It's been such a long, long time

That’s what many of our young people feel. In the past the churches in the Netherlands and Belgium have always tried to make sure that there was some kind of youth activity almost every month. The youth in the church need to have opportunities to grow and to grow together. Now, after two years of not being able to get together - except for the amazing oasis of summer Bible camp - we have begun again with youth weekends. 

In March, the annual “Console Weekend” was held again in Antwerp. Luk Brazle and others always know how to combine the fun of console gaming with the excitement and truth of God’s word in our daily lives. And this year was no different. As with so much in these times, the reality of depending on one another was also clear for this weekend as Luk had to pass off the leadership due to coming down with covid. 

In Maastricht we have always been active in organizing for youth and helping where we can. It has been a while since we had our own group of young people, but that has changed in the last year as well. We now have four families with children as well as possible Ukrainian youth. So we are planning our next youth weekend here in Maastricht. It may end up being only a a day (we have a few much younger kids who we want to include), but it will be good to have the opportunity to organize again and get members involved in this way. 

Our kids are already getting to know one another. The past few weeks have been an interesting mix of Dutch, English and Ukrainian. What a challenge for the sister leading the children’s class! Most of the Dutch speakers also speak English, though not all of them. The Ukrainians don’t speak anything else. And the English speakers can understand some German, but Dutch is still a challenge. 

Still, when the singing is finished and the adults are all standing about drinking coffee and tea and sharing good conversation, the kids are standing at the white board drawing, playing drawing games (tic-tac-toe) or laughing at one another - in all languages. We are thankful for these challenges and look forward to how God will continue using these opportunities to His glory. 

People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.                            Mark 10:13-16

Growing up in the Lord

We are never too old to grow in the grace and love of the Lord. Every day we need to be reminded and challenged to allow Jesus to truly be our Lord.

In September we organized a youth weekend in Maastricht - at our house actually - with the theme: Meetings with Jesus. We had a great group of young people from Eindhoven, Antwerp, the area around Tienen and from Maastricht and Valkenburg. How well do we know Jesus? How can we know who he is and what he wants? We took time in the two days we were together to read, think about and discuss six different stories of what Jesus did, what he was like.
We met the 12-year-old Jesus in the temple, saw Jesus washing the apostles' feet and when he fed more than 5000 with a little boy's lunch. We talked about the night in the garden of Gethsemane and around the fire. We saw how Jesus dealt with Thomas and his doubts. And we looked at Jesus walking over the water and stilling the storm.
Each meeting gave us plenty to chew on for our own lives. Are we willing to ask questions and listen to answers, seeking God's will? Can we serve each other? Why are we afrai of what people think? Can Jesus do anything with the little bit I can offer? How strong do I really need to be? All good questions and challenges. For October we challenged the  young people to read one of the gospels and meet Jesus. Why don't you join us?

At the end of October we are organizing Fall Camp. This is vbasically a youth weekend down at camp in the Ardennes. Since we have our new facility, some things will be easier. The beauty of the season and thrill of change will still be just as present. For this weekend we will challenge ourselves with questions on fighting. How do we fight the good fight? What weapons do we have to use? Who (or what?) are we fighting? Who are we NOT fighting? It should be a great weekend! We will be able to tell some of you about in person.

The nice thing about all these weekends ... we get to learn so much from these young people and their desire to know and follow Jesus!