Go with the Flow

15 mei 2022 - Toronto Pearson International Airport, Canada

On a scale of 1 to 10, how flexible are you? As for me I would say a 3. But I'm learning;) You remember my Covid adventure when I had to let go of my plans? Obviously I have to learn more in this area ;) My schedule of last week was reliable to the point of meal times and at best two activities, since most of the plan vanished. Pastoral meeting turned into facility work, 3 days of teaching topics and places changed, I got (out of the blue) the choice to work in the office (placement) instead of joining bible study, and helping in the ministry team this weekend has been skipped. New assignments showed up which I didn't see coming. Sometimes I get lost in the buildings, not knowing where everyone has gone or what's going on because they accidentally forgot to inform me, yay.;) This is the first time the school offers a student an hybrid program in person for a few weeks, so this is a challenge for them as well. I'm asking a lot, they're answering a lot and I try to take a deep breath and to go with the flow.. Yes!

My room-temperature

The weather is gorgeous. Flip flops, shorts, sunscreen. I have the privilege of a single room (most of the students are sharing with 4 or even 6). It's on the top floor and it's getting really hot. But, as a born and raised Dutch girl I used to endure hot summer weeks, trying to fall asleep. AC isn't common in our country, right? We don't complain. However, the thermostat in my room raised to 90 degrees F, which is 32,2 C.. And for some reason, windows can't be opened here. I didn't sleep well. Finally I checked another student: "hey, is your room as hot as mine?" She said: "No, it's freezing!" I went like "what?" It turned out every room had a well-functioning  AC, except mine.. When I asked the leaders, they were like "no! seriously? o, I'm so sorry about that!" It took a while but now it's fixed and I feel much better;)

Homework

By Monday 2pm I have to hand in the first outline of my sermon. We're learning sermon writing, which is sort of similar to an essay. It's helpful that I've practiced this during my TOEFL course! We could pick a topic of a list and I chose something I'm working on in my personal life. So it supports my spiritual journey as well. Another assignment is a book report. Of own choice. The title of my book is "Simply sonship" what aligns with my sermon topic and makes everything working together, smart though? Meanwhile I'm working through a solid, online Plan to Protect training that is used in Catch the Fire church.

Reuniting

During my course in January I made friends with Jeanne from Paris and she's here too. We went out for dinner and it's amazing hearing her tell what God is doing in her life. Very inspiring. Another beautiful meeting this weekend was with my cousin Ruth and now I got the opportunity to meet her husband Don too. I'm enjoying our family roots and our faith as well. We prayed for each other in the restaurant, holding hands, beautiful moment. Something I don't do easily in the Netherlands. In this school, relationships and teambuilding are important values. Once a week we're joining the staff meeting and this day it was "facility day". For the whole morning we were cleaning the building or swiping the parking place and pulling out weeds. I sent a photo in our family app and Jesse responded that I don't have to go to Canada to do that, they've plenty opportunities for me at home;)

Age

You are as old as you feel, is the saying. Being among students who are as old as my children or even younger, make me forget my age. We're sitting on the floor during worship, or there is a spontaneous dancing on loud music in the middle of the day. I listen to their hopeful, excited hearts, a lot of life ahead of them and a big world to explore. Inspiring again. Brings me back to my twenties. It seems I'm carrying this out too, because I walked to church today and it happened a woman appearing as my age, opened the door for me, saying: "beauty before age". Haha. I was wearing a miniskirt, all stars and sunglasses so that could me misleading. Yet, perhaps she was in her eighties, who knows:) But God spoke over my life that He will restore the spring of my life, the childlikeness and joy and I believe that.

Thank you for your responses, happy to hear from you too! If you've any questions or prayer requests, let me know, I'd love to answer that.

Enjoy! love, Marieke

Foto’s

2 Reacties

  1. Huub:
    15 mei 2022
    Hi Marieke,
    Thanks for your write-up. Little advice I have for your Peter: you need to install airco at your home. With all the climate changes you should be prepared for hot summer. Small advantage: with all modern AC systems you can use them in the winter as heater.
    Keep us posted on your progress.
  2. Lex Wijntjes:
    18 mei 2022
    Marieke. Weer leuk om je verhalen te lezen en fijn dat je inspiratie opdoet. Genieten vd tijd daar. Greetings Ook ex