Normal

It is amazing how many things one can do online these days. Most institutions try to get you to do everything online. This means, of course that the information you give has to fit what they are requesting. I remember years ago when we first made our website for our singing group, Listen Up!, that we wanted people from around the world to be able to order a cd (remember those shiny discs that held music). This meant that the form they filled in from a drop-down menu had to include all of the countries in the world. 

The reason we specifically wanted this was because we had often had trouble ordering or filling in information on US websites. Every drop-down menu had all 50 states and other various areas, but nothing more. There was always a place where we had to fill in our state (in addition to our address, which included our city). The ZIP code had to fit the US way of doing things. The Belgian post code only has four numbers. The Dutch post code has four numbers and two letters. 

We realized even back then that we were not “normal”. Even today, when many online stores have figured out that customers can come from across the world, we see that government sites have not figured out that there are plenty of people who do not fit the “normal”. And it is not simply US government sites. Every government is full of red tape and specific ways of doing things. The Dutch tax office has a saying on their radio advertisements: “We can’t make it any funner, but we can make it easier.” But they don’t. 

We have always been extremely thankful that we have people in the US who take care of all of our tax situations for us. This began decades ago when brother McCurdy in Abilene, Texas saw it as a way to support missions. He did missionaries taxes for free. And what a blessing this is. Perhaps he understood that missionaries are already dealing with enough red- tape wherever they are that to mitigate the red tape in the US could only be a blessing. 

So we have always been extremely thankful for E.B. Dotson and now Larry McElroy for the assistance they provide for so many in this way. Because there is nothing “normal” about our situation when it comes to taxes. We were made aware of this fact - again - recently when the Belgian tax office contacted us. 

Everyone who works with us for Ardennen Bijbelkamp, for example, is a volunteer. There are 3 youth weeks and a family week in the summer, a youth week in the Fall and Spring along with a youth weekend in the Fall and Winter. Every single team member of these activities is a volunteer. IN the summer, the volunteers even have to pay to help. This is not normal in our society and certainly not something the tax man can imagine. 

When people want to help and give advice, the advice is often based on what they know in their own normal world. But we have come to understand that we are far from normal. That means that we often have to explain things many times, find ways to prove things that are hard to prove, look for different ways of filling things in and basically trust that it will work out. And these days that means working past chatbots and all of the “normal” answers. We are thankful that we have a God who knows what is going on and is more than mighty to work things out. 

Be thankful for when things work out “normally” and don’t freak out too much when things don’t seem to fit. Keep calm and look further. Ask questions. Give grace in conversations, knowing that the person you are talking to might not be able to understand how different your situation is. And know that God is mighty. Don’t give up; give in to His might and guidance. God is not normal and neither is our life with Him.