Giving Sunday

We often talk in our congregation about what the first Christians looked like. We aren’t interested in what they wore or anything like that. We want to know how they acted, what they found important, what moved them. And as we examine these things (most recently in our Wednesday night Bible studies together) we are continually struck by how they cared for one another. Even from afar, congregations saw the needs of other brothers and sisters and wanted to help in some way. 

This has been the example for our congregations’ 5th Sunday Special Giving Sunday. We knew that we could give out of our budget for various needs, but we had members who knew of special needs which they brought to the congregation. We then decided to have an opportunity, every 5th Sunday, to give specially, above and beyond our normal giving. We choose various needs (at least 1 and up to 3) and all the members have the opportunity to give as they see fit to these needs. 

It has been exciting to see how the love of God moves us to help others in so many different places and ways. Often these opportunities teach us that we have brothers and sisters in so many different places. We are one big family. We have helped after natural disasters, like in Myanmar, Laos and Sint Maarten. We have helped churches reaching out to the needy in their area, like Bibles and wells in Uganda, deaf orphans in Kenya, and a center in Ukraine that helps those escaping addiction in their lives and starting anew. 

We have also had opportunities to help locally, like paying for a wheelchair, financial assistance for visitors, travel costs for us when we wanted to visit family (and Shirley wanted to visit her dying sister), and helping kids go to a week of Bible camp.  Yesterday we gave for two children in Uganda with special needs as well as a water purification system at the facility we have helped before in Ukraine. 

These opportunities remind us that we are blessed and that all we have comes from God. We are blessed so that we can bless others. That is some of what we are seeing in the studies we have on the first church and it is working out in the lives of the members every day. We are so thankful for God’s grace that can work through all of us. 

Working together

This past weekend we heard that the congregation we attended from the first Sunday of our married life has decided to merge with another congregation in the city. South 11th and Willis church of Christ has been one of our supporting congregations for most of the time that we have been here in Europe. And they were a shaping force in our Christian lives, being a very mission-minded congregation from the beginning. 

We are so thankful for the time that we had with all of the members there (and the contact we will continue to have). And we are thankful for the other congregations that are part of the web of support that God has placed around us. This past month when we visited Stephan and Natalie to meet Sophia and celebrate her birthday, we made it a point to visit the Green Valley congregation who we had visited in the past when we were in Indianapolis. It is always encouraging to share the love of God with our brothers and sisters around the world. This time Scott was able to preach one Sunday and teach on another. 

One of the things we talked about while in Indianapolis visiting with Green Valley was how to help missionaries on the field and what the relationship between missionary and supporting church can look like. We mentioned how encouraged we were when our supporting congregation in Long Beach, California shared that they are always praying for us. While we of course need funds, it is the spiritual support that we feel immensely . 

We have enjoyed this kind of support and family from the congregation in Muscatine, Iowa as well. We have been hoping for years that Rudy and Pam Schellekens might even visit and use the time to reach out in the Netherlands. Rudy and Pam both worked in Rotterdam and The Hague in the past and are also a major influence on our lives serving God wherever we go. 

Our relationship with the Woodbury congregation in Woodbury, Minnesota (a suburb of Minneapolis-Saint Paul) started many years back and has continued throughout our time here in the Netherlands and Belgium. We actually began with a congregation which later merged with the congregation that - together - became Woodbury. We try to follow the goings on every week by keeping up with the weekly bulletin and even sitting in online once in awhile on the men’s breakfast. 

These relationships have taught us and the members in Maastricht about how we are all a family of God, working together wherever we are. The church in Maastricht also shares with us financially and spiritually. Most recently, when they understood that we were losing some financial support due to changes in the US, they raised their level of financial help. This was something we also were thankful for in Abilene, Texas when we picked up a new family in the Oldham Lane church of Christ. 

Besides all of these congregations, we also have various individual donors who not only send us funds, but more importantly keep in contact in various ways, supporting us spiritually. We are a family, working together. As we are preparing for a week of Bible Camp (we are directing the week for the youngest kids), we are thankful for a team made up of members from 3 different Dutch congregations, serving kids from all over Belgium and the Netherlands. 

Realizing that God works through community, through a body, using the talents and resources of many to help even more come to life in Him - this is immensely encouraging. We are thankful for a mighty God who can use us all in so many ways to do His will, wherever we are. 

(Photo of a Sunday evening class in Muscatine, Iowa last year)