Picture update!
Almost every time we drive to Church from Olst we pass by the river IJssel. It almost always has a lot of birds around it at this time of the year, as it is a place for birds to migrate to and pass through, and so I decided to head out there with a camera and take some pictures.
This is the church building in Olst. I don’t know if it has a name, but it’s called the PKN church.
And this is the old water tower in Olst, which was converted to an apartment tower. I tried to read the plaque on its side, which was written in Dutch, and it basically said that it was built so that the people could drink water. Well, I can’t really argue with reasoning like that…
After a few kilometers I finally started to see some birds! There were fields full of geese, lots of sea birds like gulls, and here and there were small bunches of black ducks with little white foreheads.
In the middle of it all I noticed a nice look back at our little village of Olst. It was raining later, so I’m glad I took the picture when I did.
Now, this was a surprise… I saw this little trail on the map and I had absolutely no intention of going down it, but as I rode up I stopped to pull out my map and felt that God was telling me to go that was anyways. I am so glad that I did!
The first wonder of the trail was the trees and plants that grew along the road. There were willows growing there that were split clean down the sides and still grew strong, their wood had rotted right out of them but the kept growing nonetheless. There were also trees like our thorn apples in Michigan, but taller and with bright red fruit. There were vines and some sort of cotton wood tree too! I stood there in wonder for a bit as an old man passed, probably wondering why I was taking so many pictures, but we only said hello before going on down the trail.
Next was the swans; I’ve always wanted to get near to swans, but they are very rare to be found back home. I never realized just how white they were before, or how large! They were one of the most beautiful birds that I had ever seen or could imagine to be! I stood longer staring at the swans then the trees before and then I remembered that it was only at God’s leading that I went down this trail anyways! It was wonderful and I praise God for it, I do not know of another way to speak of it; even again my heart remembers it and is joyful beyond words and closer to tears!
Eventually, I did ride on and didn’t find too much more along the road; on the way back, however, I did get a chance to take pictures of something called a Kwak. It was a diving bird and was really hard to get good pictures of!
Along the way I continued and found more birds, sheep, horses, beautiful homes, and cattle. Not just any cattle, but real Highland Cattle that graze along the IJssel when the river is low. I took the picture from the top of a tower and I really didn’t care to get closer.
As a bonus to me, I also found the ruins of an old brick factory and a diagram of how it was built. Now I know how to make bricks in the Indian way and the northern European way!
After this it was mostly a long ride home; I had felt accomplished before needing to ride home, so by the end of that I was quite tired. Still, I got a last couple pictures in and managed to spy out a good pancake house and Chinese-Indonesian restaurant before making it the rest of the way home.
For the record, the food at the Chinese place is pretty good.
Well, I think that’s all the pictures for now! I had meant to wish you a good new year’s eve at the end of this post, but it took to long to get the pictures right and all lined up almost straight. Have a good new years day!
Thank you all for partnering with us!
In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom
The Abiding Kingdom 