Atlantic Bridge

19/09/2023

23/10/2022

A change of pace and a different bridge. Our last regular communication on this page was after the tour of Steve and Ainsley Apirana back in 2019. Well, they are coming back in summer 2023, but first we focus on Bridges Over the Schelde, a project between Antwerp and the Southwestern part of the Netherlands. More about this bridge will soon follow.

06/09/2022

An old photo from our pages of history becomes the beginning of the promotion for a new International Youth Festival in July 2023. Stay tune for more information. Does anyone remember this photo and in which year it was taken? Were you there?

15/12/2020

Support Atlantic Bridge: 'Join the Gideon Gang!' Donate €7 per month and become a 'Gideon Gang Member'

Join the Gideon Gang! Atlantic Bridge needs support to continue the mission of finding, training, sending out and supporting young people to become BridgeBuilders. Will you support John and Tonn as they train young BridgeBuilders to cross cultures, language and religious divides?

11/12/2020

These have been some the activities we have done this last month. Intercultural Training, Story-telling workshop, enjoying Austalian meat pies for lunch, ringing home to get an authentic Golash recipe, days out to Vlissingen and much more..

08/12/2020

We are nearing the end for our 2020 volunteer team at the Vierslag, in Kruiningen. We have had a great time together and made the most of our free time visiting local spots. This is a shot with the sun setting over Zeeland. Over the coming week we will share with you our highlights of our time at Atlantic Bridge.

08/11/2018

Here is Tine, sharing some of her experiences and pictures from our time in Croatia and Slovenia, and looking to the future!

Roughly one week ago, we left Hungary to travel through Croatia and Slovenia, giving concerts in schools and churches. I won so many new impressions in just one week that it feels more like one month.
In Croatia, we all fell in love with the language! It was a great time to enjoy the worship songs and get to know wonderful, welcoming and funny people! Furthermore, we lived together on a cow farm those days. Filip, who organized this accommodation for us, also invited us for a concert of his band. So we discovered the city of Zagreb and really enjoyed his gig in the evening. Maybe on this evening I also experienced the strongest culture difference on the tour so far, because there were also some other gigs of croatian stand-up comedians. It is very strange to listen to them when everyone around you is laughing and you don't even understand one word. The days off in Hodos, Slovenia, we used to rest a little bit. Besides the awesome trip to Lake Bled I also enjoyed a more relaxing time with the group. Right now I am excited about the days in the Czech Republic as I am going to move here after the tour!

-Tine Look

24/10/2018

Here is a look into our time in Croatia and Slovenia, written by Steve and Ainsley!

Cakovec 19.10.18

It’s our first time in Croatia and we would love to be doing the tourist thing and visit all the amazing places to be found here but we are tired. We are looking forward to staying put – spending time in close proximity to our accommodation for a day or two without early rises and late nights. This morning we did four concerts at the Srednja Skola Cakovec which is a wonderful christian school started by the father of our host – Filip Horvat – who is also the owner of the farm where we are staying. We feel like kings in this accommodation here. We have a room with its own en-suite, we have the use of a laundry and kitchen so we can make our own breakfast and wash our clothes – just some of the pleasures of life on the road. The young people at the school really enjoyed our presentations and were very friendly and responsive. They had no trouble understanding our English. The classes were short and there was not a lot of time to connect with them afterwards but I think it was an excellent first contact for building a bridge to Croatia. Filip and his wife Petra are really keen to see things happen in the future so in spite of the smaller response from the school in terms of numbers I think the potential is there.

We played at two church services. One in Varazdin and the other In Cakovec. There were not many youth in either service – mostly families with young children. We used a translator both times and were very well received. We enjoyed lunch and fellowship in the homes of pastor Damir and Bojiste Horvat and their son Dorian and his wife before we had to tear ourselves away to make it in time for our next appointment in Murska Sobota, Slovenia. We enjoyed our time with the people of Cakovec and hope to come back again one day.

Murska Sobota 23.10.18

This morning we had to break into our long awaited two days off, but I have to say, it was well worth it. Leon Novak had asked if we wanted to sing a couple of songs to a group of fifty children from an elementary school in a nearby village called Maribor. It meant an early start and cut into our day off but their smiling faces and keen attentiveness made up for every bit of annoyance we might otherwise have felt. The highlight, for Steve and I, was seeing Ian demonstrate his sword fighting moves with Tine as his opposition (by special request from Leon and David). The HAKA went down really well with the children, who responded joyously and enthusiastically. With six children in the line-up with Steve it was a great show. We then watched in wonder as David spoke to them for half an hour about the history and ways of the Lutheran church. There was not a sound from them throughout the talk and afterwards the questions came flooding in. In spite of our not being able to understand any of it, it was a joy to watch their eagerness. All in all It was a morning to be remembered.

20/10/2018

Tomorrow evening we will perform at the Murska Sobata Lutheran Church, come check us out at 16:00!

Murska Sobota Lutheran church Slovenska 15

18/10/2018

Here is our article from Papa, Hungary!

Steve and Ainsley:

Dinner with the Apostol family was a delightful introduction to Papa. Maria, Paolo and Kata are a lovely family and had our time in Papa well organised with all our needs well catered for. It was a busy performance schedule with four concerts in the school and church in the morning and a final performance in the dormitory in the evening to all the boarding students. The final concert was the highlight as, in spite of having already seen us in the classes, the students were more enthusiastic that they were during the day. The icing on the cake was a performance in song and dance by a very talented group of students, specially prepared as a treat for us.

This thriving christian community is enthusiastic and inspired to connect with other cultures and the work of Atlantic Bridge. Staff and students of the school and seminary enjoyed our presentations and would welcome us back at any time. We are hopeful of an online bridge builders community group being started as a result of our time here.

Ian:

Papa is one of the centers of reformed faith in Transdanubia,as the existence of numerous ecclesiastical heritage and museums suggest. A reformed school has operated since as early as 1531, and it was later expanded with a faculty of theology.

The reformed college has a tumultuous history, and an interesting snapshot would be the temporary Adventional Exile of the faculty. In 1752 the papal church lost its free religious practice, and the famed college out of town could only operate as an alchemy under Adásztély II. Joseph’s penalty order. However, the decree of 1781 was validated only after two years, so the College could not return to Papa until 1783, where a Mullberry tree had grown in the courtyard. Today, the symbol of the school is a tree fashioned after the original.

Tine:

The stay in papa was an encouraging time. On Tuesday morning, we created four lessons and all students seemed to enjoy their time. They loved doing the Haka! I have been surprised by their interest even on the evening program. It was a long day for the students but they were still excited about the music program. That day we got a great result of BB flyers filled in by students who are interested in getting some more information about AB. It is also always fun to have a little free time between the program to discover the city. Pápa is a beautiful place, the people are nice, the food very good! This morning (17/10) we had a great opportunity to share our vision in front of theology students. We also told them that we are looking for a leader in this area to keep the interested students in contact. Let's see how God works!

16/10/2018

Hello everyone! The 2018 Bridgebuilders Tour is officially underway, with our team just wrapping up two days in Mosonmagyarovar, Hungary. After every place we visit we will post an article here on our page; everyone will be writing a different part, Steve and Ainsley will write about their overview of the impact we had, Ian the history of the area, Tine her personal view on the time, and Kincsö with a look into the eyes of an EVSer on this tour. You can also follow along on our Instagram for more!

Mosonmagyarovar

Steve and Ainsley:

It is wonderful to be back in Hungary, to reconnect with old friends and to be part of this small but very much alive strong and vibrant bridge builder community again. The concert last night was to a small but warm audience in the community centre where we played a few years ago. The school was exciting with so many of the young people interested in meeting people from other cultures and in taking part in cultural exchanges. The head mistress of the school, keen to encourage the students of her school to get involved, asked to meet with us at the end of our three classes. She was previously a German teacher and the school already organises exchanges with Germany around the language classes. She was very keen to learn more about Atlantic Bridge. With Barbara and Balint already running a bridge builders club of about ten students the town of Mosonmagyarova would thrive on added input from Atlantic Bridge.

The schools program is taking shape with each of us finding our roles. Kinsco has been very much “at home” in Hungary and enjoying speaking her language and being amongst her own people. She has also been translating for us when necessary. The students responded really well to the concert program and enjoyed Kinsco’s presentation of the bridge builders program and especially liked Steve’s HAKA. Tine is finding her place in the team with ease and her German has already proved useful on many occasions.
At Balint’s restaurant, after enjoying delicious Hungarian food we sang some songs for the staff and patrons and then each of us sang a song from our own country. Our aim is to learn these songs as a group.

Ian:

Mosonmagyaróvár used to be two towns, Moson, and Magyaróvár, although they have been unified since 1939. Throughout history, the area crossed hands from early German barbarians, Roman rule, Hunnic invasion, Crusades of the Holy Roman Empire, to its current Hungarian ownership. Magyaróvár literally translated, means “ancient Hungarian castle.” The Magyar prefix was added to avoid confusion with a similarly named town in Austria, Németóvár, which means “ancient German castle.”

To this day there are still remnants of the old Roman fortress, defined areas where previous fortifications once lay, and there is the current castle which was built in 1683. However both the castle and the towns were utterly destroyed by the Turkish army, the entire area razed by fire. Reconstruction was swift, and the castle now displays an accurate image of late 17th century architecture.

Tine:

I never have been a musician, but all my life I was surrounded by musicians, even my best friend is crazy about music. So what is the mystery behind a music Tour? It connects people from all around the World, just as Sport and Art do. It builds bridges. I Wanna let you to know this: a few month ago I Was worring about joining Mission tours because I thought I have to be very good in a specific Thing. I Either have to be a great musician, a Professionnel sportsgirl or an entertainer or at least I need to speak the language of the Team perfectly. This thinking is self-centered. What I experience on this music Tour is that life is an experience and it is much more fun if you experience it with other people and it is much more interesting if you get to know people from other cultures with other life-experiences and you learn much more about yourself if every day is an adventure. Sometimes our worries take us away from doing something unique, but being unique just means being authentic.

The 2018 Bridgebuilders Tour Team: Steve, Ainsley, Tine, Ian, Kincsö