Holland Part 1: The Facts

I think the best way to start out by telling you about my trip to Holland is by giving you some of the facts about this trip first, then I can overload you with pictures.

The people on this trip were me and my three pastors, our senior pastor and his wife-our associate pastor, and our staff pastor. I was truly blessed to be with these people and experience a new country with them. I’m so blessed to not only have them as pastors but as friends.

This was a missions trip. I was going to assist a church in their annual conference they had at their church for the week. My role was to help with the children. I also had the honor of getting to go to some of the seminars and to a couple of the nightly services they hosted. I was able to help with kids and get some lessons in myself. It was a win win.

The church were going to was my pastor’s family’s church. Her grandfather was sort of the Billy Graham of Holland and his children have continued the job. I had met most of the family before, so it was especially nice to see them in their element and using their talents for God. They have many different church plants all over the area and they are on fire for God! It was a beautiful sight to see.

We stayed in the little apartments next to their office building. I had a room to myself, but also shared with someone from Indonesia. Even though I didn’t talk to her as often as I would have liked, she was very kind and had a beautiful heart for God.

The trip to Holland was about 9 hours. We slept for about 2 hours and ate two meals before we got there and it was about 3 their time. We worked with the kids that night and I have never felt so horrible for a group of kids. We were exhausted and so jet lagged, my brain was not working properly.

The next day (Tuesday) was better. We had breakfast and hung out with the kids all day. I felt bad because I didn’t speak Dutch, but most of them spoke enough English that I could communicate with them. It was just a matter of getting comfortable with them. By Thursday, we were good. I had a few little friends that I miss so much.

The services were amazing. I was able to attend a couple night services. It was such a breath of fresh air to see so many people on fire for God. You could feel the presence of God in that place. Plus everyone worked their tails off all week. They were always moving and making sure we were taken care of or making sure everything was set up for the service or speaker.

The food was incredible. There is a law in Holland-no GMO in any food. Yes please! Even their “unhealthy” food was better than our unhealthy food. I don’t think I had food I didn’t like. French fires with mayo is my new favorite combo.

Friday was my last day with the kids, but we had the wonderful opportunity to go to some seminars that were put on, one was focused on ladies.

Sunday was the conclusion of the conference. The conclusion was the big musical: Forbidden Love. The story of David and Bathseba. The play was not performed (amazingly I might add) by my pastor’s cousins, but the music and lyrics were written by them as well. It was so good, we went to both performances. Hey-you’re only in Holland once!

Monday was our final day in Europe. We made our way to Paris, France-which is a 3 hour train ride. This would be my second trip to Paris and it was such a thrill to go back. I’ll have a separate post with pictures from that. We only had a day-but it was just enough to long to come back and bring Myke with me.

Our trip back took 11 hours. We left at 5am on Tuesday morning and arrived 1pm on Tuesday California time. I know it may not seem like that long, but we were thrown off mostly by our stomachs. We had scheduled meal times on the plane, but our tummies had other ideas.

The plane food wasn’t that bad, compared to other airplane food I’ve had. The movies selection was pretty good, I watched a few movies and a couple TV shows. I feel asleep during a few of them, but that was early jet lag.

When I got home, I was elated to see Myke. We weren’t able to FaceTime while we were gone and wifi was difficult to connect to, but we managed. He got me a dinner and we sat on the couch and talked and just sat with one another. We missed just hugging each other. I was trying to stay up as late as possible, so I would sleep through the night. Unfortunately, I lasted until 6pm. According to Myke, I knocked out and was out until about 5am, which isn’t terrible. The next day was a little difficult for me, we had service that night and the four of us were feeling it. I’m glad I took those extra days off work so I can adjust back to California time.