The Hellands in Holland

Lessons from the Movie Freedom Writers. Freedoms writers is based on a true story which took place in LA. Some lessons that can be learned from this movie include: 1) Cross-cultural issues.. Many people who live in the inner-city live in a war zone where survival is all that matters and race has much to do with your chances of survival. 2) Life Changing Power of Community - Hilary Swank in this movie changes the life of her students by creating a multi-cultural community where everyone feels safe and accepted. 3) Importance of Personal Boundaries - Swank keeps no boundaries to safeguard her time with her husband. She get a divorce. 4) The Power of Stories- The Diary of Anne Frank captures the students attention because it is so related to their lives. The Bible, a book full of stories, can be used to show that God's story and his people's lives are just like ours. 5) Replicate your victories- Erin Gruwell, the name of the teacher upon whose story this is based on, went on to...

Check out this video about the Church in China. This is pretty amazing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYuCFIQ2M1w

Baptism & July Update After we returned from the States we had our first baptism service! The woman that was baptized had come to know the Lord Jesus and after taking the Alpha course (which introduces people to Christianity) and really wanted to be baptised. We organised a barbecue by the lake and had a time of praise and worship and a time of sharing the Word. The lady who was baptized had invited a bunch of friends and relatives. After she was baptized she started sharing about the Alpha course and right there 3 girls said that they wanted to join the course that will start in september. Praise the Lord for this testimony of this baptism! Grace Lately, the Lord has really been teaching us about the concept of grace. Many people think that they need to have their life totally in order before they accept the Lord in their lives or even in order to accept the Lord. This is such misconception. We take non-believers or ‘new-believers’ through stories like the story of Zaccheus and ex...

Remaining Outward Focused It is very important for us to not just talk about reaching out to the lost; but actually spend time doing it. A weakness of people who have been Christians a long time is that they no longer have any unchurched, non-Christian friends. Jesus said that “the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10). If we are not placing a priority on befriending and loving people who are lost, then we are not really following the example of Christ. An example of a person who lives focused on reaching the lost is Charlene West (see photo). West could have retired more than a decade ago, but she continues ploughing ahead. Recently, she told me how she was handing over her church she had planted to another pastor. When I asked what she was going to do next, she replied, “Plant another Hispanic Church in another city.” The church where she came to Christ in Ponca City, Oklahoma as a small girl is closing down so she decided to use this opportunity to ...

Thoughts about Zaccheus (Zac) and Jesus. (Luke 19:1-10) 1) Some of Jesus best followers were outcasts or despised members of society. Bad people really do make great soil for the gospel. -Zac would be like a top drug dealer today. He got his wealth by oppressing the poor. He was despised by most Jews for being a tool of Rome. Everyone despised him. -Mary Magdalene, first to see Jesus resurrected, had 7 demons cast out of her. -Gadarene demoniac (1,000s of demons in him) became evangelist in 10 cities. -Samaritan Woman by the well was very inmoral yet she brought all of her friends to Christ. -One of my good friends was a gang banger in East L.A. and is now passionately following Jesus. His life is as radical for Christ as it was in the streets of LA. -Some of the most radical followers of Christ I know today, used to be really bad people. (aren't we all without Christ?) 2)Religion kills, Jesus Heals and Changes lives. -Verse 7 says that all the religious people looked down upon J...

First Baptism Service Here you have a video of our first baptism. It was a very exciting time!! As you watch, you can see a bunch of the people who were present. Also, at the end Anneke shares a little about the experience. I apologize for my son's screaming by the camera, but if you listen well you can hear what she has to share. There waas rain forecasted for that day. Well we had perfect weather until everyone left. Then you can see us doing a small interview under the trees. This was a great celebration last sunday!!

Here is a phenomenal article by Tim Keller on Decontructing Defeater Beliefs and leading secular people to faith in Christ. http://www.redeemer2.com/themovement/issues/2004/oct/deconstructing.html