Where oh Where Wednesday: Mining in the area

The area where we live is historically an area of coal mining. Both in Limburg of the Netherlands (for which Maastricht is the capitol) and in Limburg of Belgium (where our house is situated) were coal mining areas. The cities of Sittard, Kerkrade and more in the Netherlands grew up around the industry of coal. Maasmechelen and Genk, Belgium - just down the road from us - have now turned their coal mining past into tourist attractions. Because the coal has long been gone. 

Genk has a site called “C-Mine” which now houses a cinema and stores, as well as a major cycling race every year, but previously it was simply a mine. In August I will go on an outing on a steam train. It will take us along the historical mining sites and we will visit the coal mining museum. All of this in the area of Kerkrade and Simpelveld in the Netherlands. 

Down by our Bible Camp we also have many old mining sites. In the past we have taken the kids on an outing to Blegny in Belgium. There they can go down into the mine and experience some of the sights, sounds and smells of the mine. The guide is an old miner and can tell stories of how things used to be. How they had to eat their lunch while working - preferably quickly and before anyone relieved themselves (which also had to be done in the same space. 

The mines are also why this area of both countries is so diverse culturally. Maasmechelen has a Greek, Italian, Turkish, Bulgarian and Polish community - all of whom worked in the mines at the time. They came as guest workers and built their families in Belgium - although some returned to their home countries. Many simply brought their cultural beauties (and problems) to Belgium. So now anyone can go to an Italian or Greek restaurant, visit various Catholic and Orthodox churches and be amazed at the diversity in general. 

The mines closed their doors in the 1970’s and the area has been trying to recover since then from the economic impact. Ford (in Belgium) and Volvo (in the Netherlands) both had a major factory, but these also closed within the last 10 years. Tourism remains a strong calling card to the area of hills and valleys (some made from the “trash” of coal mining). Some of these areas have been turned into beuatiful spa resorts with twisting bike paths running through the lakes. Others have disappeared into the background of the hills surrounding - as in our area of camp. 

(Photo of Terhills resort near Maasmechelen)

Prayer for coming activities

Our summers are always pretty busy. In the coming weeks we have various activities planned for which we covet your prayers. We know that we are only as strong as we trust in God who is our strength. And partners who are praying for us and the people we are working with are a large part of that trust and strength. 

At the end of this week we will start our week of Bible Camp - Benjaminenkamp. This is the week for the 8-11 year-olds. The Senior week (15-20 year-olds) started on Saturday. The Teens will follow the Benjamins and then Family Camp is planned. I am the camp director and teacher for the Benjamin week. Shirley is helping Tonia in the kitchen. We are looking forward to a good and challenging week talking about Jesus in the gospel of Luke. We pray that the kids will grow in faith, but also that the young counselors we have will especially grow in their faith. 

I will also be teaching during Family Camp. I am preparing lessons on “The Joy of the Lord” for the Tuesday and Thursday. In the past years I have helped with the teens as well and may be able to do this again. It is always encouraging to see people we know and meet new people I this week of camp. Please be praying for all of the kids at the various weeks as well as the teams leading those weeks. 

When we get back we will jump right into preparations for an event in the neighborhood of our building in Maastricht. From August 16-23, the neighborhood is planning week of activities from various clubs (sports, music, dance and more) and we as a congregation will also be organizing a walk through the neighborhood and a Black Gospel Workshop. This is an opportunity for people in the neighborhood to get to know us better. Pray for conversations. 

In September we usually hold a singing with the church from Cologne, although we have not yet set a date. That planning will be for the coming days. There is also a Family Day planned at camp that we will attend and encourage members from Maastricht to attend. This is always a time of encouragement and coming together with members from across Belgium and the Netherlands. 

In the meantime we will also be working through getting our house cleaned, seeing what needs to be packed, looking into various administrative tasks that need to be done and having difficult conversations with people we will miss and who will miss us. We will also continue with the various Bible studies and singing opportunities we hold throughout the weeks. Every first Friday of the month is singing in Maastricht. The 3rd Wednesday is singing Eindhoven. And somewhere along the way we will also plan to get back up to Haarlem to help with singing there. 

We are so thankful for so many who not only care about what we are doing here but who pray consistently for these efforts. We continue to pray for you as well. It was so good to see you again and hear how God is blessing you in walking with Him. God is great and is the only One who truly gives us strength for the tasks he has prepared for us. 

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  Ephesians 2:10

PS - I will not be posting next week as we will be at camp. 

Whensday: 250, 200, 150, 100 years ago

We just returned to Belgium from our Home Assignment trip I the US. This is a trip of about 2 months where we visit our various supporting congregations and supporters as well as family. We returned on July 1, just before all the big celebrations in the US, because on July 4 the country celebrated its 250th birthday. This was concurrent with all of the celebrations during the World Cup games, which we mostly saw while at our last stop in New York City. 

As we returned home, we were able to renew our joy in where we live on the canal behind our house. This canal is celebrating its 200th anniversary. It was first dug and used back in 1826. For all those 200 years ships have been plying the waters going to and from Antwerp or Rotterdam. The little “bridge-watcher’s house” down the way (there is no bridge any more) has been turned into a cafe and is well attended all summer. 

Across from our house, our neighbor, Cecile (who watched our house while we were gone) will be celebrating about 150 years of her house. Her farmhouse is a monument in our village and she keeps it up very well. The kitchen, bedstead and more are authentic. Every year she invites the village and any other visitors to a birthday celebration in her gardens where fold musicians perform. She herself plays the accordeon. 

Our house was built in 1936 - not quite 100 years ago, but almost. This house was originally a cafe which served the village. It is in the street of the church, so people leaving the church could find something to drink fairly quickly. When we bought our house in 1992 it had not been a cafe for quite some tie. The original door into the cafe had been bricked up and the separation of the front room from the rest of the house had already been removed to make a living room and dining room. 

Time marches on, wherever we are. Even things that last a long time change, whether it has been 250 or 50 years. The house next door (from 1910) is being remodeled for a young couple, but they have to retain the outside walls. Some people will remember the old couple who lived here. Others will be amazed at the new house. Time moves on. We have lived 34 years in this house. It will soon see some more change again, although it will remain. 

(Photo - birthday celebration of the house across from us)

What soil are you?

In Mark 4:1-20 Jesus tells a story - a parable - about a sower, seed and various soils. It is representative of all the different sorts of reactions to the seed of God, the Word, Jesus Christ. For some, the word is never really ever entertained. For others it never really takes root. For a third group the worries of the world choke it to death. And for the last group the seed grows and bears fruit. 

This is how it is in life as well. Jesus was pointing out what we all can see. There are people who will never really ever entertain listening to the Word of God. As we have talked to people throughout the years, we have seen several of these - although we ourselves do not always see it until much later. We do not always know what kind of person we are dealing with. God does. And there are indeed people who are either disregarding God’s word or being actively hostile. 

Then there are those we have experienced in our time here who have seemed at first to be quite happy and excited with the pearl of great worth they had found in Jesus. But they did not put down roots. They did not ground themselves in the Word or in the grace of God. They liked the feelings at first, took part in the visuals, looking like someone who walks with Christ, but never really got into the word themselves or allowed the word to change their daily lives. 

Each of these categories of people are common. We always pray for everyone as they come in contact with the Word of God, getting to know who Jesus is. We do not know what type of soil they are. That is not our job. You notice in the parable that the sower sows the seed everywhere. We are willing to talk to anyone about Jesus Christ. Not everyone will listen in the same way. And we are not the only ones sowing this wonderful seed. 

This past year and a half we have seen 6 people in Maastricht give their lives into the saving hands of Jesus Christ. There have been others we know in other areas of Belgium and the Netherlands as well. It has been exciting to see how some of the “seedlings” in Maastricht have been growing. There are those who courageously stand up to prevent a brother from sinning. There are those who selflessly help others and are willing to struggle with humility. There are those who are still learning what they are capable of with the strength of God. And there will be those who struggle with the worries of the world or really setting down root. 

We all have the possibility to grow and bear fruit if we trust in God to use us wherever we are. What kind of soil are you? I accepted the seed into my life many years ago, but I still need to accept its working in my life every day anew. What are you doing with the seed that is being planted? 

("The Sower" by Vincent van Gogh in the Kröller Müller Museum)

Whatsit Wednesday: Groasis Waterbox

We know what an oasis is. If you are walking in the desert, you are happy to see an oasis - a place where water is to be found. Trees surround it, even in the middle of the desert. One might use the word symbolically to talk about how something gives comfort in the middle of a tough time. Wednesday evening singing was always an oasis for me as a young Christian in the middle of the week. 

So in 2010 Dutch former flower exporter Pieter Hoff won an award for a plant container designed to help trees to grow in dry areas. He called it the “Groasis Waterbox”. You get it - it not only is an oasis, a place to find water and rest, but it helps plants to grow. Essentially the Groasis is a plastic bucket with a lid, but it is much more than that. 

The waterbox is a plant incubator, collects water from condensation which is then  released in measured amounts to help create root structure, and keeps temperature and humidity stable through night and day. The box is installed either manually or with a digging machine, putting one to three plants in a hole. The company has even developed specific drills to make the holes efficiently.

The waterbox can be reused for up to 20 trees, shrubs or vegetable plants. Another version of the concept is called “Growboxx” and is made of compostable material which becomes food for the plant. The box was tested in Morocco where 90% of the plants survived by using the box. It is being used in Colombia, Dubai, Ecuador, Jordan and Mexico, but is also being tested with wineries and in cold mountainous regions. 

Plans for the coming year

My last name is Raab. This comes from the German for “raven”. This is why our blog site is called “The Raven’s Roost”. Although we are ravens, we will find our roost wherever God places us and can use us. Our “roost” is wherever we are and wherever we will go. 

In the last two months we had the pleasure and the blessing to speak with so many of you, pray with so many about our situation and future plans. In the meantime, the church here in Maastricht was praying for our travels and our conversations. They too knew that we might be approaching a moment of change. Yesterday we took the time to talk about that change with our brothers and sisters here in Maastricht. In the coming days we will be talking about it with others we work with in both Belgium and the Netherlands. 

Our plan here in Belgium and the Netherlands was always to serve God however we could and in any capacity that God made possible. The idea is always that God works through each of His children - as He sees fit. We do not always know how this works best, where we might be sent or be useful. But we always try to be aware of opportunities and challenges that move us into trusting God. That is why we have always said we serve God wherever we are or wherever we go. And that is also what we teach others. 

We have been working with the church in Belgium and the Netherlands since January 1991. Actually even longer when we count the time we came on campaigns in 1981 and my two year stint from 1982-84. We will always be working for the gospel in these areas, wherever we are. But the time has come for us to plan moving out of Belgium (from the house where we have lived for 34 years) back to the Untied States. This is due to how things have changed financially for us - especially the Belgian tax situation - as well as how our family situation is evolving. 

While we were on our Home assignment (the trip we just took to visit family and supporting congregations) we were able to get to know our granddaughter in Indiana even better. She has just turned 3 years old and we would like her to know who Opa and Omi are. At the end of our trip we received the wonderful news in New York that our son, Sean, and his wife, Jill are expecting to welcome a little girl to the world in January of 2027, bringing our second granddaughter into our lives. 

So we are making frantic plans to try and be moved back to the US by the beginning of next year. Not only because the financial situation makes it necessary, but also to welcome a new granddaughter and get closer to family in general. This will be a new season in our lives as we head into the season of “retirement”. We are the right age, even if we don’t feel like we will ever retire. 

Before any of this happens, we have so much to do on the Belgian side. We will be leading Benjamin Camp at the end of the month and teaching at Family Camp. Our Wednesdays and Fridays singing with the church in Eindhoven and Maastricht will continue. In August the church is taking part in a neighborhood activity in Maastricht. In November Shirley and I are part of a marriage workshop. Life goes on and there is so much to do - wherever we are. 

We would greatly appreciate your prayers in the coming months: for our kids and their kids, for our wrapping things up here and the lives being touched with the gospel, for our moving plans (selling house, buying house, etc), for a full trust in our wonderful God who knows how things work and how He is going to use each of His children wherever we are. Our supporters have agreed to continue supporting us through 2027 as we make this change. Thank you for your continued prayers, encouragement and support in this time of transition. 

Whodunit Wednesday: Rietveld

While in New York we visited the Brooklyn Museum. Besides wonderful paintings and amazing Egyptian and Syrian artifacts, there was a floor dedicated to the aesthetics of everyday items. The entrance to this floor had a display with an iron, a teapot and more. It was later in the exhibition that was even more interesting. 

One section was dedicated to chairs. There we found a few designed by Gerrit Rietveld. Mind you, not the well-known “Red and Blue Chair” which can be found in the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art). We didn’t make it to the MoMA. But we did see this design. 

Gerrit Rietveld designed the chair in 1918 as an experiment, along with smaller versions of other things for his children. It is one of these that we also saw in the Brooklyn Museum. But it was that Rietveld made something simple and from simple materials that started changing the way designers were thinking. 

In 1930 he designed some worker’s houses in Vienna and then a bit later in Utrecht. Some of his architectural designs are also quite remarkable, but it is his chairs that people remember. It was another chair, made illegally (because he would not register during WWII) that many would recognize. This chair was made from one single piece of pressed plastic. 

Rietveld is a Dutchman anyone can remember if they think about remarkable chairs. He was born in 1888 and died in his birthplace, Utrecht, in 1964, just a few years after I was born.