Who's the king of the jungle?

MY dominion, my decisions, whatever makes ME content. We don’t really think of things in that way in our lives, but this is what is truly happening. And let’s be honest, when it’s all about ME, I think I’m happy. But is my life really better? And the world around me?

At the beginning of the month we drove down to Marseille, France – Sean, Shirley and our colleagues’ daughter, Semiye. Chretiens en Mission (Christians on Mission) or CEMété is a week of active serving and learning. Each day is filled with lessons in the morning, activities in the afternoon and a mealtime with new friends and church members in the evening. Each day offers various opportunities to serve in ‘big’ and ‘little’ ways. It is a time of hearing, and then experiencing, that living for Jesus Christ is real and everyday.

These days in the warmth of Marseille (wonderful after the overly cool weather in Belgium) challenged us to consider how good it is to be in God’s dominion instead of having him in our dominion. Jesus talks about kingdom and how the world can be turned upside down if we step into God’s control and do things as He intended. Afternoons trying to speak and understand French (easier for some than for others), get to know people, look for chances to encourage and serve – putting into practice what we heard in the morning – all helps us to experience the reality of life with Jesus Christ.

Singing was a major activity in the week. The whole group (more than 40?) formed a chorus that sang at various homes around the city - meeting and encouraging seniors, mentally handicapped residents, autistic children, residents of a home for the blind and many others. The singing itself was a challenge, but trying to converse with people afterwards was often the real challenge.

In one home I was talking to a son (perhaps 40 years old) who could speak English and translated for his mother sitting next to him (84 years old). When he heard we lived in Belgium, he said, ‘My mother is Belgian.’ We turned to her and asked, ‘Spreekt u Nederlands?’ (Do you speak Dutch?) In an instant, the afternoon was completely different. Francoise (the woman) lit up, realizing that she could speak Dutch to us (she was originally from Antwerp and had married a Frenchman). Semiye, who had wanted to be an encouragement but spoke very little French, lit up at the possibility to have a real conversation. Emmanuel (the son) was thankful that his mother had someone to speak to in Dutch, since her most recent friend, who spoke Dutch, had passed away a few months before.

Sometimes we think that we know what is best, that we know what we can do. But we do not always value things the way that God does. In our eyes, speaking French was the highest value at these moments. When actually, here was a woman who needed someone who could speak Dutch, in the middle of Marseille. When we simply keep trying to be the children God has made, serving others, looking for ways to help – God will provide the opportunities. It is this realization that reminded me again how good it is to live my life in God’s dominion instead of thinking I have it worked out. Trusting Him and serving others – this is love as God created it and lives it.

Who is your king? What do you really want in your life? How can you get it? Good questions with one best answer.

Check out some more of our pictures from the week. 

Summer News

LIGHT in the Lowlands

Reaching out to the people of Belgium and the Netherlands

Summer 2008

But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.  Jude 20-21

Dear brothers and sisters, family and friends,

Where in the world have you been? This is what I hear some of you thinking, especially if you don’t have facebook, flickr or a blog (is he speaking English?). So let me tell you where we’ve been all summer!

Singing, France and Camp

In June we focused on the youth weekend in Maastricht. We not only talked about but also practiced telling others about Jesus. This concluded with a concert by Listen Up! So exciting to see the young people talking and serving others. 

This theme continued as we took a group of young people down to Marseille, France for a week. In Marseille we served, learned, sang and put faith into practice. It was an amazing seven days! Scott went with two Verheijen girls, Stephan and Sean, and Isha’s friend, Valéri. 

It was so good to see how excited they were to be learning, to be serving at an old-folks home, to be singing - and all of this in French! All of them have mentioned that they plan on returning next year and we have been seeing the fruits of this week ever since in their daily lives. 

 

Back in Belgium July brought the camp season, but before that started ...             

... we welcomed a group of high school students from Canada. 

Former missionary to Antwerp, Blair Roberts and his wife Susan brought these students to work with several different congregations in Belgium. First they held a Young Friends week in Antwerp, teaching English using the Bible. They also helped out with evangelism in Ghent and went down to camp as counselors. Stephan spent time with them for this whole time and also helped out at camp. In Maastricht we waited for the beginning of August when the students would head over our way for a few days. It was exciting to see how they were helping in so many different places.

 

By the end of July it was our turn down at Bible camp. This year we had the Teens (11-14 year-olds). We talked about turning the world upside down, as Jesus presents it to us. 

It was a great week and started out with a bang: 

David van Ginneken, one of our teens, gave his life to Christ on the first day of camp, and that evening Isha Verheijen did the same at home (she had been at Youth camp the week before)! 

It is exciting to see new life and the pleasure and determination that these young people bring to that new life. They know how mighty Jesus is and trust that. What an example! 

Following Teen camp we continued into Family Camp where Scott presented three lessons (of the 12 or so total lessons) on the Holy Spirit. This was a really challenging week with good discussion, good lessons and challenges, and fantastic examples of the Spirit working in our lives. 

As always with camp, the real challenge comes when we have to go home and live as we have just been taught - in our own homes, towns, schools and churches. We are so thankful for the opportunities we have to challenge and encourage one another during the camp weeks. This is a very important time for equipping the Dutch-speaking churches. This summer session of camps was completed with our annual Family Day. We were especially excited that the French-speaking members also came during our fellowship time. 

Back in Maastricht we welcomed the Canadian students and were blessed immensely by a short but intense few days of encouragement.

We had talked to our young people about being an example for the students, and we challenged the students to be the same for our young people. Both took up the challenge. We cleaned, played soccer, cooked, visited, talked and distributed - all the while getting to know one another better. 

It was especially good to hear our young people share their stories about their lives with God, and vice-versa with the Canadian students. Everyone opened up and was willing to be seen and help each other. We have already seen some real growth an openness in our young people because of this time together. 

A new year begins

As the summer ended, we headed into the new school year, planning for several weddings, a youth weekend in Maastricht, a Single’s Retreat, and Fall Camp all coming up. But the summer was an immense encouragement! Thank you Father!

PRAYER WARRIORS

Please keep the following in your prayers.

Continue to pray for Valéri and her parents. She wants to give her life to Christ, but her parents aren’t too sure.

Praise God for our new family members in Maastricht - Isha Verheijen and Susanne Dela!

Pray as we start up our weekly Bible studies with Mieke, RW, LJ and C&T. 

Please pray for our upcoming activities including a youth weekend in Maastricht, Single’s Retreat, and two weddings.

Pray for our continuing outreach through the Wiser on the Way courses in the Fall

Pray for guidance for world leaders, also here in Europe.

EXTRAS

Did you Know?

Olympics

Everyone was watching, but we were blessed to be able to root for more than one country. So we were thrilled with the US victories, but also with those from the Netherlands and Belgium. Sometimes we had to shout and cry during the same event.

Michael Phelps was master - Pieter van den Hoogenband was completely out.

Te Dutch took gold in women’s water polo, and the US surprised in the final of the men’s water polo. 

The Dutch also won gold in women’s field hockey, jumping and rowing. 

Tia Hellebaut brought the gold home for the Belgians in the women’s high jump. (I almost saw her at the airport the day she returned to Belgium)

THANKS!

For sending the Canadian students 

For your prayers for our work! New life is coming!

For your good care of Stephan - he is in good hands

What’s coming up?

OCTOBER

Marriage weekend

Fall Camp

NOVEMBER

Youth weekend

ON THE FAMILY SIDE . . .

So much can change in such a short time - although to be honest this newsletter is covering a relatively long time period. Let me tell you about the summer. 

 

At the end of June the boys (including Scott) had an adventure in France. Their car broke down on the way to Marseille, so they got to try their hand (tongue) at French with the gendarmerie and AAA before they were finally able to get to Marseille. They had a great week in Marseille singing and sweating. It was a lot warmer there than it was back in Belgium!

When they returned we got the feeling that Stephan was trying to prepare us for his impending departure (or were we trying to prepare him?) by being gone quite a bit. He left for a week to Antwerp to be with some Canadian students, and then headed down to Youth Camp. 

Sean knew that he had Mama and Papa to himself, so we went for a special day to Cologne to look at guitars. Sean has been really active in teaching himself guitar, learning new songs and getting a band together. 

Check out his band (konverse) on his facebook site. 

When we got the chance, we went back to the music store with Stephan as well and since it was near Scott’s birthday, Scott got an early birthday present - a guitar to complement his good ol’ Yamaha (which he bought back in 1983). 

For a few short days there was plenty of guitar playing in the house!

After a few weeks of camp we all welcomed the Canadian students to Maastricht, which meant that the guys stayed with us. The last day was also a going-away party for Stephan and Shareya (Shareya is our colleagues’ daughter) as they head to Harding University. It was a beautiful and a beautifully hard evening for us. Scott went to Arkansas with them, to help get Stephan settled in. 

Shirley survived all these trips with her typical strength. She went shopping with Mieke (who reads the Bible with Scott ) while everyone was down in Marseille. When Scott and Stephan were checking out the Wal-Mart in Searcy, she was shopping with Willemien, Geesie and Sean - building relationships and getting the necessary done. 

 

Now the new school year has begun. Sean mentioned that he expects it will be better than last year. The new home situation will take a bit longer to get used to. Setting one less place for dinner, making less food, Sean sleeps in Stephan’s bed sometimes. We miss him, but we are so excited for him as well. Stephan is doing great - getting to know lots of good people and learning who he is and will soon be. We are so thankful for a wonderful Father and family!

French week

On the way home
Originally uploaded by sraabs.

Last week Scott took five young people down to Marseille, France for a week of "Christians on Mission". This is a program set up by the church there in Marseille to encourage young people to learn more and be practical in their Christianity. There are lessons in the morning and in the afternoon and evening there are opportunities to serve, reach out, share and live what we have heard about.

Scott, Stephan, Sean went with Isha and Kyana Verheijen and Valéri Ubachs in Ruud Verheijen's car (a Fiat Multipla seats 6 and has room for baggage) down to Marseille. Or at least, that was the plan. The car broke down about 90 minutes from Marseilles - in the left-most lane of the highway in the middle of traffic. (Wanda Martin and Dino Maisano are already going "Aahh!") But the car really didn't have too big a problem (it was taken back to Belgium and has already been fixed) and that meant that we began a great adventure without the worry of a foreign car in a big city.

And it was definitely an adventure! We finally got to Marseille and into bed around 3 a.m. But it was a great beginning for a week of learning how to be flexible, how to share and how to keep each other focused on what really matters! Lessons were often in French (translated into English), it was almost always hot, we did a lot of walking, a lot of singing and a lot of helping - and it was all great! Amazing what a right attitude will do for your days.

In the meantime we have made it back home and everyone is sad that it went by so quickly. We all made new friends, stretched our view of what is possible in our lives, and grew in faith. We are looking forward to what God is doing with us each and every new day!