Another Beautiful Day in South Holland

Prinses Mariestraat, originally uploaded by cutjas.

Hello everyone,

As my boss, Kevin, always says, “Its another beautiful day in south Holland,” normally he says this when it is cold and rainy, but today it actually is a beautiful day, clear sky’s, crisp air, and a bright sun. Riding my bike in to the office today I noticed in the clear blue sky some airplane tracks in the sky, it was a glorious scene and made the trip in a little easier.

This past weekend was a big weekend for myself. I played in my first ever-Dutch league football (soccer) match. Our game was on Saturday around 2:30, when the game started it was sunny and warming up…well during the game it rained once, hailed three times, and was friggin’ cold. It was a good game; I opened the scoring with a delightful header in the middle of the first half. Needless to say this made me the best friend of everyone on our time right away. We ended up tying the game 2-2. I had a lot of fun and am looking forward to hanging out with the guys more often. Hopefully, all my games go this well.

I know in my last entry I mentioned feeling a little homesick and missing Minnesota. Well that was cured on Sunday when it snowed here for about 7 hours!!! It was cold, snowy and gray, I loved every minuet of it. There is something special about the first snow of the year and this was a good one. Granted all the snow is now melted, that doesn’t matter, all that matters is that I got to see some snow, and bike around in it as well. My soul is now at peace.

This past Friday night I hosted a movie night at the Perriman’s house. Again, we had about 10 people and watched “Rainman”…definitely “Rainman.” I had never seen this movie before and I liked it a lot. The bigger piece was that we had totally different people show up, for the most part. That was good because I was able to meet more folks and grow the social circle here. We watched the movie and then sat around a talked for a couple of hours, until the last people left. I am hoping these Friday night gatherings turn into something more regular, to just get people together and hanging out.

Now for the weekly Basketball update, I was able to learn all of the kids’ names this past week, it only took me a little less than a month to do that. We had a practice, no game. The kids were very enthusiastic about playing. They are getting better and learning more every week. We are still trying to break the nasty habit of throwing the ball up in the air when a defender comes new you, but I will take what I can get at this point.

Walking away this time was a little different, technically this was my last time coaching, but I have decided to try and stay on and keep coaching if I can. I am growing attached to these little rascals, how could you not? It is such a break from normal life, going and running around with these kids, whether their biggest worry is if you got the same amount of candy as the other guy just got. There is something refreshing about that. I was able to reflect on the simplicity of life for those kids while I was walking back to the train station. Not to over idealize this, I realize they have stress, responsibility, and problems, as do I. But I haven’t been that excited over getting a piece of candy in 20 years, (except when I get Candy Dorhman’s home made caramels). That two hours has turned in to a little vacation in my week, where can shed off everything I am suppose to be and do, and just be a little kid excited to run around and get some candy.

Prayer requests:
Soccer: normally I don’t believe in praying for sports, I don’t think it makes sense, but God was with me this past weekend, I haven’t scored a goal in years, and it instantly tore down walls and opened up friendships. Keep praying that things go well, we all have fun and that I can be a good friend to these guys.

Small Group: We are meeting Monday nights, right now just getting to know each other and figuring out what topics we want to study. Pray that things go well and that we gel and grow as a group.

Living Situation: The Perriman’s are going to be moving back to London after the first of the year. I will be moving in with Steve and Michael Malon. Pray for this transition for myself and the Perriman’s as it will be a hard transition for them and hopefully an easy one for myself.

ME: I am entering a very busy time, as is everyone, the next month and a half. I will be traveling for about 15 days in December, planning a Christmas Gala, helping lead a small group, playing soccer; doing homework…do you feel bad for me? Just kidding. I love everything I am doing, but it is a lot. I need energy, focus and protection.

Thank you all for your support and prayers, I appreciate all the notes and care packages I have received.

Have a great week!!!
Jason

Sport Week in Nederlands

ADO Logo WEB[1], originally uploaded by cutjas.

This past week was filled with firsts, for me. My first time coaching a basketball team, my basketball teams first time playing a game of Basketball…ever, and my first time at a professional European Football (soccer) Match.

Let’s start with the Basketball team. I showed up to the gym with my friend and fellow coach Justin Powell. Our team as a little rag tag group of international students ranging in age from 8 – 10 years old. They come from India, Israel, USA, England, and Scotland. None of them have played organized Basketball before this team, which started 3 weeks ago. Our mission for the day was to prepare this team to play against kids that were older, more experience and basically a lot better.

We had about an hour of practice time before our first game and most of that was spent on teaching them how to set a screen. The concept didn’t really take at first and when the kids that were suppose to be using the screen to free them up actually were running away from the person screening for them, I knew this was a hopeless venture.

By this time our first game was about to start. I picked the first 5 to play and sent them out on the court like little warriors…well, more like sheep to the slaughter as it turned out. We lost, 20 – 2, but our goal for the game was not to win, but rather to get a shot off and we did that, so all the kids got a piece of candy at the end of the game.

We had a very basic defense strategy, stand under the basket, our basket, the basket we were defending, the basket the other team is trying to score on. As you can tell from the previous sentence, I had a hard time getting the kids to understand the concept of defense and offense. Eventually, we did manage to get a critical mass of our team under the basket, which I believed lessened amount of baskets scored against us.

The second game we didn’t fair much better, we lost 11-0. In both games our team didn’t give up, they didn’t pout, and they all kept playing hard, even though they had no idea what they were doing. It was a lot of fun. My favorite comment of the day was from one girl on our team, Phoebe. She told me that there were two boys on the other team that kept taking the ball right out of her hand. I informed her that this was legal and even encouraged by most people. She had a look of amazement on her face, and this was followed up by a comment from one of the mothers, who said, “well that seems a little harsh.” I realized there that we had a long road ahead of us in learning the game.

Still it was a great afternoon, I had fun, the kids had fun and even the mother’s had fun. This coming week we don’t have a game, but we are going to have a good practice, maybe we will learn that when a defensive player gets near you, its not the best option to throw the ball up in the air…

ADO Den Haag
This past Saturday I went to my first professional Football match it was ADO Den Haag vs Willem II. The game was fun; we sat near the Fanatics or Hooligans, as they are also known. ADO ended up losing in the final minute to an incredible shot, which we saw perfectly. The defender screened the goalie and the forward chipped the ball into the far corner of the goal out of reach of the goalie. At this point the air went right out of the stadium, it was a bad ending to a pretty good game.

This hopefully is the first of many games I will be able to attend. I went with a friend from the Crossroads Church, David Baak. After we went out and had a drink and listened to some good music at a local Pub.

Update:
I have found a new family to move in with. The Malon’s, I was over at their house for lunch on Sunday and it should be a very good fit. The house is further out than I live now, so transportation will be little more of an issue for me, but Steve (the dad) and Michael (the son) are both nice guys and I look forward to living with them. Thank you all for praying about this and I will keep you up dated on how thing progress.

Prayer Requests:
1) The feelings of being homesick are setting in. Nothing that isn’t manageable, but they are their.
2) I have been thinking a lot about my future and what is next. I am really unsettled about what to do after school and I hope that I can receive some direction and clarity in the coming months.
3) We start our new small group tonight, this should be a fun adventure I am very excited about doing this
4) I am in charge of planning a Christmas party for 20 – 40 year olds at Crossroads Church, we have a solid team of 9 people and things are looking good, but we still have to put everything together and pull off the event. Right now we are looking for a venue.

As always, thanks for reading, praying, and/or supporting me. I hope you are all doing well and I would love to hear from you.

Thanks,
Jason Cutshall

Keep on climbing

Staircase in Amsterdam., originally uploaded by cutjas.

This past week was jammed packed for me, I started helping coach a Basketball team for 8-12 year olds, I had my first practice for the soccer team I will be playing with, I voted, I went to a Willow Creek Leadership Conference on behalf of The International Justice Mission, helped collect boxes for the Christmas Child Program, I spoke, and participated in a Theological discussion Small group. Not to mention, meeting with the couple (Chris and Eva) that I am starting a small group with on Saturday, which was more fun than work.

Where to start? We have a new president-elect in the USA and that is always a good thing to get past the election. It was funny being over here in the Netherlands I had forgotten how historic it is that an Africa-American is going to be our new president. I was reminded of this from my father and pastor, who both lived through the civil rights times of the 60’s and my own personal looking back over U.S. history, regardless of political views or who you voted or didn’t vote for, this is historic that we as a country elected a Black man.

I continued my volunteer work with International Justice Mission (IJM) by manning a table at the Willow Creek Leadership Conference in Lelystad, just north of Amsterdam. It was humbling to see the response of people who were moved by the mission of IJM and want to get involved. There were Pastors and leaders from all over the Netherlands and people wanted to do everything they could to help, from Praying for the Mission to a group of young men who wanted to go and do a raid for IJM. I was very pleased to see how these people were willing to help those in need on the other side of the world. I am very excited to see what will happen with IJM Netherlands.

I was able to help collect boxes for the Operation Christmas Child and it was awesome!! Being able to see adults, kids, families come up and give gifts, which will be distributed to kids around the world. It was very touching. I remember two little kids a boy and girl, bother and sister, who were both so proud of the boxes they had shopped for and packed. They wanted to make sure that their boxes would be delivered to another child. It was very touching to see kids so young be so selfless and concerned for others. Needless to say this was a high point of my week.

Monday night I met for the second time with a group of people who are wrestling through theological questions. We shared a meal, which my friend Dirk and I prepared…mainly Dirk, but I cut vegetables. We ate food, had some laughs then engaged in a good teaching by Andrew Perriman. We covered many subjects and had some good conversations surround questions of theology and scripture. It was a good night of wrestling with tough questions of God, faith and life; we didn’t come up with a lot of answers, but had some profound thoughts along the way.

Sunday night we had a worship evening. Kevin had asked me to prepare some remarks for this service, nothing big just 5-7 minutes. The theme for the evening was wholehearted ness. I was very nervous, but have learned that if I am going to speak I have to distract myself right up until I am going to speak, that helps my nerves go away. I gave my talk; it was about the Shama (The Jewish Prayer in Deut. 6, Hear oh Israel, The Lord your God, the Lord is one…), the story of the widow who gave her last two coins (Mark 12:42-44), and some of my life. The basic point was that God delights in the simple daily obedience that we give him. As the widow gave her extremely modest tithe and Jesus us said, “…this widow has given more than anyone else…” I challenged us as individuals and a church to ask God what are our two coins we can offer to God. How can we make ourselves wholeheartedly available to God?

I was very humbled by the response of this talk. Its weird, when I was up there, I was so nervous, wondering why are all these people starring at me? Not knowing what people are thinking, I was very nervous and uncomfortable. After the service, I had people coming up to me and saying how much they appreciated the talk. How they found it very meaningful to them. I was even told that one man said, “that he went to the communion table for the first time in 30 years because of my words.” That was more than I could bear, I don’t know how to handle that kind of statement. I do not have an emotional category to deal with those types of compliments. Its two days later and I am still overwhelmed by how God moved in that service and worked through me.

I am not one who is looking to be in the limelight. After the service I started stacking chair, not because it was the humble servant thing to do, but because its what I know. It’s easier for me to go and stack chairs than stand in front of a crowd and share my heart. Those of you, who know me, know that I am more comfortable stacking chairs, swinging a hammer or sitting with a couple friends talking.

I do know that this is an area that God is challenging me to step out in and that despite my fears and nerves I have to be obedient. Whether people like it or not, its more about putting myself in a place where I know I have to rely on God and not just myself. This was a stretching and challenging thing for me to do, but I am glad I did it and I am looking forward to the next time I can share to see what God will do.

Well this was another good week in Den Haag. Till next time, “That’s All Folks.”

Jason Cutshall

Prayer Requests:
1) My cousin Zach is having knee surgery today, Tuesday nov 11th, pray for him and his speedy recovery.
2) I am part of a new Small Group plant, pray it goes well
3) We are planning a Christmas Party for Crossroads church, pray it is a good time of fun
4) Pray that God will continue to challenge me and that I will continue to grow
5) Pray for discernment and guidance as I figure out what to do next in my life.

Just a greek week.

Greek, originally uploaded by cutjas.

This week was a relatively quiet week for myself, which was nice and refreshing. I was able to catch up on sleep and get back to some work I still have to do for my degree. This week I was working diligently on my Greek homework. Trudging through it is a good way to describe my work. I have been averaging about 2 verses an hour, hopefully that pace will pick up. It is hard and draining, but I do enjoy the work.

It seems as though I have passed the “tipping point” and keep meeting more and more people. My social life is beginning to take shape as I meet more people. This is definitely a good and welcome thing. Being that I am in the small groups ministry here it is a necessary thing. I have met a couple and we are going to start a small group in Den Haag in the next couple of week. I am excited about that, they are a great couple and are very motivated to start a group.

We also had another International Justice Mission (IJM) meeting this past week. At this meeting we had more new people to help with the effort. I have to be honest it is quiet humbling to be part of this group. There was PR people, International lawyers, International journalists, and international businesspeople. Then there was me. Don’t worry I held my own, but it is humbling to see God bring all these people together for a purpose of Justice. We watched a part of the movie “Amazing Grace.” It was helpful in reemphasizing that freeing people from slavery is an essential task and I am growing more and more passionate about it.

I did have a shocking moment this past week. When I came out of our small groups meeting a guy came up to me. He said, “Are you Jason?” I replied, “yes.” He said, “I am a friend of Jason Smith and Brian Post.” Jason Smith was my freshman year RA at Bethel and has been a long time, somewhat distant, friend. I literally was in shock; this was the last person I expected to see. It was funny, I was speechless, which is not a place I find myself very often. Barry is only here for another month or so, but it was nice to make a Minnesota connection.

It is funny how you get in a mindset that everyone you meeting is going to be from another country or some distant land, then a person from your home pops up and it really shocks you, or at least it shocked me.

I also began playing Basketball this past week at the American School of The Hague also known as the ASH. It was fun, but I am so out of shape, I was sore for two days. I am looking forward to playing on a regular basis it is a very international group, most people are from America, but there are a lot from around the world as well. I am also starting this week to practice with a soccer team.

I know there was a request for some funny stories; I assure you all as soon as I embarrass myself, I will write about it and that for sure will happen. I find it funny how careful these past couple of weeks not to offend anyone or say the wrong thing. The funniest times are when people say things to me in Dutch and since I don’t know how to respond I just smile and walk away. This happens all the time on the bus or in line at the super market. I don’t know what to say, and feel like an idiot every time I have to ask someone to speak English for a simple conversation. I guess that’s all part of transitioning to a new culture.

I will say the church office has been one of the places outside of the Perriman’s home where I have really let myself be who I am. Ok, this is funny. The first week I was here in The Hague, I received a video of a worship band. The band was, to put it mildly, awful. I sent out a message to the staff saying, how much I appreciated they way they welcomed me and I wanted to share with them a little of where I came from. So I sent this link at the end of the email stating how this was the band from my church and maybe we could have them come over and play sometime. Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-NOZU2iPA8

The staff loved it! And it was a good way for me to introduce my humor to the office.

Prayer requests:
1) I have been challenged by myself to structure my time better. Up till now I have had a lot of free time and now things are starting to get more busy. I need to create more of a set structure for my time to be more efficient.
2) Prayer time, I need to take advantage of the time I have to pray. It has been easy to get distracted, but I believe I have to buckle down and do some serious praying. Please ask God to assist me in doing so.
3) Small groups: Clearly God is moving people in our church to get more involved on an intimate basis with each other. Pray that we will be able to assist this as much as we can. Pray that as issues arise out of close relationships that God will be there to provide help and guidance.
4) Pray for protection for myself. As more gets put on my plate I will need protection. I know that things will get more stressful and I need covering to help deal with all that is to come.

I watched “Amazing Grace” last night and was moved by the fact that no matter what happened to William Wilberforce, sickness, people shouting him down, finances, loss of friendship. He kept pursuing this goal that God had called him too. I hope none of that happens to me, but I hope and pray more, that if anything does get in my way that God will give me the strength to press on through to the end.

Take care,

Jason Cutshall

Week 4

Prayer candle's, Amsterdam, originally uploaded by cutjas.

Hey all,

It was another full and exciting week. Honestly, I don’t know how many more of these I can take, just kidding. I love all these new experiences and wouldn’t have it any other way. Here is what went on this last week.

We had our “First Serve” sign up this past weekend. “First serve” was an opportunity for folks in our congregation, who are not serving, to have a chance to try out a ministry by serving once with no commitment. The sign up went well we had a good response of people who were interested in serving inside and outside of Crossroads church, which is very encouraging. Now the real work starts. We are organizing and getting people plugged in to their different service opportunities. That will take some work.

It has been good for me to help this initiative and see a positive response from it. I am excited to see people get plugged in serving and see how it changes them and changes our community. We heard a wonderful sermon from our very own Andrew Perriman about leaving our mark in the world. Andrew challenged us to be vulnerable as believers in the world and to make a statement about who we are as followers of Christ. This was a good word for myself and for our community here. If you are interested in listening to it, you can access the talk through itunes. Search for “Crossroads Church The Hague” or go to http://www.crossroadschurch.nl/ and you will find a link to the sermons. Be aware that there is a slightly “Dodgy” joke so you might want to be weary of letting small children and most barn yard animals listen to the sermon, other than that enjoy.

This past week we also had our “Thinklings” meeting. Thinklings is a gathering of Missionaries who wish to think through issues of the Christian faith on a more concentrated. The topic we had this past meeting was “What does it mean to proclaim ‘Jesus is Lord’ in a modern day pluralistic society?” I had a great time at this meeting; it was a fun exchange of ideas and experiences surrounding this topic. I presented on the church’s role in relation to “worldly power” and how the church as institution has to reject any type of power over positions that are offered to it by the world and that through this position of service as an institution the church will be proclaiming “Jesus is Lord”. I was challenged by several people on this topic and actually was able to change and refine my position a bit on this topic, which is what I was hoping to get out of this weekend.

We heard from people from all around Europe and even a professor from Trinity University in Deerfield Illinois. The weekend was filled with good conversations, challenging presentations and a lot of good time thinking. I walked away challenged, encouraged and very tired. I found this valuable because it is not that often that you can set apart several days to think about a pressing question. This was intense, but also was valuable for my work here in Europe.

Sunday went well I am starting to feel a little bit at home here. I can go to the Sunday service and I know people, I can see friends and people know me. I was happy to be able to walk around the service and the halls and see people that I could talk with and am getting to know. I am starting to “belong.”

With that belonging comes a level of responsibility. For instance, now that people know me, they can ask me for help, which I am more than happy to give. This Sunday I was able to help with the “Tear Down Team.” After the service we stacked chairs and packed up all the equipment that is used during a Sunday service. I honestly really enjoy this kind of work. I couldn’t do it every weekend, but I do like getting my hands dirty and doing some good ole manual labor.

While working I was able to meet Wim, a Dutchman who works with developmentally disabled children in The Netherlands for his full time job and helps tear down after the service on Sunday. He was a very gentle humble man this became clear right when I met him. We had a good time joking and working. I was impressed with his service mentality and his humble demeanor. This was a man who had spent his life-serving people, some of whom need a tremendous amount of physical help. I admired him and also was challenged by his life. While I don’t know if I could do what he does, I do know that I was challenged to do my part, the part I have been trained for and the part I am gifted in. This again brought to light my calling and challenged me to live out the life I had been called too, just as Wim was living out his calling.

Monday I spent the day with my good German friend Klaus. Klaus is a violinmaker originally from Hamburg, but now living in Berlin. Klaus had stopped by The Hague on his way to Paris to visit some of us CAI folks. Klaus is also a very humble man who loves people. Klaus is the type of person who has a friend in every town all around the world, and if for some outside chance he comes to a town where he doesn’t have a friend, just give him 5 minutes and he will have 10. Klaus has a way about him that draws people to him. He is not a big presence, but has a very gentle and inviting way about him, which is disarming and allows him to meet people everywhere he goes.

Monday was a great day. We went up to Amsterdam and met with a Swedish friend of Klaus’s, Michael. We spent a couple of hours talking, they were catching up and exploring what each of them had been up too for the last 2 years. I jumped in when I could, but mainly listened to their conversation. I had a good time making a new friend and hearing about what the two of them had been up too. We met in the YWAM café in Amsterdam, which if you haven’t been too you should check out because it was a magnificent café.

From there we went to the Graf’s house, also in Amsterdam. We showed up there and the beautiful chaos began. The Graf’s live in this tornado of a world that seems to work quiet well. They are some of the most hospitable and welcoming people I have met and today was no exception. We were there for 5 minutes when the invitation for dinner came; we ended up staying till 10pm (22:00). It was a fun night with great food, discussion, sharing, and prayer. Laina Graf is a professional caterer so a meal at her house is always a treat. I swear she could make dirt taste good. Fortunately, we had pork, rice, bread, and a few other things that were very tasty.

Both Phil and Laina have a way of probing into who you are as a person this causes me to reflect. As a couple they seem to be able to see things in you that are not evident when you look at yourself.

As Klaus and I drove back from the Graf’s to The Hague, I was reflecting on the day. I felt a distinct nudge toward Sweden. I keep meeting Swede’s, two now in one week. I don’t know if this is a sign from God or mere coincidence. I was sitting there on a highway from Amsterdam to The Hague, which was in itself not something I saw myself doing a year ago. What could be next in my life? This question I have been wrestling with over the past couple of months.

At this point I want to share some sad news. Two of my good friends have lost someone dear to both of them. Monica Holm’s father Bruce Elmer died this past week from cancer. Although, I never met Bruce, I know that Josh, Monica’s husband, couldn’t stop talking about Bruce since the day they met. Josh always raved about how Bruce’s abilities on the golf course and his generousness nature as a person.

I saw from a distance as Monica struggled with watching her father slip away over the past few months, virtually helpless. It was very evident that Bruce was a great man who loved his family and made a positive impact on those he met. I would ask that you keep the Elmer’s in your prayers this week, as loss is never easy. As the scripture says, “we laugh with those who laugh, and we cry with those who cry” and here we support those who mourn. Monica and Josh I want you to know that even though comfort seems distant you are not alone during this difficult time.

Danku wiel, Thanks,
Jason

p.s. I changed my settings so anyone can comment on this blog so feel free to share you thoughts, questions and/or challenges.

Prayer requests:
1) I am starting a ministry geared toward 25-35ish year olds. I need leaders and people who are interested in this age group. I am starting the process of gathering those interested. I wish that God’s spirit is driving this ministry and that we would be able to make a difference in people’s lives.
2) What’s next? Continue to pray about what is next for myself after graduation. There are lots of opportunities and I need some good discernment.
3) Monica and Josh Holm, as well as, the whole Elmer family for the loss of there father Bruce.

The Boil, The Computer, and The Assessor

Stain-glass window, Amsterdam, originally uploaded by cutjas.

This past week was filled with busyness. I came right out of weekend conference in Stockholm and had my day of misery (see last post). On Tuesday I was in the office all day and most of the night finishing up the artwork for the First serve ministry Fair we had this past Sunday. The First Serve Ministry Fair was a chance for people in our church to sign up for service opportunities within our church and within our community. It was a great success, but took a lot of work. I was in charge of making all the signage, graphics, and organizing all the ministry booths on Sunday morning. Thanks to some long hours and a lot of help from other folks we were able to pull off this event. I was happy with the way it went, which is always a good feeling.

During the week I was so tired. I have learned something about myself over the years. I learned that stress makes me very tired. I have friends and family that get stressed and can’t sleep, they are so restless; I am the opposite, I can’t stay awake, literally. As stress goes up my need for sleep gets out of control and this causes as much of a problem as not getting enough sleep. During this week I was pretty much sleeping and working, that was my routine. I also noticed that my body was taking a considerable amount of energy to heal from this boil I had contracted. All of this culminated with me sleeping for 10 hours Sunday night and then resting/vegging out all day Monday, but it was well needed.

This past Friday I made the short trip to Amsterdam for my formal Team Leader assessment with Laina Graf. This was fun to make the trip, I enjoy riding the train and I had a nice tram ride through the heart of Amsterdam, it was amazing to see the diversity in that city. I had a Three-hour interview with Laina and then was invited to stay for dinner. I did and am glad for that decision. Laina is a professional caterer and the dinner was incredible. I was also able to meet some of their friends and get to know their family better.

After dinner Phil Graf invited me to stay for his monthly poker game, again, I am glad I did. I was able to win 30 euro’s!!! This was fun, the game was myself, Phil Graf, one of phil’s neighbors and his coworker Vivian, then Stuart and Tione (Twan) who Stuart buys vans from. It was a good group of folks and we had a good night of fun. Seeing as this was my third time playing poker I was pretty happy to finish 2nd in that group. Honestly, my only goal was to win enough to be able to by my train ticket back to The Hague.
I ended up staying the night at the Graf’s and then headed back to The Hague the following morning. Once back in The Hague, I went to set up for the Ministry Fair and then went home to a shower and a good nights sleep.

I have noticed something that was new to me this past week. It’s been three weeks now that I have been gone and I am experiencing a little relationship withdrawal. I got a couple messages from friends lamenting that I am not around to hang out. Another one of my friends lost his dog (Norm, a 14 year old greyhound) and I was hard for me not to be around for these friends who I do miss.

I know that I am where God wants me to be and that this is part of the transition process, but it is hard and is something I will have to learn how to deal with. This experience has made email, chat, and online phones very important. The fact that I can communicate with family on a daily basis makes “not being there” a lot easier to deal with, still nothing can replace face-to-face.

With that said, I am getting to know people here better, I found a soccer team to play with. I was invited over to a Dirk’s house to watch Football (soccer) this evening. Last night I went with Kevin and Kathy Johnson out to a pub for jazz night. It was spectacular; the 5 piece Jazz band was really good and played an impressive show. It is funny how I am working on maintaining old relationships and starting new one at the same time, such is life though.

I did the announcements in front of church again this week it has been helpful to get some up front exposure to the church and for myself to get more comfortable on stage. I am currently working on a paper on the “Attributes of service” for a meeting we have this week called the “Thinklings.”

I have been monitoring my finances closely, as well as, keeping an eye on the current economic status of the markets. Who knew that being a missionary would also make me an amateur finance analyst as well? I seem to be doing well with money so far, thanks to folks at home and people here being so generous I have been able to keep my costs down, but I will still need to raise some more money to be able to stay until May 1st. Right now I don’t have a hard number, but I hope to be getting a better idea of that figure in the next couple of weeks.

I do have some prayer requests:
1) I am starting to move forward on organizing the 25-35 year olds in our church for social event, service projects and small group communities. Pray that God rises up leaders who have a desire to work with this age group. Pray that service projects arise and that we start to feel a sense of community around this age.
2) Pray for confidence. I have a lot to say, but have a big case of stage fright. I need/want to over come this, it will take time and effort, but I know eventually I will be able to speak that message I have.
3) Relationships – as some of my good relationships change and as I build new ones that I will be wise and diligent in my relationships.
4) Be praying for the IJM initiative that is beginning here in The Hague. There is a lot of passion around this topic of Justice and the anti-slavery movement, pray that we would turn that passion into action wisely.

I thank you all again for you emails, prayers, comments and questions. Its nice to have the interaction with everyone.

Take care,
Jason Cutshall

P.S. I did finish reading a book called “Murder in Amsterdam” this was a book given to my by my friend Steph (shout out!!). It was a really good book detailing out the contemporary cultural/political situation here in The Netherlands regarding the influx of new immigrants. The book was a good account of some murders’ of radical figures in the Dutch cultural/Political scene. I think that this was able to unearth some of the angst that is under the surface here in the Netherlands. I do recommend it for anyone who is interested in the challenges of multiculturalism/melting pots. This book raises a lot of good questions and takes a very objective reporter type approach, although I am not well versed in the Dutch pop Politics.

Heja Raz and Linds

Raz and Linds, originally uploaded by cutjas.

Heja (hello, in Swedish),

I had a jammed packed week. During the week Carolina (the youth pastor at Crossroads) and myself finished a rather nice flyer that we had been working on for a week or so. It was detailing out all the happenings at Crossroads over the next month and let me tell you there are happenings a plenty. The bulk of my week was spent working on the flyer. This had to be finished by Thursday, because I was off to Sweden on Friday.

I flew to Stockholm Friday morning for a conference put on by the Swedish organization EFK (http://www.efk.se/). The conference was focusing on the state of the church in Sweden. The conference was very informative and helpful in understanding the religious situation in Sweden. We saw several presentations by leaders of EFK about the history of, the present situation and future hope of the Church in Sweden, from a Swedish perspective.

EFK stands for Evangelical Free Churches. EFK seeks to unify the mission efforts in Sweden by unifing churchplanters and mission organization together to be more strategic. The state of the church in Sweden is very dire right now. One statistic that sums up the situation is this; in Stockholm (Sweden’s largest city at roughly 2 million people) there is 1 church for every 14,000 persons. That number is expected to grow in the coming years. What that means is that even if people were asking questions there really is no church presence there at all to join in the conversation.

There is a great challenge in Sweden, but there is also great things happening. We heard testimony of new people coming to faith in the existing churches. God is moving in Sweden. Even though Sweden is in one of its darkest hours, as far as, the church is concerned. I did go away inspired to see what God will do in Sweden.

If you wish to pray for Sweden the biggest needs are leaders and encouragement. After years and years of discouragement, the Swedish church leadership is very discouraged and needs help. This conference was the church reaching out to the world saying we need help here, as a church we are dying. It is a very humbling thing to have to ask for help for something, traditionally, you have done very well and that is where Sweden is. Traditionally they have been at the forefront of missions all around the world and now they themselves have become a mission field and are asking for help.

After the conference I was able to spend sometime with my good friend Rasmus and his lovely (and pregnant) wife Lindsay. It was very good to see familiar and friendly faces, Rasmus and I picked up where we left off, by having hamburgers and watching soccer. It was a good time to rest and reconnect with old friends, halfway around the globe. We spent Sunday walking around Stockholm and eating sushi. The trip was too quick, but we still cherished the time. If you think of it Rasmus and Lindsay are expecting a daughter in the next week or so, please keep them in your prayers.

The other major issue that was going on for myself was severe discomfort in my lower back. Since, last Friday I had been experiencing severe pain in my lower back. There was swelling and shooting pains. This baffled me the whole weekend, but the pain kept growing worse and worse. Until this afternoon, I had laid down for a nap and when I woke up I realized that this swollen thing had begun to discharge out of my back. At this point Andrew rushed me to the doctor and they diagnosed it as a boil, yes a boil! (http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/tc/boils-topic-overview)

At this point a little needs to be said about the Dutch medical system here. It is notorious for being quite brutal and that was the case. They don’t like to treat people unless its absolutely necessary and they don’t like to give anesthetic or antibiotics.

I knew things were going bad when the doctor said this, “ok, now we are going to spray a cooling agent, pause, ok, now I am going to make the incision.” At this point I almost stopped him, incision!!! Before I could I was experiencing some serious pain and could barley breathe let alone yell at the doctor. The Doctor cut into the boil and then began scrapping out the infected area. This created a sense of…well…pain.

As I laid their on the table clutching the wall with all my strength and shaking uncontrollably from the pain. The doctor said, “It’s a medieval disease, which requires a medieval treatment.” As you can imagine this comment did not raise my confidence in the doctor’s abilities. The doctor was kind enough at one point to pause, so that I could catch my breath, but then he went at it again and I laid their in the fetal position squirming and doing everything I could to not scream in agony.

In all fairness, the treatment was far cheaper than I am used too, but honestly I think I would have paid triple for it not to be so painful. I am feeling better, but I have to…well someone here has too, dress my wound each day. I can now say I have been through the hell that is the Dutch medical system and well it was an experience…a very very painful experience.

I was able to have a good laugh about it on the way home…after I stopped shaking that is. I wonder what the next week will bring, maybe an infestation of locusts or frogs will over run the city. One can only hope.