Family (travel plans)

Every three years we make a trip back to the US to visit supporting congregations and family in a two-month long journey around the country. This is our “Home Assignment”. Our plans for this Home Assignment 2026, which will cover May and June, are solidified and partially paid. 

We are looking forward to seeing as many of you as we can. If you are in the area of where we will be, please let us know before hand so that we might be able to get together. This will be quite the trip, as usual, so we will not have a lot of wiggle room, but we always want to meet with as many as we can. 

In short, our schedule looks like this: Leave Belgium on April 28, arriving in Texas.Texas (churches) from April 28 - May 4

FLY May 5 to Indianapolis

    Indiana (family and church) from May 5-12

FLY May 13 to Los Angeles

    California (church and family) from May 13-24

FLY May 25 to Minneapolis

    Minnesota (church) from May 25 - June 1

DRIVE LOOP:

DRIVE June 2 to Sioux City, IA

DRIVE June 3 to Spearfish, SD

DRIVE June 5 to Billings, MT

    Montana (family) from June 5-8

DRIVE June 9 to Colorado Springs

    Colorado Springs (family) from June 9-11

DRIVE June 12 to Denver

    Denver (church and family) from June 12-14

DRIVE June 15 to Omaha, NE

    Omaha area (family) from June 15-17

DRIVE June 18 to Muscatine, IA

    Muscatine (church) from June 18-22

DRIVE June 23 to Minneapolis

FLY June 24 to New York City

New York City (family) from June 25-29

FLY June 30 to Brussels, arriving on July 1

(You can see this all visually on the map above)

It is always a challenge to fit the puzzle pieces of family and church together, making sure that we leave Sundays for meeting with church members and connecting in that meaningful way. We also want to meet all of our family members, including our granddaughter in Indiana. 

This is not possible without the help of so many people. Some people will be lending us their car for the time we are in their area. Others will be putting us up and feeding us in their home, sharing their families with us during our stay. Many have given sacrificially so that we can make this trip. Thank you all so much! We look forward to seeing you. 

Where oh where Wednesday: Geleen

We work in Maastricht, the capital of Limburg, the southernmost province of the Netherlands. We also live in Limburg, the easternmost province of Belgium. Last week we drove through Limburg in Germany as well. But today I would like to tell a little bit about another city of Limburg in the Netherlands. 

Although Maastricht is the capital, the city of Geleen is also quite important. Most of the cities in this province were mining cities. When the mining dried up, other possibilities had to be sought. Just down the road from Maastricht (or “up” the road, heading North), Geleen is in the middle of the chemical industrial “city” of DSM and Chemelot. 

Ever since 1979 this chemical company has been making special fibers in Geleen. Dyneema is considered the world’s strongest fiber. It is 15 times stronger than steel but tight enough to float on water. It is based on polyethylene (technically a UHMWPE = ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene. Try saying that 6 times in a row!). Wikipedia tells me that this fiber weighs 0.97 grams per cubic centimeter. I am not quite sure what that is, but it is quite light. 

This fiber is used in competitive cycling, fishing line, repairing ligaments, protective gloves and bulletproof materials. It is used as a replacement for the steel cables which launch gliders, protects ice skaters (like recently during the Winter Olympics and the many Dutch skaters), anchoring Oil platforms in the sea (steel breaks, Dyneema doesn’t) and all sorts of uses in archery or climbing. 

We drive past the chemical towers regularly, but had never realized what kinds of things can be made so close to home. Geleen has in the meantime merged with the city of Sittard nearby to become Sittard-Geleen. 

Video calls

Getting to talk to family is a blessing. We both grew up in a situation where we were separated from family for longer periods. In those days, that meant air mail letters or long distance phone calls of very short duration. These days we can send video messages, songs, pictures and more by our phone or computer. And we are thankful that we are able to connect with our boys, their wives and our granddaughter via the computer on video calls. 

We were able to talk to Sean for quite a while yesterday, checking in with his life and sharing ours. Everyone has a busy life. When we were younger and starting our life together, we were sure that our life was full of busyness. Of course now that is exactly where our children’s lives are. Which is why it is so nice to be Abel to “drop in” on a video call. 

We can hear the fire engine sirens screaming by our son’s window as they race to a fire on a snowy day in New York City, while we sit comfortably on our couch in the closing of the day in Belgium. Or we can show our midday snow to our granddaughter who is just waking up 6 hours away. It is always a bit of adapting, but it is good to see one another. 

It is even better to hear one another. The cadence of speech reminds us again of times when we were together. The laughter we share warms our hearts. And it is sometimes much better to share things “face-to-face” than in an email or letter. 

Of course it is also nice to be able to show off anything new in the house, or let the dog say hello. Most of us are used to being on video while talking these days. We use it for our weekly study with the members (which means more people can join the study). We also hold a video study with the younger people who are English-speaking - and spread to various places in Europe. Whereas some might turn off the camera (we don’t, since I am teaching, but others do) to avoid video weariness, we are thankful to be able to see one another, especially on these family calls. 

But in a few months we will get to take the next step and actually hug our kids. We are looking forward to being with Stephan and the family in May and Sean and Jill at the end of our trip in June. Along the way we will also be able to see others in our family with whom we do not have video calls - although I guess that would also be possible if we all wanted it. 

We are thankful for technology, for mobility and for possibilities to gather together in various times and places.