Whensday: Three summers

The summer of 1991 was our first summer as a married couple and evangelists in Belgium and the Netherlands. We had arrived in January of that year and only moved into our house in June the following year. But we were already plugged into the church in Antwerp and fully active in serving in any way that we could. That summer I was one of the teachers for Benjamin Camp at Ardennen Bible Camp. That includes the 8-11 year olds. 

I remember working out lessons and activities (for the first time in Dutch) and trying to make sense of the Dutch language. You see there are lots of dialects in Dutch and Flemish. And young kids usually speak their own dialect. This meant quite the challenge for me since I only spoke Dutch with a Dutch accent (the northern part of the Netherlands where I learned the language). 

In the summer of 2001 I experienced several different things. We had accepted apprentices from York College in 2000, so I was working with them in the summer. These were challenging and very rewarding experiences. It is nice to see how God continues to touch these two lives. 

But I had also taken steps in that year to gain Belgian citizenship. This was because our visa was going to be denied after 10 years. Rules were being changed and it became possible for me to become a Belgian citizen without giving up my US citizenship. I got the news in August that my citizenship had been granted, a short time before important events in September which made it hard for some to understand why I would want a different citizenship. But this way I was now able - like the apostle Paul - to use my citizenship for the kingdom of God. 

In the summer of 2021 we were scrambling to figure out how to continue holding Bible Camp after flooding had devastated the area where our camp is located. We had already dealt with a year organizing camp under corona rules and were thankful that it had been possible. But now our camp had been struck by the flooding. The first two weeks of camp even had to be held at different locations. But they turned out being amazing weeks. That year we not only led the Benjamin Camp at a different location, but also led the Teen Camp week as the first group back at our camp location. 

Our summers are always exciting and challenging, blessed by people and activities that God puts in our lives. 

You can find pictures of the camps in 2021 here: Benjamin Camp and Teen Camp. (The picture is of Benjamin Camp in 2021)

Where oh where Wednesday: Friesland

It has always been interesting to me to see how many places are called “land” in Dutch. It makes it quite easy to understand where things are. Germany is “Duitsland”, England is “Engeland” and one that most English speakers would recognize, New Zealand is “Nieuw Zeeland”. This last one was of course named after the Dutch area of Zeeland. The new one was found and named across the oceans. Australia was also originally called New Holland. 

So when I look at a map of the Netherlands, one of the more interesting areas is up in the north and is called “Friesland”. This is all the more interesting because the area was basically its own country before and its language is not the same as Dutch. The Friezen (those from Friesland) speak a language that can be understood by many Dutchmen, but is different. 

The people of this province are also extremely proud of their heritage. The Frisia - the germanic people who inhabited and conquered the area from Bremen (in present-day Germany) to Brughes (in present-day Belgium) are mentioned in the Roman histories in the 4th century BC. But the area experienced a political and climatological downturn of two centuries where flooding and political pressure meant that no one lived in the area in the north. 

These Frisians fought for their freedom against the vikings, the Dutch of Holland and later the Hapsburg empire until they became a part of the Dutch Republic in the 17th century. Today their heritage is shown in local customs, in the flags of local football teams and in the language which is still spoken. As a matter of fact, Frisian must be available to all those going to court in Friesland. 

The province is home to some amazing natural beauties, including the Waddenzee and its islands. The city of Leeuwarden is the capitol of the province which boasts a population of more than 600,000. 

Whodunit Wednesday: Martin Van Buren

Maarten Van Buren, the 8th president of the United States didn’t even use English as his mother-language. He came from the town Kinderhook and spoke Dutch. Kinderhook means “Child’s Corner” in Dutch. Dutch was of course quite prevalent in the early days of the United States. New Amsterdam, which became New York, was settled by the Dutch. For a time, speaking Dutch was looked down upon, but later it became fashionable to have Dutch ancestry and be able to speak the language (or parts of it). 

Van Buren spoke Dutch from the beginning, but also spoke English, of course. Because he was fairly old for the time (54 years old) when he ran for president, he used the phrase “Old Kinderhook” for his campaign, to show that something was quality. “Old Kinderhook” meant that he, and all that he touched, was from quality. You could trust it. Shortened, this became “OK” and soon became the way to show that everything was good, or okay. 

Now, even in Dutch, we can say “okay” although we spell it “oké”. It doesn’t always mean something is good quality. Sometimes it means it is mediocre. “How was the movie?” “Ah, it was okay, but not my favorite.” And yet, even in the Netherlands and Belgium, a stamp of OK on an item is a stamp of approval. And all of this because a Dutch-speaking American politician was proud of his roots. 

Whodunit Wednesday - Comic books

When we think of literature, most people do not think of comic books. And yet, even when I was an English teacher, I could see the great benefit of this type of literature. I was an avid reader as a young man, but I also loved comic books. Later, it was comic books that helped me learn German and Dutch. I still would pick up a Donald Duck as first reading material in any language I would want to learn. 

Many kids and adults have enjoyed the stories around the Smurfs and Tintin. These are Belgian creations, along with Suske en Wiske and Lucky Luke. These comics covered all sorts of stories and got many a young boy and girl reading. It was not as the Dutch minister of Education said in 1948 that they should be banned, having no real value. 

If you visit Belgium, take the time to walk through Brussels and discover the comic book characters around various corners, painted bigger than life on the walls. We would love to join you. Can’t make it this far? Enjoy a story of Tintin or the Smurfs. You might even read one in Dutch and see how much you can learn. 

Making the most of every opportunity

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.  Colossians 4:5-6

This afternoon a group of people met together to talk about some ways to use our opportunities with migrants, refugees, strangers. We have recently translated the basic book from FriendSpeak into Dutch so that we can use these lessons with people coming in as refugees. They will need to be integrated into society and so will need to learn Dutch. But they will also need to know about Christianity. And we want to be able to speak about Jesus. 

I was struck by the text from Acts 17:26 - God sets out the boundaries of lands, deciding where people will go. He is not unaware of what is going on and He is still busy saving people everywhere. And He wants to use us (you, too!). So we want to be prepared. 

We talked about how to teach a language, how it is that the Word is the teacher (not us - we are an illustration), and that God is mighty to save. We talked about some of the challenges we will meet. We do not yet know how all of this will work out, but we are willing to figure it out, in prayer, with the guidance of God's Spirit. Will you pray with and for us that we can speak the word as we should, that hearts will be prepared? 

You can find pictures of the day here.

That strange English language

Language is fun! And it reveals so much about a culture. Cultures are influenced by their language and in turn influence that very language. Certain Inuit tribes have many words for the color white, since they can distinguish various shades of the color in their environment. To other cultures, white is white.

English is a language which has a rich history, but which also has allowed itself to be richly influenced by languages and cultures which it has encountered. To some this might seem a frustration. Why do we spell some words in such a strange way? And why do we use certain ‘foreign’ words. Why not use a good English word? 

When we first came to the Netherlands a man asked: “Why do you say ‘u’ for a word with two o’s, like ‘book’. If one ‘o’ is ‘oh’, then two o’s should be ‘ooh’,” he said, making a very rounded ‘o’ sound. “In Dutch we are consistent," he continued, "If one ‘e’ sounds like ‘eh’, then two e’s is ‘ay’. You English speakers confuse everything.”

Of course, much of this is because English borrows words vigorously from any language it comes in contact with. Unlike some countries which fight to keep their language ‘pure’, English simply swallows words whole and spits them out with adapted pronunciations (as one might expect after spitting something up).

I want to have some fun looking at this wonderful language. I will regularly use a Wednesday to pass on the weird way our words warp through time and cultures.

Consider today (although it is Saturday and not Wednesday), for those many of you so looking forward to the rain (something which we typically look forward to getting away from here in Belgium and the Netherlands!), the expression: It’s raining cats and dogs. For animal-loving Dutchmen, this seems an abomination! Although, really horrible weather is called ‘hondenweer’ or ‘dog’s weather’. It is weather even a dog would not want to go out in. So it simply does not rain cats and dogs here. Here it rains ‘steel rods’ or ‘pipe rods’. This is of course only descriptive of what we see in a heavy rain, but I don’t know that I would want cats, dogs or steel rods pelting me from the sky. I would much rather a nice refreshing drenching, whether needed or not.
 

(Want more info on 'cats and dogs'? Check this out.)