The living Word

It is exciting to both os us to see how God works in our lives and others through His word, the Bible. When we get to know who Jesus is and begin following him in our daily lives, we are walking in the light, walking with the living Word. This is something that we just can’t keep from others. It is always wonderful to share with others and be encouraged by what we learn from the Word and what we learn through how others grow in the Word. 

We are thankful that we have various opportunities throughout the week to share this with members and seekers. On Monday evenings we are with a loving couple from church who live about an hour away from us. We began meeting with them years ago when they could not make it to the Wednesday evening study but still wanted to keep growing. They also wanted to learn about how to share what they were learning. So we have visited with them and continue to share what we know and learn from what they are learning. 

On Tuesdays Scott has a time at the building when people can come to ask questions about God. Through the years this has meant studies and conversations of all different kinds. Most recently he has been meeting with a woman studying about the old and new covenant, meeting with a mn who wants to understand his faith and daily choose to follow Jesus, and also takes time to encourage a sister in the faith who is shut in. 

Tuesday afternoons have become a time for a group of younger people who want to be encouraged and encourage one another. This is an English-speaking group and is held online. There are folks from nearby (our young Ukrainian couple who libre about 30 minutes away) and further away (two ladies from France and another even from Curaçao. Tuesday evenings we meet in person with a younger sister from the congregation who wants to grow in her faith. 

Wednesday evenings are what is our normal weekly Bible study. IN the past this was held at our house, at the building or at a different member’s home. But since Covid we began meeting online. This has meant that more members can be present. We still head over to our colleagues’ house (10 minutes away) and get online while sitting in their living room. This study (done in Dutch) is a great encouragement for all those who are able to attend. We are so thankful that so many are able to get online and encourage one another in this way. 

Thursday morning I head back over to my colleague’s house (in the summer I might even bike over, like I did last week) for a study we have with a man who wants to know more about the Bible and has plenty of questions about society, science and God’s will. I also uses this day about once a month to visit some people who nee encouragement - in prison in Antwerp and in a psychiatric hospital nearby. These are not Bible studies, but are conversations about the living Word. 

On Friday mornings Shirley gets online with the other ladies of the congregation for a study and prayer time together. As we let people know on our website (www.gvcmaastricht.nl) this is a study by and for women. It is exciting to see how the ladies take the time to help one another and encourage one another. 

We have always prayed that God can use us in the way that He sees fit while we are here (or wherever we are). These are moments that we can share so much of the beauty that we ourselves find in God’s Word. It is also so good to be able to discuss how the things we read fit into our daily lives. God’s Word is not just a study (a word we use a lot), but a discovery of how God works in our lives and what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Thank you for praying for the various opportunities we have to share this glorious news.

How does God’s word influence your live? What challenges have you experienced recently in reading and following Jesu as the living Word? How do you share what you find so beautiful? 

Generations

Last week we were able to talk to Sean, who called because in Belgium it was Father’s Day. Yesterday it was Father’s Day in the Netherlands and the US. In the video call with Sean, something happened that happens more and more: Scott tried to check something on the computer. He has to do this looking over his glasses. And he has trouble figuring things out and finding things on ‘modern technology’. 

Last week we were gathered with various congregations from around Belgium and the Netherlands on the 2nd day of Pentecost. This was held in The Hague, which is easy enough to find. But we all planned a day in the park, which was harder to find. At one point there were several calls coming in from some of the group who could not find their way. Scott was trying to help in the phone call, but was hampered by ‘modern technology’. His younger sister in Christ said over the phone, “Scott, find someone under 18 and ask them.”

And that is how it worked. The younger generation is much more savvy with everything that everyone seems to be using these days. It is Andrey, a young 20-something, who knows how to help those who want to print at the building from their phone. It is the young people who understand how to get something put up on the church Instagram. It is not that all of the older folks aren’t keeping up, but it is certainly that Scott struggles with some of those realities. 

Thankfully, God has put us in a family and we can all help one another. The day at the park finally worked out as we all met at the beach to witness new life in Christ. Everyone was able to get pictures and videos because of the technology. And this was all shared with members from around the country in seconds. We are thankful for how this can all be used to glorify God and help one another. 

At the end of this month we get to celebrate our granddaughter. One of the things she uses is a sort of speaker onto which she can place a little doll. But this doll has a memory chip filled with certain sounds which can then be played off on the speaker. We can send our sounds (our voices reading to her, singing to her, speaking to her) which she can then listen to when she wishes. Not something we would have thought even imaginable, but so thankful that it exists and we can use it. 

Getting to know Jesus

One of the most important things we do here is help people to get to know Jesus. In our daily lives we want to be an example of the life we have been given in Jesus. We also want our speech to be full of the reality of living with the grace that Jesus has brought to our lives. This all means that we try to live intentionally in our lives together and our speech is full of the beauty of what we have found in Jesus Christ. And this takes different forms. 

When we meet someone who is wanting to know more about us and the life we are showing, that can come in different ways. Most recently we received a few phone calls from people who wanted to know if we could pray for them, if they could meet with us, if they could attend our worship time on Sundays. Sometimes these are short conversations on the phone. Other times they have turned into weekly Bible studies and conversations. 

I have often thought about set studies - booklets or programs that asre available. But in my experience, everyone is coming from a different place and meets Jesus in a different way. So I usually want to first hear where they are coming from and then start looking at the story of Jesus. In this walk together through the gospels, we inevitably touch on the points that need to be discussed in relation to life with Jesus. Then we can take more time where the need is greatest. 

This has been how my conversations have gone throughout the years. Sometimes people have met Jesus and have decided that they are not really that interested in what is being offered or the way it is being offered. Jesus is very exclusive and not everyone wants to accept this. In this case, sometimes my relationship with the person we have been talking to either ends or changes. Often times we may maintain a relationship, but it becomes one where I continue to help, but in a different way, offering mercy. 

This has been and continues to be the case with a few people in our lives - taking people to hospital visits and being there after the diagnosis has been declared, helping with physical limits and even being the person to help the family say goodbye when the time comes. 

Other times, the relationship turns into one of family as the person’s desire to know Jesus grows and they give their lives to Him. At this point then the relationship turns into one where we help one another grow in faith. It has been exciting to see how some of the new members of this family challenge us to be servants, to be listeners and to be faithful in times of difficulty. This has been true of several of our sisters who have been added to the church in the last 5 years. 

We recently put out an invitation for a series of “Getting to know Jesus” held at our building. We have usually held these at our home, which is a much less intimidating venue. But we wanted the neighborhood around our building to know of this opportunity. No one responded this time. We will look at offering the opportunity again in the Fall, but in the meantime we will continue with the conversations we have at the moment. 

This includes a conversation with a woman who originally called and asked about what we believe and if she could visit. She has been visiting for several months as well as reading through the gospels (getting to know Jesus) almost every week. Last week she said she has been confronted with the need to be bron again - everywhere she reads, every song she listens to, in all of her prayers. I think of Lydia (Acts 16) whose heart was opened as she listened to the story that Paul was recounting. We pray that we will soon be adding a sister to the family. 

And we continue to look for how God will use us, our example, our speech to touch those around us with the amazing story and life of good news in Jesus Christ. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. Consider yourself - are you willing to follow Jesus wherever He goes, as He wants? This seems to be our biggest struggle as people. Can we submit to someone else and trust. If we know that He is God Almighty, come to save us and risen from the dead, then we can follow Him even into death, but certainly into obedience in daily life. 

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6

Sister Nel

Today our sister, Nel, turns 84. Yesterday the congregation did our traditional thing, but with a twist. Usually when someone in the church has had a birthday, we put them in the middle of the circle of us around them, pray for them and sing “Happy Birthday” to them. We want everyone to know not only how important they are, but how we all are blessed by them in this wonderful family of God. 

Usually we wait until the Sunday after the person’s birthday. Often there is more than one person in the circle, since several might have had a birthday in the previous week. For Nel we made an exception and sang o the Sunday before her birthday. And since Nel could not be with us where we meet together, we went to her, which is just around the corner of our building. 

In Spring this year I brought Nel to the hospital because of intense abdominal pain. After some examinations and scans and such she received the news that she had an inoperable tumor on her liver. She was sent home with the words that she was ‘terminal’. The doctor had even had the conversation about a “completed life” which is now typical in the Netherlands. IN other words, did she want to be euthanized. 

Nel made very clear to everyone in the doctor’s office (another specialist and a nurse as well as the doctor) that God is good and whether she were to die today or tomorrow or months or years from now, her life was in God’s hands. She was not going to presume to play God over her own life. 

So Nel has been waiting since the Spring to go Home to her Heavenly Father. But it has taken much longer than she had expected. She is still living on her own at home, cooking most of her meals and even doing some of her own cleaning. A nurse comes every day to check on her and clean her. Another helper comes once a week to clean in the house. And Nel wonders when she will get to go Home. 

In the meantime, she has been able to mend to a point a break with her daughter and has been able to regularly see her daughter and granddaughters. She is so grateful for these moments. She had never thought she would even make it to this birthday. But here she is. And there we were, gathered around her door to pray for her and sing to her and let her know how much wee love her. 

Of course we love her more than just this day. Several sisters visit her every week, taking her soup, reading with her in the Bible (one of her favorite activities), doing some cleaning or just talking. I see her every Tuesday to get her shopping done and take out her trash. And we all call or let her know how much we love her. 

One of these days in the future we will get a call and Nel will not be here anymore. She will have gone Home. But for now, we can still enjoy her in our lives. And we are so thankful that we got this time to be together with her again. 

Maintenance

This past weekend was the end of our Fall camps, a special religious holiday in Belgium and a day to get things ready at camp for the coming winter. Although Halloween is not really a holiday here, All Saints Day is. This is the day that many visit the graves of their loved ones. It is one of the biggest days for florists as everyone is getting flowers (mostly chrysanthemums) to put on the graves. It is a time to remember, to put family first, sewn into society and the social calendar of the year.

Down at camp it is a time for maintenance. We have to get the buildings ready to go into the winter, never knowing how bitter the winter might be. It is time to clean off the leaves from the roofs, clear off the driveway, and prep the buildings inside. This weekend we also had a hill of dirt to move from one place to another. The field had begun to settle after the flooding a few years back, so it was time to set things to rights again. This was especially important around some metal lids in the field which give us access to our septic system. We do not want any kids falling in or hitting their heads on these metal lids. 

More importantly, a day like this down at camp is a time to talk during the coffee breaks and lunch breaks. There were only 6 of us down there, but it was a good group that worked hard. Two of the 6 men were the young sons of one of our camp leaders. They did quite a bit of the work digging out the dirt, shoveling it into wheelbarrows and letting the wheelbarrows be wheeled to where they were to be dumped. In the end we all went home satisfied and dirty, knowing that camp was ready for the coming months. 

Back in Maastricht yesterday was the first Sunday of the month and was a good day to be back together with Christian family. Some have been off on holiday (it was a school holiday break in Belgium) and others were finally back after a short period of typical Fall colds. One of our Ukrainians heard this past weekend that his father was killed in a battle in the East. This young man has been with us for the last two years and so has not seen his father for the last three years. Death never seems to be expected, even in war. 

Where oh Where Wednesday: the town where we live

When I put my return address to paper or answer someone as to where we live, I name the town of Lanaken. But Lanaken is actually 7 different towns or villages all combined back in the years just before we moved here. The largest town is Lanaken itself, a town of some 11,000 inhabitants. But we actually live in the small village of Neerharen. 

Neerharen is the opposite village of “Opharen” on the other side of the river which is a short 500 meters from our back door. The river has ever been the border between the Netherlands and Belgium - at least as long as Belgium has existed. “Op” means above and “Neer” means below. So our village was the vial leg below the river. The other one received a castle at some point and so has become “Borgharen” and is a neighborhood of the city of Maastricht now. 

Our village can be found on maps of Napoleon when he was taking parts of Europe over, bringing some semblance of formal administration with him. The house across from us is from the 19th century and the castle to which our street would lead (if the canal did not cut across it) has elements from the 13th century. So this place has been around for some time. 

The village north of us, which is still part of the conglomerate of Lanaken, is called “Rekem”, although it used to be “Reckheim”. It had even been its own little city with city rights. The castle which housed the lord at the time has been a psychiatric hospital and now serves tourists. The village south of us, Smeermaas, is where the border crosses in fromt of the river bringing everyone into the next country. Both of these villages are where the stores are situated that we use in our daily lives. Our village has a butcher and some restaurants, but no real stores. 

Neerharen does have what some call the Gold Coast. As I explained recently to a visitor from Kenya, it is along this Gold Coast, on the other side of the main road splitting the village, that the truly rich people live. Of course, even the houses on our side of the village were more than large enough to count as a Gold Coast for him. 

The canal behind our house, built in the 1920’s, has bunkers from WWII as a reminder of a more terrible time. The canal itself carries boats ferrying goods from the harbor of Antwerpen to the harbor of Rotterdam and everywhere in between. The provincial road which cuts through the village used to be a tramway carrying passengers and goods from Maastricht to Maasmechelen and further. 

We are thankful for the place we have been able to live and bring up our family while also sharing the truth and joy of living with Jesus. We have good neighbors in a quiet neighborhood full of history. It is a small place surrounded by busy life on all sides. 

(The picture is of our boys, when they were boys, playing in our street.)

The beginnings of Life

Where does life begin? That is a big question discussed by all sorts of people at various times. As Christians we know that life comes from God. We are the created, He is the Creator. But not everyone accepts this view of life and the world. 

This past week we were able to take a few days off and visit a young couple who have moved down to the south of France. Pamella is our sister in Christ from Brazil. She is married to Tim, who is a wonderful young man who does not want to believe in God just yet. But he was always willing to attend Sunday services with Pamella when they lived in Maasmechelen. 

Shirley and I seldom get to celebrate our anniversary on the day itself, but knew that we wanted to visit this couple to encourage them. Since it is a 13 hour drive down, we decided to make the drive a two day journey and stop over in Dijon on the way down and on the way back. This would leave us about two and a half days oil the south with Tim and Pamella. 

We had a wonderful time in sunny but cooler climes and spent a morning in Dijon on the way back home. More importantly we were able to have some good conversations and moments together. When we got back home we had just enough time to get a little rest before the next event on the next day. 

Mike Houts is a NASA scientist who came to talk about Science and Worldview. He spoke to a full room in the church building in Antwerp about the questions we can and should have about what science really shows us and where life comes from. It reminded me of the questions Tim sometimes had. Mike asked, “Did someone choose to be an atheist? Then people must be more than simple chemical reactions. A person must have a soul if he/she can make a choice.” Intriguing questions. 

While we were down in France, we got news that a dear sister of ours was sick and at the end of her life. Leonie and George are members of the congregation in Liege and came regularly to our monthly singing or to church outings down at camp. But she has also struggled with her health as of late. By the end of the week we had heard that she had gone Home to her reward. We look forward to seeing her soon, when we also can go Home. 

It was a challenging week with reminders of what really matters and where life really is. Life begins with God and can only continue with God. Jesus Christ makes real life possible. This is something that Leonie not only knew, it was something she regularly shared with those around her and showed in her daily life. Mike Houts presented good information that showed the truth that what we see is clearly come from God. And we continue to know how important it is to pass all of this information on to everyone who is willing to question and listen. 

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!   2 Corinthians 5:16-17

Whensday: Spring

Was it yesterday (March 19) or today March 20)? Or maybe tomorrow? When does Spring start? As far as we are concerned, it gets going as soon as we see the crocus flowers in our garden. That is often in February and we know that Sporing is on the way. 

We noticed that the US already moved into Summer Time, springing ahead by one hour. In Europe we will only spring ahead at the end of the month, which is the Saturday before Easter. So the month will end, Spring will begin, we will all lose an hour sleep and Easter will wake us up. To be honest, that is not a bad picture if you think about the resurrection of the Lord. His resurrection on Easter Sunday was indeed the end of the darkness of death and the beginning of real life for everyone who believes. 

Easter in Dutch-speaking Europe is called “Pasen” - a word linked to the Jewish celebration, the “Pascha” (or Passover” in English). As with many other countries and cultures, Easter is a strange mix of rabbits, chickens, eggs and chocolates. This is of course because it is a mixture of fertility rituals from pagan religions. 

In Maastricht we often get the question from people who know us if we as a congregation celebrate Easter. Of course Easter always falls on a Sunday (unlike Christmas). So we always have a worship time on this special holiday. But we also try to explain how we celebrate this amazing occurrence (of Jesus’ resurrection) every Sunday. The rest of the spectacle we leave to others. 

It will be nice to know that we can talk to our kids again at a normal 6 hour difference instead of five hours. That means that we can eat dinner as they are eating lunch while we talk to one another. It also means that we will enjoy helping teach during the Vacation Bible Kamp planned for the Belgian kids (the Dutch do not yet have school vacation). And when the week is done, we will have jumped into the next season with verve. 

(This picture is of our Thankfulness Walk this past Saturday in Maastricht)

Whodunit Wednesday: Biblical names in society

The first two days of this week I was off with a group of Catholic kids and leaders and had the opportunity to talk about faith in work and about what we find in the Bible. Religion and faith are words on many peoples tongues, but concepts which are often far from the heart. As a matter of fact, the news stated this past week that trust in religion is in Belgium the lowest of all Europe. People in Belgium feel that religion is dangerous.
Faith, on the other hand, is something that most people still talk about. During these two days with these teens, they took a quiz (using QR codes and their phones). Questions popped up about how many apostles there were, what the name of Jesus’ father was (nice trick question) and more. Another activity looked at what they say to believe and if they truly believe it. A third activity looked at what the names of the children meant and where they came from.
In all of this it was amazing to me how important names are. Pontius Pilatus was a real historical figure. Some of the kids’ names came from names in the Bible: Mathis from Matthew, Thomas (with an ‘h’), Maria and Marit (both from Maria) and more. In Belgium and the Netherlands we have lots of names that come from this biblical history and culture, even if they do not always immediately sound like it.
Maria is, of course, a well-known and well-used name in Catholic Belgium. It may show up a bit less in the Netherlands (mostly in the south where we are), but versions of it will still show up. Remnants of the Roman past also show up in normal everyday names. Some are Roman and Biblical at the same time.
My younger brother’s name is Marc - with a ‘c’. This was very different when we were growing up. But here in Belgium it is very common. In fact, Mark - with a ‘k’ - jumps out immediately as different. This is because in Belgium they are working with the name ‘Marcus’ - the Biblical name of the 2nd gospel and a typical Roman name (i.e. Marcus Aurelius).
There are some differences between the countries. Take, for example, Luk or Luc. The Dutch will more likely use the ‘k’ where the Belgians will use the ‘c’. The Dutch language version of the name is ‘Lucas’ but this can also be spelled ‘Lukas’. And then there are all the varied versions of Peter: ‘Peter’ (pronounced ‘pay-ter’), ‘Pieter’ (pronounced ‘pee-ter’) and of course also ‘Pierre’. These kan all be shortened: ‘Peet’, ‘Piet’ or otherwise.
When we named our son, Sean, we thought to be right on track. Sean was born in Belgium (Stephan was born in Abilene, Texas, just before we moved here). There are various versions of ‘John’ here: Johan, Johannes (which can shorten to ‘Hannes’ or ‘Hans’) or Jean (the French spelling and pronunciation). You could also use Ian, John or Johnny (or Jonny) here.
We chose for more Anglicised version, but one we thought most people would recognise, since the actor Sean Connery was well-known. It turned out that many people pronounced ‘Sean’ as ’see-un’. The way we were pronouncing Sean was closer to the pronunciation of ‘Jean’. But it was even closer to ’Sjaan’ (pronounced ‘shaan’ with a long, open ‘aa’ as one would do at the doctor). This name, however, is a girl’s name, so it obviously did not fit Sean.
In the end, people get used to using your name if they get to know you. That is also what we try to get across to the young people we work with. It is possible to get to know the people in the Bible, even if we can’t quite hear how they might have pronounced their names. Then the question is whether we will share in their faith or not, live as they lived in trustin God.

Whensday: Anniversaries

Today (December 21) Shirley and I celebrate 38 years together. We were married on this day in 1984 in Cloverdale church of Christ in Searcy, Arkansas. Since that day we have celebrated this day in all sorts of places and doing all sorts of things. Most of the time we do not get the opportunity to celebrate on the day, but we make sure that we spend some time together around this period (usually in January). 

That very first day we left Searcy and spent the night in Hot Springs, Arkansas, driving on to Abilene, Texas in a car that almost killed us from a leaky exhaust pipe. For the next few years we celebrated in Abilene with church family encouraging us (we had a great ‘young marrieds’ group at church). 

Our 5th year saw us celebrating with the addition of Stephan, who had shown up on Halloween that year. We were still in Abilene, but by the next year we had moved to Long Beach, California just before moving overseas. Our anniversary was shared with the church family in Long Beach and we flew to Belgium in January the following year (3 weeks later, in other words). 

The anniversary in 1991 we were living in Antwerp, Belgium, on a busy street in a busy city with a growing little boy and planning our move to the area of Maastricht, the Netherlands. It would still be another 6 months before we moved, but the plans had been set in motion by this time. We had started the year out living with our colleagues in their small house. We then moved to an apartment where we could welcome guests and finally get the things we had shipped from the US. We celebrated this anniversary in January 1992, leaving Stephan for a few days with colleagues and spending time together in the area where we were to move. 

In June 1992 we moved to our house in the village of Neerharen, Belgium (a village in the town of Lanaken). The following anniversaries were most often spent at home or nearby doing all sorts of activities. In 1995 Scott began with the singing group Listen Up!. For several years they organized a concert around Christmas called ‘Always CHRISTmas’. These concerts could be in Eindhoven, Woudenberg, Haarlem, Maastricht or Antwerp, but very often fell on our special day. So we celebrated in abbreviated form wherever we were at the time. 

In 1993 we shared the anniversary with our second addition to the family when Sean arrived in September. We also took our first furlough to the States that year in the winter, spending our anniversary with Scott’s mom in Colorado. For most of the years following we would take our furlough in the summer months because of school vacations. 

One of the years, we figure it must have been 2006 (so 22 years married), we took a short mid-week together as a family. We had some time in a bungalow park in the south of the Netherlands where the boys ran around (‘parcours’ was in fashion), we bowled together and enjoyed some family time. 

On our 25th anniversary, in 2009, good friends in Brussels (thank you Bill and Deedee) had us at their place and we spent a few days in the city, taking in some museums, getting some good food and sharing the time together. We were able to relax and spend the time together. The boys were old enough to be left alone and we made the time to make it special. In the year after we took 3 or 4 days together for a real celebration, traveling to Breda, Apeldoorn and Deventer (in the Netherlands).

Fast forward to 2012 and we celebrated in Oregon, OH while preparing for Stephan’s wedding to Natalie. This was only the second time in the US during winter. We met Natalie’s family and spent the day before the wedding making the wedding cake pops together as a combined family. We did spend the evening of our anniversary in a hotel.

In March 2018 Sean married Jill and they moved to New York City in October. This meant that this year was the first time that we had celebrated our anniversary without the kids in any way. Of course, we once again had various activities at the time, so celebrated on a different day. 

We seldom are able to celebrate on the day itself, but we know every year how good it is to have had another year together. We continue looking forward to the places and times we might celebrate in the future. This year we will look at heading off to a nice city ion the Netherlands - sometime in January. 

What does church look like?

“You can’t ‘go’ to church because you are the church!” I remember hearing this early on in my new life as a Christian. And it is so true. The family, the Christians, are the ecclesia, the church. In Dutch, the word for church - “gemeente” - is the same word used for the city government. Some might use the word “kerk”, but this refers more to a building. 

This past Sunday showed once again what it looks like to be the church. In Maastricht we try to make sure that we do things in Dutch. We are, after all, a Dutch-speaking group in a Dutch-speaking city. But we are much more than that. We have 6 Dutch-speaking couples and 7 Dutch-speaking singles. But that only tells a part of the story. Most of these couples are mixed in some way. There is an Ecuadorian wife, a German husband, Belgians, and two Americans (guess who). Among the singles, there is an Iranian, Armenian, and a Belgian. And this is just the group that speaks Dutch. 

You see, although we try to make sure that things are done in Dutch, we know that we have quite a group that does not speak Dutch. So we translate into English. We have one English-speaking family and 8 English-speaking singles. There are Americans, a Nigerian (who also speaks Russian), an Albanian, a Brazilian and four Ukrainians. Around this time of year some might start singing about partridges and pear trees. 

So what does church look like? On a Sunday people filter in (some with a cultural time adaptation - if you know what I mean) and those who are earlier will be greeting each other and already drinking some coffee. After the study, some others will grab their cup of coffee in the space that we leave between the study and the beginning of our worship time together. This is a time of more greeting, hugging and general hullaballoo. 

We worship, as I mentioned, mostly in Dutch. This means that most songs are in Dutch. But we have talked with the Ukrainians and found out which songs they also have in Ukrainian and Russian. This means that the song-leader can choose songs which they know. At that time you will hear singing in Dutch and a bit of Ukrainian at the same time. A few months back, we would also hear some Spanish when Deysi’s parents were visiting from Ecuador. 

The sermon and prayers are translated into English or from English into Dutch. Sermon outlines are available in Dutch and English. Sometimes you will hear some translating of a difficult point into Russian or Ukrainian. More importantly, when all is said and done, we all gather around the coffee and discuss the lessons and how God has been blessing us in whatever language makes things clear. There is a pleasant hum of discussion and sharing. 

One of our ladies takes the Lord’s Supper to one of our shut-ins. In the week we gather online for a Bible study. The ladies just returned from a week together. Some of the members get together in the week to help each other or just meet and talk. Our Nigerian will be moving, so others will help with a car and trailer. Our young Ukrainian couple is marrying in January, so we look at how to help them get settled in. Family stuff. On a Sunday or any other day of the week.

Yesterday we spent time together having Christmas fun. We played games with gifts (white elephants), ate goodies that everyone had prepared and brought, and had a good time together. This is what church looks like. Language doesn’t matter. Where you are from doesn’t matter. There are some challenges, but we can get through those because we are family, we are church - the body of Christ. 

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.  1 Corinthians 12:12-14

(If you do Instagram, you can find us there @gvc_maastricht)

Wild Wonderful Wednesday

On this 5th Wednesday we are indeed going wild. Everyone has a bounty of wilderness just outside their door, and it is no different for us. Even if you live in the city, you can find some pretty wild stuff if you open your eyes. Come with us today into our backyard and marvel at what God has made. 

This year we have had full Fall color - even now at the end of November. Our cherry tree is blazing into the winter, giving us a wonderful view to the canal in the background. This is the backdrop of our little bit of the wild. Look down. Look up. Look further away and close by. God has blessed us with all sorts of wonders to enjoy. 

Although it is now colder and we haven’t seen them for some time, we can generally run across some slugs crawling along our terrace and even up the window. In Dutch they are called ‘naked snails’ for obvious reasons. We also have plenty of clothed snails in the yard. 

As we walk further into the yard - stepping very high at the moment because my lawnmower broke down and the grass is quite high - we come across several mole hills. Although we are not too happy with the hills all over the yard (it makes mowing the lawn quite a challenge), it is intriguing to wonder about all the life going on just under the surface. We have only once seen one of these little guys. 

Along the sides of our yard are long stretches of hedge. The one side is a very thorny hedge, in Dutch called ‘May thorn’ (hawthorn in English). Even now there is a constant flurry of little birds flitting in and out, crumbling about with one another, chirping and screeching. We can enjoy these birds from the living room as well, since they also live in the holly tree growing in the neighbors driveway, next to our drive. 

At the back of our yard, outside our hedge and next to the canal, I pile all of the cuttings from the year. The hedge cutting, and cuttings from the trees in the yard (we have a cherry tree and a walnut tree, as well as several other bushes and trees I am not familiar with). In these piles of cuttings live various other critters. In the past we have found hedgehogs roaming the yard and even living in our garage. 

We regularly hear fox in the evening, with their identifiable screeching cry, as if someone were out along the canal I pain. In the summer we hear the frogs calling all night long. If we are up early enough in the morning, we might even see the fox (I have seen him twice) as well as a marten (weasel). The marten’s are endangered, so you cannot dop anything to keep them away, even though they chew through the hoses of your car - one of their favorite places to hide. 

Sitting in the dining room looking out over the yard we can watch the pigeons and blackbirds sitting in the cherry tree. Both of them like to ‘cook’ the cherries in the summer. They pick a hole I various cherries and let it begin to rot. Then they can return later and eat the juice they have created. We compete with the for the cherries. But usually, if we leave them the higher branches, they leave us the lower ones. 

We have also see quail and even a pheasant sitting in the yard under the cherry tree. The quail have wondered across the yard with their young. But they have to be quite careful, since we have various good hunting cats in the street and neighborhood. The dogs have never been able to do any damage, but the cats know their way around a hunting field. 

If we continue through the gate at the end of the yard and walk out to the canal, we can enjoy all of the other water fowl available for perusal: geese of all sizes, ducks, swans and heron. All make their home for a time along this water, disregarding in general the bikes riding by and even ignoring most of the dog owners tied to their animals pulling them along the walkway. 

I haven’t even talked of the various insects and spiders, worms and crawly things the can be found all around the house (sometimes in the house). It is truly amazing what we can see when we open our eyes. I am always thankful for how wonderfully God has made everything. Look around you. Tell me - what do you find? 

A completed life??

Last week a friend of mine - an atheist who I talked to every week - decided that he had a "voltooid leven", that his life was complete. This is something that can be done in the society here in the Netherlands. “A completed life” means that you have decided to kill yourself. Society in general agrees that this is okay.

The man that I knew disagreed with me on lots of things that we talked about. Politics. Economics. Morals. But we also agreed on many other things. The value of people. That things are not the most important in life. Still, our world views differed greatly. 

I believe that God created us, is not the same as we are, and has the right to let us know how best to follow Him. I believe we have good evidence for this and a wonderful way to not only find truth, but to follow truth in Jesus Christ. This also means that our life here on earth is not all that exists. We are spiritual beings and look forward to eternity. 

My friend believed that we all were creations of chance, thrown together throughout the millions of years he believed had existed before our current age. He believed that we were basically noble animals, slightly better than most animals and often worse than all other animals. He believed that dying was the end of existence - despite the evidence he himself brought up concerning love, hope and the need to believe in one another. 

He was dying. We are all dying. He had pain and believed that dying quicker presented him with the answer to his pain. We talked about the reality - in my view - that there is a much worse pain than the pain he was now feeling, an eternal pain of the body and soul. 

I struggle to understand how a society can ask people to be “good”, to care for others, to do what is “right” and build on hope when this same society accepts and lauds the idea that there is nothing more than physical life and that each person can make a choice that is purely selfish, egocentric. 

Such a mixed message can only create a society of lost souls. People searching for truth and love and value, but unable to find it because they have blinded themselves to the very truth in front of them in every piece of nature. 

This society has always been present. It was so in the time of Jesus Christ, in the time of the first disciples, in the ages following as the church grew. And it is still present today - in every country around the world. And the answer, the antidote, the solution is still the gentle Healer who has come to present life. I pray that I will not tire of presenting this life as best I can. 

Leave your jug behind

We have been reading through the gospel of John in our weekly study with the church here in Maastricht. This past Sunday the topic at the Lord's Supper mentioned the woman at the well (John 4). It was an interesting point I had not often stood still by: she left her jug. This woman who already had a difficult existence and was going to all this trouble to get what she needed that day (water) left her water there at the well after talking to Jesus.

This is the question for each of us as well. Is what we are running after, the ways we are trying to get what we think we want, really working for us? Are we willing, like the woman at the well, to give it up in favour of what Jesus is offering? Even more, do we truly understand, like that woman, that what he is offering IS much better? And that it is so important that we have to go tell others?

We have contact almost every day with people who are looking for love, looking for happiness, looking for fulfilment or acceptance. In their search, they end up in all sorts of places and positions in their lives that only make things worse. We know how it goes, because we have been there too. But we know better now. We know that what Jesus offers, really IS better, because He really is who He says He is. So we share this wonderful gift of grace - living water. A strength to be completely created anew - not into something we are not, but into that which we were meant to be.

Not everyone can see the reality of this gift. Some are too lost in what they have been doing all along for so long. "If I leave my jug, how will I get water again?" "If I leave this running-after-these-things that are supposed to make me happy, how will I be able to be happy ever again?" Some people have heard and go running, like the woman at the well, to proclaim to their neighbours: "Listen! This is important!" For us it is simply important to keep presenting what Jesus is offering: living water.

Jesus was simply himself, connecting with this woman. He offered her what is true, but unbelievable to her. We are offering what seems unbelievable, but is true. When she had questions, he answered honestly, without being politically correct. And he was clear without being judgemental when he let her know that he knew her real situation. He did not pretend it did not exist, he named it and left it with her. 

We are so very thankful for the people God brought into our lives to speak clarity and truth to us so that we could see the offer of Jesus. And we are so thankful that God wants to and is using us to do the same for others wherever we are. We keep praying for people to be willing to just leave the jugs behind.

Now that's family!

I have used this space before to talk about family. It's one of my favourite topics. Shirley and I both grew up in large families, although we did not always know our extended family. But once we became Christians, we found out what family really means. I remember the first time I read Jesus' words in Mark 10:29-30 about leaving family for Jesus. I was already experiencing this truth in my Christian life and it would only be emphasised even more through the years. 

God loves family. He created it. It is His design. And it is amazing. So when we have opportunity to experience family, we enjoy it completely. And the last months have been full of family moments. 

On March 15 our Raab family added a daughter-in-law as Sean married Jill Verhaeghe just outside of Brussels. Both Sean and Jill work and live in Brussels. Jill joined us on a trip to Prague in January as we got to know her better. Now we look forward to getting to know her and being there as family for her and Sean. On May 26 we will hold a reception for the church members and friends in the area so that the broader family can get to know Jill as well - and vice-versa. We have been so thankful for the help that our brothers and sisters have been. 

At the end of March we spent a day with church family from all over the Netherlands and Belgium singing, learning new songs and getting to know one another. This was the 5th time a Song Workshop was organised and we had about 25 participants. The church in Rotselaar hosted us for the first time and we saw several first-time participants. 
We are so thankful for brothers and sister who so desire to spend time together and to spend that time singing to the Lord, our Father. Since I was leading the workshop, there are not many pictures, but we had a great and upbuilding time. We were able to record some songs that were new for some. And we learned some new hymns that I hope more in the church will be able to learn as well. 

At the beginning of April we said goodbye to our sweet sister in Christ, Willemien. She was 96 and has been patiently waiting to go Home for years. Her spirit of sharing, of patience in the Lord, of strength in His promises has always been an encouragement to me. Our life will be very different with her gone and we will miss her. But we so look forward to the time we will sing with her again around the throne. 
We were thankful that her passing was also a time of coming together, sharing as family, remembering how good it is to be children of God. He designed family for these very purposes. 

Take time this week - on Sunday and the days in between the weekend - to experience and remember how good it is to be part of His family. 

Out of the dark

How do you deal with forgiveness? What do we do with the struggle against sin in our lives? Who do you think you are – are you holier than I?

These and many other questions are part and parcel of our conversations and interactions – not only in our work, but in our daily lives with one another as well. Paul struggled with his past, knowing that he had condoned murder – even though he had not considered it such at the time. Peter knew what he had done there by the fire, cursing his accent from Galilee. We all know the feeling: we were in a dark place, a very dark place.

But that is the operative word – if we are now in Christ. We WERE in a very dark place. A place of shame. And when satan reminds us of it – either in temptation or in accusing us through the mouth of someone who has come to know of our past – we can only admit that it is true. We were truly like that. We really did do that. And yet, that is not the end of the story.

It is truly true that Jesus’ death on a cross, in shame and pain, paid my debt to righteousness. “God made him who had no sin to be sin so that we might become his righteousness” (a favorite song and of course also 2 Corinthians 5:21). You may have lived in the darkest depths of slavery (yes, that is really what it is), but He brought you out and placed you in His glorious kingdom of light.

Imagine what the Israelites felt when they came through the Red Sea on dry land and saw the waters crash back down on the army that had been breathing with heated breath down their necks. They had almost been caught again, captured and carried back to the darkness. But now, now they look back over the waves at that far away place, that place of darkness – as they stand in the light, as they stand in freedom.

I am NOT in darkness. I am NEW. And I will live as this risen creation, awoken to new possibilities and new strengths in the might of the Almighty God, my loving Father. You, too, can walk away from darkness. Don’t listen to the repeating refrain of shame that satan shouts into your ear. Simply admit the truth: Yes, I WAS in darkness. And admit the Truth: but ‘I have been crucified in Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me!’ (another song – and Galatians 2:20).

And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:11