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