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. 

A great team

The team
Originally uploaded by sraabs.

The high school students from Western Christian College in Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada came with Blair and Susan Roberts for several weeks to help with the church in Belgium and the Netherlands. They gave conversationl English lessons in Antwerp, distributed flyers offering courses in Ghent and helped out down at camp for several weeks.

In Maastricht we would only have them for a few days, so we wanted to make the most of the opportunity. We decided to use the time to challenge our young people to also be an influence and example on these young people in living for Christ. It was a great time of learning and encouragement!

We did a few different things that all involved working together so that we could encourage one another. We cleaned up the building in order to give our ladies a well-deserved rest. Many hands make light work - and it was fun too!

The team was also split up into two groups - each group made up of Canadians and our own young people. Each group had to plan a meal on a minimal budget, buy what was need, cook the meal and decorate the table - for everybody! This was a real challenge, but well-met by these young people.

We also spent time simply playing. Getting out on the local football (soccer) field was a good way of getting to know one another and letting others see how fun it is to do things together. This will be a good example for the future with our young people and their friends.

The most encouraging time for me was the evening we spent some time telling our stories. Everyone has a story - the story of their life and how Christ has touched it. Although this was quite a confronting time as well, it was very encouraging for our young people.

And all of this (inclduing a bit of distributing in the rain) was completed in just four days of being together. In these four days our young people also developed some good relationships with the students. Now that is encouraging!