Day 10

Prayer:

Psalm 27:4-5

4   One thing I asked of the LORD,

         that will I seek after:

    to live in the house of the LORD

         all the days of my life,

    to behold the beauty of the LORD,

         and to inquire in his temple.

5   For he will hide me in his shelter

         in the day of trouble;

    he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;

         he will set me high on a rock.

Devotion:

Deuteronomy 9:27-29

27Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; pay no attention to the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin, 28otherwise the land from which you have brought us might say, ‘Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to let them die in the wilderness.’ 29For they are the people of your very own possession, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.”

Journal:

Today was our last full day in the Netherlands. We gathered for breakfast at the B&B and packed our bags to head home. We had a little time before we caught our train so I walked around the gorgeous town. Since I am in the fire department I asked Pastor Hinne the day before where the fire department was and he told me that it was just around the corner so I went looking. I quickly found the truck garage attached to the town’s maintenance department but it looked like a private area so I enjoyed the trucks from the road. I ventured through the rest of the village and made it back in time to grab my bag and join the others to head to the tram station. We headed into town on the tram and traded up for a train with a destination of Utrecht. This city is a university town with young energy and the atmosphere is delightful like Amsterdam but with less of a tourist feel.

We got off the train, stashed our luggage in lockers, got a nice meal for lunch and grabbed a bus into the center of the city. We walked to one of the main markers in town; the beautiful Dom Tower and St. Martin’s Cathedral. We looked around the wonderful church for a little while before meeting the tour guide and other visitors to walk up the 465 steps to the top of the tower. My advice for climbing: wear comfy shoes and take one step at a time. Since it was a tour, we had breaks at the different levels and got the history of the Dom. As the height increased, we got to see the amazing 14 bells at a third of the way and the carillon with 50 bells that can be manually played at two-thirds of the way up. We climbed a thin and steep staircase to the top of Dom and were rewarded with a gorgeous and windy view of the city. After taking in the city from above we walked backed to the bottom. We grabbed some neat souvenirs at the visitors shop and then ventured out onto the town for a personal view of the neighborhoods and businesses. Utrecht is a wonderful place and seems to be a very livable city (although this can be said for any place we visited). We had some bitterballen (a delicious appetizer) at the cafe by the Dom and then grabbed a bus back to the train station where we grabbed the train back to Amsterdam airport where we had transferred to a shuttle back to our hotel for the evening. We all had dinner together at the hotel restaurant and went to bed early so that we could get to the airport early enough to check in and get through security.

The next day was all travel back to the States for the Americans and back to Scotland for our dear friend and colleague, Allison. Although our trip had come to an end, it wasn’t until days later that I realized or processed the fact that our experience was over. With all the people we met and the places we visited I was most impressed with the practical nature of the culture and resourcefulness of the church and the culture. The Netherlands certainly has a special place in my heart and I will not soon forget the people that are called by God to participate in God’s mission to our neighbors in all parts of the world.