Wild Wonderful Wednesday: Walking in Daalhof

We meet as a congregation in an area of Maastricht called “Daalhof”. This area used to be the surroundings of a roman villa. Then it was farm land. There is still a working farm and a Children’s Farm, which has become a bit more than a petting zoo. It has camels and several other animals that one would more likely find in a zoo. 

In the middle of the neighborhood is a Roman road. It is actually a walking path and bike path, but it is on the same trajectory that the old Roman road took through this area. This road separates the neighborhood into two sections. The section built earlier looks like a more normal neighborhood with apartments and housing blocks. The newer section is sometimes called “doolhof” or maze in a play on words. It is a maze of narrow roads with houses built in small little enclaves. 

If we take a walk out past the border stone, which is on the edge of the neighborhood, we enter Belgium, without really ever knowing it. This is an area where people walk their dogs - and there are lots of people with dogs in the Netherlands. The dirt path leads out to the Albert Canal which runs between the Belgian cities of Liege in the south (French-speaking) and the harbor of Antwerp about an hour’s drive away. 

We enjoy walking around the neighborhood at different times of the year. IN the early Spring the cherry blossoms color several streets pink, while other streets color orange with flags if the Dutch national team is playing and doing well. In February red, yellow and green flags appear in the streets to celebrate Carnaval and we often see people dressed in costume waiting at the bus stop to go into the city center.  

(photo of a section of the "doolhof" in the Spring)

Whensday: Flood of summer 2021

Eline woke up early. She was staying down at camp with her family - mom and dad and brother, as well as grandma and cousins. It was a fun week to be together in a very nice place - Bible camp. This morning she was hoping it would be a bit better weather since it had been raining. Especially last night. As she looked out the window she was surprised at how high the creek was that ran next to camp, so she went and woke Grandma to show her. In a very short time - 15 minutes or so - they whole group had gathered as many belongings as they could, loaded the car and driven away from camp. The creek had become a flood. 

That day in 2021 the weather people called it a water bomb. It had rained enormously in a very short period that night. Later, studies would show that some poor decisions had been made as far as opening gates or closing gates. These decisions contributed to some of the extreme damage caused in the various valleys that were flooded by this water bomb. 

At our Bible camp the bubbling brook that runs through cam became a streaming river and swept away all sorts of things. There was a wooden building behind our dormitory which was swept into the dormitory and torn to pieces as it was swept along. All of the tools and metal lockers full of things we use for camp were swept away. Thankfully the lawn mower was off for repairs. 

The tiles that had recently been placed on our terrace , a place to sit outside to eat or study, were rolled up and pushed off into the adjoining field, along with the picnic tables (heavy wooden tables). It looked like a frozen wave of cement tiles. Glass from broken windows accompanied stones thrown up from the creek bed and covered the field. It would be a year before we were able with several cleaning crews to clear up the field well enough to be played in without danger of being cut by glass or sharp stone. 

That summer of 2021 the youth Bible camp weeks had to adjust. The first planned week was only a week after the flood and had to find somewhere else to hold the week. The Benjamins also had to seek other accommodation until the camp could be cleaned up. But by August several crews had been to clean up well enough that the Teen camp could be held back at our normal Bible camp grounds. The kitchen and bathrooms had been flooded, but had been cleaned and disinfected. 

The summer of 2021 was to be a summer that would be different for Bible camp. The summer of 2020 had been a special year because of covid rules. This year was to have been more “back-to-normal”. The flood made it a memorable summer for everyone. In the villages and cities around camp there were people who lost their houses and lives. Some have, even now, not yet been able to recover from the loss. We are thankful for all the people around us that made this bad situation into a strong memory.

(Picture is after the flood and after some of the cleanup - the flood took all the tiles away and the cleanup crews came later and stacked them).

Blessing in Bible Camp

One of the most important moments in my spiritual life was when I went to Bible Camp. For me that was a Carter camp, run by Jack, Dave and Ron Carter in Colorado. It is still being run today (run by Bret Carter and Julie Oehlert) and is called Kamp Koinonia. These camps bring all sorts of memories and touch lives in so many different ways. 

As scenes of the Texas flooding filled my news feed, I thought of our Bible camp a few years back and the flooding here (more on that later this week). But I also thought of all of the ways that these camps have taught and are teaching young people and parents about the grace and glory of God. God is here always and we will all experience amazing wonderful times, and difficult challenging times. But He is there to guide us through. That is what I remember learning at Bible camp. 

When I first attended, I was not a Christian. I was a believer in God, but my life did not belong to Jesus Christ. And my life at times seemed to be falling apart. My parents were divorcing, my relationships within my family were strained and I didn’t know what was going to happen. It was camp that was part of what taught me that God is everywhere, all the time. 

Camps like these teach us that Christians know what fun us. As a matter of fact, Christians know best how to have fun. When we love one another and are in tune with God and His will for us and our hearts and bodies, we can really have fun and experience really joy. That is one of the things I learned when going to camp and one of the things I try to pass on in 0our Bible camp weeks here. 

This weekend Shirley and I will be down at Ardennen Bijbelkamp leading Jongerenkamp. This is the 15-20 year-old week and our week is almost full (21 campers). We will be looking at our identity in Christ and will be enjoying getting to know these young people. We pray that we will be a good example to them as so many were for us in the past. 

We have been praying for Kamp Koinonia, Midwest Bible Camp, WCYC, Flaming Pine, King’s Kamp and many more that we have experienced in the past and know are taking place in the coming weeks. We would appreciate your prayers for us and the kids in the 4 weeks of our camp, starting this Saturday and running through August 16. I will not be posting next week (although I may post the Where oh Where Wednesday early), but you will know where we are. 

(You can find pictures of all the years we have been doing camp on our picture site)

Whatsit Wednesday: Bookbag on a flagpole or "hanging out the flag"

The last several weeks the Netherlands has become a country of book bags. As you drive through the city you will see them: book bags hanging out on the flagpole under a flapping Dutch flag. This shows that there is a graduate at that house. Everyone is happy. And everyone can know it.

In the Netherlands when you are in your senior year of high school, you can look forward to exams at the ends of the year. Not just any exams. Not just end of year exams. These exams are for your whole school time. These state exams test if you have truly learned all that the schools say you have learned, from beginning to end. There is no cramming for the exam this year and then forgetting it. Everything you have learned will be on this test. 

After the exam, students go home and wait anxiously. They have to wait for a call from their teacher. They will be called one way or the other, but of course they hope to hear that hey have passed. There are tons of examples of students picking up the phone and listening intently to the news given before exploding in joy that they have passed or silently putting the phone down to wonder what their summer will look like. If you do not pass now, you can still re-take the exams and hope to pass the second time. 

But if the scream of joy was heard in your house, then the book bag is ready to be hung out. These leather bags are typical of what the student has been using throughout high school, biking or bussing to school every day for the last 6 years or so. And now everyone in the street can celebrate with eh graduate. Everyone knows. It is not uncommon for neighbors walking by to congratulate the family or whoever is outside at the time. 

André Rieu

When I mention that we work with the church in Maastricht, some people ask if we know André Rieu. We have had people visiting from Australia who have asked about him, people we meet in Germany, and a few of the people we see on our Home Assignment to the US have asked. Who is André Rieu? 

For anyone who enjoys walzes, Strauss music and an entertaining way of presenting music to a broad public, André Rieu is well-known. For more than 20 years he has, with a whole orchestra and set of classical singers, entertained the world and brought classical (sometimes) music to the masses. He sets up a stage based loosely on the palace at Schönbrun in Vienna, Austria and all of the musicians and singers (and dancers) wear period costumes while playing and performing. 

André Rieu is from Maastricht, which is of course why people wonder if we have met him. We do know that he brings his concert to Maastricht every summer. In that week downtown is pretty much shut off to anyone who does not have a ticket. This who have a ticket sit on the Grand Square while hundreds of others (every night) have tickets where they sit at the restaurants which flank the square. They watch the concert on large screens (ro small screens at the restaurants further away) while enjoying a meal and drink. 

Last night I was able for the first time to attend such a concert. I volunteer in the neighborhood and the city decided to treat some volunteers. I got lucky. So, together with three other volunteers from the organization I help, we first went for a meal at city hall where we were welcomed and then enjoyed the concert together. It was a time to connect with others, get a taste of some Maastricht culture (Rieu finishes the concert with songs in the Maastricht dialect that parts of the audience sing along) and enjoy a very international audience. 

There were people from Germany, France, Denmark, England, Wales and Scotland and all over the Netherlands and Belgium. I had never seen the market (in front of city hall) so full of touring buses. It took us a good 20 minutes to shuffle along back to our car (which was only parked 5 minutes away). You could hear almost every language along the way if you listened carefully. 

It was a long evening, but a good opportunity to get to know people while enjoying music. I would never have been able to go to such a thing (the tickets were 170 euro a piece), but was glad to be gifted such a chance. And it was good to be able to talk with colleagues about life, faith and what is important, as well as laugh and sing. 

Whodunit Wednesday: Smurfs

This past weekend Brussels was q a-flutter with excitement over a movie premiere and a vist from Rihanna. That Rihanna would make an appearance in the capital of Belgium had everything to do with the movie premiere and her part in it. The 4th movie of the Smurfs will soon be in the theaters with a song written for it from Rihanna and her voice as one of the title roles. Everything in Brussels was "surfed", even Manneken Pis. 

What are “Smurfs”, you say? And how did they get to Belgium? Belgium has a rich comic book history. Lucky Luke, Tin-Tin (called “Kuifje” in the Flemish version) and many more all come fro Belgium. There is even a tourist walk around Brussels where visitors can discover various walls decorated with well-known comic book characters from Belgium. 

The Smurfs, the little blue characters with white hats, are loved all over the world, although they are not always called “Smurfs”. In Germany they are the Schlümpfe, in Italy the Puft and in Spain the Pitufos. They were created as a side character by Belgian artist Peyo (pen name of Pierre Culliford) in 1958 and were first known by their French name - Les Schtroumpfs. “Smurf” is the Dutch translation. 

These days you can find Smurfs in advertising, tv, the ice Capades, video games, theme parks, toys and - now 4 times - in film. In the film which hit theaters in 2011, Katy Perry played the voice of Smurfette. In the animated film from 2017, Smurfette was voiced by Demi Lovato. In this most recent version the tradition of voicing Smurfette by a leading pop singer has been fulfilled by Rihanna. 

In the US most kids from the 80’s will remember The Smurfs from the Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon. In all of the different media - comic book, tv series, cartoon, film - the word “smurf” is used generously throughout and can mean all sorts of things. It can be used as a verb (“Don’t smurf it up”) or a noun. What it might actually mean to say “I’m surfing to the smurf”, however, is up to the speaker and the listener.