Youth, camp, walking, studying

As this year continues to roll out, we are looking as a church in Maastricht at how best to serve one another, reach out to our community and be a family of God. There are all sorts of activities planned not only by the congregation here, but also others in Belgium and the Netherlands. 

This past weekend was a console weekend organized for teens from 12 years-old and up and held in Antwerp. One of our young people was able to attend, along with his father as a helper. These weekends get young people together to have good time gaming (within boundaries) and also consider some real themes in life. 

In Maastricht we are looking at when we can best plan another youth weekend for our own youth and their friends. Last year we planned a day around the armor of God. This year we hope to get the young people together again - probably in April, but maybe in September. We may even look at planning two events. 

We are also looking at getting together again for a day down at camp. This is a time of study together and fellowship. Last year we spent an encouraging day learning about the Bible before spending the rest of the afternoon in a walk through the nature that speaks so eloquently of God’s existence. We will probably plan this day in the weekend Shirley and Scott return from their trip to the US. 

One of the suggestions made by one of our members was to plan a weekly or monthly time to walk in the city (or areas around the city). This would be an activity to which members could invite friends and family and affords good time for good conversation and prayer. Many of our members live in wonderful areas for a good walk. We are blessed with living in one of the most beautiful areas of the Netherlands and Belgium. 

We have already started with a study group on Tuesday evenings for our English-speaking young people. We have several university students and young professionals in the congregation. We are currently looking at the wisdom that Paul passes on to Timothy in his letters and are blessed with a group that not only enjoys the time together but is serious about growing in faith. 

These are all activities that are planned for before the Summer. Of course Shirley and Scott will be off for two months in the US visiting family and church family, but activities continue. And in the Summer the Bible camp weeks are already planned. Scott and Shirley will help lead and teach at the Teen week in August. This year will also be the first time that a week is planned for young professionals. There may also be a special week planned for Ukrainians in the Netherlands and Belgium. 

Pray with us for these efforts. Thank you for working together with us in reaching these areas of the world with the good news of a life in Jesus Christ. 

Where oh Where Wednesday: Travels in the US

As mentioned a little while back, Scott seems to have born with wanderlust in his veins. Since living in Europe we have been blessed to visit with brothers and sisters, churches in many European cities and countries. But the wanderlust began much earlier for Scott.

He was born in San Antonia, Texas and lived there about a year, just long enough to gain a brother in the same city. From Texas, the family moved to Mississippi and the to the area of Buffalo, New York before ending up at Fort Meade, Maryland. This was all before Scott was 6 years old and the family left for Europe. 

When Scott returned to the US, he was 5 years older and the family settled in Colorado Springs, Colorado. So when someone asks Scott where he is from, it is not always an easy answer. He claims Texas (his birthplace) and Colorado (where he mostly went to school). But before even hitting his graduation Scott had had a chance to visit even more States in the US. 

When his dad retired form the Air Force, the whole family took a trip across America to New York and visited the cousins there. Along the way we drove through Kansas, Missouris, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York. This trip was done in one shot, Scott’s mom and dad sharing the driving until they arrived at their destination. 

Scott and Shirley met at York College in little York, Nebraska. While attending there, Scott traveled with a singing group from the college, hitting Christian summer camps in most of the Midwest, including Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico. They also traveled to Wisconsin, Illinois and even Tennessee. 

After Scott and Shirley married, they made their own road trips, mostly driving from Abilene, Texas to Colorado Springs, Colorado and Omaha, Nebraska. But during one summer as they were planning their missions future, they drove up to Calgary, Alberta (Canada), passing through Wyoming and Montana again. It was around this time that they also flew out to California to interview with what was to become their supporting congregation in Long Beach, California. 

While Scott gained his wanderlust from literally traveling all around the world, Shirley always had a desire to travel. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska and only left twice before she went to York College. She visited Oklahoma with family when she was 8 years old and went to a youth rally in Kansas later. When she attended York, she became a Master’s Apprentice and went to Minnesota to serve the church there before traveling to the Netherlands where she and Scott got together. 

After moving to Belgium, they traveled together in the US every 3 years or so, hitting most of the States that have already been mentioned here. In 2010 they traveled with their eldest son, Stephan for the last time and took a road trip, adding Arizona, Alabama, Georgia and Florida to their destinations. 

We do not know how the many changes in our lives will be used by a gracious and mighty God who has the big picture in mind. Joseph (in Genesis) would never have called his journeys ‘road trips’, but God was still shaping and forming him. We are so thankful for the many ways that God has shaped us both to serve Him wherever we find ourselves. 

Whensday: The Flood Disaster of 1953

On February 1, 1953 - 70 years ago -  the Netherlands experienced a terrible natural disaster that shaped the country from then on. In the middle of the night, after severe storms, the water in the rivers and the seas rose so much that much of the southwestern coast of The Netherlands was flooded and more than 3000 people died. 

This is a tragedy at any time an in any place in the world, but at this moment - not long after the ravages of World War II - and in this seemingly modern country, it was devastating. In the country that for centuries had tamed the seas and learned how to live under sea level, nature had struck back and the country was brought to its knees. 

But that was the impetus for a renaissance of technology that has stretched Into the 21st century. These days, when a country wants to know how to deal with water, they come to The Netherlands and ask advice. It was Dutch engineers who were consulted after Katrina devastated Louisiana. Dutch engineers have been consulted and are at work in solving problems in Bangladesh. This tragedy 70 years ago ignited again the desire in the Dutch to conquer the water around them and turn it to their advantage. 

The Dutch rebuilt the villages, towns and cities along the coast, but not before they built an amazing wall to keep out the sea. This wall can open and close, leaving life open to the sea when it is safe, and closing off the waters when they become precipitously dangerous. Knowledge about dikes, canals, tides, beaches and more became common knowledge for the Dutch - and turned into shared knowledge for the world. 

Interestingly, much of that knowledge could not really help in 2021 when the rivers south of the country flooded in a short week, flooding some villages and towns in Belgium and the south of The Netherlands and threatening the cities further north. Questions arose about how things had been built as well as about how to protect against such natural disasters. The tenacity and adaptability of the Dutch have made them the eminent scholars and practitioners of works with water. 

In recent days we have seen a disaster that will resonate for years to come with people in Turkey and Syria. It reminds one of the quakes in Japan and Los Angeles where v=builders learned lessons. But the pain remains as a reminder to all who will listen. 

Super Bowl Monday?

Last night (or was it this morning) I watched the Super Bowl live - I think for the first time in my life. It didn’t kick off until midnight thirty here I the Netherlands and I got home just before 5 am. But it was an interesting experience. 

I volunteer as a board member for a local organization that gets people together for activities. It helps to link older people who have fewer contacts with others, helps those who don’t have much money for food, is a place for caregivers to come and rest while their partners with Alzheimer are cared for and tries to help neighbors get to know one another. One of the other board members is a young man who also happens to play American Football for the Maastricht Wildcats. 

In the US this might not seem so strange - except that this young man is recently into his 30’s. In the US every self-respecting high school has some sort of football team. But if you talk about football here, you usually mean soccer. Everyone plays soccer. There are even teams for 5 year-olds. 

American Football is something else all together. But Maastricht has a real team, in the first division of the Dutch league. And I was invited by this young man to come watch the Super Bowl with his teammates. So I made sure that I had taken a quick nap and headed off to see if Kansas City could beat Philadelphia (I am a Bronco’s fan, but the Chiefs are a close second for me). 

I spent much of the evening/morning talking football in Dutch and English. Many of the players are international, so speak English. Most of the people present were Eagles fans, so it made for a fun tension. And the game did not disappoint. The most interesting thing for me were some of the conversations. 

One of the players was introduced as “our church-going player” who also sang in the choir. I was introduced to him as someone who would know what he experienced, since I was also an active Christian. 

During the game two ads were shown about “He gets us… Jesus”. One of the guys I was sitting with asked: “Who is this?” 

I looked a bit surprised and asked “Jesus?” 

He responded, “Yeah, I know who Jesus is. But an ad like that cost big bucks. Who is behind it?” 

This led to a conversation about what the ads were saying and how the focus was on Jesus. I do not really know who paid for the ad, but it gave me an opportunity to focus conversation on Jesus as well - for a moment. In the meantime my board member friend had apologized for his rough language and we continued with good topics, including football and life. 

By 4 am we were all cleaning up and heading out to our cars or bikes to go home in the very thick mist that had set in. Everyone was happy. Well, no. Me and one other fan of the Chiefs was happy. The others were resigned and tired. I am sure some of them would need to study for the next day (some are students). Others would have to go to work. But I was thankful for this opportunity to get to know some people because of a sport event. 

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:2-6

Whatsit Wednesday: Klompen

Often, when people think of or talk about Holland, they think of tulips and wooden shoes. Perhaps in the same way that when people think of the United States they think of cowboy hats, boots and big cars or hamburgers. Every country has some sort of stereotype. 

But stereotypes usually have some basis in fact and there are indeed tulips in the Netherlands and the Dutch do have a historical and modern link to wooden shoes. In Dutch the wooden shoes are called ‘klompen’. These days you are only likely to find klompen in the tourist shops in the tourist cities - sold to tourists. But that is not how it began and not necessarily how it stands. 

The klomp (single tense of the plural ‘klompen’) is actually a very practical tool. These days people elsewhere might wear crocs or steel-toed shoes, but the klomp was the forerunner of these practical shoes. A good piece of wood keeps your toes safe in dangerous work conditions, so klompen were used by Dutch workers in some situations. But they are also easy to clean and cannot easily be pierced by such things as a thorn or stones. So Gardners and farmers wore them as well. 

As a matter of fact, there are still plenty of gardeners and farmers who wear them. They sometimes wear a sort of leather sock, so that the klomp doesn’t shift too easily. But such a shoe is still quite handy. I have seen street layers wear them as they put down the ‘kinderkoppen’ (more about that here). 

So if you visit The Netherlands (or Holland as a tourist might call it) and purchase some nice wooden shoes, remember that they are still very much a practical, useful style of footwear. And if you are interested in tulips, you can read more about that here.  We will save windmills for another day. 

Working out

As I have mentioned here before, we have quite an international group now in Maastricht. This means that our worship time is translated from Dutch to English and vice-versa. But several of the young people, students and young professionals, wanted to organize a weekly time together to dig into the word of God together and invite their friends. This would be in English. 

So we have been able to meet the past month with these young people and have been looking into Paul’s letter to the young man, Timothy (1 Timothy). It has been exciting to see the desire of these young people to not only walk with God in their lives, trying to be good students, good colleagues and choosing to do what is right, but also to see their desire to learn from God’s word. 

1 Timothy has presented us with various examples of what they are experiencing in their daily lives as well. What do you do when you have a problem with a manager? How do you make things right when you have said something wrong? Which things are most important to speak about and how can we do that? How can we be an example? 

We are thankful for these young men and women and look forward to the coming weeks as well. As with many young people and professionals, it is not always easy to find a time to get together. But they struggle with that and find time. We are encouraged by their example. 

For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance.  1 Timothy 4:8-9

Whodunit Wednesday: Discoverers and travelers

I love maps. Shirley knows that if I had a choice I would decorate our walls with world maps. Old maps. Maps with all the countries. Simple geographical maps. Brown, tea-stained maps in great frames behind glass. Globes sitting on tables (maybe made into a lamp). I love maps. 

I have always loved traveling. Maybe that was because my family grew up traveling. We lived in 4 countries before I was in 3rd grade and I had already traveled in a ship, a plane, a train and a bus in that period. I always say that I was born with ‘wanderlust’ in my veins (the desire to travel). So maybe it is not strange that I love maps - and that we live in Belgium and work in the Netherlands. 

Mercator - the one who made the Mercator projection of the world, the map that most people are familiar with when thinking about world maps (and which grossly misrepresents the sizes of continents) - was a Belgian, born in Rupelmonde in the area of Antwerp. Gerardus Mercator was a geographer, cartographer and cosmographer. All of those ‘graphers’ means he put it on paper. His world map saw the light in 1569 and was used for sailors. 

And many of those sailors in those days were Dutchmen opening up the world with their sailing voyages of discovery. New Holland (later to be known as Australia), New Zealand (the original “Zeeland” is in the Netherlands), New Amsterdam (later known as New York) were all Dutch. The Dutch East India Company opened trade to Indonesia, China and India. 

The Dutch were also busy in the West, putting their stamp on South America (Surinam) and the Caribbean (Curaçao, Saint Martin, Aruba, Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba) through the Dutch West India Company. This was the golden era of sailing, trade and discovery (I wrote about this here).

What is thrilling is the idea that whether we stay where we are or travel, the world is at our feet and God is everywhere. We have talked about all the cultures present in our worship services every Sunday and how we have been blessed to travel to visit and work with the church in so many places. It amazes me to see that God’s kingdom is everywhere - wherever He is King. Is He King of your life?