a blast dancing with Lisanne until 3:30 a.m. at a Latin place in the Hague Central and then cycling home.  It reminded me of our dancing dates in Costa Rica that were a highlight of my time there so a repeat here in the Netherlands was a treat.  The DJ only spun one merengue song the whole night but we managed to make the most of the song ; ).

Sunday was just about a perfect day.  Lisanne graciously biked me to the English speaking church I had selected (halfway across the city!). She had to bike hard to get there as we left a bit late and when we arrived she was a bit sweaty from her efforts... I owe her big when she comes to visit me!  The worship gathering was very nice and it was neat to hear the heart of Crossroads Church for their city as they seek to be a city of refuge like Christ is a refuge for all people.  I appreciated hearing Lisanne's thoughts on the message over brunch and then we had a long cycle in the forest bursting in green (from the week long rain!) with bridges and canals and we stopped for a warm waffle and chocolate and whipped cream at a small snack shop.  I can't remember a time I have consistently eaten so much chocolate throughout the day.  I have chocolate hagel slag on my bread each morning, hot chocolate in the afternoon when it is chilly or a wafel with chocolate and then of course chocolate for dessert with tea at night -- I'm not complaining, but I'm wondering if I am overdoing it a bit.  We had planned to cycle back to the Hague by biking through a sand dune area but we were unable to find a trail that went that way so we ended up on the beach and so we decided to cycle along the beach which turned out to be quite a lot of work.  I thought it would be fun to cycle along the ocean just at the edge, for some reason Lisanne did not join in this venture, and once I got a large wave, wet shoes and a rental bike with a squeaky chain for my efforts I better understood her wisdom.  The beach route took an extra 1.5 hours but it was beautiful and I did my best to scrape the sandy water off of my bike before returning it.  We finished off the night with some great Surinamese cuisine which is plentiful in the Netherlands.  I am going to miss  the Netherlands, Lisanne and our nightly cup of tea, but one thing I will not miss is riding on the metal bar on the back of a bike over all of the cobblestone streets and ubiquitous tram tracks  -- I'm not Dutch enough to handle that for long.

V-ups and Stroopwafels

I think stroopwafels will be my undoing here in Holland.  They are just so full of sweet sticky caramel-y goodness and I have a hard time resisting them!  I have learned a lot about the Netherlands in my week here by talking with Lisanne, her friends, her sister and her parents. Her father in particular is a fountain of knowledge in European history and the history of the Netherlands in particular.  What I have enjoyed the most however is spending time with Lisanne and catching up with her.  It has been about 8 years since we met in Costa Rica and although we kept up a bit by e-mail it has been special to have this time to get to know her on a deeper level.  She truly is a delightful person; thoughtful, hospitable, funny, and easy going.  We have talked about so many subjects already and I have enjoyed her perspective on history, politics, dredging, foreign policy, food, movies, relationships, and religion.  We've laughed a lot together too and I am happy to say it hasn't always been because of something I did as she has also had her moments.

Here are random bits of culture that I am learning from Lisanne:  you don't need to rinse your dishes when hand washing them because the soap won't hurt you (it takes much will power at times to resist the urge to rinse!), always give bicycles the right of way when walking, how to properly drink mint lemonade, and do not run down the tiny narrow steps that lead up to third floor flats.  I have also learned how to ride on the bike of a bicycle side saddle style while cruising through cobble stone bumpy streets and narrow narrow passages -- it is like doing a prolonged v-up and I feel like those who habitually ride on the backs of bicycles like this must have abs of steel.  We are staying in the Hague right now at Lisanne's place and a couple of nights ago we went to her favorite hole in the wall pizza shop run by a sweet Italian couple.  We sat on the counter as our pizzas were being made and the owner gave us bruschetta and the house wine as we waited; he never stopped smiling as he made the pizzas and the walls of the shop attested to the fact that he was a favorite in the neighborhood as there were pictures of him and many children behind the counter making pizzas.  The pizzas were delicious, but my newly acquired bike passenger skills were put to the test as I had to carry both of the pizza boxes while precariously perched on the bar in back as we whizzed through night traffic (suck in the legs so they are not clipped by passing cars, but not too far in or you hit the spokes all while leaning back to make room for the pizza boxes -- thus the v-up).

Lisanne was able to take Tuesday off of work and we spent the day in Amsterdam.  We went to the Anne Frank house museum; I felt compelled to go since like just about every American child I read the book in middle school and was fascinated by the secret hiding place.  The actual hiding place is stark as all the furniture has been removed at the request of Otto (Anne's father) and there is such a long line as you go through the house that it felt hard to emotionally connect to what I was seeing, still it was interesting.  Lisanne and I had some good discussions about Holland's involvement in WWII and the shame the country has that they were occupied by Germany and many helped the Nazis cause.  Yet every country has shame that it bears for poor decisions and I think recognizing the decisions as poor is a start towards making ammends or at least not making the same bad decision again.  Lisanne is a great tour guide; we wandered all around Amsterdam and saw the medieval buildings that remain as well as random sculptures hidden around, hidden churches that Catholics had during the reformation time, punishment houses for women, and a really neat art deco theater where we watched a movie.  We originally were going to watch Intouchables, and in fact purchased the tickets, but as we walked away from the theater Lisanne realized the movie was in French and the subtitles in Dutch... which would be a really confusing language lesson for me.  Luckily we were able to change the tickets.  We had lunch at Lisanne's favorite restaurant which was delicious with big open face sandwiches with "old cheese"and avocado and veggies on brown bread - I appreciated the insider's knowledge on the restaurant selection.  It was a long but tiring day so we used her sister's flat to make supper and to rest after all of our walking before going to the movie and then home to the Hague.

God has been teaching me about being.  To learn to just be with Him and for that to be enough.  At times it has been hard not to have a distinct purpose for each day and I find myself trying to decipher and create meaningful tasks for myself; and although meaning and purpose are good things, it seems Jesus is wanting me to be satisfied with being present with Him.  Like Martha, from the story recounted in Luke chapter 10 of the Bible, I can attach my identity to doing and I need the Lord's gentle reminder that my identity as one loved and redeemed by Him has already been given to me and it is not changed, down graded or enhanced by what I do or do not do.  I have also had a heightened sense of gratitude that God is. I find myself praising Him more for the fact that He exists than for any specific attribute or blessing.  Since God is, I can rest in the knowledge that am that He sustains all things and all people.  It has been a prayer of mine since I left that God would love me through other people so that I can better learn how to love others and I have found Him to be faithful to show His love to me through others I have encountered which has grown my awareness that as image bearers of God we all have the capacity to be used as His instruments and everyone has something to give or something to teach.

I apologize there is no pictures with this one, but I need wifi to upload them from my phone, so I'll do a pictures post in a few days.

May God who is rich in mercy show His love through you,

Cassie

Pictures - Cologne and Wageninegen, Zeist, Utrecht Holland

These are pictures from my last night in Cologne as well as the memorial parade in Wageninegen, the torch lighting, the concerts on Freedom Day, biking through Zeist and the countryside (sheep, castles and wooden clogs for sale), and a small occupy tent set up in Urecht.

It was very interesting to stay with Lisanne at her boyfriend's university house, especially on the biggest party weekend of the year in Wageninegen.  The torch lighting ceremony and memorial parade with veterans were enlightening to attend; the huge street party and house party gave me another perspective of culture in Holland.

After attending a Dutch cover band concert (the Memphis Maniacs) I was walking to another concert with the others, but I was lagging a bit behind trying to figure out the purpose of a street performance that was going on involving women dressed all in black with broken black umbrellas handing off black suitcases to each other and guarding a white van.  Apparently I was a little too engrossed in the going ons as I walked right into a pole.  If we were in a fight, the pole won. Lisanne looked back in time to see it happen, but her friends missed it.  I think I made the day of those people watching on the side if the street; it really was a textbook example of walking into a pole complete with the ringing sound (the pole, not me). Really though, the resulting mark on my forehead was rather unimpressive and it didn't even bruise yet.

I'm in Zeist now with Lisanne's parents and her sister who also was visiting.  I have been so well taken care of by Lisanne and I am appreciating the history and culture she has to share.  She has a great story about her grandfather who played a part in resisting the German occupation during WWII and his resulting imprisonment in workcamps all over Europe and escape in Belgium.  I am blessed to be able to learn so much from Lisanne and her family during my time with them and I am again reminded of the importance of personal testimonies to link the past to the present and cultures and generations together.