Day 9

Prayer:

Psalm 5:7-8

7   But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,

         will enter your house,

    I will bow down toward your holy temple

         in awe of you.

8   Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness

         because of my enemies;

         make your way straight before me.

Devotional:

Hebrews 3:12-19

12Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end.

Journal:

We woke in the wonderful town of Mantgum and were greeted by our host at the B&B and we all had breakfast together. After gathering ourselves for the day, Hinne returned with others in different cars so we all had a ride to the church in Jorwert that is only the next village over. Like in every cluster of houses in the province of Friesland there was a church in the midst of it. The church we were going to was average sized and it had a beautiful bell tower that was rebuilt in the 50s and 60s. Like many churches here, it was a few feet higher than the rest of the town and had a cemetery surrounding it. As we walked into the medieval church, we were greeted by community members and pastors alike. With some recent renovations there was a beautiful glass door in the entrance and new construction of rooms to one side of the church. We gathered in a common fellowship area for tea and coffee until the morning worship gathered.

The people that gather here regularly are a part of a project called Nijkleaster. This is a monastic gathering of folks from many small local villages that are refinding their faith and connection with others and God. Our group was given fair warning by Hinne the pioneering pastor that it would be cold in the church and he was right. When we gathered for worship we left the warm fellowship area and were welcomed in the worship space with friendly faces and a heated cushion for our seats. Worship was at the end of the building opposite of the fellowship and meeting rooms. As we sat in a sort of semicircle for worship, we gathered in the cold space with blankets on our laps and heat on our seats yet it was still quite chilly for the service. We were lucky enough to be in town on the second Wednesday of March in which the people of Friesland give thanks for the harvest and for the land. The worship had psalms and songs, scripture and silence; a wonderful reflection in the stark cool of the day. After the service, we grabbed a hot drink and some folks departed. For those that stayed we gathered after a few minutes, put on our coats and scarves and ventured outside for what the church folks call a pilgrimage.

It had rained all morning until we left for the walk but the wind and the cold persisted as we left the church. The 4-5 mile walk was introduced to us in three parts: silence, reflection and sharing. For the first leg of the journey we hiked along roads and foot paths that meandered through green pastures used for grazing cattle and sheep and we were silent as we enjoyed the wind turbines that powered farms and the birds that seemed to be phased by the wind. We cleared our minds of the troubles that clouded our thinking and conscious as welcomed nature into our thoughts and feelings. When we were a third of the way on the trek, we stopped and Hinne proposed a question from our scripture in the worship that morning. He quoted the morning scripture that talked about God working while we sleep and asked “What was sleep?” So for the next leg of the trip we walked again in silence and thought about what it means for God to grow things in the night while we are asleep. When we got to the halfway mark in the pilgrimage, we were asked to get with another person and retrace our steps back to the church and talk about our reflections that we had during the prior part of the walk. Ashley and I shared our thoughts with one of the local pastors named Jelle who is a part of Nijkleaster. We talked about salvation, mystery, and sleep while the light rain began to rip across the landscape as we made our way back to the church.

After the pilgrimage, we gathered for lunch and shared more with each other gathered there. Our group started the mealtime with a singing of the Doxology. After the meal, we went to another village that was not too far away and went to an early Mennonite church that was built to be hidden so that they could not easily be found. We watched a video on Menno Simons who was the reformer that inspired the Mennonite movement. As Friesland was the home of Simones, there are many statues and remembrances of him in the area and we stopped by a couple that were markers of his life and ministry. After stopping in a town to grab a couple things, we went back to Jorwert and the church to listen to a presentation by Hinne about Nijkleaster and the monastic movement taking place here. With much honesty and intellect, it was made clear that this was an amazing expression of God moving in this place. The project was more than what can be seen in a day as people gather at different times of the week and month for different practices and pastors and others volunteer their time for the project even though they have their own congregations in other villages. With visions of a future project that would be sustainable it all clicked for us as we saw the process in which this community was undergoing in order to be faithful.

The presentation was followed by a marvelous dinner and we all shared in stories and laughter as we reflected on our trip overall and our day’s adventures. When we all were full to the top with grace and food, we parted ways by singing an Irish blessing. When we arrived back at the B&B for the night, I gave homemade soap to the pastors that drove us around that day. With a bittersweet farewell the folks from Nijkleaster left and we headed to bed.

As our day came to an end, our meetings with pioneers and pastors also had ended. By this time in the trip we all had become home-weary and were trying to process all of the information from the various experiences that we encountered in the days prior. But there was a peace about today that was more than we could understand. In the small villages that made up Friesland, the churches were almost empty and religion had left the landscape but there was a gathering of people that knew that God had a purpose and a plan for them in their communities. With all the dairy farms around and quaint villages filled with gorgeous homes, one can’t help but wonder what the future entails for this place. And to think, a monastery is amongst it all with Christians devoted to a life of faithful discernment and service.

(Photo credit: Nijkleaster Jorwert via Facebook)