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So much has happened since you last heard from us!
Our Children’s Easter Outreach program on April 1 was a roaring success! As you know, every year our church members invite colleagues and friends and family to attend an Easter Egg hunt event held first in a local forest and then, after all the eggs have been found, the whole group returns to the church building for a Gospel story and lunch. Because of our new sound system (see the letter below) everyone in the hall could hear the Gospel in English and in Dutch!
Our Men’s Day Outreach on April 6 and 7 was so good that unchurched individuals have invited their family and friends to come with them next year! We also had a few dechurched folks from other churches with us that our now back in church. These outreach events are expensive, but boy are they worth every penny!
Our Women’s Retreat on June 1 is going to be another blessed event. Methinks the women are so much better at organising events like these...they have all sorts of workshops planned as well as a main speaker!
But the men are learning and we plan to have at least two workshops next year including one called "Old Testament Ethics for the New Testament People of God." We have also a "Men of Valor" (see: https://www.menofvalor.org/) weekend planned for January 11 and 12 and have already secured a speaker for our next Men's Day (see: https://www.eauk.org/author/phil-knox and https://philknox.co.uk/).
We try to make attendance at these events free of charge and try to provide reading material for every participant to take home with them as well. Please do pray with us that we will be able to continue doing this.
Christ Church, Heiloo is mostly made up of young immigrant families who are struggling to find their feet in their new home country, refugees/asylum seekers, and a growing number of local Dutch folks. Pray with us for stability in the church.
My narrative commentary, Galatians: A Life in Letters has been published (see: https://www.amazon.com/Galatians-Letters-Johannes-Van-Bijl/dp/1839739207/ref=sr_1_1?crid=S3CC3VXG8MKG&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Gt4eDVohYgnjSwUXa5vO5R8xkInvBBxA8RdrHR04vM-eGBqKWBpMVjReIKELK6s4kh8Fl7p2xGpKUySozsKww1HlvQUaCNGKVablRa1L2KHaCADe7eelOCO0q9-YdmcNn4g5fCVJqc38UTxkuWv8CY6K61ykALMUO3-QR3yi0Dz28ndzYXSGME03VBv_x8sY9iUZZW4-8BsKaSbddW5_tqEtb4rxizXbOG9YN-mV_Pk.SoKjUXpKGmA-oQ8OnRryDYsehZfgzQ1oJjZ3IBZmh4w&dib_tag=se&keywords=Galatians%3A+A+Life+in+Letters&qid=1715760616&sprefix=galatians+a+life+in+letters%2Caps%2C179&sr=8-1) and an audiobook version of Breakfast on the Beach: The Development of Simon Peter has also come out (see: https://www.amazon.com/Breakfast-Beach-Development-Simon-Peter/dp/B0D3QS1V7N/ref=sr_1_1?crid=290SEOGW5OF6F&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.jAwkU9ruXdVnlYhRLH0cauRdp_klYkPAYTuBCb3jqB_GjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.veeAoefxIxgSggw_uuYMJOXQGtAD-I5Exn2DSdN0cIc&dib_tag=se&keywords=Breakfast+on+the+Beach+audio&qid=1715760714&sprefix=breakfast+on+the+beach+audio%2Caps%2C175&sr=8-1)
Langham has also recorded a few videos of me either reading the commentary or telling folks how to use it in a Bible Study setting, but that is too long to include here. Pray with us that these narrative commentaries may reach many for the Kingdom.
1&2 Thessalonians has been submitted for publication and I have already managed to translate 1 Corinthians from the original Greek into a somewhat wooden, unreadable script, but one that is ready for reworking into narrative.
We have been blessed with a number of visitors from the US since moving here, for which we are grateful. Jeff and Cinde Rawn (SAMS-USA Board Members) will be stopping with us this weekend and a few days thereafter.
Louise and I will be on a study tour led by Dr Jeff Weima, following the footsteps of Paul's 2nd missionary journey in early June. This will be my first proper break in three years...but it will give me loads of ideas for the next book on Corinth!
Finally, I include a letter of gratitude written by a few members of the church.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ.
As you all know we are a small church community in Heiloo, North Holland, The Netherlands. When Covid hit us in 2020 we, like a lot of other churches, had to change the way we were doing things to continue spreading the gospel. With limited means we were able to assemble a setup that enabled us to live stream services to our congregation. When we were able to meet in person again after Covid restrictions were lifted, it became evident that the use of a livestream to broadcast our weekly services is a powerful tool to spread the gospel and reach a wider audience.
Since we are not fortunate enough to own our own church building, we have a dedicated team setting up the sound and broadcast equipment on a weekly basis.
Over the years our system has become more and more unreliable and in March it gave up completely.
The call went out and God answered our prayers through all of you that donated towards a new sound system for Christ Church, Heiloo. We were able to purchase a new laptop, speakers and speaker stands, a fixed microphone, two portable microphones, a mixer board, new cables, and a lockable flight case to store everything in.
The people of Christ Church, Heiloo want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the wonderful gift that you have given us. The new sound system is such a blessing to the congregation at Christ Church.
We had our first family service using the new system this past week and we used the portable microphones for the children to answer questions and pray. There was no need to strain to hear them this time. What a blessing! Setup time for the team has also decreased and no more stressing that it would stop working at any given point during the service.
We also used the sound system during the Men’s Day and once again, it was a blessing to have good quality sound. Our Women’s Day is coming up on 1 June and we are really looking forward to using the new sound system for this too.
There are still some finer details to work out with regards to the live streaming, but we are confident that it will all run smoothly very soon. One of the Church members and his son built a wooden box to securely store the whole system.
Everyone who attends our services has been enjoying the sound.
Boriana and Brandon say “The new sound system has been a great addition to the CCH equipment. Brandon and I love Johann’s sermons and the new system helps carry his message to the congregation even more clearly. Many thanks for this blessing.”
Nicky says, “I serve the Church by welcoming people as they arrive for worship at the entrance doors at the back of the hall. The new speakers allow me to hear everything that is said or sung at the front of the hall and to fully participate in the service. GOD BLESS YOU!!”
Pam (a hard of hearing octaganarian) says, “I can now hear almost every word which is said from the front, and it makes all the difference.” |
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