Track of Nomads (Niels & Eline)

Track of Nomads 

We introduce... 'Track of Nomads'!
This year we are following the steps that Niels & Eline (with their camper @rollingbarry) are going to take. From May to October of this year, they will travel with a group and we will be allowed to 'tour' with them online and in the next edition of the (F)Luistermagazine (November 2024). While they are currently still working hard to make their future living space 'ready to go', Niels and Eline take us through what they will do in the coming years.
six months.

'Track of Nomads' is the name for the traveling collective, which consists of three couples and two boys who all live in a camper. Everyone is creative and musical and has the dream or desire in their heart to travel through European cities with a caravan of motorhomes. Along the way, they want to share the Gospel by means of a music theater performance and thus reach young people who would otherwise never enter a church themselves.

They will do this in collaboration with the organization @steigerinternational, whose vision and mission is to be present in a city, get to know young people there and then take them into discipleship. And that, Niels and Eline say, 'is something that also suits us and has come back several times in prophecies we have received; that we can be pillars, a safe place for people. Actually, that is something that doesn't seem to fit with the tour we are going to do, because we will go to different cities, without staying there for long. But we believe that what we are allowed to experience during this tour, we can take with us in what we are allowed to do afterwards.'

Although the traveling part of the adventure has yet to start, the real adventure has started much earlier. Because how God spoke to Niels and Eline, to join this 'Track of Nomads', has also been quite a journey with ups and downs.

Niels and Eline were both raised Christian. Both have come to know God in a personal way in the Primary ministry of their church. Although for Eline, during her studies, there was also a time of searching. When at the end of the study her desire to get to know God in a deeper way grew, this was also the beginning of her relationship with Niels. They had been studying together for a number of years and spent a lot of time together during that time, but it wasn't until the end of the study that they really got together. Without literally hearing God's voice about it, there was a moment when they both suddenly realized; 'This is just right.' "After we got married, when we had been on our church's music teams for some time, there came a time when we both felt that something was missing. We did play the shifts, but actually felt that we had to stop.

There was a lot going on in the municipality and in that period we had just moved, so we rigorously made the decision to stop all music teams and look for another municipality. We said to each other that we really wanted to be 'bored' for a year, to get back into peace and quiet and
discover what we were called for.

Also in our work – we both worked in education – we asked ourselves: 'Is this it now?' Eline therefore challenged Niels; 'Write down a number of things that should be part of what you are looking for in a job'. That list included that Niels 'wanted to be creative and meaningful to people, organize creative projects or presentations, work with a permanent team in a changing environment, and be in contact with people'. The following Sunday, a couple from our church spoke about their ministry at Steiger. During their story I could actually tick all the items off my list, so I thought:  'I want this!' We then had a number of conversations with each other and found out that they had a dream of a music theater performance. When they described their idea of the performance, Eline heard a literal description of the theater performance she had conceived and written for her graduation, but had never been able to perform due to COVID. All those things fell into place now.

This was followed by a whole process and Eline quit her job. Niels would also quit his job, until it turned out that Eline was pregnant. Then we were completely confused. It actually felt like we were 'back to square one'. After a few weeks we came to the realization: 'If God calls us for this, He does not do this without intention.' But in our area there were so many who would not make it if we went through with our plans. We then started talking to someone, who eventually stopped us with the question: '"But what did God say to you before you knew you were pregnant?" And that answer was clear; that we had to quit our jobs...

In the time before we found out that Eline was pregnant, we had really experienced that our desire to go was growing and our prayer was always: 'If you don't want us to take this step, will you close the door?' That was around quitting our jobs, but also with selling our home.

We had put our house up for sale and although it was actually under water, after a while of 'not hearing anything' (and a lot of tears) we suddenly received a message from a former fellow student, who made an offer that was above the asking price. That was great! He could also move in immediately, but that meant that we no longer had a place to live ourselves. A new challenge. Because we had something in reserve, we decided to start drawing and on the evening of the signing we heard that we could go to the place we had prayed for very much; the place where we live now, a kind of community, which also works together with Steiger. In that we really saw Gods hand.

Niels: 'I think that in this way we have always experienced God's voice; That we felt peace at times when it was actually strange that you felt peace.'
Eline: 'Previously, I believed that you could only hear God's voice if you literally heard a voice from heaven telling you which way to go. Then we were silent in prayer and kept listening until we heard something. And we still do, in the sense that we are in conversation with God, but we also discovered that there are many more different ways in which God speaks. We have also received prophecies. We never consciously look for those moments, but the times we received a prophecy it was often a confirmation of something we had already prayed for before, a kind of answer.

What I would like to say to others is that you can challenge God. We have prayed regularly; 'If you want us to do this, then we need something for that too.' In the beginning it felt brutal, but you also challenge yourself with that, because... dare to ask God! And what I have also learned is to be open to the fact that God can also work through other people or situations, instead of just speaking with words.'

Niels adds: 'If you think God has spoken, do something with it!' Of course you have to test it against the Bible, but don't wait until you know for sure whether something comes from God, because sometimes you only find out when you start doing it.'

And how Niels and Eline are going to further flesh and blood this adventure with God, with the entire caravan of 'Track of Nomads', we will hear more about that later in the November 2024 magazine.

Will you join us in praying for a blessed tour?