Home Assignment 2026 Stage 1

Tuesday morning early Alexander showed up at the door ready to drive us to the airport. It is amazing to have such wonderful brothers and sisters in the church who are more than willing to take time in their day to help. This day meant not only that we had to get up early, but that Alexander had to get up even earlier to come get us and drive through early morning traffic towards Brussels to get us to the airport. Thankfully the traffic wasn’t extreme and we arrived without any problems. 

Our concerns had of course been that things at the airport might not go very smoothly. In the past weeks there had been stories of strikes by airport employees, flights being canceled because of high airfoil costs or extra long lines because of new European customs requirements. We are quite familiar with the various normal possible delays and we couldn’t do anything about anything new happening, so we just put it out of our minds and moved ahead. Having only carry-on luggage and a personal item made things easier. And indeed, it seemed all lights were on green and we got to our gate without any trouble, ready to fly. 

Our flight with United took off soon time and we started the first leg of our trip (although the leg had actually already started back with Alexander picking us up). We sat next to a nice, but quiet man who was French-speaking and very polite. The usual airplane dance of letting your row-mates know that someone has to use the rest room was only engaged in a few time. 

First, there is a tap on the shoulder and a polite request. Everyone then removes the things on their laps (including the blankets which were quite necessary), moving into the aisle until all have exited. Then those who do not use the restroom (our seats, by the way were directly in front of the restroom) stand and wait, perhaps stretching, mostly simply trying not to bump into the shoulders of those sitting. Finally, it is time to do the sitting dance where all return to their place, picking up the dropped bits in the seat and establishing oneself again in the seat, ready to continue the flight comfortably seated. 

Our flight from Brussels arrived in Chicago without any incident and we moved to our next gate where we were to take the second part of this leg - a flight to Dallas, Texas.  Normally, this would be the easy last bit of the trip, but there was a delay. In the end we left more than an hour late, having boarded the plane and waited on the tarmac for something to happen. 

The young gentlemen next to us in the aisle was taking his first trip to Texas - a business trip. The plane had been delayed because there wasn’t enough space in the overhead bins and all of the luggage was needing to be reshuffled to be safe for flying. This announcement was one we had never heard before. In the end we arrived without much incident, having tried to sleep a bit on this flight. It had, after all, been almost 20 hours since we started this whole leg. 

Of course we were worried that the delay for this last flight might have influenced the other reservations we had made. We still had to pick up a rental car and head to a hotel for the night. Standing in the line at the rental place I could hear them telling the people before me that there simply weren’t any cars to offer them. I calmed my thoughts and was patient. When we could step up to the counter, the young lady took our papers, typed into the computer in front of her and handed me the contract for our rental. It was waiting patiently for us in the lot. 

We drove to our hotel through the spaghetti that is the highway system around Dallas-Fort Worth. Our hotel knew we were coming and had a room ready for us as well. Many of you travellers will be thinking, “Of course, it was. That’s how reservations work.” But I was simply thankful that we had a place where I could finally stretch out long and just crash. We took a shower and fell into sleep - waking up twenty-three million times to go to the restroom throughout the night. But we had arrived. 

The next day (the first real day of our trip in the US) we were able to drive off to our first stop on this Home Assignment, Abilene, Texas. The clouds were gathered and threatening to rain - which everyone in Texas has been praying for. At the same time we would drive by a section not more than 50 miles away where a tornado was touching ground. Thankfully no one was injured in that town and we didn’t see any of that. 

Toward the evening we went to a congregation (Westgate) for a bring-your-dinner fellowship. We were able to meet several members from our previous supporting congregation, 11th and Willis. It was good to share time together. Afterwards I was able to present the Bible study, talking about our work in the Netherlands and Belgium and linking that to the grace and might of our wonderful God. You are not too small. God is using you wherever you are for His glory if you are allowing Him in your life. 

The rest of this first leg will include a tax talk (US taxes) a fish-fry out at a ranch, a Sunday full of meeting and talking as well as wonderful worship time with another family of Christ and a last drive back over toward Dallas-Ft. Worth. But that is for another time. Hopefully we will be able to share some pictures of our Texas time by the next post.