Where oh where Wednesday: Afsluitdijk

The ideas were there from the 17th century. What if the Zuiderzee was laid dry (partially) in order to win land? This was not a strange thought for the Dutch who had already won quite a bit of their land fro the sea. Amsterdam is partially built on land taken from the sea. The airport everyone uses to access THE NETHERLANDS is Schiphol, which literally means the hollow for the ships. But what would it take to dry out the Zuiderzee? 

Concrete plans started to be made at the end of the 19th century. Engineer Cornelis Lely especially had ideas for making it all possible. In 1913 he was the minister of water works and he suggested and had plans to make a polder of the sea, winning valuable land that was needed for the country to expand. But his plans weren’t heard until the First World War and after flooding in 1916 and a famine in 1918. 

The work began on shutting off the sea, protecting the land that was already there and making it possible to create new polders. The works began in 1920 and were finally finished in 1932. A dike, with a road atop it, had been built to stop the sea. Even today, this is the only road in The Netherlands where the speed limit is officially 130 kilometers per hour. 

In the past 90 some years that the dike was built, the polders have emerged. Lelystad (named after the engineer) is the main city rising from the polder. The sea has turned into the IJsselmeer. Tourists can drive across the dike from one tip of North Holland to Friesland on the other side. During the 2nd World War, the battle for this dike was the only defeat that the Germans saw in regard to the Dutch (when they bombed Rotterdam, the Dutch capitulated). 

The dike is 32 kilometers long and 90 meters wide. There have been regular times of maintenance and most recently the dike has had to be strengthened. In 2006 a Formula 1 driver (Robert Doornbos) reached 326 km per hour on a section of the dike which was closed off temporarily for this purpose. We have only ever crossed it by train. 

Taxes

Nobody wants to pay them, but they are a part of everyday life. Jesus told Peter that it was normal to pay and the Bible makes clear that we should pay our taxes. But what do you do when things get a bit complicated? We have lived for the last 30 plus years in Belgium, working in the Netherlands and receiving a good bit of our support from the United States. So which taxes do we pay? All of them. 

We have always paid income tax and social security I the US. We also pay social security in Belgium. But it has been a real blessing all these years to have brothers and sisters who have helped us with our taxes in the US. E.B. Dotson did our taxes (and others) as a service for missions (now the office of Larry McElroy). And what a service this is. It is amazing to have these worries taken from your shoulders, not having to worry about figuring out how things work - because it is confusing. 

You see, we live in Belgium, but receive a part of our funds from the US. Anyone who has lived outside of the US knows about the various forms that have to be filled in (FATCA, FBAR and such). Knowing that your taxes are in good hands, of brothers and sisters who are putting their talents to this service, is extremely comforting. So we are very thankful. 

This is especially important now. This past year the Belgian tax office decided that things have not been as they think it should be. They are only allowed to go back 5 years, so they went back to 2022 and looked at our taxes in Belgium. Their conclusion is that we should have been paying income tax in Belgium, not in the US. This influences how much social security we pay in Belgium as well. 

So now we are looking at back taxes in Belgium, back payments for social security, and continuing to try to figure out our social security status in the US. This can be worrisome or frustrating, but in the end we know that things will work out. Our God knows what we can handle and knows what is going on. That doesn’t mean that it will not happen. It means that He will give us strength to deal with it. 

Thankfully we do not have to worry about anything more than VAT (Value Added Tax) in the Netherlands. And we all have to deal with that in some sense. And as oil prices (gasoline, diesel - which is what we use in our car, gas for our heating) rise exorbitantly, we know that although this may be difficult, we will be able to deal with it somehow. God trusts us to be able to handle what he allows in our lives - with His strength. 

Whensday: 1902 - Korfbal

March in the USA brings March Madness - colleges vying for a title in the team sport of basketball. Basketball was invented in 1891 by gym teacher James Naismith. About 10 years later a gym teacher in Amsterdam invented “korfbal” which translated is “basket ball”. This game was based on the Swedish game for women, but Nico Broekhuysen made it a team sport for both sexes. 

Korfbal, as a matter of fact, is one of the only team sports for both men and women together. Like basketball it can be played outside or inside and there is an outside season and inside season. And like basketball, the goal is to put as many points on the scoreboard by putting the ball through the basket (“korf”). 

In korfbal, the basket is on a tall pole (3.5 meters or about 11.5 feet) and has no backboard. The players, both men and women are on the field at the same time, may not walk with the ball. They also may not dribble. The player can take one step and must then pass the ball. This creates a game with a high level of team interaction and low contact. 

The International Korfball Federation was created in 1933 and there are currently 72 national federations. The sport was a demonstration sport at the Olympics of 1920 and 1928. It is not part of the Olympics, but is part of the World Games. Since it is mostly played in Belgium and especially The Netherlands, the World and European champion has always been The Netherlands (although Belgium was world champion in 1991).