The land of windy rain

I'm finally taking advantage of an opportunity to blog. It's not for lack of internet access or time necessarily, but I've had other internet related things to be doing with the time I've had online. Other than the busy weekend I had when I first arrived back in Holland, I've been taking it pretty easy just visiting. When the sun IS out, it's been 20 degrees Celcius which is practically a heat wave here for August. Otherwise it's been rainy. I don't mean normal rain, but the kind that turns your umbrella into a kite.

I realize I've posted an article below this entry on the Lakeland revival and Todd Bentley's separation from his wife. I will not be blogging about it, and think the posts I've already posted are still relevant with the latest developments. If I do decide to make my opinion known it will be on the podcast, if at all. It's not a burning priority to me. Besides, I'm sure all his detractors are feeling pretty vindicated that his life is falling apart in front of millions of people. I'm going to be spending my energy praying for him and Shonnah as opposed to defending or talking about it in the blogosphere.

Anyway, moving along with my updates.
I arrived last week on Thursday morning, and managed to lug my luggage in the rain to my friends Dima and Tanya's, where I had a good 4 hour nap in the afternoon to counter the jet-lag and the fact when you travel overnight going east, you lose your night. I took 3 melatonin to help me sleep during the flight, but I sat behind this fat kid who must have had ADHD because he couldn't sit still if you held a gun to his head. So I wound up making myself more tired with the melatonin but unable to actually sleep since I'm cursed with the afliction of being a light sleeper. But anyway, it was good fellowship with Dima and Tanya, and later on in the week as a fruit of that fellowship I wound up recording the latest podcast for Fire On Your Head with Dima.

The next day early in the morning I got up to make my way to the Malieveld in The Hague, only to find Rotterdam has decided their public transportation system is not crappy enough, so they're doing re-construction and the simplest way I knew how to get where I wanted/needed to be wasn't possible anymore. I wound up not getting to the prayer meeting until 10am or later, but when I did there was maybe only 800-1000 people there. Obviously way beneath my expectations. Apparently it was what was expected on the part of the people who organized it, but there's going to be a larger event in Septmber 2009 with more organizations and churches on board for it. I'd love to see that day with the Malieveld filled with praying Christians, but I highly doubt I'll be here for it next year.

Then I was able to spend the rest of the weekend at the remainder of this year's Fire For Life Summer School. Again a rather small group, but there was a strong sense of community. I got word from Dan that Bob Gladstone, the guest speaker for the first part of it has given us permission to post his messages on the podcast, so be on the look out for those if you weren't able to attend but know that those would impact you. I've got one edited and posted so far, so as time permits I'll finish editing them and uploading them. Spread the word, I think the vision he helped cast for sweeping change in the Netherlands and whatever country you find yourself is worth sharing with as many people as want it.

Other than that, I'm just hanging out with Dutch people, sleeping in most days of the week like my body is still on afternoon shifts, and I have posted a new podcast episode as I mentioned, and it might be weeks before Dan and I can sit down to record one about the latest weeks in Holland. Due to my busyness and Dan's plans, we might be posting them online sporadically and less often than we had been in the winter (once a week is no longer possible for either of us, both with pinning him down for an appointment and for the hours that go into editing and publishing each mp3 on my part). Be sure to stay posted to hear the latest developments with Dan, as I won't mention them here, so as to not steal any of his thunder next time we record a podcast, but you'll want to be made aware of the latest developments. God has a sense of humor, I'll say that so you don't expect the worst or any bad news.

It's been a great time in Holland, I've been blessed with how almost everybody has a witness inside them that my time here is over and God is leading me to Peru. Frank Pot, my team leader while I've been here came over in the morning for coffee and he blessed me and released me to move onto Peru, and we discussed the possibility of bringing a team from the Netherlands on a mission trip to Peru, since, he's burning on his heart to see a European FIRE School start somewhere and some time soon. I know we've been talking about it for years, but it seems as if there's more momentum toward fulfilling that dream now than there was before. There's things beginning to finally happen here, that I'd love to be a part of but know my time is over and the direction my path is taking me is to Peru.

Some of you have asked about the podcast and my answer for now is this: I'm going to keep doing them, but I'll never be doing one alone. I like the talk show format, I think it's more dynamic and I always learn something from Dan and others when I co-host with them. It was with some amount of foresight in the winter when I knew I'd be done in Holland that I changed the name of our podcast feed to simply "Fire On Your Head" so it didn't matter what country/countries Dan and I found ourselves in. As one of my pastors says, "your calling works wherever you are". So long as Dan wants to keep doing the show, we will be. But it will gradually just be a place we put our show and any of our preaching mp3s, and the shift will move away from posting mp3s of summer schools. We aren't deleting any that are already on there, but we merely won't be posting many more after these messages from Bob Gladstone. I'm quite proud of the solid collection of teachings from men of God I really respect on our podcast.

Anyway, I'm here until Wednesday, almost every night I'm here I have plans to be somewhere, and maybe an afternoon or two aren't figured out, but rest assured, I have things burning in my heart I'm studying in the Word and things like that and will continue blogging like I used to. I just make no promises about how often.

Blessings and fire on your heads.