Whatsit Wednesday: Keurig and Douwe Egberts coffee

At the end of August Keurig Dr. Pepper, an American company that sounds Dutch, acquired JDE Peet which owns the ultimate Dutch coffee brand, Douwe Egberts. 

I remember during one of our recent Home Assignments when we spend a summer traveling in the US, visiting our supporting congregations and family that many people had a Keurig machine in their kitchen. This was a way of making single cup coffees. I was surprised, because the name “Keurig” sounds Dutch. As a matter of fact it translates to things like: neat, elegant, excellent, choice, gentlemanly (or ladylike). And yet it is not Dutch. 

The Keurig brand - as I mentioned in a previous post (see here) - was created by two Americans in the 1990’s. It is now part of the conglomerate of Keurig Dr.Pepper which makes the Keurig machines and various beverages. Anyone from Texas knows about Dr Pepper. It surprised me to find it in connection with coffee. 

But now this beverage company has acquired the Dutch coffee brand, Douwe Egberts. When Phillips first invented the Senseo machine (another single serve coffee machine which is more prevalent in Europe), they partnered with coffee brand Douwe Egberts, wanting to give the new machines and its coffee a caché, a bit of elegance. Unfortunately for the coffee brand, they only had a contract with the coffee machine makers for a few years. When the contract expired, every supermarket in the country could make the coffee pads that work in the machine, removing Douwe Egberts profit while increasing Phillips profit. 

Now the coffee brand will be able to take over the United States via a different coffee machine that sounds completely Dutch, unless you know about that Dr Pepper stuff. How do you make your coffee?

Sing and be happy

This month is a month of singing. We are thankful that we can help congregations in their singing. We enjoy the time together as much as they and we all learn something from one another. This has always been a part of our ministry and as long as I can sing it will remain so. God has put a song in our hearts and singing is what we all will be doing together when we finally get Home. 

This month we have several opportunities to help in singing. The congregation in Haarlem (about 2,5 hours north of us) asked me to come and help them learn new songs and learn how to sing better. We went up at the end of August and will return near the end of September. This is a mix of learning music notation - what is a fermata, what is the difference between ff and mp, why do we breathe at a comma - and remembering that singing for God is about singing with your heart and your head. 

I always want to remind people that God made us to sing. Singing is divine, built for who and what we are. It is the only thing that touches mind and soul at the same time. You can literally feel the sound in your body, but you need to pay attention to the words you are singing. So taking time to look at the words in a song, making sure we understand it, is just as important as learning the rhythm or tempo or harmony. 

The group in Haarlem was excited to learn new songs and to learn more about singing. It was also a great time of fellowship, especially for us. We do not get to see the members of this congregation very often, although many of my Dutch roots come from here. I worked as an evangelism apprentice here when I first came to the Netherlands and learned my Dutch in this city. 

This past weekend we were in Cologne, Germany for a day of singing. Every February Uli and I see each other at the Advanced Bible Study Series (ABSS) in Germany. He is from the congregation in Cologne and I am from Maastricht. We started getting together for a singing back in 2014 when we talked about including Aachen again in some way. Aachen is in the middle between the two cities. We organized a singing and have kept this up (with some exceptions during corona years) every year. We have been in Cologne twice, in Aachen twice and in Maastricht three or four times. 

This singing day n Cologne brings us together with another congregation. We had 6 members from Maastricht attend (it would have been 8, but two were incapacitated, including Shirley). The group also included a refugee couple and a visiting couple from the neighborhood. We sing and speak more in German, but this time we also sang some in French. When we started members from Liege, Maastricht, Aachen and Cologne all attended, making it quite international. This time in Cologne we remembered that in heaven we will all be able to sing together in whatever language it will be. 

This coming weekend several of the members from Maastricht will join others from around the Netherlands and Belgium at the Family Day at camp. So we will get to sing and once again enjoy the wonderful fellowship of being together. This time we will simply take part in the singing, rather than lead any of it. But a week later we will be in Eindhoven for our monthly 3rd Wednesday singing there where we also help with learning new songs. Often people simply need to learn a song and see that they can sing it. 

We enjoy singing songs that members in the Netherlands and Belgium have written, songs written by Russian brothers and translated either into English or Dutch (or German), or new songs crossing over to Europe from other areas of the world. It is exciting to see how the song that God has put in our hearts continues to pour over into words of praise to Him. 

(You can find more photos of our time in Haarlem and Cologne here.)

Whodunit Wednesday: Jim and Ruth Krumrei

This past week Jim and Ruth Krumrei celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary. Every month our town in Belgium puts the various wedding anniversaries of the town in the paper with a picture of the couple and often of their family. These  pictures and mentions begin with 50 years. Nothing less is worthy of mention. I have seen a 65 year a few times and even a 70 year once. I wonder if we will get to see the 75 year anniversary of Jim and Ruth. 

Jim and Ruth live in Haarlem, the Netherlands and are an integral part of my history. When I came to the Netherlands as an apprentice, it was Jim who was my mentor. It was from him and Ruth that I learned, by example, how important it is to have a regular rhythm of reading in God’s word. I was at their house for dinner many nights and they always ended the evening by reading in God’s word. This was how I learned a lot of my Dutch, since the reading was done in Dutch. 

Ruth always took care of me, preparing her delicious rhubarb pie (from rhubarb in their tiny garden out the back) or making her own muesli for me when I was there for breakfast. As a young guy cooking on his own (and I still don’t really know how to cook) it was good to have a place to get real food and have a “mom” who took care of me. Even though I would never have admitted that I needed taking care of at that age. 

Jim and Ruth have always been a part of the church in the Netherlands. This past weekend I was in Haarlem to help the congregation with singing and Jim showed up for a short time. Even at his advanced age (they are both above 90 years-old) he loves to share his joy in Christ. And Ruth will never stop talking about how mighty her loving Saviour is. This time of persistence in purity is such an example to me and others around them. 

No one knows how old they will become. Sometimes I am surprised at my own age and wonder how I got here. I think Jim and Ruth are a good example. They simply got to that age one day at a time, moving forward faithfully with what they know God finds good. That is the type of person I want to be, every day. 

Sean Michael

Recently we were talking with people about names. In the US it is common to have a first name and middle name. My oldest brother is named after my father, using his middle name. He is Christopher Francis. Although I am the 3rd child, I am the 2nd son, so I am named after my mother: Scott Patrick (my mom is Patricia). Most of us are named after famous people at the time. I am named for Scott Carpenter, an astronaut. My younger brother is named after John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King (he is John Martin). 

In Belgium and the Netherlands there are lots of people with only one name. They do not have a middle name. Or if they come from a Catholic family, they have LOTS of names - all named after the parents or grandparents of godparents. But most only have one name. And those of us from the US often only use our first name. The middle name is reserved for when Mom really wants to get your attention: “Scott Patrick Raab you get over here RIGHT NOW!”

Often a name is chosen because is means something. A family we met recently had given all of their children Biblical names that mean something in Hebrew or Greek. But some parents simply go through the name book looking for something that sounds good as it rolls off the tongue. If your last name has three syllables, you might choose shorter first and middle names. 

We had tried to find a name for our first son that would fit in two different languages and cultures. It ended up not fitting in either very well. So when our second son came and we were already living in Belgium, we were certain that we wanted an “S” - we were all an “s” at this point - but we wanted something that would sound right and also work in the language. 

Sean Michael Raab was born on September 1 a few years ago. He had tried to show up a few weeks earlier while we were at camp, but the hospital sent us home - “false labor”. But when he came, he made his presence known. He had a low voice for a baby. And he looked at you with very serious eyes. But oh, he was beautiful. Just like his older brother had been, but different. Our boys were of course the most beautiful of babies in the world. 

We had to decide if we would use both of Sean’s names or just the one. Would he be Sean-Michael? Or Sean Michael? Or Sean? We called him “Sean Michael” for a while when he was a baby, but it ended up as simply Sean (until he wasn’t listening and the “Michael” had to be added). People here still weren’t sure how to pronounce his name. We thought “Sean Connery” would be enough of a clue, but they pronounced this actor as sée-uhn kahn-uh-ree. 

It has been a pleasure watching Sean grow up. We are thrilled with how he cares for the people around him and has become a teacher. He was always a teacher, willing to share what he had learned - if you could understand it. Today is Sean’s birthday and he is far away, but we are thankful for video calls and he and his wife Jilll taking time from their day to say hello. 

(Picture from 2023 during our Home Assignment)