At about 3:30am in Virginia, I was getting off of an 8-hour
flight in Amsterdam! WE MADE IT! The whole flight, we would turn to each other
and ask “Is this real life?!” Are we
really moving to the Netherlands?! Are
we really working for Cru?! But
really…IS THIS REAL LIFE?! It had to
be! We were actually on a plane MOVING
to a whole new country that 3 of the 4 of us had never been to! We aren’t just students involved or student
leaders with Cru. This is our JOB now. And the significance of our job LITERALLY has
an eternal consequence! On top of that,
we can be part of starting a student-led and life-changing movement at Tilburg
University! There is not much more
significant in my book! And it’s SO
humbling! I even got my first experience
sharing my faith with a Dutch woman while on the plane! We had a spiritual conversation that was
quite interesting! She shared what she
believed—basically that truth is relative and she believes that there is some
type of God or higher power out there, but she’s not totally sure who or what
that is. I had heard that this was
common in Western Europe and especially in the Netherlands, but it was very
different to experience it firsthand. I
had the opportunity to share the Gospel, share a little of my testimony, and
talk about other spiritual things. I
didn’t necessarily see any real fruit from the conversation, but it was a great
starting experience for me, I think. It
kind of prepared me for what I think will be a common experience on
campus.
After the flight, we had no trouble getting through
Netherlands (NL) Customs! And by the
Grace of God alone, all 8 of our bags made it in one piece, most excitedly The
Duffel! Heiko and Agnes, Netherlands
nationals and our team leaders, met us at the airport, along with Maarten, the
new NL National Campus Director. We
lugged all of our bags to the trailer Heiko had rented, and hopped in the cars
to drive an hour and a half south to Tilburg, our city of residence and
work. We were all pretty jetlagged, but
I enjoyed getting to listen to Shelby and Maarten talk about the NL and practice/teach
Dutch. I had 7 hours of sleep in 2
nights, so my mental capacity was at a bare minimum! But I managed to remember the 4 Dutch phrases
Shelby had taught me the day before in the airport: “Hello”, “What is your
name?”, “My name is Alyson”, and “Goodbye”.
We got to Heiko and Agnes’ house, had lunch (bread topped with butter,
Nutella, or peanut butter, and Hagelslag (or to the Americans, basically
sprinkles)), and nearly fell asleep! We
then got to go to the girls’ apartment and drop our bags! Heiko and Agnes did SO much to prepare the
apartment for us: setting up and making beds for each of us, getting some free
furniture and dishes from people that donated things, and so much more! They are SO great to us!
After settling who got which rooms (nobody wanted the
biggest so I took it!), Heiko, Steve, Shelby, Molly, and I walked to the bus
stop to go to the TOP Markt, one event of the welcome week for first-year
students where the student organizations set up booths to advertise. As we rode the bus and walked around, the
four of us were exhausted and overwhelmed by the university culture. It really isn’t any different from the US,
but was especially crazy to us for a few reasons: 1) We’re running off of ~8
hours of sleep or less (for me, much less), 2) We’re super jetlagged, 3)
EVERYONE is speaking Dutch, 4) We can’t read anything because we can’t read
Dutch, and 5) There were swarms of students around us, mainly first-years! But in the middle of it all, I turned to
Steve and said, “Isn’t it cool and weird to think that each of these students
we pass could be one that we eventually have a spiritual conversation
with?” After meeting a few of the
student leaders of the various Christian organizations, Heiko took us home for
brief naps so that we could last till actual bedtime to try to shorten our time
adjustment period! We all took great
naps, returned to Heiko and Agnes’ house for dinner, used their internet to let
people know we had arrived, and then went back to the girls’ apartment to meet
with our landlord to sign papers and receive all our keys. We were officially living in the
Netherlands! All night, we kept saying
how surreal it all is! Can this be REAL
LIFE?! It kind of just felt like a
vacation trip, that it wasn’t what it really is! But as we finished day 2, settling into our
apartment and watching part of a movie on my laptop, it became slightly more
clear. We live in the Netherlands. We work for Cru. This IS real life!
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