Gulliver's view of the Netherlands

Yesterday we visited Madurodam--a miniature version of famous Dutch sites all made to scale.  It's a tourist attraction that my parents took me and my sisters to visit when we were girls, now I got to take my mom and my girls to see the new and improved version.  After months of re-construction, it has re-opened to the public.

Here's a sample of the miniature sites and some of the actual buildings that we've seen in full size:

Train station and moving trains--it's how we are getting all over Holland.

Schipol Airport--with baggage carts and KLM planes

Utrecht's famous Dom Tower
with 465 steps to the top!

Madurodam's version of the Dom Tower

A row of canal houses at Madurodam

Actual canal houses in Utrecht

The cheese market in Gouda

Madurodam's version of the Gouda Town Hall

Actual "Stadhuis" in Gouda--one of the oldest in Holland

Who's miniature now?! That's Ana and Mia waving from the front of the Stadhuis to give a perspective of how impressive it really is!  

 We even met Rembrandt--one of the many famous Dutch artists!

Another Yummy night

On Saturday we learned yet another delicious way to spend an evening.  Actually, it resembled a unique combination form of cooking forms from both China and Botswana.

In China we enjoyed the "hot pot"--an electric kettle in the middle of a table with a bubbling spicy stew.  We threw raw meat and veggies into the liquid to cook it.
In Botswana, we loved the "braai"--meat, meat and more meat piled on the BBQ!
Put together the ideas of cooking at the table and having all sorts of meat and you have "creuset gourmet."  (sp??)

A plate full of meat ready for grilling

Our new friends, Lisette and Willem Jan Noordzij taught us how to use the mini creusett gourmet pans to grill our own food.

We ordered the tray of various meats from the butcher the day ahead.  On Saturday we all helped prepare the meal by making setting the table with salad, bread and sauces, making pancake batter and by dicing up the veggies.

We heated up the table-top burners-- then grilled and ate our way through the evening.  It's a traditional meal for Christmas--popular in part because it requires those gathered to have patience and take time talking with one another as you wait for your food to good.

After you've had your fill of meat, --or when the meat is all gone--

you can make an omelet or a pancake in the little pan before pushing back from the table.

What a great way to spend a night!

Being Tourists

Last week, when we picked up my mom from the airport, we had a few hours to kill while she fought off jet lag, so we took the train up to a tourist area called Zaanse Schans (pronouced "Skaans").  There are homes (now shops) set up like an old village and some re-positioned windmills that demonstrate the variety of mills in Holland.

It was cold and dreary when we started out and we were lugging mom's luggage and carrying our own backpack from our overnight trip to Haarlem the night before.   But we pressed on.

We've been enjoying a unique perspective of Holland thus far--we are visitors, but not really tourists.  We are living among people in a village that has a regular daily life and rhythm.  Oh, I have no doubt that we still stick out here--anyone who has heard my broken Dutch or watched us try to lock our bikes, or seen us eyeing the butcher counter with curiosity knows that we're not locals.  They are just too polite to let on.

But in this wonderful arrangement of finding a "home in Holland" we get to go our own way--on our own time.  We aren't herded in and out on the tour busses.   And we shop where we want for what we want--we aren't guided toward the kitschy tourist stuff.

But for this morning, we were tourists.  We learned how to make cheese and then we were tempted into the cheese shop to take some home with us.  Lucky for me--there's a cheese shop down the block and around the corner in Nijkerk.

We visited one of the specialized mills--the only remaining mill in the world that crushes chalk stone to be used for making art paints (among other things.)  Many of Europe's famous painters got their paint powder from this mill.

We saw a museum of wooden shoes--some beautiful, some funny...

Sunday Klompen

Wedding Klompen

Roller Klompen

Then watched as someone demonstrated how to make wooden shoes--

And then we were ushered into the show room where we could buy a pair--or not.  We all liked the same pair!!

The best part of the day was lunch at the pannenkoeken house.  Yum.
(I seem to be saying "yum" a lot lately!)

It was worth the trip out there to see a few of the traditional things and to get us all walking for the day, but we were glad to come "home."  And so very thankful that we have a place to call our "home" for these days.

After playing the role of Tourist for the day, I was doubly thankful for the hospitality of the Lantings, who are making it possible for us to truly live in Holland--if only for a speck of time.

It is TRUE!

Around the world, Christians greet the Easter dawn with words of celebration... "Happy Easter!"  "He lives!"  In many cultures, the greeting requires a response.  In English-speaking congregations, the declaration of "He is risen!" is met with a firm "He is Risen indeed!!"

This morning, I learned from our hosts that the Moldavian Easter greeting is translated:

"Christ is Risen!"

"Yes! IT IS TRUE!!"

What a great way to start this day on which the Western Christian church (our Eastern Orthodox friends will celebrate Easter next week) celebrates the most important truth of our faith:  Christ is risen!  Death is conquered!  Life is ours!

My mom, Ana, Mia and I will remember this Easter for a long time.  We biked to church--listening to the church bells pealing--, first stopping off at the home of Marike and Thijs Blok for an Easter breakfast--the table set with happy yellow tulips, eggs, bread, Dutch cheese and dark coffee.

For devotions, we heard 1 Peter 1:3 read in three different languages:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! 

In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope 

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...

Then we participated in a worship service with the joy of Easter songs, psalms and the Lord's Supper, followed by the bike ride home and lunch with the Lantings and several families from the church.

Earlier this weekend we visited the local baker and picked up a "haansbroodje"--a "rooster bread" for Good Friday to recall the betrayal of Peter.  Mom remembers a bigger version that was on a stick, but these breads were just as yummy.

It was a full weekend

Old traditions, new friends.

Ancient action (the Son of God dying and rising)--Eternal truth (God's love --the same yesterday, today and forever!.)

Sailing on the Wind

Note:  This post was a collaborative writing project between Joy and Ana.

There's nothing more Dutch than windmills (well--maybe cheese...or chocolate...or klompen...)

Windmills have been part of the landscape of Holland for centuries because they were an important way to move the water away from the land.





But as the name "mill" implies, they were also used for grinding things like corn into meal flour, grain into bread flour and chalk stone into a powder that is used for making paints.

A few weeks ago, we got our first tour of a windmill.  On a very windy day, the miller took us up the stairs and into all the levels--even up to the cap!

Windmills need to face into the wind.  So the miller has to judge where the wind is and turn the top of the mill so that it catches the wind properly.   

The sails on a windmill function like a cross between a boat sail and a propellor.  They are really big when you see them in person, and they can spin really quickly!  

Somedays it is too windy so the miller needs to trim the sail a bit by pulling the cloth off of the wooden grid.

If the sail gets going too fast, it can get damaged by breaking off.  The other risk is fire!


When the sails rotate too quickly, the gears inside rub together, increasing friction and heat and eventually causes a fire.

It was a windy day when we were on the mill so the miller trimmed the sails on this working windmill.

 

Inside the mill there are gears and a large iron rod that attaches to the outside sails.
The wind turns the sails.

The sails turn the rod

The rod turns the gears.

The gears turn other things that get the work done.





In grain mills, the main gears turn one large stone that is positioned on top of another large stone.  Grain is poured between the two stones where it is crushed and flour comes out.

The Miller makes the decision of when to put the two gears together.  He can put them together or separate them by pulling on a rope.  

In this way he can stop the grinding or get it going again. 

Another job that the gears do is to lower and raise the heavy grain sacks from the ground level into the middle floor where the grain is crushed.  

Rather than having a person raise and lower the bags by hand, 

the rope is attached to a rod 

that is attached to a gear 

that is attached to a wheel.  

When the Miller connects the gears to this rod and wheel, 

it quickly raises the bag with no effort.   

We got to sit in the "sky box" of the mill!  It is at the very top of the windmill--we climbed lots of steps to get up here. This cap is what turns in order to get the sails to face the wind.







This is our view out the little window in the top of the grain mill.

This past week we saw some more windmills at the famous Kinderdijk:

We saw the only windmill that is still working to crush chalk into paint.  Famous painters have come here for hundreds of years to get their chalk to make paint

  

A Day in Harderwijk

The title of this sabbatical is "Going Home" and we have been visiting places that have been "home" to us--places that have shaped our faith and our family.
Today we went home with my mom to the town she grew up in Holland.

My mom was born in Friesland--a northern province of the Netherlands.  When she was 2, her family moved to the sea port town of Harderwijk where my grandfather owned a metal working factory.

After World War 2 when my mom was 11 years old, the family sold the factory and immigrated to Wisconsin.  Mom has been back to the town a few times since then--she and I were in Harderwijk together in 1997.  But this was a special opportunity to show Ana and Mia their grandma's home town.

A few things have changed in 60 years!  The town has grown and modern shops line the busy streets. The most significant change is that Harderwijk is no longer a port!  In 1933, a large dike (the Afsluitdyk) was completed along the north sea.  Bit by bit, the Dutch reclaimed land from the sea (see green areas).  By 1986, the water north of Harderwijk had been pumped away forming an entirely new province called Flevoland--the largest green area.  It was separated from the original mainland of the Netherlands by a river.  

When my Mom was a girl, she had visited the harbor and looked out onto the Ijsselmeer and out to the sea.   But today, the view is just across a river to Flevoland.

We walked around the town for 5 hours, starting at the very old Fishport--one of the original gates of the city wall which were built in the 1200s.

We saw the town hall where my mom's older brother George married my Aunt Rita and her older sister Sieta married Uncle Dick before they left Holland for America.

The old church--built around 1350-- in the center of town was renovated 30 years ago and they discovered beautiful murals underneath layers of paint.

We happened to get into the building because they were setting up for a concert this afternoon.  This was going to be a contemporary Christian music group.  Notice the contrast of the old organ pipes and the new sound board.

The custodian allowed me into the pulpit for a picture.

In the middle of our day, we stopped for yummy fries and a Dutch treat--croquettes!

We walked down the alleys that my mom walked to school.
We saw the church she attended as a girl.

Then we walked to the house where she lived with her 7 brothers and sisters and parents: #19 Mauritslaan.

What a day of remembering and reliving the stories of my mom's life!

Psalm 22

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Rien Poortvliet (Dutch artist) from He Was One of Us


David said it.
Jesus said it. 

Psalm 22 -- the gut wrenching emotion of an embattled human king with enemies attacking from the outside and plotting from the inside, pain and loss on every side, strength fading, wondering if he can take another minute of this weary life.

Mark 15:34 -- the dying gasp of the King of Kings, bound hand and foot, stripped naked and lifted for all to stare and sneer.

They said it for us...

For all of us who--at one time or another--have ever been abandoned, alone, forgotten, abused, misrepresented, mocked, ridiculed, weary, defeated.

One king--

human like us to tell the truth about our condition.

The other king--

human like us and God for us in order to change our condition. 

Read the Psalm.  The whole Psalm.  Don't give up--get to verse 22 and finish it.

As we walk the journey of the cross this week, believe that there is no loneliness or pain in our lives that He has not already endured...endured and conquered!

 And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.  Hebrews 12: 1b-3

Lament is embedded in hope.  That's how I heard it sung by the Psalm Project last Sunday night.  Listen to their voicing of this Psalm in Dutch.  Psalm Project singing Psalm 22

(Also available here in an English version--highly recommend the whole album.) Purchase Psalm Project CD here.

Psalm 22^[a]

    For the director of music. To the tune of “The Doe of the Morning.” A psalm of David.

 ¹ My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
   Why are you so far from saving me,
   so far from my cries of anguish?
² My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
   by night, but I find no rest.^[b]

 ³ Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
   you are the one Israel praises.^[c]
4 In you our ancestors put their trust;
   they trusted and you delivered them.
⁵ To you they cried out and were saved;
   in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

 ⁶ But I am a worm and not a man,
   scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
⁷ All who see me mock me;
   they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
⁸ “He trusts in the LORD,” they say,
   “let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
   since he delights in him.”

 ⁹ Yet you brought me out of the womb;
   you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
¹⁰ From birth I was cast on you;
   from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

 ¹¹ Do not be far from me,
   for trouble is near
   and there is no one to help.

 ¹² Many bulls surround me;
   strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
¹³ Roaring lions that tear their prey
   open their mouths wide against me.
¹⁴ I am poured out like water,
   and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
   it has melted within me.
¹⁵ My mouth^[d] is dried up like a potsherd,
   and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
   you lay me in the dust of death.

 ¹⁶ Dogs surround me,
   a pack of villains encircles me;
   they pierce^[e] my hands and my feet.
¹⁷ All my bones are on display;
   people stare and gloat over me.
¹⁸ They divide my clothes among them
   and cast lots for my garment.

 ¹⁹ But you, LORD, do not be far from me.
   You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
²⁰ Deliver me from the sword,
   my precious life from the power of the dogs.
²¹ Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
   save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

 ²² I will declare your name to my people;
   in the assembly I will praise you.
²³ You who fear the LORD, praise him!
   All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
   Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
²⁴ For he has not despised or scorned
   the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
   but has listened to his cry for help.

 ²⁵ From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
   before those who fear you^[f] I will fulfill my vows.
²⁶ The poor will eat and be satisfied;
   those who seek the LORD will praise him—
   may your hearts live forever!

 ²⁷ All the ends of the earth
   will remember and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations
   will bow down before him,
²⁸ for dominion belongs to the LORD
   and he rules over the nations.

 ²⁹ All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
   all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
   those who cannot keep themselves alive.
³⁰ Posterity will serve him;
   future generations will be told about the Lord.
³¹ They will proclaim his righteousness,
   declaring to a people yet unborn:
   He has done it!