Wild Wonderful Wednesday

Today is a 5th Wednesday, so it is something completely different. In March we went on a walk along our canal to one of the local castles. Today we will take a walk to the other castle mentioned in March - Pietersheim. 

The actual castle ruins from the 12th century are mostly just walls and a gate tower. A section of the wall has been restored and a hall has been built with local stone to match the original stone. Local events are held here and wedding parties like to come here for pictures. 

More interesting to us are the grounds. Pietersheim is a full park with paths running through the woods bringing the walkers along a gnome route. Gnomes - like the ones you can put in your front yard - are called “kabouters” here (ka-BOW-terz). Walking through these woods is always fun with the kids. They run ahead looking for the houses in the trees, knocking on the doors to see if any gnome will answer the door. 

Further in the park we come to a children’s petting farm with horses, goats, chickens, rabbits and deer. This is all situated in a green area next to a playground for kids of all ages and of course a cafe for the parents waiting on and watching their kids. Ice cream, cold drinks and good coffee are to be had by all. We brought our young people here this past weekend for part of our Youth Day. 

This is also the beginning of a long nature walk into the nearby woods and fields. Nearby is a tower to climb which looks out over the whole area. There is also a “bare foot walk” where you can experience all sorts of things walking along the path in bare feet. 

But we are going to walk home leaving through the other side of the park than where we entered. This road is flanked by tall trees and seems quite pleasant. On the one side is what the locals call the “Gold Coast” - very rich houses at the edge of the woods. On the other side is a large farm where jumping horses are bred and trained. These horses have won medals in the olympics and are know all over the world. If you see a horse with a “-Z” at the end of the name - it came from here. 

This road bends to the right and comes out of the woods to head straight for the street light at our busy street. This street was originally the Roman road. Now it is simply a busy street running north-south. We cross at the light and enter our village again, walking past the specialist butcher on the left. This is the only shop in our village besides the apothecary out on the Main Street. There are several restaurants, but no shops. 

The street comes to a t-intersection at a statue of a lion. This is a war monument, remembering the 2 soldiers from the village who died in “the Great War” (WW1). I wonder how wars will be remembered in the near future. Thankfully, we live in what is now a peaceful little village. We walk past the local Catholic Church building and return home to grab a drink of water and a rest after a long walk. 

Building a temple

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  

1 Peter 2:4-5

Everything that God builds is amazing. Every time I walk out into the yard and see the cherries growing omg the tree, when I think of holding my sons’ hands in mine when they were small, when I see how he brings real love into a relationship and builds a marriage… God builds beautifully and what He builds is beautiful. And God is building a temple, using His children. 

It is exciting to be part of this building. He is using us to spread His grace and love wherever we are. We are to declare His praises in all we do. So when we get together or when we encourage one another in activities, we are truly making a joyful noise in this world of darkness. 

We have had some wonderful times these past weeks. Last weekend we had a singing day in Antwerp. It was so good to be together and to share the joy of God’s blessings in song. This past weekend the members in Maastricht organized a youth day for the youth connected with the congregation. We learned about the armor of God, letting the kids know and see that “God wants us to do good, but doing good is hard. That’s why we need the full armor of God.” You can find some pictures here. 

This is the first youth day in Maastricht for quite some time. Our youth had grown up and the new youth was still quite young. Now we have a group between 5-12 years old and it is fun to see them together. God has made us all and He has made us all different. But He has also made it possible (not always easy) to work together and form a body, a family, a temple. 

In the coming months we look forward to our Bible Camp weeks and then on to September when we can look at more opportunities to share God’s grace in many different ways. How has God been using you these last weeks? What is He building in your area? 

Where oh where Wednesday - Aachen

Just down the road and across the border is Germany. That is what we have always loved about where we live and work - we are right where three different countries and languages converge. From the beginning of our time here we have also had good connections and communion with the church in these countries, areas and languages. 

If you ask today where the Euro currency started most will know that it was in Maastricht. That is where the treaty was signed. But hundreds of years before the European Union was begun, a sort of European Union was already taking shape not far from Maastricht. Aachen was the seat of Charlemagne. You may know it as Aix-la-Chapelle. In Dutch we know Charlemagne as “Charles the Great”. 

Charlemagne, Emperor of the Frankish Empire and the first Holy Roman Emperor wanted to make sure that his entire empire and the areas around it could work well together. The Holy Roman Empire crowned their kings in Aix-la-Chapelle (or Aachen). But it is originally a Roman settlement, just like Maastricht. It is a spa town, with a bath complex just like the town of Spa not far away in the Belgian Ardennes. 

When Charlemagne reigned (between 768-814) he made Aachen the political center of his empire. He succeeded in uniting Western and Central Europe. His was called the Carolingian Empire (after his name - Charles, or Karl). He changed the currency, making it standardized throughout the empire. 

He also had a great admiration for learning and education. He loved books and became a protector and patron of the making of manuscripts. He created a royal library and encouraged the teaching and translating of Christian texts into local languages. Because of his focus on books, learning and manuscripts, private libraries flourished at this time. 

Today we can travel to Aachen in 30 minutes and enjoy the special cookies there or asparagus while walking the medieval town, shopping the modern streets or taking in the royal bones of Charlemagne himself in the cathedral. 

When we first arrived to work in Maastricht, the church was meeting in Aachen. Until 2019 the congregation in Maastricht, the congregation in Cologne and members of the church in Aachen had gathered for a singing day in September. We may be able to finally get together again this year - either in Maastricht, Cologne, Aachen or Eindhoven. 

We will miss seeing you

Back in March we mentioned that we were examining our possibilities for travel - moving any possible dates to the Fall of this year. We usually make it back to the US every three years to visit family and church family, reporting on our lives and work here and catching up on the lives of everyone in the US that we see. 

Usually this would have been in the Spring of 2022 since we were last in the US in 2019. But travel restrictions and uncertainties made it nigh to impossible to plan a trip as we usually take it for the Spring. So we looked at some other options and considered the Fall. Now it has become clear that the Fall is not really an option either. 

As most have already experienced, costs of all sorts have risen in the past months. This especially includes gas prices. As most of our trip would mean driving around the US, this would increase our costs prohibitively. Rental car prices have also risen quite a bit, from what we can see. So our costs would increase past what we felt was prudent. 

In addition to these concerns, we have to think about what a trip does to our health. Shirley has been experiencing hip pain for quite some time. It may be that she needs a new hip. Traveling for hours on end in a car would not be conducive to good hip health. And trying to get things settled before we would need to leave would also not be possible. 

So after thinking, [raying and taking advice, we have decided to move our next Home Assignment (the time we travel in the US) to Spring 2023. We pray that some costs will be lower and that health concerns will be cleared up. We would love your prayers for this thoughts as well. 

In the meantime, this means that we will go ahead with plans for outreach and activities there in the Fall that we planned on delaying for our trip. This past week we enjoyed a Singing Day in Antwerp where Luk Brazle and Scott taught the songs they had put together as video’s during the corona years. These songs were used by plenty of congregations to make singing possible, even online. Scott is looking at organizing another Song Workshop in the Fall now, and we look forward to some potential new songs for the church.  

We will miss seeing so many of you. We will miss seeing our family. But we look forward to seeing you in 2023. And we look forward to how God will use us in the coming months. 

Whensday - Holidays

Just in case you haven't noticed, I have changed the name of this day from "Once Upon a Time Wednesday" to a simple "Whensday". It is not a misspelling. It is just me trying to be cute. 

As mentioned before, Belgium has lots of holidays. A holiday technically is a holy day (you can see it in the word). Of course in Dutch it is something different. The word in Dutch means a feast day. Since Belgium is basically a Catholic country, it has all of the Catholic official holidays. This means double days of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. 

In May I talked about this because the 2nd day of Pentecost was coming up. Looking back on the day, I am thrilled with how God has created family and brings us together. The group that met at the building in The Hague, Netherlands, was a mix of all different nationalities and languages. We thought as organizer that we were ready for all the permutations of translating, but we ended up doing things in English since  the Dutch speakers could understand that well. This meant only translating to Russian/Ukrainian from English. 

We took the day to discuss together how to find peace in troubled times. The small groups had some good conversations about what this meant to them personally and practically. In the afternoon we had a sort of interview and Q&A session where we were able to apply what we were hearing from the Word. 

In between this all we took time to sing together and the kids had some classes together as well. At lunch there was a good time of fellowship for all. Everyone had brought their own lunch and enough for others should that be needed. This was indeed a feast day, a holy day. We were thankful to be able to share the time with one another and to learn from one another. God is great. Our life in Jesus Christ is full of blessings, every day. 

Here are some more pictures of the day.

Whatsit Wednesday - Tulips from Amsterdam

The song talks about tulips from Amsterdam, probably because when people think of tulips, they think of the Netherlands. And when people think of Holland (The Netherlands), they think of Amsterdam if they think of any city. And you can certainly buy tulips in Amsterdam. 

I remember how, after returning from my two years in The Netherlands and wanting to buy flowers for my future bride I was shocked at how expensive flowers can be in the US. Even now with inflation I can still get roses or tulips or carnations or almost any other flower for about 3 euro for 10 flowers. 

Tulips, however, are typical for Holland. But, as many of you may know, they didn’t originate in Holland. Cultivation of the tulip began in Persia in the 10th century. The name “tulip” may come from either the word for ‘turk” or “turban” which was worn in the 16th century. Near the end of the century the tulips had created a mania among the Dutch and a new industry was born. 

If you visit The Netherlands, you do not want to miss visiting Keukenhof, near Leiden. In the Spring when the flowers are blooming in the fields, it looks like an artist has spread unbelievable colors across the fields. Some are so vibrant one wonders truly if it is not painted. The beauty of God is more amazing than anything we can even imagine!

Growing together

Today, Monday June 6, is what we in The Netherlands and Belgium call the 2nd day of Pentecost. All of the Christian holidays have two days: Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. For years this day (or the 2nd day of Easter) has been the day to gather the churches together for a time of spiritual encouragement. We share lessons from the Word, sing songs and conversation together in The Hague, Netherlands. 

Pentecost was of course the beginning of the wonderful harvest that God was giving the world. It was during this Jewish feast that God decided to come with power to begin new life for the whole world. And it was on this day that we read about in Acts 2 that people from many different countries gathered and heard the message of truly good news. 

Of course at that time, all of those people were Jews. They came from all around the known world, but they were Jewish. Still, God showed that He was meant to be shared with everyone. That morning the apostles were speaking of the mighty works of God in various languages. 

Today we will gather to share time with one another. We will talk about finding peace in troubled times. And as we were planning on Saturday, we struggled the most with translation. We will have Dutch speakers, English speakers and Ukrainian speakers. The Ukrainians have to translate from English, since they don’t understand Dutch. But the lessons are in Dutch. 

There will be a time of questions. These might come in Ukrainian and will need to be translated to English and then to Dutch. The singing will be in Dutch and English, but many of the songs will be ones the Ukrainians know and which they can find on their phones to sing along. 

It doesn’t matter. Today we will be together. Today we will glorify God together and share the truly good news with one another and all present - even some online. The fields are still ripe unto harvest, even in difficult times. We are thankful to be able to struggle in this wonderful way together. 

Whodunit Wednesday - Comic books

When we think of literature, most people do not think of comic books. And yet, even when I was an English teacher, I could see the great benefit of this type of literature. I was an avid reader as a young man, but I also loved comic books. Later, it was comic books that helped me learn German and Dutch. I still would pick up a Donald Duck as first reading material in any language I would want to learn. 

Many kids and adults have enjoyed the stories around the Smurfs and Tintin. These are Belgian creations, along with Suske en Wiske and Lucky Luke. These comics covered all sorts of stories and got many a young boy and girl reading. It was not as the Dutch minister of Education said in 1948 that they should be banned, having no real value. 

If you visit Belgium, take the time to walk through Brussels and discover the comic book characters around various corners, painted bigger than life on the walls. We would love to join you. Can’t make it this far? Enjoy a story of Tintin or the Smurfs. You might even read one in Dutch and see how much you can learn.