Where oh Where Wednesday: Capital cities

You would think that talking about a capital city would be easy. After all, every country has their capital (their head city) and their capitol (the building housing the government) somewhere. Sometimes they move it or build whole new cities to be a capital. But every country has one somewhere. 

In the Netherlands, it is not so difficult as simply a bit unclear. What type of capital does one mean?  Many people when thinking of the Netherlands would say that Amsterdam is the capital. But this is as with many US states, the most well-known or populous city is not necessarily the capital city, where the capitol is found. As a matter of fact, in the States, the capital is seldom the most populous city. 

The government of the Netherlands, parliament, meets in The Hague (and has done since 1588). This is where the prime minister has his office - a little place called ‘the tower’ (the little pointy tower in the photo). When the King gives his yearly speech at the opening of parliament on the 3rd Tuesday of September, it is in the Knights’ Hall. The Supreme Court is also in The Hague. We might say that the capitol is in The Hague.

And yet, Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands. This is even established in the constitution. Even in a 1983 revision of the constitution, Amsterdam is noted as the capital city of the country. And yet, Amsterdam has only once in its history housed the government (and this for only 2 years between 1808-1010). The king’s palace (one of them) is here in Amsterdam. 

For Belgium it might seem that things are simpler,. Not so fast. Nothing in the political arena is easy in Belgium. The capital of Belgium is indeed Brussels. The region around Brussels even has its own government and the area is called ‘the capital region of Brussels’. One could also argue that Brussels is the capital of Europe, since the European Parliament meets here. But even that is not easy - and is a story for a different time. 

Although Brussels is the capital of Belgium, Belgium itself is a confederation. It is made up of three almost separate areas working together: Flanders, Wallonia and Capital city (Brussels). And then there is the federal government over all of those layers. There is then a capital of Flanders and a capital of Wallonia. 

So you have choices when you come to visit Belgium and the Netherlands. You could visit up to 5 different cities to have visited the capital of these two countries. Come on over and we will help you figure out what to do. You can also visit the church in 4 of the 5 cities as well. 

A flexible year

This past year was a time to be flexible and see how God could use each and every moment. We all like to plan. To know what is going to happen. But we have all learned that this is not always possible. It may not even be desirable at all times. Often it is simply good to see what is coming and be able top ‘roll with the punches’. That is what this year looked like at various times. 

In January we were still planning on getting to the US for our regular Home Assignment. We try to get back every three years. The last time was in May-July 2019. But the world changed a lot by the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020. Our plans for returning to the US in the Spring of 2022 was looking more and more unlikely as travel restrictions were still in place. So we started looking at planning a Fall trip. Since we do not travel with the boys (2016 was the last time we traveled with Sean, and that was only for part of the trip), we can choose different moments in the year. 

In spite of those plans being changed, some of our normal activities continued: weekly studies, singing evenings each month in Eindhoven and Maastricht, As the year continued, corona restrictions lightened and we were able to make more concrete plans. A lot of this had to do with our summer Bible camp weeks. This would be the first year in a while that we would be able to hold a Family Camp week and everyone was looking forward to that. 

The congregation was also experiencing quite a few changes. In March we welcomed a group of Ukrainians in the congregation and looked into how we could help in this refugee crisis (including looking at how to use camp). We suddenly had more people to care for in the congregation, but we also had to look st how to do this (including translation, housing, helping). A year on, two of these young Ukrainians are getting married in 2023 and have been a strong part of the church here. 

We were able to hold in-person events as the weather cleared up and brought sunshine. This included our yearly gathering in The Hague where we included the various Ukrainians spread across the Netherlands and Belgium. We also planned and took part in various activities in other cities, trying not only to make refugees feel welcome, but looking at how God could use us all together. 

After great summer Bible Camp weeks, we started looking seriously at our plans for going to the US in the Fall. By this time prices were rising everywhere. Travel restrictions were still not completely clear, so we made the decision to move our plans to 2023. Trying to fly and drive for 2 months visiting family and church family from the East coast to the West and all through the Midwest was proving to be a challenge. 

Still, when we saw that Shirley’s sister’s health was not doing well at all, it was important enough to plan a full week (plus travel days) to visit and see if we could help in any way. We didn’t really think or plan that much. We simply looked at what was possible, asked for guidance and help and went. We are so thankful that God has put us in a position to be able to do just that. 

The year has ended with plenty of great activities with a congregation that has grown very close through a year of dealing with change and learning to trust. We react to challenges with trust in God and being active with one another. This is what we are looking forward to in the coming year as well. 

It is not easy to consider being gone for a full two months. This means leaving people and plans behind. But we know that these plans, if they are in God’s hands, are well-cared for. We know that the church is Christ’s church. We know that God can do far more than we ever even imagine or plan. So we will try to make our plans for visiting the US in May-June 2023 as well as continuing normal activities and being ready to develop any new opportunities that God presents us with. Please keep these things in your prayers. We will update you with our possibilities in the coming months. 

God blesses us every day, each year. We are so thankful that, no matter where we are, we know that He is in control and is able to use us mightily for His will and to His glory. Thank you for walking with us this past year. We look forward to hearing from you, seeing you and working together in any way possible in this coming year. 

Whensday: Anniversaries

Today (December 21) Shirley and I celebrate 38 years together. We were married on this day in 1984 in Cloverdale church of Christ in Searcy, Arkansas. Since that day we have celebrated this day in all sorts of places and doing all sorts of things. Most of the time we do not get the opportunity to celebrate on the day, but we make sure that we spend some time together around this period (usually in January). 

That very first day we left Searcy and spent the night in Hot Springs, Arkansas, driving on to Abilene, Texas in a car that almost killed us from a leaky exhaust pipe. For the next few years we celebrated in Abilene with church family encouraging us (we had a great ‘young marrieds’ group at church). 

Our 5th year saw us celebrating with the addition of Stephan, who had shown up on Halloween that year. We were still in Abilene, but by the next year we had moved to Long Beach, California just before moving overseas. Our anniversary was shared with the church family in Long Beach and we flew to Belgium in January the following year (3 weeks later, in other words). 

The anniversary in 1991 we were living in Antwerp, Belgium, on a busy street in a busy city with a growing little boy and planning our move to the area of Maastricht, the Netherlands. It would still be another 6 months before we moved, but the plans had been set in motion by this time. We had started the year out living with our colleagues in their small house. We then moved to an apartment where we could welcome guests and finally get the things we had shipped from the US. We celebrated this anniversary in January 1992, leaving Stephan for a few days with colleagues and spending time together in the area where we were to move. 

In June 1992 we moved to our house in the village of Neerharen, Belgium (a village in the town of Lanaken). The following anniversaries were most often spent at home or nearby doing all sorts of activities. In 1995 Scott began with the singing group Listen Up!. For several years they organized a concert around Christmas called ‘Always CHRISTmas’. These concerts could be in Eindhoven, Woudenberg, Haarlem, Maastricht or Antwerp, but very often fell on our special day. So we celebrated in abbreviated form wherever we were at the time. 

In 1993 we shared the anniversary with our second addition to the family when Sean arrived in September. We also took our first furlough to the States that year in the winter, spending our anniversary with Scott’s mom in Colorado. For most of the years following we would take our furlough in the summer months because of school vacations. 

One of the years, we figure it must have been 2006 (so 22 years married), we took a short mid-week together as a family. We had some time in a bungalow park in the south of the Netherlands where the boys ran around (‘parcours’ was in fashion), we bowled together and enjoyed some family time. 

On our 25th anniversary, in 2009, good friends in Brussels (thank you Bill and Deedee) had us at their place and we spent a few days in the city, taking in some museums, getting some good food and sharing the time together. We were able to relax and spend the time together. The boys were old enough to be left alone and we made the time to make it special. In the year after we took 3 or 4 days together for a real celebration, traveling to Breda, Apeldoorn and Deventer (in the Netherlands).

Fast forward to 2012 and we celebrated in Oregon, OH while preparing for Stephan’s wedding to Natalie. This was only the second time in the US during winter. We met Natalie’s family and spent the day before the wedding making the wedding cake pops together as a combined family. We did spend the evening of our anniversary in a hotel.

In March 2018 Sean married Jill and they moved to New York City in October. This meant that this year was the first time that we had celebrated our anniversary without the kids in any way. Of course, we once again had various activities at the time, so celebrated on a different day. 

We seldom are able to celebrate on the day itself, but we know every year how good it is to have had another year together. We continue looking forward to the places and times we might celebrate in the future. This year we will look at heading off to a nice city ion the Netherlands - sometime in January. 

What does church look like?

“You can’t ‘go’ to church because you are the church!” I remember hearing this early on in my new life as a Christian. And it is so true. The family, the Christians, are the ecclesia, the church. In Dutch, the word for church - “gemeente” - is the same word used for the city government. Some might use the word “kerk”, but this refers more to a building. 

This past Sunday showed once again what it looks like to be the church. In Maastricht we try to make sure that we do things in Dutch. We are, after all, a Dutch-speaking group in a Dutch-speaking city. But we are much more than that. We have 6 Dutch-speaking couples and 7 Dutch-speaking singles. But that only tells a part of the story. Most of these couples are mixed in some way. There is an Ecuadorian wife, a German husband, Belgians, and two Americans (guess who). Among the singles, there is an Iranian, Armenian, and a Belgian. And this is just the group that speaks Dutch. 

You see, although we try to make sure that things are done in Dutch, we know that we have quite a group that does not speak Dutch. So we translate into English. We have one English-speaking family and 8 English-speaking singles. There are Americans, a Nigerian (who also speaks Russian), an Albanian, a Brazilian and four Ukrainians. Around this time of year some might start singing about partridges and pear trees. 

So what does church look like? On a Sunday people filter in (some with a cultural time adaptation - if you know what I mean) and those who are earlier will be greeting each other and already drinking some coffee. After the study, some others will grab their cup of coffee in the space that we leave between the study and the beginning of our worship time together. This is a time of more greeting, hugging and general hullaballoo. 

We worship, as I mentioned, mostly in Dutch. This means that most songs are in Dutch. But we have talked with the Ukrainians and found out which songs they also have in Ukrainian and Russian. This means that the song-leader can choose songs which they know. At that time you will hear singing in Dutch and a bit of Ukrainian at the same time. A few months back, we would also hear some Spanish when Deysi’s parents were visiting from Ecuador. 

The sermon and prayers are translated into English or from English into Dutch. Sermon outlines are available in Dutch and English. Sometimes you will hear some translating of a difficult point into Russian or Ukrainian. More importantly, when all is said and done, we all gather around the coffee and discuss the lessons and how God has been blessing us in whatever language makes things clear. There is a pleasant hum of discussion and sharing. 

One of our ladies takes the Lord’s Supper to one of our shut-ins. In the week we gather online for a Bible study. The ladies just returned from a week together. Some of the members get together in the week to help each other or just meet and talk. Our Nigerian will be moving, so others will help with a car and trailer. Our young Ukrainian couple is marrying in January, so we look at how to help them get settled in. Family stuff. On a Sunday or any other day of the week.

Yesterday we spent time together having Christmas fun. We played games with gifts (white elephants), ate goodies that everyone had prepared and brought, and had a good time together. This is what church looks like. Language doesn’t matter. Where you are from doesn’t matter. There are some challenges, but we can get through those because we are family, we are church - the body of Christ. 

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.  1 Corinthians 12:12-14

(If you do Instagram, you can find us there @gvc_maastricht)

Whodunit Wednesday: Scholars

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘scholar’? If you search for important scholars throughout the ages, you come upon several connected with the Netherlands. 

Many university students would like to get an Erasmus scholarship. The Erasmus program encourages and assists with international study through its scholarships. The scholarship and program is named after the scholar Erasmus, who was full out: Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, or Erasmus of Rotterdam. He was a philosopher and scholar in the mid-15th through beginning of the 16th century. He wrote about changes that needed to be made from within the Catholic Church during the reformation and is considered a Christian Humanist.

Baruch Spinoza, or Benedictus de Spinoza was born in Amsterdam in the 17th century to Portuguese-Jewish parents. He was one of the exponents of rationalism and pushed the idea of the Enlightenment. He developed ideas against the authenticity of the Hebrew Bible and was considered by many as an ‘atheist’, which meant that his works were banned for a time. 

More recently, Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali has made a name in philosophical and scholarly circles. She was a member of the Dutch parliament before moving to the US in 2006. She has especially been outspoken against the Muslim faith and considers herself and atheist. She continues to work against the influence of Islam, especially as it has to do with women. This has put her high on the death-threat list for terrorists. 

These philosophers, scholars and politicians have greatly shaped the Netherlands and how people here think - about God, about the world, about religion.

(PHOTO: Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Scholar in His Study” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/scholar-in-his-study/ (accessed December 14, 2022).)

Around the world

This past Friday we held a CHRISTmas sing-a-long, inviting our neighbors, Ukrainians in the city and any others to pion us in singing Christmas songs in various languages. We sang in French, Dutch, English, German, Ukrainian and Russian (and even in Latin). We wanted people to be able to not only enjoy this time in their own language, but also share this time with others. 

The Netherlands was playing against Argentina in the World Cup, so many Dutch people had quite a conflict for this evening. But we had a great group of Ukrainians who came from Eindhoven (about an hour away) to sing with us and to meet the congregation here in Maastricht. The singing was done before 9pm. The talking went on until about 10pm. We are so thankful for how God creates family. 

Last week we also heard from a small village in Uganda who received 50 Bibles in their own language. The church family here wanted to help with this need and took care of sending the Bibles in a responsible way. As a congregation we have helped with various congregations in times of need: in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, St. Maarten and Curaçao as well as with our brothers and sisters in Ukraine. 

God’s family, the church that is the body of Christ, is not some small group of people in a city in a country. It is a body, truly linked around the world and serving as the hands of Jesus wherever they are. If you are a Christian, you are not alone. We are made to be in communion, in a body, working together. And even if you are isolat5ed, you are not alone. Write, pray, email, call, speak to those around you. God is mighty and is using us all mightily, wherever we are. 

Whatsit Wednesday: Dog breeds

Back in June, we said goodbye to our sweet dog, Chester, who was not even originally our dog. He was chosen by our 90 year-old sister, Willemien, when she could not do without a dog after her previous dog unexpectedly passed away. Willemien had always asked that we care for her dog if she herself were to pass away first. She made it to 95 years old, so we took Chester at that time. Chester made it to 94,5 in dog years. But Chester was a cocker spaniel,  a common dog here, but not a Belgian or Dutch dog. Whats’s that, you say? What is a Belgian or Dutch dog? 

There are several Belgian breeds that are well known around the world, although you might not have known that they were Belgian. The Malinois is a very energetic dog often used for police and military purposes. The Brussels Griffon, on the other hand, is a well-known lap-dog as is the Papillon (a toy Spaniel, named as such because its ears look like butterflies). 

The bloodhound is actually called a St. Hubert hound from Belgium. Then there is also the Schipperke, a lesser well-known dog that doesn’t know how small he is. Sometimes nicknamed the ‘little black devil’ it looks a bit like a Tasmanian devil and has the energy to go with it. This is the Belgian version of a sea dog. 

And the Bouvier des Flandres is a huge wooly dog, from Flanders (the Dutch-speaking area of Belgium), which monks formed by crossing Irish Wolfhounds and Scottish Deerhounds. These Bouviers (which means cattle herder) are one of the first dogs I saw when I first came to the Netherlands. It amazed me, because the Dutch live in tiny apartments, but have no fear keeping such a dog as it lived on ships.  

The best known Dutch breed is the Keeshond. Every Dutch child at one time knew this dog, even if they had never seen a dog before. The alphabet was learned from a ‘leesplank’ a reading plank that had pictures to show the letters of the alphabet. So ‘a’ is for ‘aap’ (that is: ape) And ‘k’ is ‘kees’ with a picture of this dog. 

The dog was often kept on Dutch barges and was familiar throughout the country. At one point it was a symbol of the Dutch patriots. The name means ‘Kees’ dog where ‘Kees’ is a common name in the Netherlands. The name could have come from a well-known dog during the patriot days, or one of the patriots themselves. These dogs are family of the Samoyed and Pomeranian. 

These days we don’t really care what breed a dog is, as long as we get a chance to stop and pet it. On our most recent trip to the US a young woman had her dog with her in the airport. When asked, she was more than willing to allow me to say hello to her dog, understanding that we could use the comfort. We will not be getting another dog, but will continue enjoying seeing dogs around us. 

Family Time - again and again

The last few weeks have been full of family time. One of the things that I learned early on in my Christian life was how wonderful God makes family. Not only has he designed the family - father, mother and children - but he has designed the church as family. 

Jesus tells Peter and the disciples, after speaking with and about the rich young ruler, that “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age.” (Mark 10:29-30)

I have always experienced this, from the moment I became a Christian and left my own family but gained a Christian family. So too with Shirley in her life. And yet, we never left our families, our brothers and sisters - they simply had a different place in our lives. 

From November 14-24 we traveled to the US to visit Shirley’s family. Her sister is not doing well and we wanted to see if we could help, to be there for her. Usually, when we are back in the US for Home Assignment, we have about two and a half days in Omaha for Shirley’s family. This time we had 8 and a half days. It felt as if we were able to lavish this time on her family and we were very thankful that it was possible. The travel itself went very well. We would appreciate prayers for the health of Shirley’s sister. 

The Sunday we returned, we were able to share and see family again - in the spiritual sense. We have a young Ukrainian couple in the congregation who are far away from home. They will marry in January, far away from home and most family. But they are with their Christian family. We held a wedding shower for them and blessed them financially as a congregation to help them on their new journey.

The congregation in Maastricht is indeed a big, amazing family. We have several young men studying or working, far from family and culture. We have three young ladies from varied cultures who have made their homes in Belgium or the Netherlands. We have mixed culture families, Belgians and Dutchmen all together in one loving family - because of Jesus Christ. 

This past weekend Shirley and I helped get the Americans in the church in Belgium and the Netherlands together for “Thanksmas”. We cannot meet on a Thursday for Thanksgiving and often have other obligations for Christmas, so we meet in the middle and make it Thanksmas - sharing our American culture and our Christian culture together. Although Shirley and I got sick and couldn’t attend, we were thankful that the others were able. 

This coming Friday evening the congregation has moved our regular 1st Friday singing to the 2nd Sunday and invited people of all cultures to come and sing of Jesus Christ in this time that welcomes Him into everyone’s lives. Our CHRISTmas singalong will be with songs in all different languages. We have specifically invited Ukrainians in the city to come join us. It should be a great time of fellowship and let people know how beautiful family is to God our Father. 

We pray that you have enjoyed family during Thanksgiving and will be able to see family during Christmas. But if you are not able to travel, open your home to others and experience family as God has always intended. We are meant to be together and He does that best. 

Go here (Instagram) if you want to see our fun with Andrey and Adriana.