Trinity Church Eindhoven

Tiff ???  That’s slang for an argument isn’t it? 

Well, not always… In this case, TIFF is group of people.  TIFF stands for Trinity International Fun Fellowship.  We’re a mixture of young professionals, older students and anyone who would like to join in basically. In the end it’s a welcoming group of friends, foreigners in a strange country, so we also remember how good it is to be welcomed.  

Most of us come along often to Trinity Church, but that’s far from a rule and we don’t stop anyone from joining in with all or some of the TIFF activities. We speak English as our common language, as we come from all over the world, although at the moment the majority of us are from Europe and Asia.

Aims of TIFF 

TIFF has two main aims:

• One is to provide friendship and Christian fellowship, the joys of being with good-hearted people and light-hearted fun. 
• The other aim is to help us grow and develop a relationship with our creator, an exciting and interesting spiritual journey.

What’s meant by Christian fellowship? 

The most obvious thing of this is that we do social activities at weekends, to which anyone is welcome.  Weekends are when most major events happen, mainly because actually some of us come from other towns in the Netherlands, so weekends help for the travel arrangements.  

What do we do, for social activities? 

Our ladyfriend aged 91 joins us occasionally, but most of the activities are more suited to those under the age of 30.  This is TIFF’s 6th year of existence, and nothing ever happens the same, but as a sample of our activities — we could mention parties and meals at each other’s homes, cycling trips, learning to play golf in a field of cows, going to the cinema, enjoying a drink in bars in the city centre, lasergaming on Stratumseind. 

But there’s more...Fellowship also goes deeper, as we do what good friends do - helping out, rejoicing and suffering together like a miniature global community.  Of course the same counts for other friends and friends of friends and so on, but because of the community and the faith many of us are seeking brings us even closer to our fellow human beings.

On the 2nd and 4th Sundays of every month in the afternoon we have a GRO (God Reaches Out) meeting, which starts with social (and eating), and continues in not much more serious mood with looking into the Bible and prayer - in a good and natural way letting God do in us what social things alone can’t do.  In the discussions, some people may have a lot of experience and knowledge of the Christian faith, others have all kinds of questions, all of us have something to learn about God and about life.  We discover Jesus in the middle of so much of life, and we get something interesting out it every time. 

In 2004 the original GRO meetings divided into two groups, mainly because we couldn’t fit into the same house, there were too many of us.  So now there are two groups, named “THE Tiff” (rivalry? no, never!  and 7:7, (which stands for something, only most people can’t remember exactly what). 

Another ongoing thing is our own active MSN web-group, where all the latest social happenings and plannings come together, and sometimes interesting discussions are put up which we learn from and deepen our faith.

Last, but not least, we mustn’t forget the holidays!  Weekend trips like to the Ardennes, Paris, other cities.  Longer trips like sailing in Poland, all kinds of varied and enjoyable excursions, with excellent company.  And that’s just the trips that everyone joins in.  Other holidays of just a few friends going together are too numerous to count.  All are welcome for a fun affordable holiday.