Making a choice

It is intriguing to see how God can use people. Many of us perhaps can understand king David’s amazement that God would use him. David knew who he was, his own shortcomings. But he also knew how mighty God was. And he trusted that. Even when he messed up royally. 

We have always tried to remember that God is using us however He sees fit and in ways that He sees as possible. We try to be faithful in simply continuing to follow Him and speak of His wonderful love. As we do this, we try to remember that each person makes their own choices in their lives. We cannot change people. They must allow themselves to be changed by meeting the amazing love of God. 

Years ago we met several of our next door neighbors when we offered a chance to “Get to Know Jesus” by looking into the gospels. The house next to us is used as a half-way house for patients dealing with mental struggles and transitioning back into society. Some of these neighbors grabbed the chance to meet someone they had heard of but never really known anything about. 

One of those neighbors was Jan. He called himself a speeding train that always moved at high speed. When we met him he was coming down off of extreme medication. He had grown up attending a Jesuit school and was very intelligent. Hen enjoyed the group reading in the gospels and was familiar with the story of Jesus. Finding Jesus in his own life was more of a struggle. 

After he left the house next door and went on into society, some of his struggles returned with a vengeance and he ended up in prison in Antwerp. I would visit him there every month and try to encourage him and remind him of Jesus who we had met. He chose to do things his own way, which was often quite confusing (including making his own religion of which he was the pope). 

About two weeks ago he called in the evening. He regularly called when he had enough telephone credits and asked me to look up addresses and phone numbers on my computer. This time he mentioned that he had set up his cell to die. I let him know that he was not alone and that God was mightier even than his situation. But later in the week I got news that he had continued with his choice to end his life. 

We know that God is able to change things to help us. We know especially that God is able to change US to be the people that He knows we can be. But our choices influence further what direction we will take. We can choose to follow Him or go our own way. And those choices will determine where we end up. We will miss seeing Jan and are pained that we will not see him again. And we will double our efforts to remind the people around us how important it is that we choose to follow Jesus now, today. 

We are not given tomorrow. We have today. Jesus has proven that He is able to keep us safe if we walk with Him. He has done all that is necessary to free us of the troubles to which we are enslaved. But it remains our choice. We pray that you, too, will choose to walk with Him, get to know Jesus in your life. 

Whensday: Moving the clock or the calendar?

At the end of this month we will move the clocks back an hour. “Fall back” is what we say to remember which way the clock goes. A young person recently asked me: “Do we really need to do that? Doesn’t it happen automatically?” And of course, if you only have your computer or smart phone to use as a time keeping instrument in your house, perhaps this could be true. But many people will still have to think about the various clocks around the house. 

In Belgium and the Netherlands we always change our clocks, moving out of Daylight Savings Time (DST) on the 4th Saturday to Sunday. This year that will be October 25-26 (we are technically supposed to change the clock at 2 am). The US will change a week later, if I understand correctly, because DST should end on the first Sunday in November which will be November 2. So we here in Belgium will already be well-rested before the Americans finally set their clocks back. 

Now imagine that you not only have to jump in time, but completely skip several days. That is what happened in 1582 for Italy, Spain, Portugal and Poland. In that year those countries skipped from October 4 to October 15 when they decided to switch to the new Gregorian calendar. Of course it took decades to be adopted in other places. 

Day light Savings Time was officially introduced in the US in 1966 and has been a bone of contention ever since. People talk every year about ending it, but wonder if they should then keep Winter Time as the default or Summer Time. As long as we don’t lose two weeks on our calendar as they did in 1582, I think I fine with either decision. 

Planning for Camp

This past weekend I was blessed to sit down with about 20 people to evaluate and plan camp. We wanted to see what had gone well this past summer or needed changing and also look forward to the coming year. In 2025 we hade full or almost full camp weeks all summer. Shirley and I were blessed to help run the oldest group this year and I helped with the Family camp week as well. Next year it looks like I will be helping with the youngest group again. 

The exciting thing about Ardennen Bijbel Kamp (ABK) is how much the church members from around Belgium and the Netherlands are invested in it. There is an amazing mix of younger and older people who help each other plan and run the various camp weeks. These are memory-making times for so many young people who then also go on to help others make the same kinds of memories in their lives.  

In 2026 we will have 3 new camp leaders, people who have stepped up to a challenge to help others. It is exciting to see how this happens and to see the courage of those who step up. A young brother with a growing new family will lead the teen group, assisted by another young couple with a new baby. In the Fall a young man will lead his first Fall Camp after having helped this year in various camps. And in the Spring, when we meet to work on camp, a brother has stepped up to be present and help direct the efforts while our usual leader for that week has to be away. 

In the meantime there are all sorts of new teams forming. Bible camp is a place where people can put their talents to use helping others. It is a place to learn how to lead and how to help. It is a place to help young people and families grow in faith in the Lord, learning in practice what God tells us in His word. I am so thankful that we get to be part of this effort and working together with these people. 

Whatsit Wednesday: Vlaai

Recently a baker from our town of Lanaken got together with a local Dutch baker from Maastricht to bake the largest “vlaai” in the world. It was even recorded in the Guiness Book of Records. This typical Limburg pie was an apricot crumble version, but there are many different variants. 

A “vlaai” (sounds like “fly”, holding a bit longer on the vowel in the middle: fla-ee) is a pie. Some people might be familiar with an apple pie. It will have a crust, lots of good apples in it, and topped with criss-crossed bits of pastry. You can do this with cherries in the middle or apricots and they will still all be called a vlaai. But the people Limburg (a province in both the Netherlands and Belgium) consider their vlaai to be the most delicious. And the choice is also immense, although everyone has their favorite. There is a pudding vlaai with crumbly bits on top, a rice custard that is just the right consistency topped with chocolate shavings (my favorite), and many others. 

Suffice it to say that vlaai from Limburg is often what tourists come to experience in this area. And now they will be able to try one just like the largest vlaai in the world. It is amazing that this apricot monstrosity (weighing over 1000 kilo and measuring 7 meters across) was made by our local baker. It was exciting that it was done with the help of a French pastry chef with a store in Maastricht and a local baker’s school. Both Belgium and the Netherlands are claiming the honor.

Prayer Warriors

Teamwork is amazing too see and experience. Accomplishing something on your own is exciting, but being part of a whole is even more enervating and challenging. We are members of a body, God’s team. He is using us. And we team together with people around the world. 

The amazing thing is how powerful prayer is in this team work. As with any team, we sometimes forget all the parts and only focus on certain elements - the ones more visible. Everyone notices the striker who kicks the goal, the basketball player who makes the dunk, the wide receiver and quarterback who hook up for an amazing touchdown. Some think they are doing nothing - “All I can do is pray.” But prayer is the power behind change. 

Jesus mentions that we can make our desires known before God. He says that if we ask we receive, if we knock the door will be opened. He will give us what is best for us. God is just like us as fathers (or is it the other way around) - a father loves to be asked to help and to be trusted to help. God wants to hear what we want and wants to hear how we trust Him to do it. 

Most recently the body of Christ in Maastricht has been praying for many people we know who are seeking God in their lives. Many of these people are clearly seeking Him. They are on a path to become a child of God. Others do not even know that they are seeking God. They are seeking peace and we know that peace only comes from God, the Prince of Peace. As we pray, we look for opportunities to share the grace and love that has been shared with us. 

We are so very thankful for others who are also praying for us, for our words, as we are praying for people who are seeking peace. We know that we are part of a team. Many of you are partnering with us as we are partnering with you. We pray for one another and thank God for the ways that He is working in so many lives around the world. 

Thank you for prayers for our conversations. Thank you for prayers for the various activities we have planned (for Bible camp, youth weekends, Bible studies, retreats and more). Thank you for being part of the team. Everything you are praying for is very important. Knowing that God is our strength and calling on Him for His strength is extremely important. And it is so very encouraging knowing that you are praying for us. 

Whodunit Wednesday: Edith Cavell

Edith Cavell was British and yet she is known in Belgium for her exhaustive work. She was born in 1865 in Swardeston near Norwich. The first time she experienced Belgium was as a governess for a family in Brussels from 1890-1895. It was after this that she became a nurse and started her work in Belgium. 

The founder of the Belgian Red Cross, Belgian royal surgeon Dr. Antoine Depage, asked Edith to be matron of a nursing school in Belgium in 1907. She trained nurses for three hospitals, 24 schools and 13 kindergartens in Belgium. When WWI broke out she was visiting her widowed mother in England but returned to Belgium and her work there. 

It was during this time of war, in German-occupied Brussels that she helped many allied soldiers and fighting-age men to escape to the neutral Netherlands. Many of these were wounded soldiers she had also helped nurse. She was arrested by the Germans in 1915, put in prison and, in the end, executed for working with the enemies of Germany. 

Although she was a nurse and could not be prosecuted under the Geneva Convention, since she had helped further than medical needs, she was seen as complicit in the war. She was not arrested for espionage, but for war treason. She was executed by firing squad on October 12, 1915. Her last thoughts and words, which are inscribed on a memorial to her near Trafalgar Square, are: “Standing as I do in view of God and Eternity, I realise that patriotism is not enough, I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.”

Cavell was 49 at the time of her execution and was a pioneer of modern nursing in Belgium. Among the many memorials around the world to Edith Cavell, her name is among the 35 names on a memorial in Schaerbeek in Brussels. The name Edith was not common in 1915 until this event. French singer Edith Piaf who was born two months after the execution was named after Edith Cavell. In 2005 the French-speaking Belgians voted her 48th greatest Belgian. On October 12 it will have been 110 years since her execution.