May/June Newsletter

LIGHT in the Lowlands
Reaching out to the people of Belgium and the Netherlands

May/June 2007

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come, and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. Revelation 22:17

Dear brothers and sisters, family and friends,
By the time you read this you may be able to greet us personally! Thank you so much for making our upcoming trip to the States possible. It is always so good to see you again (or meet so many new people!).
The heart of the gospel
I want to take a little time in this newsletter to tell you about some of the studies we have here. There are very different kinds of studies, different kinds of people, but the same gospel.
As you read in our last newsletter, and as many of you have been praying, I started studying with Mr. W. after our Getting to know the Bible course (abbreviated “WoW” in Dutch). He loves opera, loves song and has a heart that is willing to hear what God is saying. He feels like the world is leaving behind the real truths that God has given us. At the same time, when those truths come close to his life, he is not so sure he wants to listen. But he is willing to listen, to think about things. We have only met three times. During the summer he will be reading the gospel of John. Please keep him in your prayers.
You have also been praying for my studies with LJ. She is always asking penetrating questions about the texts we are reading together. We are currently reading in the gospel of Luke. Luke is a favorite because he is a very good historian. It is clear that the things he has written were well-researched. But still it is difficult to read some of the things - like the miralces - and accept that these really happened. How can a thinking person accept this? Yes, Jesus said some very important things, but can we really believe that he did all these miracles as well?
It is exciting to be able to speak clearly with LJ. She wants to know and is willing to be confronted. She is also willing to think things through. And the cultural differences also make for some very interesting conversations. It is amazing how universal the gospel really is (or is it so amazing?!)
These two studies get to the heart of the gospel. Does Jesus really want us to follow him? Or is just listening to him enough? Why him? Is he really capable of the things he says? Who is this man?
Family tries
In these last two months we have also continued our studies with our young people. It is so good to see how Stephan and Shareya are growing in their faith and actively following God in their lives. We are blessed in Maastricht with a good group of young people – a fairly “large” group for Dutch standards. They can encourage one another, and if we want to have a get-together, we have a group of more than 10 people already. In some of the cities in Belgium and the Netherlands some of the young people are alone in the church.
It has been good to see how these young people have taken part in the studies we organized with them. We are looking specifically at the gospel, what it means and why it is good news. The same questions come up once again - Who is this man? Even when we “grow up in the church” we need to really find out who Jesus is and why it is so good to be with him.
Besides these studies Scott was asked to preach in Rotselaar and explain a difficult biblical passage. This always means that Scott himself grows. None of us have all of the truth - that is why God gave us his word. And a good challenge is always good for growth.
This has also been true in the conversations and emails in the last two months. Scott and Shirley have been trying to encourage the members who are struggling with their faith. What do you do when you feel like no one in the congregation understand who you are? How does this affect your walk with God? Pray for our efforts to help the church grow in faith and love.
Listen Up!
When Scott started with this singing group, the desire was to help people to “listen up!” to listen to God. Through the years they have encouraged the church in song, challenged audiences to think about God and have equipped members to use song in praise and teaching. June was an extremely busy month with Listen Up! The youth weekend planned for Maastricht ended in a concert which was a wonderful day of encouragement for the church. The meeting place was packed full! In addition, the new cd finally arrived and had to be gotten ready before we left for the States. We are excited about the possibilities to tell others about God in this way, but also about the continued opportunities to encourage people in their singing. It is great to be so blessed by such a wonderful God!

PRAYER WARRIORS
Please keep the following in your prayers.
- My reading in the Bible with LJ. She is seeking, listening and willing to hear. Pray for courage.
- Praise and thank God for His working in the youth weekend and concert last month!
- Pray for the coming summer camp weeks. This is a time of growth for the young people and their friends.
- Pray for our safe travels this summer in the States and that we can be an encouragement wherever we go.
- Thank God for Shirley’s health as she is doing much better!
- Pray for Mr. W. - with whom I started studying - that he will continue reading through the summer.

DID YOU KNOW?
Fashion
For several years now the city of Antwerp, in Belgium, has been a center for fashion design. The fashion school there regularly turns out designers who go on to make their name. You have probably heard of Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Kaat Tilley or Vronique Branquinho (if you follow fashion or are interested in names).
Although the Dutch are less well-known for their fashion designers, you probably have heard of Viktor and Rolf, a Dutch design team.
Have you come across something typically Dutch or Belgian? What did you think of it? Let us know.

ON THE FAMILY SIDE . . .
As mentioned, by the time you read this we will be in the States - we may even have already seen some of you. Unfortunately, we will not be able to see all of you. Here is a very summary list of where we will be stopping:
July 1-9 in Minnesota
July 9-16 in Muscatine, Iowa (and Indianapolis, IN)
July 16-20 in Nebraska
July 20-30 in Colorado (Colorado Springs and Denver)
July 30- Aug. 10 in Long Beach, CA
Aug. 10-23 in Texas (Abilene and the Dallas area)
If you are in the area, please contact us and let’s try to get together! We would love to see you. Our email address is on the front of this letter and we will be chekcing all along.
Back in the news from May and June - Sean’s elbow (see last month’s letter) was broken, but not really. When the doctor took him out of the first cast (the one given him because they weren’t sure if the arm was broken) the elbow was x-rayed and examined and the doctor said that there was a very small break. The remedy was movement. Sean just needed to take it a little easy for two weeks and then get back to normal. You don’t have to tell him twice! He is glad to be back to active. And he is growing! You will probably not even recognize him.
Stephan, as you may have been able to read and see on the blog, was basketball champ for the state (not just him, his whole team of course). There was a medals ceremony held by the city and everything. Next season Stephan will play with the men’s team. And that is how he has been acting with many things. He takes responsibility around the house and in the church. Mind you, responsibility at home has always been important for the boys, but now Stephan is also cooking and helping in the kitchen at times (Scott doesn’t have to worry about eating cereal when Shirley is gone for the Ladies Retreat!).
Shirley had a very stressful couple of months - especially when the youth weekend came in to town. We had expected a smaller group, since the Belgian young people had exams - not a great time to have a weekend. But we ended up with plenty of young people. There were 13 boys i our house, with four more adults and a baby at our house alone. This meant a lot of cleaning, preparing and organizing. But that is what Shirley is good at. Our biggest worry actually during the weekend was with Snuffles - she does not do well at all with babies (one of which was staying at our place). But even she did well - although she was VERY glad when all those loud things (the teenagers, not the baby) finally got out of her house!
As we have been trying to get ready to be gone for two months (that’s a really long time to leave your house!) we have gotten together several people to watch the house and the dog, fixed some of the weird things we see as normal before these people arrive, and tried to get all of our important papers together. But it’s worth it - we’ll soon see you!

What’s coming up?
JULY/AUGUST
Furlough
Camp weeks
SEPTEMBER
Youth weekend
Listen Up! CD presentation
WoW course
Bible studies

THANKS!
- For all the planning for this summer
- For your prayers for our studies and for the church here
- For your encouragement

Don’t let busyness get in your way - have a great day!

Yesterday is coming

"Listen Up" is the a cappella singing group I have sung with for the last 10 years or so. This is a part of our work here - in bringing the gospel through song, in helping congregations with their outreach activities, and in encouraging singing in the church (like at our last youth weekend here in Maastricht).

In the time that we have sung together we have also recorded two cd's. Many of you already have the first cd - "Old Stories, New Songs". The making of this cd is a story in itself - made possible only by God's graciousness and his children's love and faithfulness (ask me about it some time). You have been able to follow the making of the second cd - "Yesterday is coming" - on this site. We went in to the studio last year and the final product has finally arrived! Now we look forward to how this can be used further to let people know about God's love and life.

If you are interested in what we do with Listen Up, if you haven't heard the first cd and would like to, and if you want to hear parts of the new songs - just head on over to the website. There is a link right over there ---> (under "links"). But you can also just click here if you want. On the website you will only be able to hear parts of the songs, but if you head over here, (our site on myspace) then you can hear two full songs from "Old Stories, New Songs".

Youth weekend

Goede lessen
Originally uploaded by sraabs.

This past weekend we had about 40 people in our house - we are so thankful that God blessed us with a place like this to be used for Him! The church in Maastricht organized a youth weekend on the theme "Music man!" talking about why it is important to know what we are listening to.

The boys stayed at our place while the girls stayed over at the Verheijen's house. Sean and Stephan were glad to have their rooms full (literally: Sean had 5 in his room, Stephan had 6 and there were two in the playroom donwstairs!) During the together times it was packed, but exciting.

We went to a "bare-foot-path" where we walked through the woods, over stones, through rivers and all sorts of things - all on bare feet. It was great. (check out our photo site for more pics). In the afternoon the young people split up into groups and wrote their own songs, based on any text they wished from the letter of James. These kids continue to surprise and impress us! What wonderful songs!

On Sunday the meeting room for the church was packed full (overfull) with all the youth and several visitors (including my Chinese Bible student!). The singing was great, as was the fellowship. Afterwards we ate together and finished up the weekend with a concert from Listen Up! For this even more people showed up to make it standing room only.

What a blessing God has given us in music, in song, in his family and his Word!

Furlough Schedule

In just a few weeks we will be leaving our house at about 6 am to drive three hours over to Frankfurt, Germany to start our trip this summer through the USA. We are so excited about everyone we will get to see! When Jesus promised Peter that he would have family everywhere, he knew what he was talking about. And we won't even be able to visit all of you!

As you might be able to make out from the puzzle here, we will be visiting 9 different places in 7 different states - not counting the ones we just fly or drive through. We will do our very best to keep this blog updated regularly - with pictures (on the photo site) - and let you know how we are doing and how we are enjoying your company!

Here is a summary of our travel schedule:
June 29 - Leave Europe and arrive in Minneapolis/St. Paul
June 29-July 8 Together with the Woodbury church in St. Paul, MN
July 9 - Drive down to Muscatine, IA
July 9-15 Together with the church in Muscatine
July 13-14 Drive over to Indianapolis and back to visit with Scott's brother, Michael, and his family
July 16 - Drive across Iowa to Omaha, NE
July 16-19 In Omaha with Shirley's family
July 20 - Drive to Colorado Springs, stopping at York College to visit
July 20-28 In Colorado Springs with Scott's family
July 28-29 In Denver with Scott's brother, Chris, and church family in Denver
July 30 - Fly to Los Angeles
July 30-August 9 Together with the Long Beach church, including a visit to San Diego to visit Scott's sister-in-law and nephew
August 10 - Fly to Dallas and drive to Abilene, TX
August 10-19 Together with the 11th and Willis church in Abilene and including visits to LCU and ACU
August 20 - Drive to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area
August 20-22 With church family (McNeill's) in the Dallas area
August 23 - Fly to Minneapolis/St. Paul
August 24 - Fly to Frankfurt, Germany and drive back to Belgium

If you are in the area (or fairly close) let's try to get together!
As mentioned, we will not be able to see everyone we would have liked :-( Florida and Canada are a bit off this particular beaten path that we have to take, and Kansas and Oklahoma, nestled nicely in between, were just not possible in the time we have. We will miss you! Please keep up with how things are going and let us know how you are doing too.

NONE of this is possible without the love and care that so many have shown! On this end we have had to figure out how to take care of Snuffles for two months while we are gone. Several people form the church in Maastricht and even our neighbors have offered to watch the house and walk the dog. We are so blessed!

And we know that we will be welcomed in every city with open arms and genuine love (and lots of food ;-) ) wherever we stop during our trip through the States. It is so good to be a child of the King! We are looking forward to seeing you, hearing how God has been working in your lives, seeing how much taller everyone has gotten (the "kids" who aren't kids anymore!) and sharing together how good God is. Thanks for making this possible!

Close to You (some more dog wisdom)

"Just like me, they long to be . . ." Can hear the Carpenters? Then I guess this dates you too.

Snuffles loves to be wherever we are. If we are sitting on the couch in the living room, she will either be on or under our feet. If we get up to get something in the kitchen, she will follow. As I am writing this on the computer, she is sleeping on "her" ottoman behind me. So, of course, when we leave, she misses us. If we leave anything personal in the kitchen where she stays when we are gone (and I mean ANYTHING: socks, a shoe, a scarf or handkerchief), we can be assured that we will return to find her laying on it - just to be close to us. (This is Sean's sportsbag she's laying on).

Nice thought when you translate this into our relationship with God. Wanting to be so close to Him that we spend all of our time with Him - wherever He may be, or what He may be doing (or wanting us to do). Another one of those links that my mind makes.

Weird and wonderful (2)

This is for our hot water in the kitchen. It looks a bit like a mini-boiler, but it isn't. It heats the water as it goes through. We used to have a boiler (5 liter), but you had to wait until the water was hot and then hope you didn't use that much water for the dishes. This works okay, but to get really hot water you have to keep the pressure down - so it becomes a game to see if you can get the water hot enough with enough pressure. I am always ready for a game.

These are our electrical outlets. My brother might find these pretty interesting, considering he is an electrician. But these are NOT Belgian outlets. The person who did the electricity in our house was wise. You see, the Belgian outlets have a pin sticking out of them. Only a Belgian plug will fit. But a Dutch outlet will take a Dutch, German, French or Belgian plug. But don't plug your American hair-dryer into these - it still won't work. Not because I don't want you to have dry hair, of course, but simply because it works with 220v and your hair-dryer (if it comes from the States) runs on 110v. Your dryer will blow up and my electricity and your hair will go on the frizzle.

A long, long time ago - and plenty to come

It was 26 years ago that Shirley and I first started dating - during a campaign to the Netherlands, on the steps of the church building in The Hague. We have never looked back. It would be 3 years of dating - most of those with me in the Netherlands and Shirley in the US - before we were able to give ourselves in marriage. But May 31 is still our special anniversary. This year we spent time together in Maastricht - just being together. That's how we belong. We are looking forward to everything that the future brings - as long as we are together.