How time flies?

In the good times, in the bad, when you are busy or just wasting time, together or alone – time marches on. And yes, if you look away long enough, it sprouts wings and flies by!

These past months have seemed to do just that – perhaps because I haven’t taken the time to look back often enough. So let me take a moment and recount some of the things that we have been doing since our last newsletter (December 2014!). I will also put some of the picture links in this post so that you can SEE what we have been doing, but you can always just visit our photo site.

 In January and February we had several opportunities to encourage one another across borders. At our annual Bible Camp meeting at the end of January members from Belgium and the Netherlands get together for fellowship and singing – as well as some formal business. This was also a rehearsal time for a group I was putting together called Laus which would sing for a gospel meeting in Belgium in May. But more on that later.

In February we went to Germany for the Advanced Bible Study Series where we met people from all over Europe and enjoyed some good spiritual food. A week later, at the beginning of March, Shirley was off to the Ladies Retreat in Germany. We also enjoyed our monthly song evenings with the church from Liege and continued rehearsing with Laus.

March was also a time of beginning. We started with another set of Meeting Jesus with our neighbors as well as a new study along the same lines with the teenage children of our sister, Daisy. Our neighbors have changed by one since last year: one man has moved to his own place and another has come in his place. So we have enjoyed getting to know the new man.

In April (and throughout the year since September) I have also continued working with the village kids in Veldwezelt with my colleague, Karla. A two-day retreat is held as the end of the season where we can really challenge the kids with some thoughts about the Bible, God and their choice to follow Jesus. For many of these kids this is a choice being made for them by their parents. We want them to know that it is something they themselves can choose.

We also took a few days off in the middle of April to travel as a family to Barcelona. It is so good to spend some time together and with Sean. Sean has been working hard on his studies (Journalism in Brussels) as well as on his band – Wooly Mammoths – who have been getting all kinds of play and air time.

Back in November the church in Elen, Belgium, asked me if I could get a group together to sing for a gospel evening. This was the beginning of Laus (‘to praise’ in Latin). A group of 10 singers from all over Belgium and the Netherlands trying to put together an evening full of songs with just 4 or 5 rehearsals. But we wanted to help this small church in reaching out to the neighborhood. My colleague, Ruud, brought one of the lessons – using a haiku and a good bit of rhyme in his lesson. Laus will look at more opportunities to help out in evangelism.

Later in May we took a group of 11 young people to Brussels for Brussels Extra Large 2015 (BXL2015). In this long weekend (Ascension is a national holiday on Thursday and links to the weekend) we want to challenge the young people with how God can bless us and how we can bring Jesus to all people. This means serving in all different situations – including helping the homeless, spending time with refugees, singing and talking to seniors as well as serving one another.

At the annual meeting of the churches on the second day of Pentecost – this year organized by the church in Haarlem – I was asked to talk about building the church up. This was a good opportunity as well to talk about the various plans for evangelism and equipping in the coming months.

In these coming months we are fervently trying to get ready for our two weeks of Bible camp (Teen camp and Family camp at the beginning of August). We will also finish up our Meeting Jesus group at the house, but continue our group with the teens. Hopefully I will remember to look back more frequently so that time is not able to sprout wings and fly away!