Looking ahead

We have entered a new year, although we tend to look at things along the school year. So what does our coming year look like? That is what some o the members asked me yesterday after a wonderful worship time together. As I mentioned then, we cannot know what is coming, but we can know that God will be with us through everything that comes up. 

Here are some of the things we are looking forward to in 2024: 

We will continue holding our Games afternoons after worship on the 2nd Sundays. This has become a great time to get to know one another and to mix the generations. 

We are looking forward to various youth weekends and youth days in the year. The first one is planned for the end of January for kids 10 and older and will be held in Gent. We don’t know if any of our kids will go, but we are thankful for the various churches planning days and weekends. Basically there is some sort of youth activity somewhere in Belgium or the Netherlands each month. In April the church in Maastricht is planning another youth day like we held in the Fall of 2023. This year we hope to organize two of these days, one in the Spring and another in the Fall. 

Shirley and I are both looking forward to various seminar moments. February is the month for the Advanced Bible Study Series (ABSS) in Gemünden, Germany. Shirley might come along for the first time in a long time. We always had to leave one of us home for the dog in the past. In March, Shirley will be off with some of the ladies from Maastricht to the Ladies Retreat, also in Germany. 

Our involvement with Ardennes Bible Camp (ABK) will continue this year. The annual meeting is at the end of January. This year we are installing a new commission and planning some changes. I will be teaching at the Spring Vacation Bible Camp (VBK) in April and will lead the Benjamin Camp (8-11 year-olds) in the summer. We will also attend and help at Family Camp. The congregation in Maastricht will organize the Family Day at camp in September. 

We are also a singing congregation. We continue to meet every first Friday of the month to sing together and encourage one an other in song. Every third Wednesday Shirley and I go to the congregation in Eindhoven to sing with them. We may finally be able to set up a singing day in September with the congregation in Cologne and Liege (which we have missed for the last few years because of covid measures). And at the end of the year we want to reach out to our neighborhood and see how we can use our singing to encourage others. 

Along the way we are looking at a “Thanks Walk” on certain Saturdays throughout the year. This will be an opportunity not only to meet people in the neighborhood, but to encourage them to be thankful, as we hope that we are as well. We hope at some point in the year to maybe be blessed to travel to the US and see (and hold) our granddaughter, Sophia. We just missed meeting her in 2023 (she was born a few weeks after we passed through Indianapolis). In all of these activities and moments we will are thankful for the people in our lives, in the church, and those who help in so many ways. 

We do not really know what the year holds. No one does. We make plans and work toward doing what we hope to be able to do. We lean on God’s strength in each moment that we are given. And we are thankful for the grace and strength that He provides in each day. Keep close to Him and choose to follow Him every day. 

Thanks!

I know, Thanksgiving is well past. But remember, we do not celebrate Thanksgiving here. And I know that we all understand that giving thanks goes far past one special day in November in the United States (or a similar day in October in Canada). As is usual, some of us here got together - online - for “Thanksmas” - a day to celebrate and see each other in between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We did get to see each other - on a computer screen, but there was no pumpkin pie, turkey and all the rest. There was some good fellowship. It reminded us all that giving thanks is for every day. 

That’s why we want to take the time to let you know how thankful we are for the brothers and sisters who make it possible for us to be here, brothers and sisters who work together with us through prayer. We are immensely thankful for these congregations and individuals who have for so long been a part of this effort in Belgium and the Netherlands. Even in a year that has been abominable in many ways for many, God has blessed in beautiful ways. 

One of the blessings of this corona year has been our contact with one of our supporting congregations in Minnesota - Woodbury church of Christ. Every Friday morning the brothers gather for a men’s breakfast. Scott was able to attend some of these when we were back in Minnesota on Home Assignment (the last time in the summer of 2019). But since corona rules came into effect, the brothers have to meet online, which meant that Scott could also meet with them. Morning in Minnesota is afternoon in Belgium. So a new connection has been opened up. 

This congregation is also where Scott and Shirley spent time while on Home Assignment with a young couple from the congregation.This couple helped develop an app which Scott will now be using for Bible study with brothers in Belgium and the Netherlands (check out Edji.it). It was designed to help teach reading and more, but can be used in many ways. This is a blessing which we hope will bless many more in our outreach here. 

When we first married and moved to Abilene, Texas, for Scott to finish his studies, we became part of the 11th and Willis congregation. This group was influential not only in helping shape us as a Christian couple, but also in shaping our desire for missions. They have always been completely supportive of members who want to be and are active in reaching out with the gospel, no matter where they are. Because of this congregation we have also been able to let congregations in Europe know about what God is doing in Kenya and Burundi. God’s family is everywhere. 

And that means that God’s family is also along the Mississippi River in Iowa. The church in Muscatine has a unique connection to the work here in Belgium and the Netherlands. Not only do they support us as well as our colleague in Ghent, Sue Foster, they are also home to Rudy and Pam Schellekens who were both influential in both Scott and Shirley’s training in missions. During the first lockdown, we were able to meet with them on Sunday’s (Sunday morning in Iowa being Sunday afternoon here). 

And throughout the years, from the very beginning of our time here, the Long Beach church of Christ has been our supporting congregation. There has always been a group of members there who pray specifically for us and the needs mentioned here. They email and ask how things are going - being specific in their questions because they know what is going on here. During this year we have been able to follow the worship time there on Facebook. 

In addition to these four congregations, there are several individuals who not only financially support the efforts here, but who regularly check in with us to see how they can help in any other way. Some have lived here and know people we work with. Others simply love the Lord and know what it means to reach out with the gospel in any way possible, no matter where you are. You know who you are and how God is using you, too. 

We have had to readjust how we work this year. We have had to re-evaluate how we can reach people with the gospel and how we can encourage and equip members in faith and grace. As far as changes go, 2020 has been a doozy (is that how you spell that?). But we are so thankful that we are blessed with brothers and sisters in these congregations who for years have been adapting and changing with the challenges that God allows. They - you - know that as long as we are keeping our eyes on the King of kings, that we will be able to do what He wants. 

Thank you, Father, for your amazing family in all the world. Thank you that you want to use us as living stones to build a temple of praise everywhere we are and in every day and moment that we live here. 

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. Colossians 1:3-6

Let's get cookin'

I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for your prayers for Shirley. Her operation went well and she is recovering well at home. Probably the most frustrating thing for her is simply all the things she is not allowed to do: no reaching up, no bending down, no lifting of anything heavy (which I interpret for her to be anything). It is amazing how much of your normal daily life this impacts. And Shirley is a very active, very serving woman (as any of you who know her personally already know).

This means that she cannot have the dog, Snuffles, up in her lap in the morning, as she does almost every morning. She can’t put her own clothes on. When we go shopping she has to ask me to pick things up and put them in the wagon. And she can’t cook dinner - our refrigerator is low, which would mean bending down and lifting things out of the fridge. All of the cabinets are either high or low.

Perhaps that could have been a perk, but what it has meant is that I have to cook. Now, I have cooked before – I worked at Godfather’s pizza and Wendy’s, so I know how to throw some food together (sometimes literally). I was looking forward to learn some real cooking. But it has been a challenging week. Perhaps you know that a husband should not be the one to teach his wife how to drive. I believe some of the same dynamics come in to play when the husband is learning to cook. But we are surviving – and I am learning to cook.

This week Shirley will be allowed (she has 6 weeks of recovery) to do a little bit more. Tomorrow the stitches come out of her neck and she hopes to be a little bit more mobile. It is hard to be patient. She is chomping at the bit, ready to go. I am trying to be patient (mostly with myself) and starting to enjoy a lot of this cooking stuff. Pretty soon, together, we will really be cooking!