Getting to talk to family is a blessing. We both grew up in a situation where we were separated from family for longer periods. In those days, that meant air mail letters or long distance phone calls of very short duration. These days we can send video messages, songs, pictures and more by our phone or computer. And we are thankful that we are able to connect with our boys, their wives and our granddaughter via the computer on video calls.
We were able to talk to Sean for quite a while yesterday, checking in with his life and sharing ours. Everyone has a busy life. When we were younger and starting our life together, we were sure that our life was full of busyness. Of course now that is exactly where our children’s lives are. Which is why it is so nice to be Abel to “drop in” on a video call.
We can hear the fire engine sirens screaming by our son’s window as they race to a fire on a snowy day in New York City, while we sit comfortably on our couch in the closing of the day in Belgium. Or we can show our midday snow to our granddaughter who is just waking up 6 hours away. It is always a bit of adapting, but it is good to see one another.
It is even better to hear one another. The cadence of speech reminds us again of times when we were together. The laughter we share warms our hearts. And it is sometimes much better to share things “face-to-face” than in an email or letter.
Of course it is also nice to be able to show off anything new in the house, or let the dog say hello. Most of us are used to being on video while talking these days. We use it for our weekly study with the members (which means more people can join the study). We also hold a video study with the younger people who are English-speaking - and spread to various places in Europe. Whereas some might turn off the camera (we don’t, since I am teaching, but others do) to avoid video weariness, we are thankful to be able to see one another, especially on these family calls.
But in a few months we will get to take the next step and actually hug our kids. We are looking forward to being with Stephan and the family in May and Sean and Jill at the end of our trip in June. Along the way we will also be able to see others in our family with whom we do not have video calls - although I guess that would also be possible if we all wanted it.
We are thankful for technology, for mobility and for possibilities to gather together in various times and places.
The past few weeks have brought us some wonderful conversations. The coming weeks will offer more opportunities. We are so thankful for the various ways that we can talk to people and how God works through those conversations.
Some of the conversations have been in person. We had a wonderful visit from Rudy and Pam Schellekens from Muscatine. We had worked with them in the past and they are a part of our lives and of how we were formed by God. As you have been able to read, they helped out with our Youth Day and Rudy spoke for us on the Sunday they were here. We also enjoyed a day in Maastricht taking them around to the various sights.
Just after they left we hoped to be able to see some other old friends (Dottie Schulz and her daughter, Rachel), but due to sickness we had to adapt our visit. We had driven up north to stay with Jim and Ruth Krumrei for the night before visiting Dottie the next day. Dottie was not feeling well, so we had a great day with Jim and Ruth. Jim was Scott’s mentor back when Scott first came to the Netherlands.
We had actually just seen Jim and Ruth at a wedding celebration for Ruud and Karla’s youngest daughter. We were thankful for the conversations at that meeting as well. We saw some of Ruud’s family who we seldom see and were able to see Ruud and Karla’s 3rd daughter who lives in the US. We met her two kids as well and were amazed that they spoke Korean, Dutch and English (Kyana is married to Juheon who is Korean).
This reality and a conversation with others on this day about grandkids and language helped to convince Scott that it would be good to speak some Dutch to granddaughter Sophia. And then we are very thankful for technology and how it helps us with conversations. Scott has started sending short video’s to Sophia (often in Dutch) to keep in touch. Thankfully, we were also able to see Sophia on our last video call with Stephan.
And video calls have been good for many of our conversations. Every other Tuesday we have a Bible study online with the English speakers in the congregation. One of our sisters who moved to France with her husband has also been able to join in online for her Bible questions. Technology can be amazing and we are very thankful for these opportunities.
And still, sometimes meeting face-to-face is the best or only way to have a conversation. Our old neighbor is currently in prison in Antwerp. We cannot call him or send an email, although he can call us sometimes. So Scott makes time to visit him in prison and encourage him however possible. Mostly this is in letting him know that he is not alone and sharing the things we have been studying in the Bible (this neighbor used to come to our home Bible studies). This last weekend Scott was also able to vote for this neighbor since he could not go (using a power of attorney).
We are thankful for every moment that we get to talk to our sons, daughters-in-love and our granddaughter as well as all of our brothers and sisters in Christ and family members. Short messages via social media channels, or even simply making a call. Taking time to talk brings us together. How do you stay connected?
I remember working together with my brothers and friends to create a sound recording of harmony. If we sang onto one cassette, we could then play that cassette and sing along with it while recording on another cassette. In that way we could get both voices onto one recording. You could even do it one more time, although the quality got worse each time.
But wait a minute. What is a cassette, some may be asking? A tape cassette was a way to record sound onto magnetic tape and then be able to play it back. When I was growing up, my father had reel-to-reel tapes. These were large reels of magnetic tape that were played off on a large audio system. A cassette tape was the miniature version of reel-to-reel.
You might have seen it in movies like “Guardians of the Galaxy” or some tv series that look back at the 70’ and 80’s. We would sit with our cassette recorders at the ready next to the radio, ready to hit record when “our” song came on and then hope that the dj would not ruin it by talking at the end of the song. In this way we could make a mix-tape of our favorite songs - the Spotify of our age.
Cassette tapes were later replaced by compact discs - cd’s. These were plastic discs which had been “written” on by a laser and could be “read” by another laser. There had even been large discs, about the size of a long-play album (an lp) which could show a whole movie. CD’s could hold much more information that cassette’s and did not have to be played sequentially. You could choose whatever song on the album you wanted to listen to, followed by whatever other song on the album.
The same technology was bettered and made able to hold even more information so that video’s in the end also ended up on these discs, which we called dvd’s (digital video discs). People had already been able to watch video on a video cassette recorder (a VCR), but now there was no more rewinding and torn and tangled magnetic tape.
As we traveled this summer we were able to watch any number of video’s on the plane, simply choosing which video was to be played at our seat. Other passengers nearby were watching their own video’s on their laptop computers or their phones. In fact, people listen to any music or watch any kind of video content using their phones these days.
This was all set into motion together with a Dutch company back in the day. It was Phillips who made cassette recorders, cd recorders and dvd recorders. More recently, Phillips dropped this side of their business and began focussing more on medical technology. Phillips is the major industry in the Dutch city of Eindhoven where we go every 3rd Wednesday to sing with the church there - without recording in any way. But if you are interested in hearing some of the recordings made of songs we sing, you can check them out at this video site (combining sound and video).
What does a 2 year-old have to do with a blushing bride on her wedding day? I have had the privilege of officiating at several weddings. And I have the great privilege of being a dad of two boys who were at one time 2 year-olds. Lately, while working on making a lyric video for a song my sister in Christ wrote, I was struck by this connection and the true meaning of submission.
I remember at one time one of the brides who had asked me to officiate at her wedding struggling with the idea of the text in Ephesians in regard to the woman. She was a woman who fit well into Western European society and the idea of a woman being submissive in anything just stuck in the craw. Why in the world should a modern woman even have to consider being submissive? But this was also a sister in Christ, so she didn’t feel like she could very well just toss that bit of scripture out.
In recent years I have been working on song workshops, encouraging members of the church to allow scripture and their creative abilities to combine to write new songs for the churches. During the past corona year I have been putting these songs into video’s and placing them online so that churches can use them in their services or so that members can simply be encouraged. Sometimes the songs were recorded before COVID came along. Some of the songs I sang in myself. Still others were put together as a virtual choir.
The video’s are put together with pictures or video fragments from the internet. I look for pictures that fit well with the words being sung. And as I looked to complete this song, I was struck by what for me was an amazing lesson. You probably figured this one out a long time ago. Thank you for allowing me to share my joy at learning it now.
What kind of picture do you look for to show submission? The song comes from the text in Ephesians 5:21. This is the text that precedes the bit to the wives telling them to submit to their husbands in all things. The verse says: "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” But how do you show this? I had pictures in my mind of a strong hand, strength in an arm, bowing down. But all of these seemed quite negative. It hit me that this is what the bride had been hearing and feeling. She couldn’t get any other picture in her head than this.
But this was not the picture I had from the verse and was certainly not what I have in my mind about how Jesus loves us. It is not how I see Him asking us as the church to submit to him. And the more I looked around, the more I ended up with pictures of people helping each other. People grabbing one another’s arms to help them up from a fall. People helping others climb a mountain. People praying with and talking to one another. The “one another” passages kept popping up in my head.
That’s when the 2 year-old showed up. Not literally. My boys are long past 2. But I remembered the 2 year-old who would say, “I can do it.” Shoving the helping hand away so that he could do it HIMSELF! Sometimes a 2 year-old can be pretty forceful. But other images flooded my memory as well. The outstretched arms asking to be picked up. The hand reaching up to be held as we crossed the street. And yes, the little boy allowing me to tie the shoe or put on a skeeler.
A 2 year-old knows very well how to submit. Submission is essential if we are to be helped in any way at any time. It is even only when I submit that I can be loved. That blushing bride had already submitted by opening up her heart to that young man to be loved. Submission is not at all a strange thing to us. We have all learned it growing up and in the most beautiful of ways.
“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” means that we understand how thankful we are that Jesus was able and willing to save us. It is that thankfulness and joy that is part and parcel of our submission to one another so that we can assist each other in life. And that is how, later in life, we learn again and again through difficult times and times of great joy how wonderful submission truly is. I already knew this, but I discovered it once again. I had always heard it in the word "love". But there it was, standing firm in that strange word: "submission".
I am so thankful for my sister, Nita Blaakmeer, who is struggling now with cancer and her own fears, but who has long taught me about submission and helping one another. This is her song (and her voice as well), recorded in 2019 with other brothers and sisters - as such a song should be.
