Making a choice

It is intriguing to see how God can use people. Many of us perhaps can understand king David’s amazement that God would use him. David knew who he was, his own shortcomings. But he also knew how mighty God was. And he trusted that. Even when he messed up royally. 

We have always tried to remember that God is using us however He sees fit and in ways that He sees as possible. We try to be faithful in simply continuing to follow Him and speak of His wonderful love. As we do this, we try to remember that each person makes their own choices in their lives. We cannot change people. They must allow themselves to be changed by meeting the amazing love of God. 

Years ago we met several of our next door neighbors when we offered a chance to “Get to Know Jesus” by looking into the gospels. The house next to us is used as a half-way house for patients dealing with mental struggles and transitioning back into society. Some of these neighbors grabbed the chance to meet someone they had heard of but never really known anything about. 

One of those neighbors was Jan. He called himself a speeding train that always moved at high speed. When we met him he was coming down off of extreme medication. He had grown up attending a Jesuit school and was very intelligent. Hen enjoyed the group reading in the gospels and was familiar with the story of Jesus. Finding Jesus in his own life was more of a struggle. 

After he left the house next door and went on into society, some of his struggles returned with a vengeance and he ended up in prison in Antwerp. I would visit him there every month and try to encourage him and remind him of Jesus who we had met. He chose to do things his own way, which was often quite confusing (including making his own religion of which he was the pope). 

About two weeks ago he called in the evening. He regularly called when he had enough telephone credits and asked me to look up addresses and phone numbers on my computer. This time he mentioned that he had set up his cell to die. I let him know that he was not alone and that God was mightier even than his situation. But later in the week I got news that he had continued with his choice to end his life. 

We know that God is able to change things to help us. We know especially that God is able to change US to be the people that He knows we can be. But our choices influence further what direction we will take. We can choose to follow Him or go our own way. And those choices will determine where we end up. We will miss seeing Jan and are pained that we will not see him again. And we will double our efforts to remind the people around us how important it is that we choose to follow Jesus now, today. 

We are not given tomorrow. We have today. Jesus has proven that He is able to keep us safe if we walk with Him. He has done all that is necessary to free us of the troubles to which we are enslaved. But it remains our choice. We pray that you, too, will choose to walk with Him, get to know Jesus in your life. 

Wild Wonderful Wednesday: Kabouters and Castles

We live on the Kasteelstraat - Castle Street. It was originally named Church Street (because the church is just down the street), but when the 7 villages combined to make one town, there were too many “Church” streets, so ours was renamed Castle street. This is because our street dead-ends at the canal before continuing on the other side to the castle across the way. Plus, there is another castle in the next village and one which disappeared hundreds of years ago. In other words, castles are not that amazing in our area. 

“Kabouter” (ka-bow-ter) is what the Dutch call gnomes. You know, those general gnomes with the pointy-floppy hats in bright colors you might find in your garden. In Belgium we have the Smurfs (they are blue, but are still basic ally gnomes) and we have a whole amusement park called Plopsaland which is built around gnomes here in Belgium. So we know our gnomes as well. 

Since the new years began Shirley and I are trying to get back to walking daily. When we had a dog it was easy. But Chester has been gone for two and a half years and it is not as easy to find the motivation to get out, especially when the weather is nasty. So we have been encouraging one another to take a walk. We usually walk the same walk every day along our canal past our castle. But today was beautiful and I had to be in town, so we did something different. 

Today we stopped at the castle ruin in our town. The castle is from the 12th century and is surrounded by a simple moat and lots of wonderful walking woods. Perfect for taking a walk (gotta get those 10,000 steps). But it is also where the town has set up a Kabouter walk. There are little hints of kabouters everywhere - kabouters in the trees, kabouter houses in the trees, and all sorts of special tasks for children taking a walk in the woods with their parents. 

It was fun because we have also been making special video’s to send our granddaughter. We take about a minute and talk about “Something new”, but we do it in Dutch. We have looked at snow, a banana, the canal, trees and walnuts, candles, hair and more. So our walk was a perfect time to stop and introduce her to castles, kabouters and even geese (who were walking around making noise). We will send her these video’s bit by bit in the coming weeks. We understand she enjoys watching them with her daddy when they get up in the morning. 

We enjoyed our wild, wonderful walk today. If you come to visit us, we will gladly show you around our castles and introduce you to our kabouters. 

Wild Wonderful Wednesday

Today is a 5th Wednesday, so it is something completely different. In March we went on a walk along our canal to one of the local castles. Today we will take a walk to the other castle mentioned in March - Pietersheim. 

The actual castle ruins from the 12th century are mostly just walls and a gate tower. A section of the wall has been restored and a hall has been built with local stone to match the original stone. Local events are held here and wedding parties like to come here for pictures. 

More interesting to us are the grounds. Pietersheim is a full park with paths running through the woods bringing the walkers along a gnome route. Gnomes - like the ones you can put in your front yard - are called “kabouters” here (ka-BOW-terz). Walking through these woods is always fun with the kids. They run ahead looking for the houses in the trees, knocking on the doors to see if any gnome will answer the door. 

Further in the park we come to a children’s petting farm with horses, goats, chickens, rabbits and deer. This is all situated in a green area next to a playground for kids of all ages and of course a cafe for the parents waiting on and watching their kids. Ice cream, cold drinks and good coffee are to be had by all. We brought our young people here this past weekend for part of our Youth Day. 

This is also the beginning of a long nature walk into the nearby woods and fields. Nearby is a tower to climb which looks out over the whole area. There is also a “bare foot walk” where you can experience all sorts of things walking along the path in bare feet. 

But we are going to walk home leaving through the other side of the park than where we entered. This road is flanked by tall trees and seems quite pleasant. On the one side is what the locals call the “Gold Coast” - very rich houses at the edge of the woods. On the other side is a large farm where jumping horses are bred and trained. These horses have won medals in the olympics and are know all over the world. If you see a horse with a “-Z” at the end of the name - it came from here. 

This road bends to the right and comes out of the woods to head straight for the street light at our busy street. This street was originally the Roman road. Now it is simply a busy street running north-south. We cross at the light and enter our village again, walking past the specialist butcher on the left. This is the only shop in our village besides the apothecary out on the Main Street. There are several restaurants, but no shops. 

The street comes to a t-intersection at a statue of a lion. This is a war monument, remembering the 2 soldiers from the village who died in “the Great War” (WW1). I wonder how wars will be remembered in the near future. Thankfully, we live in what is now a peaceful little village. We walk past the local Catholic Church building and return home to grab a drink of water and a rest after a long walk. 

Wild Wonderful Wednesday

Today is a 5th Wednesday, a special Wednesday in our rotation. So we are going to take a quick trip along some wild and wonderful places near where we live. 

As we walk out our backyard and through the gate at the end of the yard, we come to the road running along the canal behind our house. Turning left we can enjoy the canal, watching the rowing club training: men’s and women’s, 2-man, 4-man and 8-man boats. A few hundred yards down the road we take a curvy left which then curves back right and passes by a WWII bunker where American and Belgian soldiers fought, very briefly. 

Past the bunker we cross the canal on a bridge leading us to the river, the Meuse. To the right is a nature park where we can see beavers, swine, deer, Scottish cows (put there to keep things maintained) and all sorts of waterfowl, including blue heron high up in the trees. But today we will turn right and head along the river. 

This past summer the river flooded to the levels from back in 1995 - even though the river has been broadened to make flooding less likely. Now the river is well returned to her banks and we pass a whole colony of swans. Down along the water we can see some Polish Konik horses grazing and drinking. 

As we turn back from the river we cross another bridge over the canal and watch a boat ply its way north to the Netherlands, maybe even going as far as Rotterdam harbor. Looking ahead from the bridge we see the towers of the castle in Rekem (previously called Rekheim). This castle first served as home to a baron. The barony, established in the 14th century, had its own coinage, toll rights, army and court of justice. In 1778 the family left the barony and castle and it became a house of “care” for beggars and those without work - a work house. 

After Belgium gained its independence (1830), the castle remained a beggars house until in 1920 it was turned into a psychiatric hospital. The local people for decennia would call it the crazy house. In 1970 the psychiatric hospital moved to a new location in the woods where it can be found today. 

The castle was sold in 2003 to a company which renovated it all and is making residential units. So if one desires, one can live in a castle in this “Most picturesque village in Flanders” (a prize the village won in 2008). 

If we were to take a longer walk, we could cross the major street and head towards Pietersheim, a castle ruin from the 12th century with moat and all. Next to the ruin is a hotel “castle” (more a big, fancy house). The park is a wonderful walk with the dog or children or just to take a run. But today we will just head on home for a good cup of coffee. 

If you would like to see more, check out some of the pictures of where we live. 

Going for a walk

Just before Thanksgiving (which we are actaully celebrating this weekend as ‘Thanksmas’ with other Americans and such) we were once again blessed to attend the Euro American Retreat in Rothenburg op der Tauber, Germany. This retreat has been going for more than 50 years and was originally attended mostly by military members in Europe. From the beginning they wanted to make it also a time of refreshing for and learning from missionaries in Europe. We have been able to attend because of gracious gifts from church members in the US and in Europe.

This weekend is a great time to meet up with others who are working in the kingdom around Europe, to share ideas and struggles, to be fed with challenging lessons from the Word. It is also a time to sing and share. I am always amazed and blessed by the giving, sharing spirit of those who come to this retreat. The intimate, quaint walled city and inevitable beautiful weather (whether it be snow or Autumn sunshine) are all simply settings for the conversations and thoughts which take place here.

The weekend of Thanksgiving, we were in Antwerp to share once again with some of the same people about missional outreach. How can we, where we are, be more intentional in how we are reaching people? Are there things we need to be doing differently? These were some of the same questions we had struggled with in Germany. 

One of the things which has remained with me was the realization presented by an illustration: we cannot keep pouring the goodness of God out of our cup into that of others. We must ourselves be filled to overflowing, thus allowing God’s blessings to overflow to others. If I am not myself being filled with the Spirit, how will He be able to use me to bless others?

Another moment of clarity came with the discussion about how religious language often is already too foreign for modern ears. That doesn’t mean we do not present the truths of Jesus Christ in our daily language. It means that we may first speak about ‘the teacher’ or ‘our support group’ or how ‘I read...’.

Each week I go walking. I walk with a man who needs to talk and wants to get healthier. I walk and listen and sometimes say a bit. This is what I observed was being done with me these last weeks as well. Isn’t it beautiful to know that God – from the beginning – talks of walking with us. He walked in the garden. And we can walk in the light, as He is in the light.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 1 John 1:7