Pictures of the New Recruits De Bron Conference -- Holland, Aug 28 - Sep 8, 2006

The problem with pictures is that you generally only take them during special occasions - like birthdays and holidays. So sometimes photo albums make our lives look like one big party. Anyway, despite all the fun things here, you'll just have to trust me that most of my time in Holland was spent in meetings and seminars. Wait a second... why am I apologizing? Isn't the title of that Tony Campolog book, "the Kingdom of God is a Party"? :)



The conference center - De Bron, Holland.



New OM recruits from all over the world - about to go back into the world. The fulfillment of the prayer for God to send labourers into the harvest fields (Matt 9:35-38).



Ruben, David, and myself.



Part of prayer night.



Going on a bike trip with friends. The seats were not kind to our derrieres. (Inside joke: where's the girl with the yellow jacket?)



One of my goals during the bike trip was to touch a cow. I did not achieve this goal, but I did experientially find out that the barbed wire fence was electric.



Being a muppet on the bike trip while having a break at a Dutch cafe.



David and his new best friend - a Shetland pony.



The Canadian new recruits. "Everyone pretend to be happy!" ... My favourite line when taking pictures.



The Canadians behind a tree.



My Swedish friends. I love Swedes.



Timo!



Liza and Caleb. "Pretend your dating." That always works when you need a picture of two people who happen to be a girl and guy who don't really know each other.



My new booktable friend Ray.

VIDEO (now with sound). On the "fun night" we had at the conference, we Canadians decided to give the audience a "break." It started out with me sitting cross-legged on the stage, with quiet, relaxing music playing, and a slideshow of Canadian wilderness scenes showing on the big screen. The quiet music then turned into techno music, the whole mood changed - and everyone jumped to begin dancing (a much-needed *real* break in the middle of a long program). I then hosted a dance competition and forced some of the leaders on stage. Everyone had fun. Here is a short video of the guy who won: David (also featured in some of the pictures above). That's me in the red hat. Click here to see the low-bandwith, no-sound version of this video; or here to see the high-bandwidth (13MB) sound version. Enjoy!



David and Ruben say goodbye the morning I left. They don't seem too happy. Either that or they weren't ready for the picture.

Additional photos:
-My team playing a water-bucket-over-the-head game on a games afternoon.
-George makes me have an "exercise regime." One way I excercised in Holland was by swimming in the river. I later found out that it usually makes people sick to swim in it. (Amazingly, though, I haven't gotten sick yet.)
-Don't remember this picture being taken...

There you have it, folks: I am caught up on my picture uploading.