Keeping track of Matt Walter: Matt Walter

Hey All,

Happy New Year to everyone and I wish you all the best for 2009.

Hope you are all safe and well! I look forward to seeing many of you at Jess and Isaacs wedding in a few weeks.

I have put 2 videos of the "NEW YEARS DIVE" that I did on the 1st of January. Every year many dutch brave teh freezing cold conditions to jump into the freeze cold ocean. This year I joined them and represented the Aussies in the New Years Dive ... Check out the 2 videos I uploaded below. Stay tuned for more new years videos on the way shortly.

Cheers

Matt

P.S. Those of you who are reading this by email you actually need to click the link "Keeping track of Matt Walter" at the bottom of this email to view the videos and the blog. ;)

Hello Everybody,

Well ... As some of you know I am currently staying/living in Holland!! 6 Months ago I decided to see the world outside of Australia since I am young, single and free of major responsibilities. And so began the pilgrimage ... On July 19th 2008 Bevan, Mel and myself flew out of Australia to the Netherlands (via Tokyo Japan) to "see the world".

Since that time I've seen and done so much! The first 2 weeks of my time in Europe I spent staying with the Post family (family of a flatmate from bible college). They really looked after us and showed us the sights of Holland. We've seen everything from the beautiful windmills and open green paddocks to the dark dingy redlight district in Amsterdam (commonly refered to as sin city).

After two amazing weeks in Holland we set up on a 3 week racing tour of some of western europe in an amazing large camper van. The 3 weeks was so over whelming we saw Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg and Belgium. I still can't believe that I've been to all those countries but I have the photos, videos and memories to prove it.

After the 3 week tour we made our way back "home" to the Post's family. They once again showed us such love and generosity by caring and providing for us in every possible way. After a few days rest Bevan and Mel set off on their 3 week journey via Belgium and France to the UK. Meanwhile it was time for me to start looking for work and organise to stay 12 months in Holland.

It was amazing how God provided, the doors opened up for me to work with Matthijs Post (the brother of my flatmate Laurens). Matthijs owns/started a landscaping company a few months ago and needs help. So from Semptember 2008 I have officially become an "Hovenier" (Gardener/Landscaper in English). It's definately a change to fixing comptuers but I am enjoying being a bit more physical.

At present I am living with the Post family in Delft but in a few weeks will be moving out with Laurens to Naaldwijk (about 30 mins from Delft). I am looking forward to reliving the bible college days with Laurens and really getting into "life" in Holland. I am currently searching for a cheap/reliable little car and a job that will cover the cost of living independently.

Wow ... There is so much else to tell but I think I will save some things for the coming blogs. I must apologise for being so quiet since being over here. I had previously attempted to do some blogs on my website www.sanctumonline.com.au (which you can check out) but found it too difficult to capture it all in detail (i would still be writing).

I will attach a few pictures to the end of this blog to hopefully give you a snippet of some of the things I've seen and done.

I hope this blog finds you all well ...

Doei Doei (Bye Bye)

Matt Walter