It's Spring!

We've had a long, frigid winter in Chicagoland. We were dealing with snow only a few weeks ago! After months of staying outside only long enough to run from my car into the nearest building, I'd forgotten how much Dave and I love to visit one of our local parks. This particular park is the best. It has great jogging (or walking, in our case) trails, a few lakes, a couple of playgrounds, and baseball fields that almost always have a game going on whenever we stop by.

On a recent Friday night, Dave and I took advantage of the sunny, warm evening and made our first visit of the year to our park.

I love these digging contraptions! Apparently, Dave does, too.

Dave contemplating life as he gazes down the stream

Can you tell we work with kids?

The happy couple

Happy Easter!

This is coming a couple of days late, but as my sixth-grade Sunday school teacher would say, "Happy Resurrection Day!" This year, I've been reminded of just how important this holiday is for us as Christians. Christmas, also a good holiday, celebrates the birth of the One we worship, but most of the other religions on this planet have days they can celebrate the birth of their respective gods. Christianity is the only religion that can celebrate the death and resurrection of the One who came to save us. It is because of this key event in history that we can have eternal life. Hallelujah! He is risen!

The Gwynne family had quite the eventful Easter weekend. In addition to remembering the death of Christ and celebrating His resurrection, we hosted my college roommate Steph for the extended weekend. Below are a few pics from the last few days.

Steph (top left), Julie C., me, and Julie V. at Lincoln Park Zoo

Last year, Dave, Julie V., and I discovered a cute crepe restaurant in Lincoln Park. We made sure to stop there for some sweet treats when we went to the city.

Our first Easter together

This One's for You, Dad

For those not in the know, one of my favorite lines as a small child was, "Where's the beef?" Ah, yes, commercialism was already working its magic on me.

A Really Big Easter Egg Hunt

I was uploading pics the other night and realized that we haven't taken any since before I left for my missions trip at the beginning of March. Crazy! Yesterday was a busy day, and we were more concerned about making sure all our volunteers were where they should be than we were about taking pictures, so sadly, there is nothing to pictorially document our day. I will have to do my best to describe it with words.

Every year, our church hosts two outreach events. We have Fall Festival in October and our Really Big Easter Egg Hunt near Easter. Dave and I were already attending our church when we had Fall Festival, but since we weren't on staff yet, the Easter Egg Hunt was our first major event with the church as a part of the behind-the-scenes crew.

The craziness began the week I was away, so I was unaware of the time commitment involved in this event. For the last two weeks, however, I jokingly referred to myself as an Easter Egg Hunt widow. Dave spent many evenings at church working on this event. Even when we were together, his mind was in Easter Egg Hunt-mode. After running around buying prizes on Saturday, we were able to spend our first evening at home together in a long time. It was nice, but we couldn't relax too much since this event was the next day.

Set-up for the event begins as soon as the 11 o'clock service ends, and it is the craziest thing you've ever seen. Suddenly, our church's foyer is home to two inflatables and candy vendors, and our gym/worship center is turned into a carnival full of games, more inflatables, and food vendors. Tons of people fill every square inch of the building, and full (controlled) chaos ensues. It is quite an amazing sight.

Because Dave was officially the one in charge of the event, he was busy making sure everything was running smoothly with the help of the other staff members. I was assigned different tasks as the needs arose until I went to my egg-exchange post and then to my Scrambled Eggs game. In the midst of it all, we had (I think) three Easter egg hunts for the different age groups. We finished up the event with door prizes, and then the crowds of people left, and all that was left in the gym were the leftover games, deflated inflatables, and discarded candy wrappers. It was then our job to pick up all the trash, take down all the signs, and put away all the games. Last night, our team was finished in less than two hours. The church was put back together, and our tired bunch of staff members and some volunteers headed for home, ready to relax after a fun, fulfilling day.

The event requires hundreds of hours of work, but it is so worth it! One of my favorite parts about the event was seeing all the community kids there. Sure, I'm excited that the church kids were there, but I consider it a success when I see more kids I don't know than kids I see every week in church. It's then that I know we're doing a good job reaching out to the community.

What I Did on My "Spring Break"

After leaving a couple of posts with nary a detail about what I was doing last week, I feel it's time to reveal more of the details now that no one will be able to follow me to Harlingen and Scheveningen in the Netherlands. Ready for the update of your life? Here we go...

Operation Mobilisation has a very interesting ministry that involves sailing ships to various ports around the world so people can visit the ship's Book Fair and the ship's crew can participate in a bunch of community outreach events. Because my employer donates crates full of books to OM, the powers that be decided it would be a good idea to send 10 employees to explore what the ships ministry is all about.

For a week, OM's newest ship, Logos Hope, was my home.

This is a picture of the Logos Hope in Scheveningen, our second port of the week.

When our team arrived in the Netherlands, we headed to Harlingen, where the ship would be until we left on Tuesday for Scheveningen, near Den Hague. Harlingen is in Friesland, the province that some of my ancestors came from, so it was cool to see what that part of the world was like.

Most days, our team was assigned to two of the service positions on the ship: the galley and accomodations (known as the Angels). Tuesday was my group's day to work with the Angels. This was also the day we set sail for our second port. After cleaning a handful of bathrooms with my work buddy Naomi, my stomach decided to rebel, and I ran to the nearest toilet. Instead of cleaning more bathrooms that day, I stayed in my cabin, sleeping the seasickness off. Fortunately, it was the only time I got sick during our sail, and on Wednesday, I was able to work in the galley, slicing cucumbers and chopping lettuce.

The ship arriving in Scheveningen on Wednesday

For the entire week, I tried to figure out what the purpose of the Logos Hope was. All I saw were people who signed up for two years to clean toilets every day or make food for the hundreds on board, just so the rest of the crew could live on the ship. I wondered where the missions experience came in.

Finally, on Friday night, when we were assigned to work on the Experience Deck (home to the famous Book Fair, an experience hall, and the International Cafe), I discovered why people sign up to do all that difficult, sometimes unpleasant, work 5 days a week. As our team was sitting in the cafe for our ministry orientation, a visibly distraught man came up to us and asked if we believed in miracles. When we said yes, he began to tell us about his friend, a man who has been involved in an immoral lifestyle for years and has seemingly reached the end of the road. He asked us to pray for his friend, who has no more hope and no interest in God. We began to pray out loud for both men, and when we were done, there wasn't a dry eye in the group. It was an amazing moment. The man told us he'd been driving in his car when he remembered the ship was in town. He knew he could gather a group of people to pray for his friend, and when he arrived, we "just happened" to be involved in a group meeting. As the director of the Experience Deck said, it was a divine appointment.

I spent the rest of the evening and Saturday morning coloring with kids, greeting people as they entered the ship, inviting curious people to come and check out the ship, and talking to a few people in the International Cafe. All the tough work I'd done earlier in the week was worth it for the time I was able to spend on the Experience Deck.

I may never join OM's ship's ministry, but I'm so glad I was able to have a week to experience what those who do join are signing up for. I'm also grateful I was able to see the impact that my employer has in another part of the world. It was a great week.

Hope Is Not Lost

I couldn't understand a word the person was praying, but the moment was powerful.

Late Saturday evening, after an afternoon of orientation, dinner, and group devotions, I happened upon a celebration service for the Dutch volunteers who have helped OM with their latest outreach efforts. At one point in the service, the worship leader offered anyone who wanted to the chance to pray out loud.

All but one of the prayers were spoken in Dutch, and that's when I realized that my perceptions of this country were all wrong. Growing up with a Dutch heritage, whenever anyone referred to the country of my great-grandparents, I'd often say I was nothing like the people the Netherlands are known for. In my mind, the country had always been thought of as a lost cause, too liberal to have much hope.

But on Saturday night, as I heard the prayers of Dutch Christians, I was reminded that this country isn't a lost cause. There are people God has placed here, whether nationals or missionaries from other countries, who are doing His work and ministering to the lost. It was a wonderful reminder.

Prayer Request

I'm leaving tomorrow to work with Operation Mobilisation in the Netherlands for just over a week. My employer is kind enough to sponsor mission trips for employees to participate in. Our company has already been on trips to Hurricane Katrina-ravaged parts of the South and to Central America, and now it's Europe's turn.

I'm super excited, but also a little nervous. Considering our entire dating and engagement time was long-distance, Dave and I have gotten quite used to being together every day. Please pray that we'll do fine during our week apart. In addition to that, please pray for the safety of our mission team, for the unity of the team and those we'll be working with, and most importantly, for the work of God to be done in us and in those we minister to in the Netherlands.