What a blessing to be with Willow Springs on Sunday morning for worship and the meal honoring Carol A. birthday!

This week I am reading Acts and beginning some study in past work around Anabaptist Vision.

In the Hope of the Kingdom, +Cal+

July 19, Th - We headed back to Amsterdam in the morning to Singelkerk, a huge "hidden church." What a deal to walk into a sanctuary that can seat 400 through storefronts that simply looked like offices. A few building spaces to the right - a huge, obvious church. The Dutch government would let the Mennonites meet here it just could not be obvious that here was a church. It was n’t the official church after all! We took a city boat tour on the canals of Amsterdam. Then did some walking around downtown. I had a kip for lunch - a name for a sandwich. Next, we hoped in the van to go north. A highlight was a drive over a 15 mile dike to get to Northern Holland, Friesland. We found some Menno Simons sights - Pijgum, the church where he was a Catholic Priest and a small hidden church. We found, a monument to him, just North of Witmarsum, his home town. In town there is a church and street named after him. In the evening we ate at a Café in St. Annaprochie. The staff were very friendly and introduced us to some traditional Dutch foods, like Croquets. What an interesting and fun day.

Overnight we stayed in Tine de Jong Vegter’s house which was actually a house/barn under one roof. We had seen so many of these. Now we stayed in one.

July 20, F - In St. Annaprochie, we did a little shopping. Saw a hidden church that Tine attends. We also saw an octagonal church where Rembrandt was married. We headed out to Giethoorn - the Holland Venice. This village streets are canals. There are sidewalks with foot bridges. We rented an electric outboard powered "Whisper Boat" and toured the town. What beautiful houses and flowers. Some lots had animals grazing on them. Giethoorn was originally settled with all Mennonites since they were able to live here without much "interference" from others due to needing a boat to get around. We entered a larger lake area and found a restaurant for lunch. Heading back we ended up in some interesting spots. One in the middle of a wedding party and guests in boats. Somehow I made the corner into boat traffic and there we were in a line of boats with people that had been to a wedding. Then a rain shower came upon us. We pulled out three umbrella’s the man at the rental house gave us.

We headed over to Germany, stopping at Zwolle on the way. At the boarder all there was indicating the boarder like crossing a state line in America.

We arrived to the Stobbe-Dibbert house had a great visit and played the German version of "Mennonite Poker." Mennonite Your Way sure has been a blessing on this trip.