I’ve just finished reading Genesis. The last quarter of the book is dominated by the story of Joseph, the dreamer come prophet, who rose from being a shepherd boy (despised by Egyptians) to the man who changed a nation, and saved thousands of lives from famine. The whole of the rest of the Bible is summarised by Joseph’s final words:

‘Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afriad. I will provide for you and your children.’ Gen 50:20-21.

In the battles of life we are often hurt and harmed like Joseph was by his brothers. But God knows you and loves you, and intends all that happens to lead to salvation: the saving of many lives. When we try to play God, in control, grasping at power, making judgements, and inflicting revenge, we will hurt ourselves, other people, and live in fear. Jesus could have said Joseph’s last words on the cross. He was dying there in the place of God, taking the punishment for all the world’s wrongs.  If we let Jesus be our God, and seek his face in all things, he will bring his blessing to us, and through us, to all nations. Pick up on the opportunities below to be a blessing to the nations as we seek to grow as disciples of Christ in Amsterdam.

Immigrants’ Attitudes to Amsterdam: Last Sunday we found out that only one person present in our congregation was born in Amsterdam. We are all immigrants to this city. How do we connect with the city we live and work in? How do we seek its welfare? Do we have a short- or long-term vision of how as Christians we fulfil God’s vision for this city? Listen to this sermon here, as it is the foundation of our whole series this term on Mission in Amsterdam. We will be looking at how we connect with the DNA of Amsterdam: its ethnic diversity, creativity, entrepreneurism and business, how we build civic virtue as immigrants (with guest speaker Joel Voerdewind, Tweede Kamer lid), and what to make of Freedom of Thought.  Throughout this term we will be hearing from local Mission Partners explaining some of the ways Christ Church is involved in God’s mission in the city.

Leadership Team Day of Teaching and Worship: You are invited to join the South Leadership Team for a day’s worship and teaching this Saturday 4th February from 10:00 – 16:00 at Groenburgwal 42. We will have extended times of praise and worship and a safe place to learn and exercise what we understand by prophetic prayer ministry. The teaching will explain why we choose the music styles we have, what it means to encounter the Lord Jesus as we praise him, and why New Wine ministries are such an important aspect of our church life. You don’t have to be a potential church ‘elder’ to join in, but it will give you an insight into where we think the Lord is leading us as a church community. The more people who are involved in ministry in church who grasp this the better. We will have lunch in a nearby restaurant (about €15), and there are no further costs related to the day. Email me back now if you’re interested in coming.

Celebration Lunch this Sunday: Join us this Sunday after the service for food and fellowship. Sunday morning over a cup of coffee doesn’t give us much opportunity to get to know each other. Eating a meal together allows us to get to know one another as a large family. As it will be FREEZING next Sunday bring food that is hot! We can heat up stuff in the oven or gas hob. Give your food to Faustina as you arrive in church….and why not invite a friend who doesn’t normally go to church to join you?

Women’s Retreat Application Forms: will be available from next Sunday. The speaker is Julia Pickerill, leader of Vineyard Amsterdam, and the retreat takes place 23-24 March. If you want to receive an email version of the form contact Ruth Paans.

Blessing at Work: My parents-in-law recently went to the Memorial Service for John Stott in St Paul’s Cathedral – it is moving just to read the tributes to his life & witness. He was a world leader in relevant bible teaching and evangelism. One of his legacies is the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity which produces resources to support Christians in the workplace. Amanda, who works for Vodafone, recommends these PrayerWorks prayer prompts. You will receive a daily email prompt for 40 days encouraging you to pray for God’s blessing on a particular aspect of your working life and relationships. It’s a brilliant way of having just a five second connection with God at work….and I’d love to hear from you how God is answering your prayers. Sign up here and join over 1,000 other people who are praying for their work. It starts tomorrow!

Yours in Christ,

Mark

Revd Mark Collinson

Chaplain, Christ Church Amsterdam

Eight guys from Amsterdam South congregation (including our guest from Maastricht) travelled down to the French Alps near Chamonix. A couple travelled by plane to Geneva and the rest piled into a large car for the overnight drive. We arrived at about 6am, just in time to get an hour and half’s sleep before breakfast.

We were down at the ski rental shop by 9:00 and Gilles kitted us out. Then off to the telecabine to buy a ski pass and get on the slopes. Les Houches has everything: we had two beginners, one who hadn’t been on skis for a while, two intermediates and two accomplished skiers, with one daredevil snowboarder.

It was great fun! On the second night it snowed constantly, so in the morning there was over 60cm of powder snow – more in the drifts. They said it was the most snow they’d had for years in one night.

Kind neighbours cleared the drive in front of the house, so we could get out. Sadly the rest of the Chamonix resorts were closed so everyone in the whole valley piled into Les Houches.  The queues were staggering. On the mountain it was exhausting. When you pile into the snow you’re completely stuck. It takes all your energy to get out.

Great fun. Great food. Lots of laughter… where’s the ‘retreat’ element?
Well, it was great as guys to share time together with God. We shared a Psalm at breakfast with a prayer, and in the evening we had a time of worship & praise, bible study and discussion. We used Tim Keller’s ‘Gospel in Life: Grace changes everything’. It was great for us to connect our working lives with God’s plan for cities.

What spoke to me the most was Romans 1:21: ‘For although they knew God, they neither honoured him nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.’ It is so hard for us to avoid taking on the values & norms of the people we work with, who neither give thanks to God, nor honour God with their lives. As Christians in our workplaces we want to give God the glory for our achievements and thank Him for whatever he gives us. It’s a radically different way of living.

Thank you Mark N. for making this happen and organising us!

Join us for next year’s men’s retreat.

Here’s there first newsletter: useful info about Access and skiing safety!

Connect Continental Newsletter

Please add comments if you find it useful.

Come and join us for Christmas services in one of our three locations in Amsterdam:

Christ Church City Centre

Groenburgwal 42, 1011HW Amsterdam

Sunday 18^th December

10:00 Bi-lingual Kids Christmas Service

19:00 Carol Service

Saturday 24^th December

23:00 Midnight Mass

Sunday 25^th December

10:30 Christmas Communion

Sunday 1^st January 2012

11:00 New Year Praise

Christ Church Amsterdam South

British Upper School, Fred. Roeskestraat 94a, 1076ED Amsterdam

Saturday 24th December

16:00 Kids Nativity Service

Sunday 25th December

10:00 Christmas Day Holy Communion

Sunday 1st January 2012

11:00 New Year’s Bagels & Croissant Brunch Service: a relaxed start to the New Year with a light breakfast served at the start of the service.

Christ Church Amsterdam Zuidoost

Luthuliplein 11, 1103TR, Amsterdam Zuidoost

Sunday 18^th December

15:30 Carol Service

Sunday 25^th December

13:30 Christmas Day Holy Communion

Sunday 1^st January 2012

15:30 Evening Prayer

Kids Church and creche and welcome available at the morning services, and children are welcome at all services in Amsterdam Zuidoost. The Evening Carol Service and Midnight Mass in City Centre are not really child friendly services.

Christ Church City Centre

Service starts at 10:00

Groenburgwal 42, 1011HW Amsterdam

Contact Mark Collinson 06 4121 4501

mark@christchurch.nl

Christ Church Amsterdam Zuidoost

Service starts at 15:30

Luthuliplein 11, 1103TR Amsterdam Zuidoost

Ganzenhof Metro station.

Contact Joy Buswell 06 4617 6838

joy.buswell@quicknet.nl

Christ Church Heiloo

Service starts at 18:00

Ter Coulsterkerk, Holleweg 111, 1851KE Heiloo

Contact Rob Klok 06 2955 8806

robert.klok@gmail.com

We would love you to bring greetings to from Christ Church Amsterdam and share some the story of how we started five years ago, and what our congregation is like now.

I am glad to forward a brief report as well as photos  from SEWA Bihar.

I hope this will be informative as well as inspire people visit Bihar.

Economic empowerment: A few months ago, we gave away about eleven young female goats (lamb/kid) to some of the very poor people in our community. A young female goat gives birth every six months to two kids. Either they can sell the young goat or rear it until it grows and sell it for handsome price. We hope that the recipients of these goats will come out of poverty soon.

Mission & Evangelism: On a quick note, during the month of September and October SEWA Bihar Team has had opportunity to reach out to nine villages with the Gospel. We had 15 people take baptism and now they are being discipled.

Child Development Programme: Our work among the children continues. At the moment kids are excited about the Christmas programme and are getting ready for it .

We have also started partially supporting a needy widow from the month of August. In coming months we are planning to organize a youth camp, as well as a family life seminar (because of some real need). Kindly be in prayer about it.

Yours, Vijay

Vijay C.Minz

SEWA Bihar Trust / Fellowship

26th November 2011 update:

Dear friends, many of you have asked about the flood situation at

present and I realise it is time for an other update.

Those overseeing the situation have protected Bangkok well; in fact

maybe too well? Our canals are low and I wonder why they aren’t filled

up more to help the flooded areas.

Daniel’s university for example is in one of the worse hit districts,

basically some districts were used as dams to keep the water in to

protect the inner city.  His department of music still has 1. 25

meters of water standing in it; the auditorium on the ground floor

must be ruined by  now. Daniel was telling me about friends who live

on campus and wanted to get some of their belonging out of their room

on the 4th floor. The hallway was flooded and they had to dive to the

get to the staircase… remember the water is not like swimming pool

water and that in this area some crocodiles were found too!

Some of the Siam-Care families and one of our staff’s family, live in

Sai Mai district, again a badly hit area, they had to evacuate from

their houses, some left for shelters and some are camping in tents (in

the heat) on dryer ground. Just today I read in the paper that the

water is not expected to be all cleared before the New Year.

All over Bangkok the schools are set to reopen on the 6th of December,

a very long October holiday! The students will be expected to spend

extra time in school so will get home late and come in on Saturdays.

For some reason the March-April holiday is still on the schedule as

before, one of our sponsored children told us that they must now

attend the summer lessons in April in order to keep up with the

studies, and the price for the summer term has already gone up!

Yesterday I was at Klong Prem prison hospital with 2 of our staff to

discuss a new project we are hoping to start with the hospital for HIV

positive prisoners soon to be released. We parked the car on the

street in front of the prison compound in the second lane, not

official parking space but everyone was standing there and the road

was reduced to half size. Then we had to wade through very bad

smelling, dark water which came up to just below the knee to reach a

wobbly wooden plank bridge which brought us into the hospital compound

that was dry. We washed our legs but all through the meeting I could

smell the foul water, at home I scrubbed hard to get cleaned up! It

just made me realize that the pictures don’t tell it all, they don’t

convey the smell!

In the Siam-Care neighbourhood people have started to pull down the

walls that were erected around their houses and doors and cars can be

parked inside again. Gardens are filled up with the sand from

sandbags. Our house is back to normal too except for the fridge that

is still high up on the kitchen counter but it is very heavy and we

haven’t mustered the courage yet to bring it down.

In the meantime the death-toll has gone up to over 600 deaths and fear

of outbreak of diseases is all around.

We received aquatabs; water purifying tablets for over 100.000 liter

of water and have started to receive donations for our project soon to

start in Sai Mai, this is all very encouraging and we are thankful

that in little ways we can help those who are so badly affected.

Thank you for your concern and prayers,

with love and blessings Adirenne

–

Mrs. Adrienne Blomberg

Siam-Care Foundation

66/43 Soi Kluah Klai 1

Muban Thipnakorn

Lad Praw 80

Bangkok 10310

Tel: 02-5305902

Mobile: 084-6530065

www.siamcare.org

Siam-Care Thailand
October 2011 update on Prison Project
Prisons Flooded!

Many thanks to all of you who have support our prison project over the past months. With the persisting floods in central Thailand, we are all the more thankful and in need of assistance to help the many prisoners and their families in the flooded areas.
As the floods started to rise, the prisons were affected as well. In the case of Ayutthaya prison the water came so quick that the move came too late and many had to wade through chest-deep water to get to the buses that brought them to other, mostly already overcrowded prisons.
Phatum Thanee correctional Institute for female offenders is one of the places Siam-Care works, but we won’t be going there for a while; now all that remains are the empty buildings as all 1200 female offenders were moved to the northeast. A good 6 hour bus ride  away from Bangkok. It is not difficult to understand that the receiving prisoners were not too happy; such a huge infulx in already overcrowded places is very difficult for all. We are happy to say that we remain in contact with the nurse who moved along with them all and is making sure all HIV positive women receive their medication.
For many of the family members this is a real time of heart-ache; often they don’t know where their loved ones are moved to an no one knows when they will be moved back and when visits will resume.
From one of the main Bangkok male prisons, Bangkwang, many were moved over the past week. On Saturday busses left in the afternoon and a harrowing 19 hour bus drive followed; chained up two by two with only a little drinking water each and an occasional toilet stop, they arrived in the south the following morning. Then had to cue up for over an hour in the burning sun to receive a meager meal and find themselves in very overcrowded, and unhygienic circumstances. Many had not been able to inform their families they were moving and still many relatives remain in doubt as to the whereabouts of their loved-ones. Local embassies and the prison authorities can be called for this information.
As the flooding is far from over, Siam-Care is working hard to let families know the whereabouts of their relatives and establish contact between them if possible. Also emergency supplies for affected families as well as much counseling by telephone and talking to children who are worried about their parent, take up a lot of our work at the moment. The staff are working hard and putting in extra hours and we are thankful for your support to us in all this.

Here’s a letter I just received from Adrienne Blomberg in Bangkok, as SIAM-Care copes with the flooding in Bangkok.

Dear all, Thursday 27 October 2011

On Sunday I arrived back home again after a month in Holland, which just went by very quickly and was too short, and a very inspiring week with the Micah Network Asia Regional Consultation in Sri Lanka with over 100 participants from 16 Asian Countries.

Many have asked me about the flood situation so let me give you an update; on a personal note, the floods haven’t reached out part of town yet but are supposedly coming within the few days, some parts close to us are already flooded. We prepared as much as possible; all furniture in our living room is up on the dining table and the fridge is up on the kitchen sink. My bedroom is full of things from downstairs; books etc.  The house is full with people (friends from flooded areas) and 3 dogs (the dogs come with the friend’s but unfortunately don’t really get along with our dog….) Today Daniel went out to get sandbags which are no longer available but was able to get cement blocks and cement to build a little wall around the doors to our kitchen sitting room tomorrow. Some neighbors have walls up to 1 meter and some have hardly anything, difficult to know what to do.  Our wall is ½ meter high.

Having been gone from home for so long the fridge was empty and I went out to stock up; only to find the shop shelves empty. Still I managed to get some essentials but all drinking water, rice, noodles, bread etc was gone!  Food supplies are running out and the factories that have daily delivered for our consumption are now underwater or inaccessible, I just read that Malaysia will help stock up some stores.

This morning, on the back of a motorbike-taxi, I had an interesting conversation with the driver who was very upset with the education system! He told me he always worked hard to get his kids through school, as he hadn’t had much education himself,  but look what education had brought the country; floods. It sounds funny but in some way he had a point; he went on to tell me that the country used to be covered with forest for 70%,  now all cut down to 20% (while there are qualified people in agriculture and forestry), housing estates are build blocking the water ways (designed by qualified engineers), the beautiful new airport -one of Asia’s finest is on low ground and used to be an area where floods were directed too. His bottom line was; corruption. If one has money and the right connections one can cut trees, build anywhere and get away with it. These floods, yes there were very heavy rains and the tide is high but is very much man-made.

Central Thailand (1/3 of the country) was flooded over the past weeks and all this water needs to go to the sea passing through Bangkok. However they are trying hard to keep the business district clear thus other places are up to 2-3 meters high.  As the sea tide is very high the waters don’t go down quickly leaving some areas under the really mucky and polluted water for days and possibly weeks.  A friend told me her mother, who is stuck in her house on the 2^nd floor, came out in a rash because of the dirty shower water. A real concern is for drinking water too.

Thursday afternoon I was able to still visit Winston just before it was announced the prison will be closed for visitors till further notice. It is not only next to the main river and thus flooded, it is also flooded with inmates who were evacuated from other affected prisons; so space is very tight and emotions run high. As I left the water was starting to ooze out of the street drains and flooding the road. Today they are starting to move the prisoners, just pray they will let us know where to.

Siam-Care is not immediately involved in relief, staff have partly gone home to help parents with their flooded houses, others have been helping some of our families who had to evacuate to nearby schools for shelter.  In the middle of all this we have some very sick people who need care and visits and are hard to reach. The SC centre itself has moved all equipment to the second floor and placed sandbags around the front entrance. We are teaming up with a local church that is involved and helping them with supplies, volunteers and funds.

I’ll keep you updated, this is it for now, we appreciate your prayers for Thailand and those struggling at this moment. With love and blessings

Adrienne Blomberg

Director, SIAM-Care

Just to give a little bit an idea of the extend of what is happening here some latest statistics:

inundated manufacturing plants Over 1000 leaving 600.000 employees immediately unemployed.

Deaths (+Missing) 356 (+2 missing)

Treated flood related waterborne diseases and injuries: over 700.000 people

Affected Population 819,861 households/2.47 million people

Accumulated Affected Population since 25 July 2.9 million households/9.4 million people

Affected Farmland 10.3 million Rai

Affected Livestock 12.3 million

Affected educational institutes 3,288 educational institutes at estimated cost of 2,506 million THB

Highway, road and railways: 77 highways in 15 provinces not passable; 200 roads in 30 provinces not passable;

click to see latest news and pictures

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/263173/chao-phraya-on-the-brink

Following the first summer conference in Belgium we are pleased to provide further opportunities for church members to taste New Wine.

When a Big God squeezes into a small place – Getting deeper into God and allowing him to get deeper into you. Jon le Tocq from Guernsey will speak at a New Wine Day on Saturday 19th November from 10am-4pm at Trinity Church Eindhoven (De Pracht 1, 5583CW Waalre, Netherlands).
Cost (including lunch) is €10. Registration essential: Email your name to register@new-wine.eu. Please let Alastair MacDonald or Mark Collinson know if you have registered so that we can arrange transport.

Here’s a picture of the candidates from across the Diocese in Europe who are seeking to have their vocations to ordained ministry confirmed. Our own Austin Uzoigwe was present (5th from left). Other candidates came from cities including Moscow, Madrid, Rome and Vienna. We’re pleased to report that he has been recommended to the next stage. On 30th January 2012 Austin will attend the Church of England Bishops’ Selectors Advisory Panel, who will further advise Bishop Geoffrey as to whether Austin should be sponsored for training for ordination.

Further information about the Diocesan Vocations Conference Austin attended can be seen in Bishop’s David blog here.