SERMON 28/05/2006 MP3

Hola amigos:

Desde esta semana, mi Iglesia está grabando los sermones en MP3 y los tendremos disponibles en el sitio de la Congre. El primer intento lo hicimos el domingo pasado, cuando me tocó compartir el mensaje "Sabios como serpientes, inofensivos como palomas". Así que gracias a la tecnología moderna, pueden escuchar mi prédica que es en inglés con traducción al holandés, bajándola del sitio de mi Iglesia. Por si acaso, los primeros 3 minutos son solamente en holandés, pero luego cambiamos a inglés.

Chers amis,

Depuis ce dimanche, mon église est en train d'enregistrer les sermons en format MP3. Ils sont donc disponibles dans notre website. Notre première expérience était celle du dimanche passé, quand j'ai partagé le message "Sages comme des serpents, inoffensifs comme des colombes". Les premiers 3 minutes sont en Néerlandais et puis j'ai continué en Anglais.

Dear friends,

Since Sunday, my church is registering the preachings in MP3 format. They will be available via our website. Our first experiment was last sunday's teaching "Wise as serpents, harmless as doves", that you can download. Warning: the first three minutes are in Dutch, but then follows the message in English.

Armandoke

Andy Comiskey

As reported in my previous post, the last weekend I went to the Living Waters European Leaders Conference. One of the guest speakers was Andy Comiskey, the founder of Desert Stream Ministries, and the mind behind all the Living Waters programmes. Of course, I wanted to shake his hand at least once, and actually I did it twice :-) I have to say that it was a special moment for me, because finally I met the man who's work and ministry have blessed so much my life. I asked his permission to make a picture of both and publish it on this blog. I mean, isn't it what normal people do when they meet someone especial? So, in te picture one can see the famous one, with me at his side :-)
Andy Comiskey is simply distillating God's love. Thanks man for your ministry and example!
Armando

Living Waters weekend

A lovely place to spend an extended weekend is La Foresta litterally an oase of silence in a green environment. This is an old abbey close to Leuven, that is now also used to host conferences and other Christian activities. This time it hosted the Living Waters European Leaders Conference. It was a very good opportunity to meet new people, like Susana and Enrique from the Spanish team (see picture). As usual, having the common "mother tongue", we could learn to know each other, what are we doing or not in ministry, the challenges we face in actual circumstances; we could pray for each other ... of course and I have to say that receiving prayer in your own language during an international conference is very nice.
But also very good "old friends" (and beloved friends) like Michel and Christine were there as well. I felt a divine privilege to have this time together. You did a very good job organising the conference, and all the logistics worked perfectly. I think all went well, despite the "franciscan" concept of food ;-) however, it was a good practice of true "limits". Other friends from other teams were also there, and I have already promised to attend another event later in the year basically to participate from the folk dance at the end of it!

Every day in the morning and the evening sessions we had the Country Presentations, followed by teaching. I believe that all were encouraged by each of the speakers. The afternoons were devoted to workshops dealing with the implementation of the Living Waters programmes in countries or churches. If you ever think of this ministry, pray for it.

OH LINDA LA PAZ

The following pictures show the city of La Paz, Bolivia, where I was born. It has been built in a valley between the high Andes mountains. The city has been growing steadily, so houses and buildings are overall. The valley however keeps the shape of the city.



The Illimani Mountain, with a height of 6439 m, 72 km from the city centre, and with eternal snow, is one of the symbols of the City. I hope this eternal snow wont melt due to global warming. The ancient oral traditions crowned this mount as the king of all the other mountains. The legend tells that when other mount wanted to be higher, the gods cut its neck, forming two other mountains, one without head (at left side) called Mururata and the other the pick that fled hundreds of kilometers with the strenght of the cut, became the Sajama mountain (not visible from La Paz).





Locals are called paceños . Paceños are very friendly and welcoming. Food is always good. Quality of life is good as well.

ARMANDO

Visiting La Paz

Since May 2nd, I am visiting my parents in La Paz. This is a very nice picture of my parents in front of their house in Miraflores. I took it earlier today when we all arrived for lunch. I am definetly enjoying them. Unfortunately, this visit will finalise in one week time.

Armando

Copenhagen II

Blessed man amongst women! Bendito entre todas las mujeres! I have to say that the girls insisted in making a "cultural" picture, showing how they treat and spoil latino men. This is the family picture, after our meal "en español" the last day of the Conference.

Well, after the Conference, I did some sightseeing with the Spanish speaking colleagues. Here a typical tourist picture in front of a fountain in Amagertorv. The city centre is beautiful and lively, even late at night. Most of the attractions are within walking distance. It was a nice experience indeed, and am already looking forward to visit Copenhagen again.

Copenhagen and the 6th ICDAM

April’s last weekend was hectic. Friday (28th) morning I went to Copenhagen to attend the Sixth International Conference on Dietary Assessment Methods, where I had one oral presentation and a poster presentation (thanks Michel for hosting me in Brussels, and the lift to the Airport so early in the morning).

The Conference itself was vivid, with lots of new developments, e.g. measuring physical activity using GPS. Each 10 min presentation had to be “to the point”, and normally enough time was allowed for questions and answers. This organisational feature made the conference to be full of life and kept the interest of the audience, because longer talks tend to be boring. For measuring food intake, advantages and limitations of each tool were explored by many speakers. Nothing really new, except from the context-specific validation studies. The mathematical methods discussed in the statistics course were very sophisticated.

It was also a good occasion to meet some colleagues like Michelle Holdsworth (TAHINA, France), Saba Benjelloun (Marocco), Gabriela Montenegro (Guatemala), Nadia Slimani (EPIC, France) and Inge Huybrechts (BE). A Belgian colleague and friend Christophe Matthys (BE) commented that it is funny that living in the same city, we only meet in this kind of conferences outside Belgium.

It was also a good opportunity to meet new people, like Roxana Valdes-Ramos (Mexico), Jennifer Bernal (Venezuela), Marie Louise and Iris (The Netherlands), Leyla Nunez (Chile) and the promising scientist Xochitl Ponce (Mexico). Of course, Spanish became our common characteristic (since both Dutch ladies speak fluently Spanish), and we became naturally a group within the meeting. I have to say that I was blessed amongst all these beautiful women. I hope that all the plans for future collaboration may come to realisation.

Well, my conference went well. Probably it was too clear, or people were so tired, that no questions were raised. For such cases, the moderators should be more prepared and make at least one question as rule of politness. But again, competing with the lunch time is not easy. The poster session went well all the copies fled, and had some good conversations.

Little time was left for sightseeing … but at least I saw the Rathaus (municipality) and the mermaid … and above all, enjoyed the company of all the girls!

Two tips: 1. for accommodation the Cab Inn Scandinavia offers you the minimum requirements for a short stay: bed, toilet & shower room, TV in a very well organised little space. Their motto: Sleep cheap in luxury. Prices are affordable. Apparently there are cheaper accommodations but the locations are not as convenient. 2. If you want to eat good and not so expensive, visit Pia at Café Latte (Godsthabsvej 10, telf 38888506 opens till 23 hrs in weekdays and 18hrs in weekends). They are very friendly with visitors, and food is very well served.

I have to say that all Danes I’ve met are friendly and helpful. Very nice people.