Update on Ruud

Typical Ruud

NL vertaling beneden
This past Monday I put up a request for prayers and so many of you responded. It is encouraging to know that we are a family of many, spread all around the world! I wanted to take some time to thank all of you who have been praying for our colleague and brother, Ruud Verheijen.
Ruud has had extreme and chronic pain for several years, due to rheumatism and a car accident (with attendant mistakes in care and follow-up). This past Monday the doctors were going to test a possibility for helping his pain. They specifically deadened certain nerves (a bit like the dentist does before working on your teeth). Ruud was to walk, stand, sit and see how well this helped. It helped … for about 5 minutes before the pain returned.
This told the doctors that a further process of actually burning the nerves would not be useful or helpful for Ruud. So the procedure for this coming Monday was canceled and Ruud was informed that he will need to learn to deal with his chronic pain. This is not new for Ruud. He has had years to accept that he has pain and learn to deal with it.
In October he will begin sessions at the “Pain Clinic” where he will be given advice on how to arrange his life around the pain that is part of his life.
In all of this, Ruud is an example of trust and faith in God’s caring hand. God has told us that He will be with us at all moments, giving us strength to carry on and, even more, be useful and mighty (2 Cor. 4). I am so thankful for Ruud’s faith and example, for God’s care. Please continue to pray for Ruud and his family as he and they work through this time. Praise God for His faithfulness. Pray for peace, comfort and days of refreshing as well as strength and insight into living with this situation.
Thank you for being a family!

Op mandag vroeg ik voor gebeden en velen reageerden daar op. Het is zo een aanmoediging te ervaren dat we een gezin van velen zijn, verspreid over heel de wereld. Ik wilde even de tijd nemen om jullie te bedanken die voor ons collega en broer, Ruud Verheijen, gebeden hebben.
Ruud leeft al jaren met extreme en chronische pijn vanwege zijn rheuma en een auto ongeluk enkele jaren geleden (samen met de fouten die gemaakt werden bij de behandeling). Op maandag gingen de dokters iets uittesten om zijn pijn mogelijk te verlichten. Ze gingen specifieke zenuwen verdoven (een beetje zoals de tandarts dat doet met je tanden). Ruud moest lopen, staan en zitten en zien of de verdoving hielp of niet. Het hielp … voor ongeveer 5 minuten voordat de pijn terugkwam.
Zo wisten de dokters dat een verdere behandeling van de zenuwen ‘verbranden’ niet de gewenste effect zou hebben en Ruud dus niet zou helpen. De procedure voor maandag, 3 september werd dus afgezegd en Ruud werd geïnformeerd dat hij moet leren leven met dechronische pijn die hij heeft. Dit is niets neiuws voor Ruud. Hij heeft al jaren gehad om te aanvaarden dat hij pijn heeft en om daarmee te leren leven.
In oktober mag hij naar de “Pijn Kliniek” waar hij advies zal krijgen over hoe zijn leven aan te passen aan de pijn die deel uitmaakt van zijn leven.
In dit alles is Ruud een groot voorbeeld van vertrouwen en geloof in de zorgende hand van God in zijn leven. God heeft ons verteld dat Hij er op alle momenten zal zijn in ons leven, om ons kracht te geven en, nog meer, dat wij bruikbaar en machtig kunnen zijn (2 Cor. 4).Ik ben zo dankbaar voor het geloof en voorbeeld van Ruud, dankbaar voor de goede zorg van onze God. Blijf alsjeblieft bidden voor Ruud en zijn gezin terwijl hij en zij proberen dit allemaal te verwerken en een juiste plaats geven. Loof God voor Zijn trouw. Bid voor vrede, troost en comfort en dagen van verlichting zowel als kracht en inzicht in het leven op deze manier.
Bedankt dat we een gezin zijn!

Sing the wondrous love of Jesus

Revelation 7:9-10

I know… I have mentioned it before. I love singing. I not only love to sing, but I love listening to singing, being part of singing, seeing what singing can do to our hearts and our lives. I will be singing even after my voice has gone (I will sign or find some way to take part). Song is created by God. He made our bodies capable of producing sound. That is an amazing thought in and of itself. More importantly, He made us in a way that we desire and can combine our thought with our emotions.

This summer I was privileged to present a day of lessons from Revelation at our Family Camp. My section for this theme of “Those who conquer” was chapters 4-7. Me being me, what jumped out at me, among other things, was all the singing! Have you ever noticed?

Everywhere you look in the vision that John was given of heaven there is singing. Most of the time it says that something was “said”. In chapter 5:9-10 it specifically states that it is a song. But even the places where the creatures and elders and angels and all creation are ‘saying’, they are saying it together. It is a song. And what a song!

Now, I remember when I was growing up that some people said things like, “Why would I want to go to heaven? All that standing around singing all the time.” And the implication was that it is also boring singing. I wasn’t quite sure where they had gotten that idea. But here it is. Sure enough. We’ll be singing. And of course, when you are little, there is no way that you can understand the depth of love, the meaning that singing to the Lamb has.

I certainly would hope that a young child would not truly understand that. Because we understand the love, the beuaty, the power when we finally realize how far Jesus has brought us from our sinful life. We are only able to understand and sing with gusto (as much as our tears may allow us) when we have accepted the love that Jesus has presented us, when we have struggled through trying to make our own lives right and have failed. When we have struggled through all sorts of trials and pains and have come to see that our Father is still there and He has made us victorious!

But we will sing. And I am so thankful that that is possible. I am not only looking forward to that chorus, I am getting started already. Jesus is my conquering Lamb even today! Let’s raise our hearts, our voices, our hands, our lives to praise Him with all that we are – beginning NOW!

Blackberries

Along our canal

No, I’m not talking about a modern communication device. The last several days, after waiting for weeks, I have been able to enjoy the bounty of the weeds along our canal. And that is simply amazing to me. Simple and amazing. These bushes also grow all over our yard – since I do not invest enough time in taking care of our yard.

But along the canal, my two-time-a-day walk with our dog, Snuffles, brings me past these Sleeping Beauty bushes. You know the story: the princess pricks her thumb on a spinning wheel and falls into a deep sleep (instead of dying as was designed). The kingdom falls asleep until a prince from outside the kingdom can finally tear his way through the terrible thorn bushes to find his true love sleeping. Those bushes.

And yes, they can be pretty intimidating when they get growing. But it is just amazing what kind of bounty they provide. I like blakberries. And even if I have to risk the stinging nettle, spiders and thorns, I enjoy picking a handful for my morning yoghurt. What I enjoy most, however, is the fact that this is found along the canal, available to any who will see it. And it is considered a pest, a bother to most.

Sleeping beauty, bounty that is simply amazing. Thank you Father.

Sticks and stones

We finished up our summer camp weeks last week with a wonderful Family Day at which we heard the encouragement to continue encouraging one another – and then promptly put the desire into action. There were members from around Belgium and the Netherlands, including the French-speaking congregations in Belgium. I love what camp can do for people. Placing yourself together in the middle of God’s creation opens your eyes to who He is and who we can and should be.

And that is what I love so much about how we are created. One day during family camp I was privileged to be asked by a few of the young boys: “Look at my stick collection!” They had just been on a walk in the woods and had gathered all sorts of sticks. “This one is a slingshot … and a gun.” Sticks of all shapes and sizes which, in the eyes of these guys, had all sorts of possibilities.

This reminded me so much of my son Stephan, who will soon be marrying and moving even further away for a few years. When he was young, a walk down the street to the kindergarten took quite a while. This was not only because as a 3 year-old his legs were a good bit shorter than mine. Mostly it was because he loved looking at the stones along the way. There were always some amazing stones to look at. The shining white ones. This one with a black stripe in it, or that one with speckles. The shape of another reminded him of something else. He saw beauty and wonder in all these simple things along the way.

I still have the box full of the stones he gathered then. And I still thrill at the wonder that God has given us for the simple things in life – things that many would say are ordinary. We are truly made in His image, able, if we are willing, to see the marvelous in everything mundane.

Have you looked at a stick collection recently?