Training

One of the joys and challenges of our work in Belgium and the Netherlands is working with young people and those wanting to learn more. The body of Christ is just that - a body. The church is made up of all sorts of people and God can use us all in many ways. Buut we learn from each other how we can be used to help others. That is part of what we are doing, helping to train and mentor others to become leaders and helpers. 

This past weekend we offered a day of training for those wanting to work with the Bible camp. It was Inspiration for Aspiring leaders, so we called it “Breathe”, knowing that it is the Holy Spirit who prepares us and forms us in our tasks. Last year we held this day at the church building in Antwerpen because that was more central, easier for people to reach. But we have wanted to hold it at camp itself so that the prospective leaders can see in person what they are working with. So this year we met down at camp. We are thankful to be able to do this with good colleagues (Luk Brazle). 

It was great to see the willingness of these few young people to learn and be aware of the responsibility of leading a team for a week of Bible camp. This is a time of reaching young hearts with the truths from God’s word and putting those into practice every day for a week before they return home. It is a time when many young people from the churches in Belgium and the Netherlands see friends from around the country or make new friends. This is all facilitated by good camp leaders. 

We are also helping to mentor some of our couples and singles in Maastricht. We meet on Mondays to study and talk about situations in leadership. On Wednesday afternoons we have a Bible study in English for some of our young people where they can ask questions and get honest answers. It is exciting to see how the members of the congregation are maturing in Christ and stepping up to new challenges in their daily Christian life. 

In April we will also be taking part in a First Aid course for those who work down at the Bible Camp. This is another aspect of learning and teaching. The Red Cross will offer the course and we are thankful for the various people who will attend, including several from the church in Maastricht. We are learning how to use the spiritual muscles God has given us and feeling the challenge of using those abilities and trusting in God’s strength and leading. 

(Here are some more pictures of the training day at camp.)

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.