earthsedge

The weeks are flying by. Between work and various social engagements, we haven’t had much time for anything else! But when we do have some free time on the weekends, we like to spend it walking through the city, exploring new places, stopping for a hot drink, and….feeding the birds. This has become one of Aidan’s favorite things to do. He usually cries when we run out of bread and have to say goodbye to the swarms of feathered ‘friends.’

Feeding pigeons:

Chasing pigeons:

But the seagulls are the best show:

amsterdam, feeding birds

After a dreary week, we woke up this morning to flurries of snow and a beautiful day in Amsterdam. We walked around the city and took a few pics:

Aidan was anxious to get outside.

The stroller has held up pretty well in the snow.

I guess this is the equivalent of having to brush your car off in the morning. Snow doesn’t seem to affect the bike-culture of the city.

Snowy streets. We live in the building on the left. Amsterdam (usually) doesn’t get enough snow for plows or shovels, although the streets are sometimes salted.

Winter canal. Not cold enough to be iced over, but pretty chilly.

St. Nicholas Kerk.

Aidan has been doing much better this week. He seems to be adjusting and he loves to play with his new friends: ‘Sam’ his old buddy from before (although they mostly fight over toys), ‘Massiva’ a little Algerian girl who lives down the hallway and is close to Aidan’s age, and Rivka, an older girl from Venezuela who plays really well with Aidan.

FIS is going really well, but the days are long and very full..hence the lack of posts!

It’s strange to think we will be in Amsterdam this weekend. Well, if the snow doesn’t stop our plane from taking off. Or landing. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone there, and not looking forward to saying goodbye to everyone here!

We’ll be jumping right in; the FIS starts on Monday. Last I heard we have a group of around 16, with students from Eastern and Western Europe, USA, Africa, and the Middle East. It’s looking like it will be a very busy three months; along with helping to facilitate the FIS, I will be finishing my thesis project and Becka will be teaching English. And we will both be doing our best to make sure Aidan doesn’t fall into a canal…the secret fear of every parent in Amsterdam.

amsterdam fis travel

I found out my thesis proposal for my BA was officially approved, so I’ll be trying to get as much done in the few months before we leave for Amsterdam and the FIS begins. ‘Thesis’ isn’t really the right word-it’s not a research paper. It’s more like a ‘creative project’-a collection of personal essays reflecting on my experience in missions over the past eight years. I think I’m really going to enjoy it. The tentative title is Following Christ Across Cultures: Reflections on Faith, Culture, and Mission. I might have to revise that later, but I’m pretty happy with how broad it is. I’m supposed to be putting in 50 hours a week of reading and writing. The writing part is definitely the more challenging side of the project. I feel like I have plenty of ideas of what to write about, but actually putting them into coherent and readable essays is another story. The reading, of course, is the fun part (the guy in the picture above is obviously having the time of his life). I get to revisit some books that have influenced me in the past few years, and read a bunch of books that I’ve been looking forward to reading. Here’s my working bibliography (for the one or two of you out there who are actually interested-feel free to offer suggestions if you think something is missing):

Review

Boyd, Gregory A. The Myth of a Christian Nation: How Political Power is Destroying the Church. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005.

Boyd, Gregory A. Repenting of Religion: Turning from Judgment to the Love of God. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2004.

Brueggemann, Walter. The Prophetic Imagination. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001.

Chandler, Paul Gordon. Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road: Exploring a New Path Between Two Faiths. Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2007.

Crouch, Andy. Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2008.

Hiebert, Paul G. Transforming Worldviews. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008.

Jenkins, Philip. The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Jenkins, Philip. God’s Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe’s Religious Crisis. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Jones, E. Stanley. The Christ of the Indian Road. New York: Grosset and Dunlap Publishers, 1925.

Kruger, C. Baxter. The Great Dance: The Christian Vision Revisited. Vancouver: Regent College Publishing, 2005.

Kruger, C. Baxter. Jesus and the Undoing of Adam. Perichoresis, Inc., 2007.

Newbigin, Leslie. The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society. Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1989.

Raschke, Carl. GloboChrist: The Great Commission Takes a Postmodern Turn. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008.

Torrance, James B. Worship, Community, and the Triune God of Grace. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1996.

Torrance, Thomas F. The Mediation of Christ. Helms and Howard, 1992.

Volf, Miroslav. Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996.

Willard, Dallas. The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.

Wright, N.T. Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. HarperOne, 2008.

Projected Reading

Chandler, Paul Gordon. God’s Global Mosaic: What We Can Learn from Christians Around the World

Frost, Michael and Alan Hirsch. The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21 Century Church

Hirsch, Alan and Leonard Sweet. The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church

Hughe, Richard T. Myths America Lives By

Hunter, George G. III. The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West…Again

Kingsolver, Barbara. The Poisonwood Bible

Kurlansky, Mark. Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea

Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Mellis, Jim. Latest book (This is my boss, who is writing a fantastic book on intercultural relationships)

Miller, Darrow L. Discipling Nations: The Power of Truth to Transform Cultures.

Newbigin, Lesslie. Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture

Niebuhr, H. Richard. Christ and Culture

Noll, Mark A. The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith

Peterson, Eugene H. The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways That Jesus Is the Way

Rah, Soong-Chan. The Next Evangelicalism:​ Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity

Smith, James K.A. Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation (Cultural Liturgies)

Stier, Jim and others. His Kingdom Come: An Integrated Approach to Discipling the Nations and Fulfilling the Great Commission.

Torrance, Thomas F. Incarnation: The Person and Life of Christ

amsterdam, bibliography, books, culture, faith, fis, mission, thesis project

Total Miles: 4826

Total States: 11

Cheapest Gas: $2.39 (Oklahoma)

Most expensive gas: 3.79 (California desert)

Speeding Tickets: 0

Roadkills: We stopped counting after a hundred. And that was just Illinois, Missouri, and half of Kansas.

Tom Cruise sightings: 1 (well, he may have been wearing a mask). Our other brush with a celebrity was when we got stuck behind Alan Jackson’s tour entourage at a toll booth-which led to Becka’s confession that she once owned an Alan Jackson cd.

Worst Bathroom: Shamrock, Oklahoma at the Phillips 66 station. We stopped there in the middle of the night. I think they would be better off digging a few holes out back. They may need to soon, since two out of the three toilets were out of order.

Best Bathroom: Basspro Shops, Springfield, MO

Mike and Ike’s consumed while driving: Too many to count

Starbuck’s stops: Maybe 3 or 4. This number is low because I brought some nice coffee along and brewed it myself whenever we weren’t driving.

Best view: Laguna Beach, CA, and the Utah desert. I think the beach was definitely one of Aidan’s highlights:

Worst view: The Inland Empire. At least the smog isn’t too bad this time of year.

Most surreal moment: Staying with total strangers in a house by a cemetery in the middle of nowhere in Kansas.

Best Lunch Deal: $5 footlongs at Subway

Questionable Logic/Marketing Fail/Sad Commentary on our Society:

Worth the stop: Denver surprised us in a lot of ways. It snowed and sleeted while we were driving in, but the next day was in the 60s and sunny. We stayed with a wonderful older couple who spoiled us, and hung out with Becka’s sister who now lives there. We walked around the city center (which was beautiful). The public library was amazing, and there was a free museum across the street. I accidentally left my water bottle in a park bench in the city center, and when I came back a few hours later, it was still there. But one sad thing: there were literally hundreds of homeless people hanging around the city center.

Most redeeming moment: We forgot to bring any books with us, which we instantly regretted. Then I found a Michel Foucault book at Goodwill for $1.99, and Becka found the entire James Herriot series at her parent’s place.

Biggest disappointment: we picked out a really nice camping site by a lake in Arizona, but when we showed up, it was closed for the winter. Aidan took it pretty hard (we had been telling him the whole time we would set up a tent by the water-two of his favorite things). But we still had a good time an alternative place:

Weddings Attended: 1

Successful Dental Operations: 1 (thanks Beth!)

Trips to In n’ Out: 3

Best meal: The Market Broiler (thanks Greg). But all the amazing Mexican food we ate was a close second.

Worst meal: a $1.50 polish dog from Costco. I don’t know what was in that thing, but I still felt queasy four hours later.

Best Aidan moment: While camping in Arizona, Becka pointed out all the stars to him. I asked him if he could count them all, and he looked up and said, “One, Two, Free” over and over again.

Rudest Strangers: The employees at the New Mexico welcome center. Not very welcoming.

Kindest Stranger: An elderly man offered to pay for our meals “because that boy of yours is such a nice little fella.” That made us feel pretty good!

Most played song while driving: Southside of Heaven by Ryan Bingham

Best way to pass the time in the car: This American Life. This is one of our favorite podcast/radio programs…

Most Disturbing: Listening to hours of right wing talk radio while driving through the heartland. Apparently fear sells better than corn.

I could’ve cried moment: When we decided to drive straight through on the way back after spending one night in Arizona. We started driving and less than an hour later, our ancient ipod’s battery died, with 24+ hours left to go. This is the first time it occurred to me that maybe it is worth spending $30 on a car charger. When I got home, I discovered that they don’t cost $30, but you can get one for a few bucks. Man. But it was kind of nice driving in silence through those vast stretches of New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma.

Best part of the whole trip: getting to see all our friends and family!

california, denver, drive, family, road trip, travel