London Calling

Hello,

Last week, I was able to go and visit my good friends the Perriman’s in London. It was a wonderful four days catching up, seeing some of the sights, and meeting their new church. When I returned to The Hague on Saturday, we had an exciting IJM meeting. Then on Sunday I had my official good-bye to Crossroads announcement. It was a good week; I had a lot of fun and a little work as well.

The last/first time I was in London, I did not have a good impression of the city. I mean it was beautiful, it had a long rich history, and who doesn’t love Bangers and Mash? There was just something about the city that didn’t sit well with me. That was not the case this time.

I stayed with my friends Andrew and Belinda. We had a great time catching up, taking nice walks and seeing some good British humor…well British humor. For me it was a very relaxing time to do some reading and thinking about the coming months and year. While I was there I was able to do two Strengths Finder seminar’s with the church that the Perriman’s are attending; one on Wednesday and one on Friday. They were a real treat. I enjoyed meeting the people from their new church and hearing about their ministry in London. I felt a real connection with what they were doing in London. These were all 20 something’s trying to see if real community can change their world. They are helping in homeless shelter’s, playing football (soccer) in the park with kids and are setting up a financial advice non-profit to help locals with their finances.

For me this was a great encouragement. These people have committed to living in community in London, specifically in a low-income area of the city. I had good conversations with several people from the church and with the Perriman’s as well. This weekend gave me a lot to think about in coming back to The Hague this fall.

I was able to visit some museums and did a lot of walking around Central London, the weather was amazing. I loved weaving through the endless streets and alleyways of London. I sat in several parks and gardens and reflected on the last year and thought about the future. It was a great time right before I leave.

I got back to The Hague around 5pm and went straight to Scheveningen for an IJM meeting. Actually, it was a celebration dinner. We were celebrating the fact that on that Friday IJM Netherlands was now an official Stichting (Non-profit). This night signified over year’s amount of work and vision now having come to a climax, what was just a thought a year ago is a reality now. It was a very special sight to see. Joining us were, IJM Germany, IJM UK and Scott Lewis, the Affiliate office director from Washington D.C. We had a good time of getting to know each other talking vision in Europe and also eating some good food as well.

I enjoyed getting to know Scott Lewis, hearing how he got involved with IJM coming from Youth for Christ. Scott joined IJM 3 years ago and talked about how fast IJM was growing even in that short of a time. I was encouraged to hear about what God was doing in and through IJM.

One other cool testimony that came out was how by pursuing IJM from the Netherlands, our team had actually opened IJM’s mind’s to the significant role affiliate offices can play in the work of IJM. With this in mind they have sought to develop more offices around the world. This was a huge faith builder, seeing how stepping out can really pay huge benefits in area’s you never dreamed.

This past Sunday Kevin brought me up in front of the congregation and I got to thank Crossroads and give an update of what I will be doing when I return in the fall. I was really looking forward to doing this. I am very grateful to Crossroads as a church for welcoming me, encouraging me and helping me grow.

As I look back on my time here, I am very grateful for everything that this community has given. I have had amazing experiences, made great friendships and been able to help with what God is doing here. The part that I appreciate the most is the encouragement. I have always had people coming up and encouraging me in the areas I have been stepping out it. Also, the church has been challenging me to step out. It has been a great place to grow.

I am beginning my last week here in The Hague, even though I will be coming back, it still will be the end of a great internship. I love looking back and seeing the friendships develop, see what God has done and be able to say I have made some lifelong friends, who will actually let me visit them!! Haha.

I do still have prayer requests:
1) Pray that my transition back to Minnesota will go well and all the logistics of moving home will go smoothly.
2) Pray about my support raising. I need to raise both money and prayer support. I am excited to start support raising. Pray that God will meet my needs.
3) Pray for my time in Minnesota that it will be beneficial and productive. I have a lot planned and need to keep on task the whole summer.

I have had a great week, I had time to relax, I was challenged and encouraged, also I got to express my thanks to the whole community of Crossroads. See you all in Minnesota!!

Jason

Ok, God its your turn.

Hello everybody,

This past week was very out of ordinary in many different ways. I should have know it was going to be a strange week when on Wednesday night I was involved in a war of nerf guns with 3 kids and 4 grown men…it was AWESOME!! And we dominated the kids. The war was the request of Jake the son of a friend of mine from the church for his birthday party. At his request myself, Tim (his father), Kevin (our lead Pastor), and Steve (my host father) all took up our (nerf) guns and hunted down the birthday boy (Jake). It was a lot of fun even though we dominated the kids they did put up a good fight and were worthy adversaries.

The next strange thing that was happening for me was with my Sermon preparation. I was having a very difficult time writing my sermon for the coming Sunday. In total I wrote 4 outlines, 2 Sermon briefs and 2 manuscripts before I actually gave the talk and still it wasn’t sitting well with me. It was like wrestling a bull. I knew what I wanted to say, but I just couldn’t get it to sound right or fit right or just work. It was very frustrating the whole week.

On Friday and Saturday I was watching three teenage boys in Capelle aan de Ijssel for my friend’s Rogier and Sophie. That was a great time; we played video games, ate burritos and watch the Matrix. It was a man’s night, food, guns and sci-fi, ahhh. The next day I got to watch all of their Basketball games, which too was a lot of fun for me. I love watching sports in different countries to see the systems they run and how they play. It was also very entertaining, because these boys were good. I was really impressed with the skill of a lot of these players and that made the games very interesting to me. The highlight of the day was seeing a 6’7” 13 year old (yes 13!!) dunk, its not everyday you see a kid of that size who can play.

That evening I brought the boys for their home up to The Hague and then headed off to see my friend Maria get baptized in the North Sea. I was bummed out, because I was late and missed the actual event, but just seeing all the people (42 in all showed up) and then seeing Maria was a real treat. Maria has been working with me in trying to get different events going with the 20-40 year olds in Crossroads and through that we have got to know each other and I was able to hear about her story and how far she has come as a person and a Christian. The Baptism was a really special time and it is very cool to see how she is growing in to a leader so quickly. I was really blessed by the whole event.

Then Sunday morning came and I was speaking. I was so nervous, not about speaking, but about my talk. It was Sunday morning and I still didn’t feel good about what I was going to say, but I knew I have to hand it over to God. I had done my part, the study, the prep, now its God’s turn to show up. Well, the talk was good, but really choppy, even while I was speaking it didn’t flow well at all and I couldn’t get a good rhythm going at all.

After each service I had several people come up to me and thank me for the talk and say how they appreciated it, that I did a good job and expressed how they have seen me grow as a speaker. This was so good for me to hear, because I couldn’t see that, not on Sunday. The other responses I got or saw were very touching, I saw God meeting people where they were at and saw how the words God gave me to speak, even though not eloquently delivered, were still working in people’s lives.

This was humbling and reassuring to me. I was humbled to see that despite of my efforts God still showed up, and reassuring in that God was working through what I though he wanted me to say. It was a hard sermon to preach and I was really drained after the services.

I finished off the day by going to Kenny Johnson’s American Football game. It was a great end to the week. Kenny played very well and their team beat the other team by a touchdown, despite being out weighed, collectively by about 500lbs. It was a lot of fun to watch football and to see Kenny playing; he has never played before and is doing very well for being so new to the sport.

If you want to hear the sermon it will be posted on the Crossroads Website: http://www.crossroadschurch.nl/.

Have a great week!!
Jason

Prayer requests:
1) Culture shock coming back. I have been thinking that I will be hit with a bit of culture Shock coming back to Minnesota and would like prayer around transitioning back to MN.
2) Finances. Right now I am planning on returning to The Hague in the fall and the only question mark left in that plan is money. Pray that God will supply the financial needs to get me back over here.
3) The move. May 1st I move back to Minnesota, pray that their would be not complications with getting back and getting settled back in Minnesota.
4) Leaving well. I am trying to see everyone I need to before I leave and I want to make sure I am not leaving any loose ends here. Pray that I will be able to pass on everything I need to and that relationships will also be continued.

It is a Good Friday.

Hello everyone,

What a week! My family went back to Minnesota ( I do miss them a lot), I helped lead a discussion on Revelations (…”yeah, I don’t know” was my best answer), and we had out Good Friday Service. It was a full week and an emotional one as well.

My family being here was great! We had a wonderful time touring around the Netherlands, with a trip to Cologne and Bruges sprinkled in. We saw so many things and had a few adventures along the way. The best part is we didn’t kill each other, haha. Just kidding. It was good to see them all, my parents enjoyed there time here and so did my sister.

Although the trip didn’t get off to the best start. Ok here is the story. Their flight was supposed to arrive at 6:30am, yes AM. That means I have about an hour for them to get through immigration, get their bags, etc. Or so I thought. Well, the earliest train from my station in The Hague leaves at 6:45am. At this point I want to emphasis the AM part of all of this. So the first train leaves at 6:45 and arrives at the airport (Schiphol) around 7:15-7:20am. I arrive on time, look at the arrivals monitor and don’t see a flight from Minneapolis! There are other flights that have arrived at 6:15, 6:20, 6:25, you get my point. I don’t panic, yet. I walk over to an info desk and they say the flight from Minneapolis landed at 6:00am. Crap! I go to the appropriate gate exit, hoping to see my family waiting, but know. They aren’t there. Crap!

If you have ever flown through Schiphol you know how huge this place is. Rather than run around the airport looking for a needle in a hay stack, I figure I will wait by the gate exit, maybe they haven’t come back yet, and even if they had gone out, surely they would come back to the gate knowing I would go there. (If you realize, just then I shifted blame on to them, it was subtle, but there none-the-less). Well, I wait there for about an hour. Then I start walking. I am wearing a bright orange coat, Go Netherlands, and I don’t get 10 steps into the main hall when I hear, “HEY.” I turn to see arms flailing, it was my family.

Rather than greet each other, with the internationally recognized, “hello, hallo, hi, hej or whatever.” We all say at the same time, “where were you!” HaHa, I love my family. Luckily for me at this point they were too tired to be really mad, but next time I will have to be on time.

It was good to see them and I know it was special for my parents to not only see me, but to see Kevin and Kathy Johnson, as well. My parents have supported them the whole four years they were here and I know it was impactful for them to see all the work that has been done and to meet the people who have been impacted by the Johnson’s.

After my family left I started brushing up on my understanding of Revelations. I was leading a discussion on Revelations for a small group. It was a lot of fun and, no, we didn’t get a chance to map out the end of the world, but I am sure that the Anti-Christ will be a hybrid of Obama, the Pope, and Britney spears, you know its coming. We did however, have a good discussion and a lot of laughs. It was a lot of fun and hopefully, impactful as well.

Then came Good Friday, Crossroads did a Good Friday service at Crossroads where we had music and four perspectives of going to the cross. The four perspectives were The Centurion, Mary the mother of Jesus, the Disciples, and Jesus. I was asked to give the perspective of Jesus.

I thought the service was great, the whole thing, I loved the different perspectives about coming to the cross, the music, communion, time of prayer; it was all in all a great service.

I spoke about Jesus coming to the cross and how we can approach the cross like Jesus. Not to repeat my message, I spoke about how Jesus came to the cross with fear and trembling in the Garden and how we can come with fear and trembling to the cross. Also, Jesus came with the promise of joy and we come to the cross with a promise of joy.

I have to be honest this was a hard message to give, as you can imagine. When Scott first asked me, I said yes, but as my energy reserves got depleted that yes, was fading. I was tired from my family’s visit, the small group teaching, the travel, thinking about moving home, thinking about my job, etc. To compound the problem, I was having trouble figuring out what to say, I re-wrote my talk 3 times between Wednesday and Friday.

True to for though, before I went up on stage, I asked “God, make something out of this, because I am spent, I can’t do it.” Well, I think God did. I gave my talk, walked back to the back of the hall and sat down, I watched as people worshipped, prayed and some wept. Not because of me, no, no, no, but because of God. I just sat there. I remember when I sat down, I was completely empty, and I put my face and my hands and just had nothing left. Part of this was, I was tired and needed some sleep and relaxation, but part of it was also, I needed God.

I was thinking about everything that needs to happen in the next 5 months and I just can’t do it all. That is what I said to God, “I can’t do all this.” That is true I can’t do all that needs to be done. I can do my best, work my hardest, but still there are so many things out of my control. In one way that is life in general. That night I didn’t get some huge revelation, I didn’t see angels singing, and tongues of fire descend on anyone, but my eye’s were covered…All that happened was I asked God to do something, because I what I had wasn’t good enough, and God did. Now what I cling to is that God will do something again and again and again. I am starting to believe that this is also what I life is generally suppose to be like, us relying on God to do something.

Well what a week! Happy Easter. “Christ has risen, he has risen indeed.”


Jason

Next Steps

Hello all,

I have had quite a ride this year, from the Big Move in September to my first time speaking, to my first sermon to my second sermon, to helping with small groups, to volunteering with IJM. From Sweden to Morocco this year has been an amazing adventure and I will always remember my time here as “The Intern.”

I am planning on returning next Fall to The Hague with Christian Associates (CAI). My plan is to join the Operations staff of CAI Europe. This summer I will be back in Minnesota fund raising and getting everything sorted out for the fall. There are a lot of logistical issue’s to be worked out between now and then that I will be working on.

I wanted to ask my faithful readers to help out, if you think your church would be interested in the work I am doing in Europe please let me know or have them contact me, I would love to sit down and talk or speak if they would allow. If you would like to support the work I am doing in Europe please let me know I would love to meet with you, in you would like. If you have any questions about what I am doing please let me know.

I will arrive back in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 1st and will remain in Minnesota until September. I will be traveling a bit this summer to Colorado and California for some additional training. If you live in either of these states or live along the way from Minneapolis to San Diego let me know I would love to visit with you.

I am very excited about the work God is doing in Europe and I know that this is what I am supposed to be doing. I ask for your continued prayers and support as I move forward with CAI in Europe. I hope you have enjoyed my blog and want you all to know that I intend to keep updating my blog weekly throughout the summer.

Thanks,
Jason Cutshall

Surfing...

Hello all,

I hope everyone is doing well. I have had a crazy couple of weeks it has been good, but I think I need to do better at scheduling, haha, maybe arriving from Morocco at 3am and picking up my parents at 6am was not such a good idea, you know in hindsight…

Ok, well let’s start with the IJM sermon I gave. Still 2 weeks later I am feeling the effects of this service. I don’t know if this is a speaker thing or if really was that powerful of a service, but now I know what means to be emptied. After the service I literally felt as though I had nothing inside of me, this was a first and, also, was much unexpected on my part.

The trip to Morocco helped a lot in refueling me, but I am still reflecting on how to handle being emptied on a regular basis. I know I have heard a lot about empting your self before God. I would like to hear about refilling your self, because that is equally hard. This has also helped me reflect on my life and how I live. I remember reading a book that talked about having good margins in your life. When trouble, strife, the stuff of life comes do you have enough reserve to handle it all? Its almost like a bank account, do you have enough in savings for when you car breaks, or you break, or when something unexpected happens. I am reflecting on how to best manage the margin in my life, because now is a tornado like time.

This past week our pastor Kevin announced that he and his family would be moving back to Minnesota. I knew this was coming, so it wasn’t a huge surprise, but that mixed in with a lot of other things are making my reserves very low. I always find it funny how I seem to fight between staying safe and risking it all. It is almost like swimming in the ocean. You go out a little and play in the water and that is nice. Then you go further and discover the joy of waves, for better or worse. After you first experiences with a big wave you get a little freaked out and have a choice. Do I go out there again and risk getting slammed into the sand, while playing or do I go back in the shallow water and just enjoy myself?

Well, if you decide to go back out, you hit a point where you can see the waves coming and time your self to body surf on them. There are also times where you see the waves coming and even though you know they are there you didn’t account for how big they are and well, slam, slam, slam. Haha, I say this from personal experience. Not to be overly dramatic, but this is where I am. I saw some waves coming, IJM, Kevin’s announcement, my leaving in a month, but I didn’t account for how big these waves are and now I am heading up on the shore deciding if I should go back in? I have always loved body surfing…

Prayer request:
1) Discernment, specifically as things move forward in my life, there are a lot of decisions to make and I need to be very wise about what I decide.
2) Health, I need to remain healthy and this requires so much attention as you all know, food, exercise, sleep, prayer, study pray I would be diligent and steady
3) Praise, for the church here they are amazing people and have been so loving and helpful to me I would not have asked for a better church for my internship.
4) Pray for Crossroads as they morn the loss of their pastor Kevin, and pray for direction for the church as they continue to bless people.