Mike and Anita James

So, when we first moved here, we bought some bicycles.  It’s not only part of the culture here, it’s kind of a necessity.  Bicycle paths everywhere make it safe, and the price of gasoline makes it more than a necessity.  I got a used bike and thought it was a steal.  I didn’t really know [...]

We feel that God is leading us to start a new church in the city of Hoofddorp. We’ll be starting it with some friends of ours, Sietse and Vanessa Houtman. We’re really excited about being used by God in this new way. If you’re wondering if we will still do children’s ministry, the answer is [...]

We finished a series on the Fruit of the Spirit. It was a lot of fun. We recycled an old song we did years ago that taught the kids the list.  To get the actual lessons into their heads, we did some of my favorite videos so far. You can check out our youtube channel [...]

I love it when the sun is out – especially after many gray days!  We seem to have had a long time of rainy, gray days.  I’ve even had to put sunglasses on.  I had to dig around to find them at the bottom of my purse.  One spring, maybe 2006, I had a day [...]

Grace can be classified as a third-culture kid.  She is an American living in The Netherlands.  She’s not fully Dutch and at the same time, she doesn’t totally relate to people in America. When I observe her, I see some differences in her from most American kids.  First of all, she only understands temperature in [...]

Tonight was the last cooking group/Bible study/prayer group until the summer is over.  The group, Ingredients for Life, was started by me and a friend, Kristi Reavis.  We started it in 2006.  The year Mike and I were in the States, the group kept going.  I took it over again last year.  I love this [...]

Yesterday, we had some of the most beautiful weather.  It was the warmest it’s been this year.  People were in shorts and outside loving the weather. Today is Koninginnedag, Queen’s Day.  It’s the day to celebrate the queen.  It’s supposed to be on her birthday, but since her birthday is in the winter and weather [...]

We had our first Zuper Zondag (Super Sunday) today.  We were so excited.  It’s been something that has been coming for a long time.  From now on, we’ll be having a special, evangelistic service on the second Sunday of each month. We’ve gotten a new puppet stage from BGMC money.  We also were given funds [...]

We’ve been so busy working on a curriculum.  We’ve done an entire series on Psalm 23.  There are so many steps to the process.  Mike writes the lessons.  Then, we video the puppets and characters for the lessons.  Next, I edit it and get the video ready.  We have friends who translate it into Dutch [...]

Earlier this week, both Grace and I were sick.  Fortunately, our fevers only lasted a day or two.  It came at a terrible time though.  I guess there’s never a good time to get sick, but we got sick when we had company coming.  Our friends were sick the week before, so they had no [...]