Here am I, send me!

Here below is our latest newsletter. I wanted to take the time to look ahead at how God can use us, wherever we are. There is some very important family news as well. Thanks for stopping by and for your continued encouragement!

On Assignment - at home in Indiana

How often do you need to see people in order to retain a close relationship? This is something that has intrigued me almost my entire life. I grew up traveling all over. I had lived in six cities in three countries before the 6th grade. So family was always important, and making friends meant figuring it out quickly, or keeping things on the surface (I would not immediately call this superficial).

This continued when I went off to university, where I traveled all over the US, traveled to Europe and in the end spent two years in the Netherlands. My brothers and sisters also traveled. Three of my brothers were in the military and the other roamed off to Alaska. But we have always been able to re-connect. And we are still there for each other.

Our last leg of our Home Assignment brought us to Indianapolis where my ‘little’ brother, Mike and his family live. We keep and eye on how Mike and Amy and the four boys are doing through the wonder of modern communication – and I have always been very thankful for that. Since Indiana is not in the normal ‘loop’ of our travels on home assignment, the last time we visited was in 2007. Now we not only got to visit, we were blessed to spend Christmas together!

We arrived a day late so that Shirley could recover after the wedding. That left us two and a half days to enjoy the time together. And we were mixing several families as well. Marc and Wouter, who had traveled with Sean to New York city and then joined us for the wedding, were experiencing their first Christmas away from their rather large family back in Belgium. So it was good to share, to experience some local family traditions, and to just have fun.

And all along our travels we had expected snow but had seen barely a flake. Each time we left somewhere, they received a foot of snow after we left, but we were not burdened at all on our travels with snow-covered highways or backed-up traffic. Now, with a few days, we expereienced a blizzard, right in Indianapolis, for Christmas! And when it was time to leave, the roads were clear where we were headed.

Our last day was spent in Chicago with another blast from the past – Jimmy Schellekens is a young man that I knew when he was about 2 years-old in Schiedam. We spent time getting ready to leave, saw some of Chicago, had some great food (again) and even played a bit of football (the real kind). And we could relax the English or work on Dutch by speaking Dutch with Jimmy. We are so thankful that Jimmy and Amy were willing to share their apartment with us for that short visit on our way out.

After two months in the US we were now finally headed back … home. But we have been home all along the way, everywhere we stopped. You are why we can be home when we are with you. We are so thankful for the reality that wherever we are, if we are with God and his family, we are at home. Thank you!

Here is wher you can see pictures of our visit to Indiana and Illinois. 

A wedding … and so much more

A lot of planning goes into a wedding. That was certainly the case with Stephan and Natalie. We only saw some of what had to be decided upon, chosen, made and planned. We were able to help with some of the planning: making cake-pops, setting up the venue, working through some of the ceremony. But there is a lot more that happens before a wedding – at least, that is what we were thankful for. A wedding can be simply a wedding – a big party to mark a certain day. Tht is not what this was.

Stephan and Natalie wanted to have a great day. They wanted the people who would come to the wedding to have fun. But they also knew that this day was what they had worked toward in their relationship and would be the beginning of a lasting life together that was just starting.

We wanted the day to be special for them. We were looking forward to seeing them begin their lives together. But we were also looking forward to getting to know this young woman whom we had, until then, only spoken to via Skype. We knew too that we would be meeting her parents and family. We knew that this day meant we would be giving up our son, gaining a daughter and, hopefully with grace, would be letting go so that they could start this new life together.

How do you let go? Many of you will have experienced this already. Perhaps it is different each time with each child. There are so many emotions on the day (and following, as things start to settle in). Since we hadn’t seen Stephan since December 2010, we were excited to see him again. But of course this would be to see him start a new life as a husband, not just our son. And that is good! That is why he was put in our lives. Our children are placed in our hands for a time so that we can prepare them to grow, to live in Christ and to be a blessing to others. That time had come.

So, we enjoyed the preparations. We had a blast making cake-pops, laughing with our new family. We enjoyed the day, shedding a tear or two and taking that deep breath of pride in these two young people wanting to give themselves totally to each other and to God. And we look forward to the many times coming that we can watch them grow.

You can see a few of our pictures of the wedding over here. Thank you all for being a part of this through the years – seeing these two grow and helping them along the way. We are so thankful that God, who is love, continues to guide their lives together. 

On Assignment - at home in Ohio

Years ago, on one of our home assignments, sitting in the airport of some city in the United States, a man sitting next to us began talking to the boys (they were quite young at the time). Stephan turned to us and asked: “Do we know him too?” We had been meeting with and getting to know so many new people on our trip, and even family was new for Stephan and Sean. As far as Stephan was concerned, this too could be family.

That is one of the blessings of God’s family – that we can be at home in so many different places. And we have so enjoyed seeing so much family – blood relatives and spiritual family – on our travels. But as we drove away from Muscatine and through Indiana, we knew we were headed to Ohio, where we would be meeting another sort of family. We were soon to meet the in-laws and become the in-laws for the first time. Although we had talked with Natalie on Skype and had briefly talked to her parents as well, this was to be the time to meet the whole family. And what a blessing it was!

We were able to stay at Jay and Pauline’s while Sean, Wouter and Marc (when they arrived on the Thursday) stayed at Natalie’s grandparent’s house (John and Fran). We were taken up in the family – which meant being able to help out making cake pops, making our own coffee when needed, sharing the Christmas concert of Natalie’s youngest sister, Rachel, working toegtehr to get everything ready for the wedding – it was a real pleasure and a blessing to be together. We are so thankful for Natalie and her family – our family!

Our time in Ohio was filled with moments like this. Sean and his best friend, Wouer, and Wouter’s father, Marc, had spent five days in New York City before arriving for the wedding. Marc and Wouter had never been to the States before and were welcomed with open arms by so many people. They arrived in the middle of the preparations for the wedding, helped out moving chairs, cleaning up, blowing bubbles. They attended worship services with us on Sunday as well. They were surrounded by people all around welcoming them. John and Fran shared stories of Egypt with them, we played ping-pong in the garage with the gathered family, and made one huge family.

It was great for us to also be able to meet up with Scott’s Mom who has moved back to New York to be with Paul Drushler. This was the first time for us to meet Paul (and he us, of course). It was great for them to have made the trip to share this time with us and with Stephan and Natalie.

After the wedding we had planned on driving over to Indiana, but Shirley was hit by a bout of dizzyness and a migraine, so instead we spent some more family time. This was exactly what we all needed after such a wonderfully busy time – a day to wind down. A trip and walk to Maumee Bay on Lake Erie, the sun shining even as the cold wind blew, reinforced us as a new family, caring for one another. We are so thankful for the love that comes in God’s family. 

Check out the pictures from this leg of the trip!