It's all Greek to me, or Dutch.... or Hmmmm

Matt is learning Greek (a full years worth in 8 weeks), the ladies are working on Dutch and we are all learning a new land!! 

Except for a few days last week when we rented a car (thus the cool pictures), we are being home bodies, or "dorm" bodies and enjoying the new friends, who are really family as brothers and sisters in Christ! Matt's classmates hail from Ghana, China, Ethiopia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Holland, Serbia, India, etc. It has been such an encouragement and people are very warm to our girls too. We're seeing some positive things already as they are feeling more settled.

Another reason we are staying home is kind of a taste of being a foreigner in a "highly developed" country! The public transport is really expensive unless you get these special cards, and you can't get the special cards unless you get bank account, and you can't get a bank account until you get a special number from the municipality, and you can't get the special number from the municipality until you have your visa.... sigh!! Actually, we got the bank account today using our Social Security numbers after about 5 attempts, but then we can't use it until we have a phone number, and we can't get a phone number until we have a SIM card, and they were all out of SIM cards when Matt tried in town.

You would think I would be frustrated, and alas, I would be except for three things that God provided.

1)Before leaving the States I had a lovely conversation with a woman who had lived here for a year and she loved it. She had said, "if you can get through the bureaucracy of getting established, you will love it!" Words of wisdom!!

2) I stumbled upon the audio book while looking at the Tiskilwa online library system, "Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World", and am loving it! It's slowing me down and helping me think that this is my chance to be still and listen to God too!

3) They people at Tyndale are WONDERFUL and I am so blessed and invigorated by the conversations here that I don't mind that I literally have not left our little suburb and have yet to actually see Amsterdam. All in due time!

Much love to you all...

Except for a few days last week when we rented a car (thus the cool pictures), we are being home bodies, or "dorm