Whatsit Wednesday: Bookbag on a flagpole or "hanging out the flag"

The last several weeks the Netherlands has become a country of book bags. As you drive through the city you will see them: book bags hanging out on the flagpole under a flapping Dutch flag. This shows that there is a graduate at that house. Everyone is happy. And everyone can know it.

In the Netherlands when you are in your senior year of high school, you can look forward to exams at the ends of the year. Not just any exams. Not just end of year exams. These exams are for your whole school time. These state exams test if you have truly learned all that the schools say you have learned, from beginning to end. There is no cramming for the exam this year and then forgetting it. Everything you have learned will be on this test. 

After the exam, students go home and wait anxiously. They have to wait for a call from their teacher. They will be called one way or the other, but of course they hope to hear that hey have passed. There are tons of examples of students picking up the phone and listening intently to the news given before exploding in joy that they have passed or silently putting the phone down to wonder what their summer will look like. If you do not pass now, you can still re-take the exams and hope to pass the second time. 

But if the scream of joy was heard in your house, then the book bag is ready to be hung out. These leather bags are typical of what the student has been using throughout high school, biking or bussing to school every day for the last 6 years or so. And now everyone in the street can celebrate with eh graduate. Everyone knows. It is not uncommon for neighbors walking by to congratulate the family or whoever is outside at the time. 

Whensday: December 21, 1984

I can still see her walking down the aisle. Her dark hair was free. She had decided not to have a veil. Her smile was resplendent. I couldn’t see my face, but I imagine it was somewhere between nervous and silly happy. I was wearing a rented tuxedo, cummerbund and all, and stood next to my best man and his father who was performing the ceremony. 

Shirley and I had both worked through many of the things that were “normal” or supposed to be part of this day. Were we going to have an arch with flowers? Were we going to do a unity candle? How many cakes were there going to be and who was going to make them?

Neither one of us had any money - and that didn’t really bother us. Our rings were bought at a pawn shop. Her dress was on sale from a bridal shop going out of business and a lovely lady from the bakery made our cakes for a friendly price. In the meantime a mechanic had fixed the car we had been gifted and my mother had bought four new tires. 

In the end we had wonderful songs sung by amazing friends, we gave our lives to one another and then we loaded up our car and drove off. The car gassed us all the way to Abilene, Texas where we were moving after Shirley’s graduation from Harding. I would be attending ACU. 

We never did find the pictures of our wedding day. We had had to take the film rolls undeveloped with us (do you remember film rolls) and it was months later - after two moves - that we went looking for them and couldn’t find them. So our memories are what is left - and they are amazing. 

This Saturday those memories will be 40 years old and we have made so many new memories together. Most of the time we are not able to celebrate our anniversary on the day itself. This year we will at least spend some time on the day to remember and share together. We will look at a different time to celebrate more extensively. 

December itself is a month of memories. We spent a day in Antwerp on the 11th to celebrate Shirley’s birthday. The church has its Christmas get-together potluck this Sunday. And of course the two days of Christmas and then the New Year are on their way. But this Saturday is for remembering that smile of hers coming down the aisle. 

(Thanks to my mom for the few pictures we have!)

Where oh where Wednesday: Emmen

Where will Kings Day be held this year? In Emmen. Every year the king of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander, and his wife Maxima choose a city in the Netherlands to celebrate the king’s birthday. This year they will celebrate in Emmen. This means that this city will ben looking forward to the arrival of the king and will plan all sorts of local activities to celebrate his birthday. The day itself is a holiday across the Netherlands and cities everywhere will hold markets where anyone can come and sell things. In Maastricht it will be in the city park. The cities will also be decorated in orange.

Emmen is a town in the province of Drenthe. It was a city that was formed by combining several villages and only had any real growth after the 2nd World War. It went from 3,000 inhabitants in the 19th century to the 56,000 living there now. Most people in the country know Emmen because of its zoo which welcomes some 1.5 million visitors a year. 

Emmen is the most populous city of the province of Drenthe, but that is not saying much since the whole province only has a population of roughly 500,000. Drenthe is the 3rd least populated province and is mostly known for its agriculture. Ir borders Germany in the east. The whole province, due to its sparse population and rural nature, is known as a cycling destination. 

So this year Emmen will color orange as it welcomes the king for his birthday. It will show off all its treasures and history and will enjoy a day in the spotlight that is different from the spotlight that has recently shown o the Dutch farmers who have been protesting EU regulations causing their farms to be shut down. 

Remember. Celebrate.

This past weekend I saw signs of "May the 4th be with you." And sombrero's and more for "cinco de Mayo". In the Netherlands the 4th and 5th of May are special. They say: On the 4th we remember; on the 5th we celebrate. The 4th of May is to remember the soldiers who gave their lives in World War II to make the country free. The 5th of May is a celebration of Liberation Day - the day the country was freed from occupation. 
On the 4th we were together with church members during our first Friday singing day - together with members from the French-speaking church in Liege. At 8pm we spent a moment of silence (two minutes) and we thought about those who had gone before us, fighting the good fight of faith. Then we sang of the liberation brought to us through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are free! 
I thought about several people who have been influential in my growth and life as a child of God. Here in Maastricht we recently said "See you soon" to our sister, Willemien. She and her husband were two of the first visitors to the church when we arrived in Maastricht. Willemien was a grandmother to our boys and to many in the congregation. Our sister, Roos, was taken by cancer in the early years of our time here in Maastricht. She was not only a part of our team, but I had known her in my years as an apprentice in Haarlem, 10 years before. We look forward to singing with these two women soon. 
But then my thoughts went on to the family members in the congregations who support us. My father in the faith, Ron, who taught me so much, well before I was a child of God. Or the elders from 11th and Willis in Abilene who were our first experience as a married couple and what they meant to our lives in Christ together: Dub, Neil and others. 
In each of the cities we visit when we go on Home Assignment, we always have a place to stay. In Minnesota that was first always with Susan, who also helped establish a wonderful, loving family. In California it was Wanda who often made sure things were organised. Both sisters went Home quite unexpectedly. 
But it is the celebration that reminds us that we will see them all again. We will sing the new song (and even if it IS a new song, we will all know it) as we gloriously celebrate the Lamb and His victory. So we know, even now, that we are liberated. We are made free. We are made new. And we live as people who know that we do not belong here, but we will bring the liberation of the King here. That is why these and many other of our brothers and sisters have taught us. 
Remember. Celebrate. 

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.  Hebrews 11:13-16