The Land of Tri-Level Bicycle Parking

Three level bicycle storage at Amsterdam Central Station

Bert Jan Peerbolte, Zach's Ph.D. supervisor, who is Professor of New Testament at the Free University

The one of the main academic buildings at the Free University where the Theology Faculty is housed

Last week Zach took his annual trip to Amsterdam for consultation with his Ph.D. supervisor, Bert Jan Peerbolte, from the Free University of Amsterdam.  The trip was the capstone of an unbelievably busy October in which we received a number of visiting delegations, wrote a new strategic plan for 2014-2017, and did ministry training.  Thankfully, this time Zach had something to present--the first two chapters (about 97 pages) of his dissertation on eschatology and missiology in the parables of Matthew, Mark and Luke (which he wrote last summer in Grand Rapids).  Zach was pretty nervous about how they would be received since he has been out of academics for nearly a decade.  However, Bert Jan was happy with the chapters and only suggested some minor changes.  While at the Free University, Zach wrote 27 pages of the third chapter as well.  Zach's objective is to graduate in 2016 and do most of the writing in 2014 and 15 (during four months of study leave).  While in Amsterdam, Zach stayed with Brenda Heyink and Matthijs Kronemeijer at the Gemeenschap Oudezijds 100 Christian Community.  Brenda is a former colleague from CRWM and friend from Calvin Seminary.  Her husband, Matthijs, works for the Chaplain Service of the Dutch military.  The community is located in the heart of the "Red-Light District" in old Amsterdam, where tourists come from all over the world for legalized pot, prostitution, and a lot of drinking/partying.  Oudezijds 100 Community is a light for Christ in a place where the churches are museums and spiritual darkness is palpable.  Please pray for Zach as he tries to be faithful to God's calling for him to deepen his knowledge of Scripture so that he can better teach those God has entrusted to him.  It is very, very, very hard trying to find time to work on this project in Haiti!