Utrecht is the BOMB DIGGITY

As promised earlier, here is a longer post of what I have been experiencing here in Rotterdam. It's sad that tomorrow is our last day of planned sharing time on campus. Today, half of us traveled to the city of Utrecht. We met up with some new Dutch staff and went to the campus in the city. We got some food and then met some Dutch Christian students involved with the Agape movement in Utrecht. Dave, Brittany, and myself were led in an Action Group by Sabine (a Dutch Christian student). The Action Group here is a little different than at GV. Essentially there is a 30 min. Bible study on some focused topic, an hour of sharing, and then 30 min. of reflection and shared learning. Our Bible study was on developing and sharing your personal testimony. I've done this many times before, but it was good to think about how I could make my testimony relevant to a post-Christian culture. I went sharing with a Dutch student, Anita. She had only shared on a campus a couple of times. And she had never used Soularium before. It was a great experience sharing with another student in a country half-way across the World. We talked to a student named Daphney. She enjoyed the Soularium pictures, but saw no reason to believe in God. I was very diligent to keep going deeper, asking her more complex questions about who she thought Jesus was. Unfortunately, her response was typical of the post-Christian culture: that "following Jesus is good for you, but I want to be atheist." It's frustrating to hear this during every conversation. This culture and their post-modern attitude toward the gospel has shown me that I still have a lot to learn concerning ministry and evangelism.

After sharing we went on a tour of Utrecht. The city is a typical European city with lots of old buildings and unique architechture. Utrecht has a large canal that runs through the middle of it. What amazed me the most was the amount of bicycles that were present in the city. There were literally thousands of students riding their bikes to and fro the city.

Finally, we ended up at the house of four Dutch Christian students involved in Agape. It was an "Open Huis" (open house); essentially, this is a time where Christians and Non-Christians gather to eat, play games, and talk about spiritual things. We had this really good Dutch meal of mashed potatoes with carrots and bacon. I really enjoyed myself tonight! Myself, Dave, Brittany, Erica, Spencer and the Dutch students played the game signs for a while. It was great to hang out, laugh, and enjoy each other's company.


As always I have so much more to say. Erin's most recent post is a good synopsis of what we did earlier in the week. It has been an encouraging week thus far. I'm looking forward to the American party tomorrow at the Erasmus University students house. Please keep praying for God to save Dutch students! Especially pray for good conversations for the team traveling to Leiden tomorrow (Jeff, Anna, Brad, Peter, Erin, Kelsey, and Jessica). And pray for the rest of us traveling to Erasmus, because it is our last time sharing there. Thank you all. God bless!

--Curtis.

The Map - A Book Review

I have finished another book since my last review, well, several actually. This calls for a new book review on The Map, by David Murrow

The book starts out as a Thriller, trying to get a reader engaged into the book by means of suspense. Throughout this action based story, David is describing the role of the main character as if everything actually happened to him. During the story, David is looking for a map. This map leads to the key of great success and is wanted by people who know of its existence, and will do almost anything to get it. David learns of the map, and finds it. The story continues from there and then leads on to a section of teaching from the map.

The book does a great job at keeping the reader interested, even after all of the action stuff stops. This book can be very applicable for those who are looking for a change in how they lead their spiritual lives. Even those who think they are all set may find that a shift in the way they "walk up the mountain." A good book for anyone who wants a intense read in either a thriller or a spiritual book.

Being Evil

Trying to figure out our rooming situation for next year. We are short one roommate, and I feel like the other might drop as well. I might just be pessimistic about it. However, trying to get TJ to live with us and drop his current roommate. The thing is, he wants to drop the roommate. There is no way around it, he wants to get out and live with us.

We just need to push his buttons. Get him to get out of the place he feels obligated to stay in, and go to the place he wants to live with. If he lives with us, he will probably avoid suicide. It is also an awkward situation as of now, as Minn already knows TJ wants to leave him. Is it evil? Perhaps. Is it fun? Oh yes.

Evernote

Now here is something that makes me excited. The world is getting more and more mobil and unfortunately I am not able to participate with that so much, as I do not have any portable device with 3G. I do have a mobil device that will allow me to hold notes and communicate online, but it works on wifi networks, and that can be a pain.

So, I am using this new program called Evernote, It allows for information to be taken down on the fly. They have clients to be downloaded to a compute and apps that will allow one to take pictures and upload them to your Evernote account. It has text recognition in pictures.

All in all this program is great for the mobil person on the go, and has great uses for anyone who is still confined to a desktop computer or even a laptop. Maybe I will blog more because of this. The only thing that I do not like about it is that it does not have any way to upload it to a blog... I hate having to do stuff manually.

Also got another book review coming up in the month.

A Thousand Miles in a Million Years - A Review

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years is the journey of Donald Miller as he takes an edit of his life. This direction takes place when Miller is visited by two movie makers who wish to make a movie on this life. While going through his movie, Miller realizes that his life does not live up to the one his character does and that his does not have as much meaning.

People who have read his other book Blue Like Jazz will recall many of the characters and memories he pulls throughout the book. Miller takes a much more solemn approach as he deals with more down to earth and serious topics.

I recommend this book to anyone who has enjoyed the book Blue Like Jazz. It’s still a good read if you haven’t read his other books. I would read this book again and recommend other people do as well.

Book Review for From Peanuts to the Pressbox

This is my 1st review for Thomas Nelson Publishing

The book From Peanuts to the Pressbox is the story of Eli Gold by Eli Gold, and his journey from his vending job to his job in the press box. Throughout the book, Gold tells all of his stories, experiences, and jobs he goes through to get to where he is today.

Gold does a good job at making it seem as if he is just telling you a very long narrative of his life right to your face. However, I found this rather annoying throughout the book. There seemed to be a lot of unnecessary stories throughout the book. He wrote as if he was excited throughout, and that made it a little better.

If you are looking for a book to read because you are bored, I do not recommend this book. I would really only recommend this book to someone if they are either an Eli Gold fan, or are looking into going into a sportscaster career. I would give it a 2.5/5 to the average reader and a 3.5/5 for anyone who likes sportscasting. If you are perhaps an Eli Gold fan, and want to go into sportscasting perhaps it would get a 4/5.

I wonder if...

I wonder if anyone else is going to update their blogs that we all started 6 months ago in computers class. They are all just sitting there. I for one never thought I would ever do such a thing. Who knows, I might just get a different blog site, but this one is linked to Google, so it is so much more simple.

But good news, my application was approved for reviewing book at Thomas Nelson Publications, so this is good. Hopefully the book review will be up in in a month, two at the latest. I guess it just depends on how good the book is and how busy I get.

Until next time, toodaloo