BelgianBreeze

Giving gifts back

2012-01-25T10:15:00.002+01:00

- Giving Back -

Last friday we walked into the doctors office with high hopes of seeing a healthy baby in Holly's tummy. Holly had figured out pretty quickly 5 weeks ago that she was pregnant and the feelings of hope, expectation and fear all came flooding back. Holly and I have been blessed with two beautiful, fun, healthy boys and the joy of that is overwhelming but the memories of hurt due to 4 other miscarriages scattered before and after our 2 healthy kids linger. As we shared with friends this good news, there was also a hesitation to rejoice.

As we got to see our baby last friday the smiles quickly turned to frowns. No heartbeat and the baby had not grown after week nine. I have always been fascinated at the extremes of emotion felt in a gynecologists office. High expectations, excitement, and on the other side, great disappointment and let down.

As I am typing this, Holly is laying in the hospital after having the baby removed. A simple procedure in the eyes of a doctor, but a taking away that has great emotional implications. Questions. Hurt.

Last Friday after we heard the news we came home to cry and pray. Quickly our thoughts were lead to the fact that God has given us so much. We are continually amazed that God has given us two perfect people to care for, to experience, to share life with. And He trusts us to do a good job. What amazing gifts! Then he gives another gift inside Holly's tummy to care for, to expect, to be excited about. But this gift we had to give back.

A friend said this week, why do you seem ok with this? You should be more upset! I almost feel guilty that I don't feel worse. But what right do I have to hesitate to rejoice. What right do I have to demand the things that God so freely gave in the first place? I believe in a God who can care for my child much better than I can.

I pray that I can grow to hesitate less when it is obvious I should rejoice. Please keep Holly in your prayers as she recovers from this operation, but mostly for our emotional recovery. God is good! He gives good and perfect gifts, we don't know why some are taken away, but we revel in the gifts that we get to hold on to. Our prayer is that you don't hesitate to rejoice with us.

Summer Plans Shaping Up

2012-01-16T11:45:00.003+01:00

- Summer Young Friends Team planning on coming to Ghent -

This past year the church here in Ghent took a break from inviting a group of campaigners over from the States. It was a refreshing summer of talking about who we are and how we can serve in our community. For the coming summer, when we heard of people wanting to come and help in Ghent, we jumped at the opportunity.

These groups give up their time, do fundraising, and come and serve in a city that they barely know, and come and give their efforts to share Christ with people who have not had the opportunity to hear His real story. This is done through advertising, through personal contact on playgrounds, train stations, and meeting places. We use English classes, Teen activities, discussion groups, and social gatherings to get to know the people here in Ghent.

We are blessed that there is a group of 4 young men preparing in York, Nebraska to come for 6 weeks this coming summer. The group has been preparing to teach English classes while they are here. We have used this opportunity in the past to get to know more people in Ghent, and we have continued contact with several due to these classes. We will advertise before the group comes, and they will give classes the whole time they are here. An extra blessing here is that a missionary to Belgium, Larry Good, is helping train this group, and will help them in Ghent when the project starts. We are blessed when others who know the Belgian work come to encourage and strengthen the work.

- The 6 week team -

We are also blessed that there will be a group of 9 coming for a 11 day visit to come and encourage the church, reach out to the community, give English discussion groups, and host a retreat for teens. A real treat is that it is lead by teens, and for teens. We like working with young people. It also helps that the "older" people on the team happen to be grandparents of the kids in our home.

I share this with you as we are in the throws of working out logistics for these groups. We are so thankful people are willing to give up their time to come and serve in our city together with us. We are excited of what God has in store for what people will be met, and what relationships will grow. Please be praying with us for an effective preparation for the teams coming and for open hearts for the people in Ghent.

Winter Retreat 2011-2012

2012-01-16T11:31:00.002+01:00

- Enjoying fellowship at Dijkstra's House -

Every winter the young adults look for a time to get together with friends and family from around Belgium and The Netherlands. This usually happens on the weekend between Christmas and New years and has happened in retreat centers and at our Bible camp in the past. This year our Bible camp didn't have a building anymore to host it in, the retreat centers were booked up, so the church in Eindhoven graciously allowed us to camp out there to celebrate.

- Playing Games Together -

It was a gamble since we were organizing it on New Years eve and New Years day to know if anyone would be able to come. But we were blessed with a fun group of young people. We focused on talking during our discussion times about persevering as Christians in the new year.

We were encouraged by scriptures like: Psalms 25:4-5 "Show me your ways, LORD, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. and we were lead to prayer because of the response of the first Christians to Peter and Johns words in Acts 4 "After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly."

- The Dutch know their fireworks -

The Dutch know how to celebrate with fireworks on New Years eve, so we enjoyed the show that went on for 45 minutes in the neighborhood we were in. Remco and Vero Dijkstra were kind enough to invite the whole retreat crew over for some food and games before the countdown. It was a treat to start the new year with all of these great people.

Praise God for people like these and for opportunities like these to get together and encourage one another.

Surviving - The world or the cold?

2012-01-16T11:14:00.003+01:00

- Surviving at camp -

I had the opportunity to invite some of the teen guys for a night of survival at camp last month. Levi, Gijs, and Thomas are young men in the church in Eindhoven and Rotselaar who are great guys that are a hoot. They are typical teenagers full of energy and great questions. We spent the day at camp to find out what their fire building, cooking over a campfire, and survival skills were like. We also had a chance to talk about our faith and how the world can be pretty hostile to faith at times.

- Playing with fire is ok when it is close to freezing -

Dennis, one of our team mates joined us later in the evening and did a good job entertaining the guys. With temperatures at night around -5 we did our best to stay warm. The guys cooked hot dogs, baked beans, and eggs and bacon were on the menu in the morning. Spending time with these young men is such a blessing. Their parents have done a great job of leading them to become great men. They are still on their journey, and they are honest about the difficulties about being a teenager, and also being a teenager that believes. Please keep these guys in your prayers as they try to survive the world, and try to understand their relationship with the Savior.

- Dennis came to supervise the cooking -

Click HERE for more pictures of the day.

Neighborhood Story Time

2011-12-07T11:02:00.003+01:00

About a month ago my eldest son (6) went with his first grade class to experience a dramatic reading of a story book performed by a local theatre group. We heard great reviews from the kids, and the parents were invited to host another group in their home for the reading of a different book. The aim is to get kids (and parents) from the neighborhood in each others homes to encourage reading, reading together, and it also served a good way to get to know the neighbors. The kids had great fun listening and watching the story unfold. It was interactive, and the parents got to listen along as well. It was fun to be able to open our house up like this and host such a reading time. It has given us some good ideas for the future. The kids enjoyed the time together and we enjoyed more contact with our neighbors. Here are some pictures of the event.

- The actors tell the story -

- Listening attentively -

- Lively Story -

- Their own dramatic reading -

- Coloring afterwards -

Belgian Breeze Newsletter - Sept./Oct. 2011

2011-11-17T15:59:00.003+01:00

To download our latest newsletter click here.

‘Vriendelijke Groetjes’
‘Friendly Greetings’ from Ghent, Belgium. We have enjoyed the past two months as life has gotten back to a normal schedule with school starting up again for our kids and the summer camps and projects coming to a close. This has meant that there were new opportunities for studies, classes, and projects in Ghent again. Read on to find out where God has allowed us to work and where He is opening doors.

Worship in Ghent
The family in Ghent continues to meet every Sunday afternoon at 4:30. This gives the group the ability to eat together after the service. Many stay to eat and it is one of our favorite parts because after a time of praise it is great to catch up through fellowship around a table. Jesus knew what he was doing when he asked his followers to eat, and remember him. Our weekly Tuesday night bible studies have continued as we study the habits of the early church and how that compares to what we do. We have been going through the book Will the real heretics please stand up chapter by chapter and have had some good discussions. In September our team mate Sue Foster left for the states to report about the work, raise support and to visit family, so we have missed her. Please keep her in your prayers as she travels. In our last e-mail we mentioned some new people who have been coming regularly when we worship together. Roland Ofosu from Ghana who recently learned about the Church of Christ from a friend and was baptized in Antwerp earlier this year and Daniel Good who is a missionary kid who has returned home after living in Canada and the US for 18 years. They are both a blessing to the church family and a great encouragement to the work.

Projects
The church in Ghent prayed this summer for a way to serve the community and we have been looking as a family how we can volunteer in the neighborhood in Ghent. Some are already active with other organizations to feed the poor, and help the needy. Please keep our search to serve in Ghent in your prayers. Pieter Good and Dennis van Erp, two members from the church in Ghent, love soccer and have a talent for putting together a big fellowship day of indoor soccer games where teams from churches of Christ around Belgium and The Netherlands challenge each other to competitive and fun games. The purpose is fellowship and the result is a lot of fun. We thank God for their effort in putting an event like this together. I got to play for the Ghent team, enjoyed leading worship that day with a group of almost 100 Christians. (That is a large group for Western Europe.) Some see soccer as a fellowship opportunity, others consider demolition a good fellowship opportunity. Our Bible camp is getting a new mess hall this coming spring, so it was up to us to tear down and remove the old building. The last of the demolition happened 2 weeks ago thanks to the Christians from 5 different churches. (For an idea of what that looks like go to youtube.com and search: Ardennen Bijbelkamp, and click on the top movie.) Now the site is ready for the rebuild in the spring that will be done by a contractor. We are excited about the possibilities that the new building will bring. For some recent pictures of our Bible Camp click here.

Refining our fishing
We go out weekly to advertise, and have conversations with people on the street asking them faith questions and learning about Belgian mentality towards faith. As we long to point people to God we need to follow God’s example in having a relationship with His children. This September, I (Luk) enrolled in a Flemish class to improve my language skills as well as meet new people. I lived in Belgium until I was 15 so my Flemish hovers around the 9th grade level so this has been a great opportunity for me to improve spelling, grammar and speaking, as well as provide an opportunity to talk to new people in class. I have also gotten involved with the local group of parents that meets to do fundraisers for the local school. This provides me with a chance to serve the community as well as get to know the teachers and parents better around Gideon and Isaaks’ school.

Encouraging
We thank God for the encouragement we receive from many of you and from the local church here. We want to be an encouragement here in Belgium and so we continue to have 3 weekly Bible studies with individuals, in the past two months we have had opportunities to preach in Ghent as well as Brussels and Brugge. We want to encourage our young people as well, so this past month we sent out a calendar and a letter to the Flemish and English speaking young people in Belgium and The Netherlands to encourage them to be involved in their local church, and to invite them to the area wide youth retreats, camps and activities that different churches plan. More than 250 letters went out. Putting the calendar together for that was a challenge logistically since so many are involved, but also exciting because so many want to work together and be a part of encouraging the young people in their faith. We are blessed to be able to be a part of this.

Family matters
Gideon started first grade and loves it. He comes home telling us all the new things he has learned. Isaak still lets us know he would rather stay home, but obviously enjoys his time at school. In an effort to improve our health Holly has gotten into the routine of swimming at our local pool, and I am running 3 times a week working on running a half marathon in December.

Praise
Praise God with us. God has provided all of our support for the coming two years. We thank God for you, your prayers, support, and for His mission to Belgium. Saturn Road Church of Christ has even offered to match any gift given towards paying off our school loan up to $7350, which would give us extra breathing room in our monthly budget. We have already received $3000 towards this. If you would like to help us with that, contact us for more information. For more information go to our website: www.belgianbreeze.blogspot.com

Competitive Fellowship

2011-10-20T13:24:00.003+02:00

- Brussels team celebrating Competitive Fellowship -

For the third year in a row some friends of mine organized a Belgian and Holland wide event called Copa Benelux. The aim is to bring christians together from all over Belgium and The Netherlands to have fun playing indoor soccer, giving people a chance to see friends from far away, to have an opportunity to fellowship and worship together. Last Saturday 99 people converged on a sport hall in Herentals, Belgium for some fun.

- Ghent's Roland defending like a pro -

This idea stolen from the Swiss churches has been a great event to bring non church friends to so they can get to know some of their peers in other churches, as well as see what fun Christians can have. This is an event that gets the older people playing together with the younger people, and girls playing with boys (there is a rule that every team has to have a girl.)

- The Eindhoven cheerleaders are great encouragers -

The day always includes a time when everyone takes a break sits down and worships together. I was asked to lead this moment of worship and devotional and it was great to be able to hear God's name honored in this way. We sung in Flemish and in English because both language groups were represented. Thank you Lord for moments like these to see our family again, praise you again, and play a fun game together again.

- Luk leading some songs -

Choosing for Marriage

2011-10-20T10:51:00.004+02:00

It was a blessing to watch Danny and Isha promise their lives to each other a few weeks ago. In a country where marriage has become less and less popular, and living together is becoming the norm it was wonderful to celebrate people who are wanting to dedicate their relationship to God, and to put it in His hands.

- Danny and Isha and Isha's parents -

Danny and Isha are good friends and have helped with youth camps and weekends in the past. I was especially honored that they asked me to lead worship during their ceremony. The time of praise was uplifting. Danny and Isha come from very musically gifted families so the singing sounded fantastic. Thank you Lord for people like Danny and Isha who are willing to commit their lives to you and to each other. God, please bless their new adventure together in the years to come.

- The ceremony was officiated by Scott Raab -

Ghent CoC News

2011-09-27T21:32:00.002+02:00

Church in Ghent is back to normal after the summer strange schedules due to people on vacation and at several camps. We thought it would be good to tell you about several new habits that we have formed as a church. Last spring we had asked some specific questions about what we expect from church, and how we want to serve as a church.

- Sharing a meal together -

One of the results of our discussions last spring was that we needed to spend more time together. Spending time together eating seemed like a good idea so during the summer we tried out meeting together at 4:30 on Sunday afternoon and then those who could stay for a meal could. It has been great to share meals throughout the summer, and it is great to see how much more we are involved in each others lives because we have that time to sit and share food and thought. Christ knew what he was doing when He asked us to eat together!

Another results from those discussions in the spring was that we needed more time together in God's word. There was a longing for more Bible study, than just the sermon on Sunday's. So on tuesday nights we get together and share time in God's word together. It has been wonderful to share time in prayer and time asking questions and reading scripture. We have wanted to study the early church and have been discussing a book called; "Will the real heretics please stand up" chapter by chapter. It has been challenging, edifying and scary to read the words of the early church, and to see what zeal they had for the Lord. Please keep us in your prayers as we use these Tuesday nights to learn from God as well as from each other.

- The Book we are currently discussing -

America tries to play a Belgian sport

2011-09-27T15:46:00.002+02:00

So, I don't usually advocate trash talking but I feel as an American-Belgian that someone needs to mention the fact that Belgium played the United States soccer team a few weeks ago and the Belgians did well comparatively.

- The End Result -

It does not happen often enough that the US and Belgium go head to head at this sport so we had to seize the moment and attend this event. The game was played in Brussels, a 45 min drive from our house, on a rainy evening. We enjoyed the game none the less. Great company of 8 other friends, and lots of cheering. We sat in the Belgian section, so we had to mask our American accents with English, Scottish or Australian sounding vowels. Great fellowship! We are so glad that after a loosing streak we could win against "De Amerikanen"

- Sporting our Belgian colors -

That being said, please do not ask me to attend any game that involves the Belgian national team having to play Americans in American football, baseball, or horse shoes.

- The US keeper was great, but not perfect -

Off To School

2011-09-27T15:36:00.002+02:00

September 1 is always the first day of school in Belgium each school year (unless it falls on a weekend.) This year Gideon was more than ready to head to his first day of first grade. His papa was more nervous than he was, knowing what tests, and assignments might come. After 3 weeks of the first grade he still loves to learn, and is proud of the letters, writing, and counting he is learning about.

- First Day Grins -

Isaak is less social than Gideon. He likes to play and discover and conquer things on his own. So he comes home from school with stories of adventures, but when it is time to drop him off at school he still clings to his papa for dear life. If his teacher, juf Lien, is within sight he loosens his grip some. But I am looking forward to the day when he runs into school enthusiastically.

- The first day of Homework (Gideon working next to Timo, our neighbor) -

- Gideon rides his bike to school every day -

- Isaak and I try to keep up -

I don't like to think of myself as a procrastinator, but after 8 years of living in Belgium I have finally joined a Flemish class. I have faked my way through sermons, e-mails and debates for the past 8 years trying to freshen up my Flemish. When I moved to the States when I was 15 I had a 9th grade reading and writing level. I would like to think it is a higher level now, but I still noticed many times in daily life where i would make mistakes and forgot grammatical rules. So I have joined a class that meets two evenings a week and will last until January. In the past two weeks I have already enjoyed being challenged in my language learning and have enjoyed making new friends.

Tearing Down Walls To Build New Ones

2011-09-07T09:23:00.004+02:00

- Meeting in the camp mess hall -

After our summer filled with Bible camps there was one more camp on the schedule; Destruction Camp. Our old mess hall has served valiantly for over 40 years. The plastic roof had shown wear and tear for 10 years now, so plans, prayers, and meetings were held to figure out what would replace it. After a long request, design, and approval process we received our building permit, and the contractor agreed to put us in their schedule for the near future. That meant it was time to tear down the old building.

The evolution of a mess hall:

- The mess hall in 1970 -

- New windows and doors in 1978 -

- The mess hall still stood in 2011 -

- Now it no longer stands -

Here is some proof of the destruction in technicolor:

This is what it will look like by next summer:

Just to be clear. I can't take any credit for this happening. I have enjoyed being able to help out here and there but the blood sweat and tears have been shed by Paul Brazle, Chris Morias, and Scott Raab to get the ball rolling, communicating with the architect, city, and province to get all of the paperwork in the right place.

Lord, our prayer is that this new building provides a place for retreat, quiet, learning, sharing, and worship. Please guide our steps in this endeavor as you have before.

Belgian Breeze Newsletter - May/Aug 2011

2011-08-30T20:41:00.009+02:00

To download our latest newsletter click here.

Catching Up
We have just caught our breath from our summer camp sessions and thought it was about time to start on a new newsletter when we realized it has been a while since we last told you about what has been going on in Belgium. So we have some catching up to do, please forgive us for that. We have had few dull moments since we arrived back from furlough. Read on to find out what we have been learning and to hear where God has been placing us.

Church Life In Ghent
We feel very blessed by the church family that God has given us in Ghent. While we were gone to the states the church in Ghent met in our house weekly and hosted visitors. They gave us a warm welcome and we have enjoyed watching the church grow over the past few months. We now meet every tuesday for a prayer time and Bible study which was asked for by one of the young ladies here at church and it has been exciting to see the interest and discussion that goes on on Tuesday night. We spent two months evaluating what we do as a church and have decided to be more involved in the community. Please be in prayer with us as we look for good places to serve. The church in Ghent has been blessed by some new faces. Martine is a lady who has recently found the church in Ghent through the website and has visited several times. Her hunger for God’s word amazes us and challenges us to share what we know. Roland is from Ghana and has lived in Belgium for a few years now and started meeting with us in July. He loves to study the Bible, and has many good thoughts to share. He has already preached for us. Pray as we grow, and as we mature that we can serve together as a family, and serve the community as salt and light.

Opportunities to serve
Just a week after we arrived home we hosted a group of teens at the Antwerp church building to have some fun climbing walls at a local climbing center, and to spend some time in God’s word studying about how to listen to Him. We have been involved with the local Bible camp ever since we moved here so as summer approached we helped prepare the camp during the work camp in June, and then got to direct the first camp week for the young people (15 yrs.+) in July. It was a joy to work with the young people, the assistant camp leader, Nathan who we are hoping will lead camps in the future was a joy to work with, and Holly did an amazing job once again in the kitchen providing food for 35 people. The theme was serving and we were blessed to have Scott Raab teach the classes. We also had the opportunity to serve 5 households in the neighboring village as well by going and asking how we could serve. The second week of August we enjoyed the fellowship and encouragement at family camp as we were challenged about what it means to be salt and light in our world today. The main eating hall is being rebuilt next spring so Luk enjoyed helping tear down the old building the 3rd week of August.

Outreach
The weekly personal Bible studies have continued throughout the summer but have not been as regular. We did try some new flyers and got this response: "I would also like to get to know your Bible a little." In June we designed a flyer that said: "Unbelievable? Lie? or Truth? - Bible - Are there things today you can still trust in? Believing is possible!" The rest of the information on the flyer challenges those who are willing to read the Bible that we will loan a Bible to them free of charge as long as they will read it. Flyers aren’t the most effective way of connecting with people in Ghent, but have been a tool that have put us in touch with seekers. A more effective way of connecting with people is through street conversations. We had some great help for that from Shane and Rachel, campaigners from Arkansas. They came for a week and distributed these flyers and went out together with Luk on the streets of Ghent and asked people about faith in their city. We learned a lot about the people and had meaningful conversations. Please keep the people in your prayers that we are meeting daily and pray that we are able to put salt and light into every sentence.

Family matters
Gideon and Isaak have been a blast to have at home during the summer. There have been many fun afternoons playing in the yard, at the local lake and coloring skyscrapers and rockets. Gideon loves Transformers and Isaak loves anything with water. We enjoyed having Opa and Oma drop by for a week this summer, as well as Kristina (Luk’s Sister) and daughter Aletheia for a two week visit. We had a blast catching up and going on summer adventures together. Our house renovations have been on hold as we wait for a building permit, but we will be allowed to strengthen our roof and build bedroom walls soon. Thank God for that.

Praise
Praise God with us. All of our support has been raised or promised for the coming two years. We thank God for you, your prayers, support, and for His mission to Belgium. For more information go to our website: www.belgianbreeze.blogspot.com

Getting to know our Bible

2011-08-17T14:57:00.004+02:00

"I would also like to get to know your Bible a little." is something M said in a recent e-mail to us. This past summer we designed a flyer that said this on it: "Unbelievable? Lie? or Truth? - Bible - Are there things today you can still trust in? Believing is possible" We then go on to challenge those who are willing to read the Bible that we will loan a Bible of them free of charge as long as they will read it, and when they are done with it we will take it back.

- The front and back of the flyer -

This past summer we had some great help for our outreach in the form of Shane and Rachel. They came for a week and distributed these flyers and went out on the streets of Ghent and asked people about faith in their city. We learned a lot about the people, here and started meaningful conversations. Some of their sowing fell on good soil and we received this request:

"When I see the obituaries in the paper it seems that 90% op people receive a Christian burial and once or twice a month they talk about an atheist. I would like to get to know your Bible a little. Sincerely, A. M."

So last Sunday I hopped on my bike with Isaak on the back and Gideon trailing close behind and we rode the few blocks to A.M.'s house to drop off the Bible. We were graciously welcomed, and the elderly couple gladly accepted the Bible. I have the fullest confidence in God's words, but please be praying for an open heart.

- Rachel and Shane asking about faith in Ghent -

Camp: Learning to Serve

2011-08-05T07:20:00.003+02:00

- Jongerenkamp 2011 Crew -

The second week of July we were blessed to spend a week down at Bible camp with 20 young people ages 15 and up focusing together on how to become better servants. Holly cooked, I was director and Scott Raab taught the classes. The leadership team that also consisted of Sue, Shareya, Danny, Rachel and Shane were a dream to work with.

- Holly dishing up good food -

Although the weather sometimes was wetter that we had hoped, it rained at the right times so we could still spend some time outside. We had the opportunity to offer help in the little village that our camp is near and we went and helped out at 5 people's houses, trying to live out the servant attitude that we had been studying.

- Serving our neighbors together -

Camp included time to reflect every morning in quiet time, and then two lesson sessions to spend time in God's word lead by Scott Raab. In the evening we took a song, listened to it, and talked about how the words related to our Christian walk. The activity directors showed us lots of fun games to play, sports to compete at and even a trip to go kyaking in a local river. We had a blast. Thank you Lord for another great week!

- Sharing serving idea's -

Keep these kids in your prayers as I was reminded of the peer pressures they are under to do what feels good and not what honors God. Let's be encouragers of our teens to not follow the crowd but to follow the Christ.

Time with Family

2011-06-21T16:21:00.004+02:00

- Gathering at The Hague -

I am so thankful that the churches in The Netherlands and the Flemish churches in Belgium make it a priority to get together. I don't know who started it, but I do know how much i enjoy the fellowship, the encouragement and the learning I do at the annual Pentecost monday gathering at the Hague, Netherlands.

- Scott asking the Bible Bowl questions -

This year the theme was Acts and the format was a basically Bible Jeopardy. We were tested on our Bible knowledge, had some healthy church team competition, and learned some things in the process. It was a blessing to take a car load from Belgium up for the 2 hour drive (which is far for Belgium.)

- Wisdom from our panel of judges -

The kids had some time together with other friends from around the area with the kids classes as well. I got to teach the 2-3 year olds. Lot's of singing, crafts, and talking about how the first Christians shared and how we can share as well. I am not sure how much the 2-3 year olds got, but they did do some good sharing in class.

- Kids Class with Oneta -

What a blessing it is when God's family gets together to be encouraged and share in God's word together! Another article about the day can be read here.

We have a 3 year old

2011-06-21T16:13:00.002+02:00

- A 3 on his hat from school -

It was just 3 years ago when Ghent Brazle number 4 came on the scene. It has been fun to watch him grow and develop completely different from Gideon. He is our strong willed, strong build, headed for dangerous adventure type. But still very polite asking gideon,"k?" when he's hurt and saying "thank you" when you help him clean up his mess.

- cupcakes and cake for class party -

Kids in school in Belgium bring treats for the other kids who aren't having a birthday, so Holly pulled out her creative hat and sent Isaak to school with lots of treats.

- Our Iron boy -

Spring Cleaning At Biblecamp

2011-06-07T13:26:00.003+02:00

- The work camp crew -

This past weekend a group of 25 brave souls descended on Bible camp in Solwaster Belgium. We cut down 3 ft. tall grass, cleaned out gutters and did a lot of tree trimming and moving of old branches. This is a yearly tradition we have. Winter is not nice to our camp site as it leaves a lot of spider webs, dirt, and dead leaves all around. But we enjoy the fellowship and the hard work that comes with preparing the camp site for the summer camp weeks. Thank God for good visits, manual labor and friends working together.

- Cleaning gutters -

- Mowing the parking lot -

For more pictures click HERE.

March April Belgian Breeze Newsletter 2011

2011-05-19T09:29:00.003+02:00

To download our latest newsletter click here.

Home again
Hello again. We have been home in Ghent, for a week now, and it is nice to be getting back into a routine. We loved our time “home” in the States in March and April with friends and family. We were overwhelmed by your generosity letting us borrow cars, and invade your homes with our luggage and children. At the beginning of March we had some opportunities to serve, and as we traveled around the States we enjoyed serving along side many of you. We hope to fill you in on what has been going on with this newsletter.

Ladies Retreat
The weekend before we left for our 6-week trip to the States, Holly was able to help 5 other ladies from the churches here in Belgium, for the second year in a row, to organize the European English Speaking Ladies Retreat. It was held on March 17-19 in a former castle, now a hostel, in Germany. They asked 2 wonderful ladies from the churches here in Europe to come and give lessons on the theme of Living the Transformed Life. They did a wonderful job! Holly was in charge of creating a website and registration form, making a spreadsheet of all those registered and paid, organizing the Friday night activity, and making the book used during the 3 day retreat. These are all things Holly truly loves to do, since one of her gifts is organization! They had an encouraging turn-out of about 70 ladies. The weather was clear and they had a wonderful 3 days of singing, worshipping, learning, some really wonderful group discussions, and just a fun time of fellowship and snacking!

Leaving for 6 weeks
As we prepared to leave for 6 weeks, we were encouraged that the brothers and sisters in Ghent continued to meet. The church family hosted visitors, and shared time together in worship. Preparing for a visit to the states included work on financial reports, presentations, sermons, and e-mails making sure we had places to stay. It was a busy few weeks including our normal outreach times and Bible Studies, but we were encouraged by our contacts that we would be missed. One of the projects that did get finished right before we left was a Sunday afternoon church activity to put our new song book together. We went from a song book with 160 older songs to one with 366 new and old songs in several languages. It was a fun project for the whole church to be a part of.

The trip
Our first stop was Cuyahoga Falls, OH where we spent a week with my (Luk’s) parents, and the Church in The Falls that supports us. I loved being able to preach there, and we hosted quite a large group on Sunday night for a Crepe and Waffle night to share our presentation on the work in Belgium. A week in Nebraska was the next stop to visit Holly’s family, preach, have a family reunion, and thank our friends in Grand Island for their support. A week in Woodinville, WA was a blessing as we got to stay with the Sumners and Nash families. We were able to visit with friends during trips to the zoo, and science center in Seattle. I preached on being peacemakers, and had an encouraging group to share our Belgium presentation with as well as crepes on Sunday night. Our sponsoring church, Lake Cities Church of Christ, in Trophy Club, TX hosted us the last 3 weeks of our visit. The Morgans were gracious and entertaining hosts and provided us with a home away from home. We were blessed by affirming visits with the church members and missions committee there. We were blessed to be allowed to help with their missions Sunday and easter eggstravaganza. After 6 weeks of travel we were tired and ready to be home. Thank God with us for flexible kids, safe flights, and gracious hosts everywhere we went.

Family matters
Gideon and Isaak had been counting down the sleeps before going to America. Seeing Oma, Opa, Grammy, and Grandpa Don were of course highlights. We loved watching many of you bond with them, as they asked where your toys were. But there were also certain wonders of the new world that Holly and I didn’t expect. They yelled out “School bus” and “American Flag” every time they saw one, and that was quite often. Drinking fountains were one of their favorite inventions everywhere we went. Luk’s sister and brother-in- Law and niece (Rebekka, Adam and Lily Mathews) came for a visit in Texas and introduced Gideon and Isaak to a Rangers Baseball game. Their favorite part was the fireworks after a home run.

Fundraising
One of the goals of our trips was to do some fundraising. Many of you gave, and so we are down from our need of $800 per month to $400 per month. We were able to speak with 3 different missions committees, and many of our support letters are still being read. We are confident that God will provide because He always has, but please be in prayer with us about the changing exchange rate as the ever changing support makes budgeting tricky. The past two months we were overwhelmed by your hospitality, generosity and prayerful attitude towards God’s mission. What a witness to share. Keep up the good work. Thank you and God bless.

Learning To Listen

2011-05-17T13:51:00.002+02:00

- The crew of listeners -

Last weekend we enjoyed a time of learning, fun, and prayer with teens from around Belgium and The Netherlands in Antwerp. "Learning to Listen" was the theme of the weekend so we spent some time talking about how God speaks to us, and how we can communicate with God.

- Climbing together -

As we went climbing we also learned how to communicate with each other as we tied knots that would hold us in the air if we fell. We exercised trust as we put our safety in each others hands. Some of these teens have no fear.

- What has God made clear to you? -

- Wailing wall: Write down your prayer to God -

Thanks to God for providing great weather. Thanks to parents who drove their kids. Thanks to the helpers like Tanguy, Marcel, Sue, and Comforts family for helping with food, encouragement, and fun. Now, let's remember to take time to be quiet so we can hear God speak.

Home sweet home

2011-05-07T08:30:00.002+02:00

- All Tuckered Out -

After 44 days of traveling we made it back home. It is so nice to sleep in our own bed again, and for the boys to have their own place and routine to get back to. We have had friends come over and welcome us home. We were greeted at the airport by our friend Evelien who has been our gracious airport shuttle service. The first few nights we hard because our bodies thought we were supposed to be awake, we are not big fans of jet lag. We have met some new neighbors who moved in while we were gone, and are thankful to God for the opportunities and new friends He surrounds us with. A 7 year boy that just moved in next door has already made friends with Gideon and Isaak. Just last night our courtyard had 8 neighborhood kids playing it it, which is a blessing.

- Mission Committee Visits -

We started this 44 day adventure to visit family, visit supporters, and to raise some support. We were so blessed to spend some time with family in Ohio, Nebraska and Texas, and we were blessed by time with supporters in 4 different states. We started the trip needing 650$/month in support. We sent out about 200 e-mails, 50 letters, and met with 3 missions committee's, all sounded very positive, but not able to commit at this time. We realize much of fundraising is all about timing. We are still waiting to hear back from some people but in the mean time 3 families have pledged monthly support and we are down to raising 400$/month.

- Getting To Sing at Lake Cities Church of Christ -

We were thankful for all of the affirming conversations we had with different friends around the country. We were also very thankful for the 3 different times Luk got to preach. We were able to give our Belgian mission presentation at 3 churches which was an opportunity to share what we have been doing and how we see God has been at work in Belgium. We enjoyed giving people a taste of Belgium with 2 crepe and Belgian waffle evenings. Thank you to all of those who helped put those together, and labor in the kitchen.

- Belgian Waffles in Woodinville, WA -

Thank you Lord for safety, family everywhere, hospitality and generosity at every turn. You are good, and we see that in your Children around the world. Thank you for a home to come home to, and for your continued provision. Help us to have the comfort in faith that you will provide.

No Strangers Here - Just Family

2011-04-14T21:37:00.003+02:00

- The Boys and Their mode of Transport -

We are into week three of our trip to the States. We left Belgium with the purpose of visiting family, visiting supporters, sharing what God has been doing in Belgium, and to raise some support. We have been overwhelmed by how much family we have around the world. We spent the first week in Ohio and enjoyed playing with new cousins, visiting family in Michigan and preaching at the church where Luk used to be in the youth group. We hosted a crepe night to share news about Belgium, and enjoyed some Belgian deserts. Thanks to Cory, Oma and Opa for helping with all of the cooking.

- Gideon talking about Belgium in Ohio -

In Nebraska Luk got to preach again, and Holly's mom organized a family reunion so we could see all of Holly's family again. Great visits and trips to visit grandparents were a blessing.

- The way we feel most of the time -

Off to Washington, where we were showered with hospitality by the church up there. We enjoyed our stays with the Sumners and the Nash's and found that there are some people up there that love our kids almost as much as we do. Luk got to preach twice on Sunday morning, and enjoyed sharing about the church in Belgium in the evening.

- Luk talks about Belgium, again!-

Support Update: When we came to Belgium we were needing to raise 650$ per month extra support because some support has fallen away due to people retiring, and others having different financial situations. Thanks to the generosity of brothers and sisters in Christ, two couples have decided to support us. One is helping 100$ a month and another 50$ a month. Praise God with us for this help because we are down to raising 500$ per month. Please keep us in your prayers as we are sending out fundraising letters in the next few weeks.

- Belgian Waffles and Crepes served in Washington -

A New Song Book

2011-03-15T13:34:00.003+01:00

- Singing from our new song book in Ghent -

The latest big news in the church in Ghent is the ability to sing from a new song book. This might not be very exciting to you but for people who like to sing, a new song book brings all kinds of new possibilities. For the past 4 years we have been singing out song books that were passed down to us from the church in Antwerp. We were very grateful, but we were ready to include some newer songs in our worship time.

- Putting the new song books together as a church -

After some editing done by the people in church who are much better than it than I, we took the file to the printer and had 31 copies made of the book. Then folded the pages and slid them into plastic holders and locked them in a binder. Now instead of 140 songs we have 366 songs. Old and new, mostly Flemish and some in English. It will be great to be able to use this tool to worship in the future. Thanks for all of the editing and making of the song books guys.

If you are curious what a Flemish song looks like here is one that you might know in English. Any clue as to what it might be?

Dit Is De Dag

Dit is de dag, (2x)
die de Heer ons geeft. (2x)
Wees daarom blij, (2x)
en zing verheugd. (2x)
Dit is de dag die de Heer ons geeft.
Wees daarom blij en zing verheugd.
Dit is de dag,
Dit is de dag,
die de Heer ons geeft.

January February Belgian Breeze Newsletter 2011

2011-02-28T10:16:00.003+01:00

To download our latest newsletter click here.

It has been too long...
Dear friends and family, it has been way too long since we have last sent some news from Belgium. This is not due to the fact that our country still does not have a government, (and seems to be running fine without it,) but mostly due to a busy schedule and adventures in His kingdom along the way. Enough with the excuses, let us catch you up on the way God has let us be a part of His work the past few months.

Teaching
God continues to hold us in His hand while we search for ways to be used as a blessing for His children. Luk has continued to be involved in preaching Sunday mornings in 3 different churches as well as taking his turn preaching with brothers in the church in Ghent on Sunday evenings. It has been exciting to discuss together what God’s purpose might be for this church here in Ghent and what our focus should be. Luk continues his three weekly Bible studies with Chris, Herman and Zakia in Ghent, and goes to Hever once every two weeks for a Bible study on Wednesday night helping a house church there. This past weekend Luk enjoyed teaching the teen guys about changing the world by following Jesus’ words in Matthew 5 during our annual video game youth retreat.

Serving
One opportunity that God has given the church here in Ghent is helping a needy family in the neighborhood. It has been good to be able to give together as a church, and to help people who are hurting physically and spiritually. An area where Holly has enjoyed serving has been in planning a ladies retreat with several ladies from Ghent, Antwerp and Brussels. Last year they put together a retreat that hosted over 70 ladies at a retreat center in Germany. March 17-19 they will be gathering there again for some quality fellowship and Bible study. The song books that we have been using in Ghent are a bit outdated so we have been working together as a church to put a new one together including old and newer songs. We are excited to have a bigger selection to choose from in our worship times together.

Research
We have been working with Belgian churches and individuals interested in Bible study for 7 years now. We were starting to feel a little spread thin. To be able to prioritize our responsibilities in Belgium better, Luk sent out a survey to 50 Christians who are familiar with our work in December. 34 people responded and gave us great advice on what is helping and what we shouldn’t focus on. This has helped us bring more focus to our work. Luk has enjoyed the insight that his research days give when he goes out and asks faith questions to people on the street in Ghent.

Family matters
Gideon is 5 and Isaak is 2,5 and that means that they both get to go to school in Belgium. They are both healthy and learning lots. They mix their English and Flemish, and both love to play with legos, puzzles and climb. This past Christmas we all enjoyed hosting all of Luk’s family for two weeks. We all packed into our house and enjoyed trips to see sites as well as lazy days. Moments where Gideon and Isaak got to know cousins, aunts and uncles better were precious. Just after New Years Holly spent a few weeks in the states with her dad after her step-mom passed away suddenly. It was a difficult time, but it was good for Holly to be with family. Luk still enjoys working on the renovation projects around the house on his days off, and enjoys going to Ghent soccer games with his friends. Holly has been enjoying getting more involved with new projects since both boys are in school now. She still loves to sew and knit as well as go to the gym.

Furlough
Every two years we get the chance to go to the States to visit many of our supporters and family. Our next 6 week trip to the states starts in March. The purpose of this trip is to thank and inform those who have been partners with us in this work in Belgium, and to do some fund raising. Some of our supporters are no longer able to support us so we will be looking to raise 800$ per month. If we are in your neighborhood we would love to see you so we can catch up, encourage you, and pray together. Let us know if we will be in your area.
March 22 - 29: Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
March 29 - April 5: Grand Island, Nebraska
April 5 - 12: Woodinville, Washington
April 12 - May 3: Trophy Club, Texas

Please Pray
We are so blessed and want to ask you to thank God with us for the opportunities, health, and support that He blesses us with. Please keep these prayer requests on your prayer list: For safety and energy during the next furlough. - For the church in Belgium and around the world that it be blessed with growth and protected from Satan’s attacks. - For open hearts of people we come in contact with. - That we will continue to learn and that we will have eyes to see His opportunities to reach out.

More Information
We welcome your questions and comments about our life and work. If you want to keep in touch with us you can find us at the website below. We thank God for you and your prayers and support which allow us to serve together with you in taking the gospel to the lost here in Belgium. www.BelgianBreeze.blogspot.com.

Catching Up On News

2011-01-05T15:16:00.003+01:00

So it has been a while since we have sat down and written some news so we will try to catch you up on some of the big events with this post.

- Work at Bible Camp -

To prepare for the spring renovations at the Bible camp site we needed to do some extreme trimming of trees and sawing down trees. In terrible windy and rainy weather a group of 25 came together to see what damage we could do. We didnt get all 4 trees cut down and pulled out that we wanted to, but the majority of the work is done, and we enjoyed a great time of fellowship, and working together.

- Christmas Concert -

The singing group I sing with had the chance to sing at two concerts this Christmas season. It was a great opportunity to work together with different singing groups. We had a chance to share the the whole story of Christ in song, and were able to visit with some new people.

- Work Evaluation -

At the end of 2010 I felt the need to do some serious evaluating of our work here. We have been here for 7 years, and have been blessed to have many prayers and support sent our way, so i feel I have a serious responsibility to be focused in my work, and working where God wants me. The past months we have been in prayer and we sent out an evaluation to co-workers, church leaders, and friends, to help us evaluate how and where we should be at work in Belgium. We have had a lot of good response to help guide our work and decisions here. Pray that God will lead us to where he wants us to focus our work on for this coming year.

- Home for Christmas -

Sometimes Christmas time can be hard being away from our family, but this year all of Luk's siblings, families, and parents came to visit. We had a full house, but it was full of fun memories, and activities. This years festivities included visits to tourist hot spots like Brugge, doing jig saw puzzles at home, singing together, and adventures in the snow. What a blessing to have family so close this year. Thank you Lord for blessings like these to start the year with. He is good!

House Saga 5: Thanksgiving

2010-11-27T13:56:00.002+01:00

In Belgium Thanksgiving day does not quite have the same amount of parades, football, or turkey as the states, but we still found quite a few reasons to be thankful.

We woke up a little nervous on thanksgiving because this was the day that I had been planning for for the past month. This morning I was to meet with the building commission office at the town hall in Ghent to discuss what to do about their declaration a month ago that our house was not legal to live in, but that it was a barn that was outside the living zone in Ghent.

Isaak accompanied me to the building commission office to gain sympathy points, as well as the documents and building permits we had found in the city archives. The man and woman representing the building commission from the city were very polite and kind, but reiterated that there were no exceptions that could be made in our case and that the rules on exceptions has been made very strict in 1993. I handed the files to them and asked them if the new documents made a difference. They poured over the documents and read every detail, date, and declaration carefully.

They checked their own maps, computers, and registers. And were surprised that I had found records in the cities archives that they didnt have any note of. The lady said, "It is very good that you found these" but they still had the authority to deny any request. They showed grace and conceded that the documents showed that the barn had been approved to be turned into a house in 1978.

- The city declared our house as a house -

Our house still ends up being outside of the living zone, but since it was approved in 1978 we are allowed to live there. They said any remodeling that doesn't change the size of the house is allowed. So that is very positive for us, although somewhat limiting. We are still happy that we are blessed with a house, and are able to make it stronger for the future.

On monday i go and talk to our architect about possibilities to make our roof structure stronger, so we can finish our renovations. So we are excited to get the ball moving, so that our house can serve as a place to live and host other people in the future.

Thanks for the prayers. God is good! Right when you think everyone has lied to you and cheated you out of money, God is there to say, don't worry! We feel very thankful after a thanksgiving like this one. And hope you are feeling thankful of your blessings, and thankful for the God that provides all the good we get to experience.

House Saga 4

2010-11-23T20:33:00.004+01:00

- We found our house in 1913 -

We have a house! It is official. After some digging in the city archives, and a few trips to the office that records who builds what, I stumbled upon two remodeling building permits from 1977 and 1978. The first one was a request to the city asking to change the status of the barn that was built at our address to a house. It was denied in 1977, and in 1978 they asked again, and the request to change it into a house was granted.

So this is a big reassurance to us. This also meant that the previous owners, the notary and the real estate agent had not lied to us when we bought it because they knew it was a house, and it was the city building comission who was to advise us in remodeling who didnt know what files they had in their archive and scared us to death when they said we were living illegally in a barn, and would have to move.

So we are counting our blessings right now. I dug a little deeper to find out when our house was actually built and found records of who, how and what was built around it. This week I have an appointment to go back to the city building permit people to see if they will accept the building permits that were given (by them) in 1978. Please be in prayer that those visits will go well.

Soccer for Christians

2010-11-18T15:50:00.002+01:00

- Having a Fun Day of Football -

Ok, so here we aren't allowed to call it soccer, so from now on I will be calling it football. My good friends Pieter and Dennis are great lovers of football, and have entertained the churches in Belgium and The Netherlands for a third year in a row by organizing a church soccer tournament called Copa Benelux.

- Maastricht gets ready to play -

Church members and friends get a chance to play football. They get a chance to talk, catch up, cheer eachother on, and have fun. There is even a kids corner provided by generous volunteers who make sure the little kids have fun while the parents get to go and have some fun.

- The men in charge confer -

There is also a moment to stop and rest and to spend some time in song, worship, and listening to scripture. We were blessed to have Larry Good in the neighborhood this year to share some thoughts about playing and living using God's power. I was blessed by the time spent together. Thank you Lord for opportunities like these to encourage and to be encouraged.

- Leading Some Songs -

- Friends in song -

- Some More Singing -

You can find more pictures of the day click here.

House Saga 3

2010-10-30T13:00:00.003+02:00

- Our Neighborhood in 1845 -

- Our Neighborhood Today -

The House saga continues. This week has brought some more reassuring finds and also some more questions. We are thankful for all of you who are prayerful. While waiting this week for more advice from the lawyer who wanted to think about our files for a week, i went out looking for more details on our place.

We have been paying property tax on our home so I thought I would go and ask around why they thought it was a home and not the city planning office. I found a place in Ghent that is the "Kadaster" in Enlgish it is cadaster, or land register. There I found out some of the history of our plot of land, and found out that the status of the building we live in changed owners in 1956, and changed status from barn to house in 1981. So that was reassuring that at least one part of the city government agrees with us that it is a house.

We also talked to our notary and he reassured us that we are not illegal. Our house is outside the zone but he said that happens sometimes. We can't be removed from our home, but we could run into problems with any renovations we want to do that need a city building permit. So we will see how we will continue from here.

In all of this we still have yet to find the actual building date of the building and if this building was built with a permit or not. It has turned from a headache into more of a fun treasure hunt finding out bits of history about where we live. Pray for patience and for favorable City Planning people. Below is the map that shows our house outside the living zone (=red) our house is in the gardens and yards (=beige) zone.

- City Planning Zones in our Neighborhood -

Just keep singing, this world is not my home. I'm just a passin through.

House Saga 2

2010-10-21T21:06:00.002+02:00

A few posts ago I asked for prayers for our house situation. We had recently found out that our house needed some renovations requiring the help of an architect. That architect took some steps in the direction of asking for a building permit and found that our house that we bought in 2006 was not registered as a house but a barn and that we are outside of the "Living Zone" on the city's planning. And in their words living, "illegally". We don't like living illegally and we like living in our home so this made for some stress. Read the first half of the story here: http://belgianbreeze.blogspot.com/2010/10/house-saga.html

Today I had an appointment to meet with a lawyer to talk about the next steps. He read through our contract, and reassured me, that we had not missed anything when we had signed the document. There was nothing there that hinted at the fact that our house was a barn, or shed. This also meant that the Notary had done his job, and jumped through all of the hoops necessary to sell a house. It seems from our documentation that the real estate agent was not aware of the problem either, so building a case against them would be a waste of money. It seems like the previous owner is to blame for selling a shed in the guise of a house. The lawyer said starting a case against the previous owner would be very costly, lengthy and considering their old age, he was afraid that would not solve anything.

The Lawyer felt more confident in defending the status of our barn as a "Home". He said yes, it is in the wrong zone, but we have two strong points in our favor.
1. On the city planning map, there is a "living" clause that allows for living outside of the specified zone.(Something that wasn't shown to me on Monday when I was at city hall looking at the maps.)
2. The fact that the previous owner lived here more than 10 years, then rented the place out to people, and now that we have lived here for 5 years means that there has been a history of living here, and can be weighty in changing the designation of our house.

He said that there is no need to despair, but he did say this is a difficult situation. He suggested that we go ahead with a building permit, and see if we can get approval. If we can't get approval, then we should use the above arguments to get recognition for our house. But he wanted to sit, digg and think about our case for a week or so, so we will wait to see what he says next week.

We are feeling a little more reassured, and aren't giving up on our house just yet. We are thankful for all of your prayers, and are thankful that God puts people in our path that are able to give us some good advice. Please keep this whole situation in your prayers, as we are going to have some serious renovations done if we can get the building permit to go through.

Thats all for now. We will let you know more when we know more.

Youthweekend in Antwerp

2010-10-20T13:37:00.002+02:00

- Meet The Crew -

This past weekend I had the chance to go to Antwerp (40 min drive) to help with a youth weekend. The theme was WZJD (What would Jesus do? in Flemish) We had a good group of the new teens. It is fun to watch the new kids, who are 10 and up start to come to some of our youth events, and this was one of those times where it seemed like all of the new kids showed up. So that is encouraging.

- Singing Together -

We started off Friday night getting to know eachother and playing some ping pong and Fussball. We sang some together, and found our beds after a prayer. Saturday after breakfast we spent some time talking about what Jesus did. How can we ask the question: "what would Jesus do?" if we don't know what He did. We watched some of the Jesus film, talked about what He did, and if it is possible for us to be immitators of Christ today.

- Buying food for Poor -

I challenged the teens to think about ways we could do what Jesus did. We brainstormed and I asked them if they would be willing to go buy food, and pass it out. And they ran with it. They went and bought groceries, divided it up into 10 bags and we went as a group downtown Antwerp to pass out food to the beggars.

- Bowling Fun -

It was great to see the kids excited about doing what Jesus did and living out being imitators of Him. In the afternoon the kids enjoyed a bit of bowling, and we enjoyed some great food prepared by some ladies in the church in Antwerp. After a movie that night the teens slept hard, as well as me.

- Reading how to be immitators of Christ -

Thank you Lord for opportunities like these to learn from the teens and to serve together with them!

We have a 5 year old!

2010-10-20T13:12:00.003+02:00

- Gideon on His New Bike -

It is hard to believe that we already have a 5 year old. Gideon has grown alot since we held that kid for the first time 10 days after he was born. It is fun to compare the pictures from 5 years ago with what we see today because it makes us shout that God is good. We love that we have a God who is crazy enough to let us take care of His gifts, but at the same time thankful that He builds in a "keep-on-growing" natureto them. Man if it was up to us, we would have messed Gideon up a long time ago. So today we celebrate Gideon's fifth, together with God's grace in letting us hold onto one of His children so tightly.

- Gideon on Day 1 -

- Gideon on Day 1828 -

Gideon loves to sing, dance, climb, and watch movies. He loves to ride his bike, go to the swiming pool, go visit his cousin Jesse, invite friends over to play at his house, and go to the park. He rides his bike to and from school every day, except for the days when his Papa is too lazy to ride with him in the rain. He speaks Flemish and English, and mixes the two often. This year he is in his last year before 1st grade, so he will have a language test, and the teacher said she expects him to do fine.

He loves school, and is sometimes annoyed when I have to tell him he can't go to school on Saturdays. His parents try not to take it as a sign that Gideon thinks his parents are boring. He loves Bible Camp, which makes his Papa proud since his Papa loves Bible Camp just as much.

Here are some pictures to let you glance into his birthday happenings from the past few days.

- Gideon Got Cat Face Paint At School -

- Being 5 Wears You And Your Brother Out -

- Putting a Lego Truck Together -

- Getting Ready For His Spiderman Cake -

House Saga

2010-10-20T11:46:00.004+02:00

There are certain things in life that come along that you know are tests. You know that God will use this opportunity to make you stronger, wiser, and more flexible. But usually they are not the most comfortable situations. I think we are in one now. We write this post so you know what is going on, and so you know what to pray about. Please be in prayer with us on this.

- Our Home -

We love our house. We have lived here for 4 years now, and have enjoyed watching our boys grow, we have hosted many people, and have had a lot of help doing renovations on our home. It is our home.

We have wanted to take the next step in remodeling, and wanted to put up some drywall walls upstairs to make room, but we thought it wise to have an architekt advise us on the size our beams and studs should be. The architect came and advised that our roof beams that had been placed 3 years ago by a contractor were not sufficient. So we were discouraged to know we would have to remodel what had already been done. So plans were made for stronger beams.

- New Roof in 2006 -

The architect went to the city to get a building permit which is needed when doing structure work. (We were told by the contracter who did the first roof that this was not needed. We know better now.) The architect found out that our house is not considered a house by the city. It is not recorded or licenced in any documents as a habitable place. It is even outside of a building zone. There is record of its existance, but it is designated as a barn or shed in 1965. Since then the previous owner transformed it into a house without asking the city for permission.

Not goood news. So essentially we are living in our home illegally, and are wondering how we could have been sold this house. The real estate agent, the previous owner, and the notary that signed the deed all should have known that this was not a house. But they did not pass on this information to us. So now we have a home that we are not allowed to live in, and we have a mortgage for a house, that we should have paid barn price for.

So we are a little discouraged.

- Our home today -

I go and talk to a lawyer tomorrow who knows how do deal with city planning issues. He will deal with two things. The possibility of changing our house status to House, and not shed. For which he gave a little bit of hope. And he will look into whose fault it is that we were sold an unlicenced barn as a house. I have never dealt with lawyers, and am nervous about how much this will all cost, but we are stuck between a rock and a hard place, and have no where else to turn.

Please keep the converstaions with lawyers and the people who signed the sales contract with us in your prayers. God has a purpose in all of this. Pray that we can see His guiding.

Personally we are still in shock, and trying not to think about it. So here we go, on yet another adventure.

Family Camp

2010-09-21T13:24:00.003+02:00

- Family camp gathering -

Now that the summer craziness has subdued some I am realizing that it has been a month since I posted last so I will start with some news from August. In the second week of August we had the opportunity to go to Family camp. This is a yearly camp that is a blessing to us since we have the feeling that we get to go to play because we are not responsible for running it. Our fearless camp leader, Johan has done a great job over the years to make it a time of fun, learning and fellowship.

- Luk studying -

The theme this year was the Psalms and there were some great discussions and time to learn from these songs. Luk got to teach a few of the lessons, and we enjoyed hearing the wisdom from brothers around Belgium and The Netherlands. The kids had a blast getting to play with friends their age, and discovering new things and animals.

- Playing in the Creek -

My favorite part about family camp, and I think I mention this every year, is that it is a chance to catch up the way we should as a family. We are able to sit down and talk about fun, hard, challenging parts of life, and pray about it together. Sometimes we rush through fellowship days or sunday meetings and we don't get into what is really going on in our lives. Thank you Lord for moments to unwind, share, and learn like these.

- Amazed at Snails -

Summer 2010 Belgian Breeze Newsletter

2010-08-19T21:57:00.003+02:00

To download our latest newsletter click here.

Greetings
Dear friends and family, the past few months have flown by. God has been at work, and He has allowed us to help Him here and there for which we are very thankful. Thank you for helping us be a part of His ministry here in Belgium.

- The Ghent Brazles -

Spring and Summer Service
The spring and summer are busy times for us since we typically host campaign groups and work with the summer youth and family camps. This spring brought us a ladies retreat that Holly helped organize as well as youth retreats and sporting events that Luk helped organize, teach, or lead worship at. We were blessed with two campaign groups that came to encourage us and reach out to Ghent. They advertised English courses through reading the Bible and planted a lot of good seeds by reading through Luke with 11 new contacts. We are looking forward to following up with these people in September when classes start up again. We were allowed to direct another year at camp. This year we tried a new age group. The teen camp group (ages 12 – 14) was a blast. The week started off with the baptism of Levi, a teen from the Rotselaar church. Luk passed the directing role on to his friend Pieter and got to teach the teens from Joshua and Judges. Holly cooked the best gourmet camp food ever for 27 campers, and the kids had a great time playing in the creek, with sticks and bugs. The following week brought family camp week which was a great opportunity to fellowship and play. Luk got to teach 6 classes there as well on the Psalms, which was the theme for the week. The camp sessions were topped off with a fellowship day where 70 people from Belgium and The Netherlands came together to worship, fellowship and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.

- Luk Teaching at Camp -

- Holly Cooking at Camp -

- The Boys Getting Into Trouble At Camp -

Ghent Church Growth Opportunities
The summer time is always interesting since we usually have to say goodbye to some of our members. One family attends with another church that is closer to them in the summer time, and many of the students that meet with us during the year go home, or travel. But we enjoyed the more intimate worship times, and even took the time to have church in the park and other places. Vita, a christian from the Ukraine moved into Ghent to work here, so we have enjoyed having her worship with us. The church here took on some responsibilities that have encouraged me. We found out from one of the mothers at Gideon’s school that they were in need of food, and the church here has sponsored some food baskets for that family. Teen camp was organized and lead by most of the people from the Ghent church. 8 of the leaders at the camp are from the Ghent church. It was great to bond working on this project together. The family fellowship day was also organized by our church, and provided another opportunity to work together and glorify God while doing it. I thank God for the people in our church who are willing to say; “ yes, let’s try and serve in that way.” Our church grew even more in June when Prisca, one of our teens decided to be baptized. That was an exciting moment for all of us, and our good friend Pieter had the honor of baptizing her.

- Prisca's Baptism -

Ghent Contacts
Our weekly Bible studies go somewhat on hold during the summer months due to our involvement in camps, and many Belgians go on extended vacations throughout July and August. We were surprised to have the house-sitters of our neighbors apartment join us for worship one Sunday evening as they heard the songs we had been singing. Sven and Sara had been curious and joined us for our Sunday night service. We had many interesting conversations in the week that followed, and we reminded that just the songs that God gives us are a witness in and of them selves. Sven and Sara have open hearts so we hope to stay in contact with them. The website that we now have for the church here (www.gvcgent.org) has also provided opportunities to contact people who are searching. Please pray that other searchers will be lead there, and be encouraged to contact us.

- Teen Camp 2010 -

Please Pray
Thank God for great camp weeks, and good campaign groups - Two couples that we are close to are getting married. Please pray for their marriages. – Pray that we continue to learn – Pray that we have eyes to see His opportunities to reach out.

More Information
We welcome your questions and comments about our life and work. If you want to keep in touch with us you can find us at the website below. We thank God for you and your prayers and support which allow us to serve together with you in taking the gospel to the lost here in Belgium. www.BelgianBreeze.blogspot.com.

Tienerkamp 2010

2010-08-17T14:18:00.003+02:00

- Teen Camp 2010 -

You see, Flemish isnt that hard. Just read this out loud, "Tienerkamp", and you should be able to figure out Teen camp. This year we got to be a part of organizing the 12 - 14 year old camp that is hosted at the Bible camp ground in the Eastern part of Belgium that has beautiful hills and nature surounding it.

- Holly and Amanda serving in the kitchen -

This year we were blessed with a great leader team that was almost totally made up of people from the Ghent church. Pieter took over the camp directing responsibilities so I could focus on the classes. Holly and Amanda did an awesome job of cooking, while Sue did double duty watching our kids, and being girls counselor. Kay came down for half the week to assist Sue as counselor, and Lia teamed up with Mathias and David in organizing activities. Michelle came down from Haarlem to help us be creative, and Dennis filled in the gaps providing, shopping, cantene, and trimming some trees.

- Luk teaching from Joshua -

This years theme was "Kies dan heden wie gij dienen zult" - (Choose then today who you serve will. Sound familiar? Like something Joshua might have said?) The classes were straight out of Joshua and Judges and challenged the teens to choose who they would serve, and were invited to trust God, since He tells the Israelites so often, not to be affraid. It was a privelege to me to teach 11 of these classes since I had been taught this same material almost 20 years ago. Many of the memory verses and songs still stick to my soul, and it was fun to pass these things on to our teens.

- Evening Devotional -

Thank you Lord for providing your words of comfort that we need not fear, and for your challenge to choose this day that you are worthy of our service. Thank you Lord for friends and team mates that work together to gloryfy you in encouraging, teaching, and serving the teens from Belgium and The Netherlands. Thank you for an opportunity like this to watch our own children grow, and serve as well.

To see some more pictures from teen camp please click here.

Prepping for Camp

2010-08-17T13:35:00.002+02:00

- Mowing Crew -

A few weeks before the camp weeks started I got to go down to camp (2 hour drive) with mowers in the trunk to go and get our camp fields trimmed ready for the 4 camp weeks that are hosted down at the Bible camp site. Mathias and David two teens from church joined me and Pieter also a friend from church to tackle the grass at camp. For most of the year horses keep the grass short, but this year the horses got taken off the fields so that we wouldnt have holes and poop all over the fields. But this meant that we had quite a few square meters to mow.

- Mowing even the Parkinglot -

We had fun, but also wore ourselves out. I have to admit that Pieter, Mathias and David did most of the mowing of sometimes 3 foot tall grass. I went and met with the farmer to talk about the use of his field by our camp, and that conversation went long. So I only did a small part of the mowing compared to the other guys.

- The field before -

Thank you Lord for servants like these that give such a great effort and some of their summer free time to serve in this way.

- The field after -

Catholic Schooling

2010-07-28T07:48:00.003+02:00

- Gideon with his Teacher -

Sending Gideon to a Catholic school is the logical option here. This school is the closest, subsidized by the state so it is cheap, and there are some very good teachers there. The Catholic nature of the school is actually quite welcome because they focus on building a religious base. It is not pronounced or forced because Belgium has become more and more secular in thinking, and our neighborhood has quite a few foreigners in it, so Gideon has several different religions represented in his class.

- Performing at School -

I thank God for Gideons teachers who have taken on this challenge of teaching a group so diverse. At the end of the school year Gideon and I had the chance to sit down with his teacher to hear how he did that year, and we were able to tell his teacher that we appreciated her and had prayed for her daily before Gideon went to sleep that night. Gideon was proud and shy being able to say that we had prayed for her, and she appreciated that.

- On The Playground -

Keep these teachers in your prayers as many of them have difficulty believing in a secular society, and many are under pressure to leave faith out of the classroom. Pray that we can encourage these teachers in their teaching the basic blocks of faith in these children.

Learning to be an Example

2010-07-20T06:52:00.004+02:00

- Talking about our Examples -

A few weeks ago we converged on Antwerp with a group of 20 teens and enjoyed a weekend of football, fun, food, and fellowship. The theme was Being an example. We talked about our examples, how Christ was the perfect example, and how we are an example to others.

- At the Movies -

In the morning we went as a group and passed out bottles of water to people in the park that had this message attached to it; "Jesus quenched my thirst, come and find out how he can help you." with information about church on the note attached to the bottle. We had a lot of positive reactions. We got a chance to play some football in the park, before we went back to the church building to hide from the heat of the day.

- World Cup -

If you have a youth rally in Belgium during the World Cup you have to fit the football games into the schedule, so some of the members of the church in Antwerp opened their home up to a group of teen boys (and girls). It was some good tense fellowship time since the US was playing Ghana. (There are about 40 members in the church in Antwerp from Ghana, and several Americans as well.)

- Group Games -

Thank you Lord for these young people. Some knowing who you are, some not sure of who you are, but all still willing to ask questions. Thank you for opportunities to discover your truth in scripture together with them, and to watch them grow. Thank you Lord for people who make these weekends possible. With the help of Pieter, Sue, Jona and Kay the weekend was able to run smoothly.

If you want to see some more youth weekend pictures, click here.

New Birth in Gent church

2010-07-13T12:57:00.003+02:00

- Prisca's Baptism -

We watched with joy along with the angels a few weeks ago when one of the teens that comes to the Ghent church decided to give her life to God. Her name is Prisca, and during the school year she comes with her family each week to woship with us in Ghent.

- The Onlookers -

She had been thinking about giving her life to Christ for a while, and has studied with her grandfather about what it means. Pieter, one of the brothers at church was asked by Prisca if he would baptize her. Our hearts were warmed as we heard her confession, and watched her sis be washed on that Friday. We sang songs of praise to our God who made it all possible in that little courtyard inviting Prisca as our sister. Her descision made for a great kick off to our youth retreat we had that weekend, which focused on being a good example.

- Huggs of Congratulations -

Please keep Prisca in your prayers as she starts this journey that will be filled with triumphs and challenges. Thank God for teens willing to take a stand.

Sharing Christ in Song

2010-06-05T06:58:00.004+02:00

- Singing in Kindergarten -

This past weekend the singing group I sing with, Listen Up!, got to sing for the class of our alto's daughter. The teacher had heard that Vero (our alto) sang in a group and was eager to let us sing for the kids. In the class of almost 20 kids we got to sing and talk about the basics of music, and the message we sing about. The kids clapped along enthusiastically, and the teacher was very thankful. Listen Up! is hoping to focus more on kid focused events in the future. We believe that reaching out in song will speak to both young and old as we desire to share God's message to open hearts.

- The Class We Sang For -

We combined this little performance with a practice in Eindhoven (where the weather always seems to be good). We have been preparing for a concert this summer. It is a great privilege for me to be able to have such great friends to sing with and that encourage me in my work. Thank you Lord for opportunities to sing, learn, and share your message!

- Listen Up! practicing -

Reinforcements come and give English Classes

2010-05-30T10:20:00.004+02:00

JB, Austin and Montoya, have arrived in Ghent, Belgium. We as the church in Ghent have been praying for them as they prepared for their 3-week trip to help us here in Ghent, and we have been preparing for their arrival. They have prepared for their trip here by training with an organization called Let's Start Talking. An English class program that uses the Bible as a workbook. They get to share their knowledge of English and get to share the message we love at the same time. The church in Ghent has been stuffing mailboxes to announce an English conversation course, and has rented an apartment for the team. There has been a good response, and the team has been doing a good job getting used to their new environment.

- Austin with a student -

They have already been an encouragement to us as a family and to the church here in Ghent. Please pray that as they meet, talk to and encounter people here in Ghent they will have opportunities to share their faith.

If you want to read about their experiences here take a look at their blog: click here.

- Ghent Church with LST-ers, and visitors -

- Luk explaining Public Transportation to the Team -

If you want to read about their experiences here take a look at their blog: click here.

Dienodag - Kids Bibleschool Afternoon

2010-04-28T11:45:00.002+02:00

- Learning about Creation -

Our co-worker Sue Foster organized a Kids Bibleschool afternoon in Antwerp this past weekend. She and Lucinda from the Church in Eindhoven, have been organizing these weekend kid get-to-gethers on a regular basis, and they are a hit. We have regular times for the teens and young adults to get together to study, and to interact, but the times for the little ones to have time to learn new songs and hear Bible stories with other kids from around Belgium and the Netherlands is limited.

- Gideon with his Buddies at the park -

In our small church in Ghent we dont have any kids Gideon's age so to have the opportunity to play with kids his age, sing Bible songs, repeat Bible verses, and work on Bible crafts together is priceless. This weekend we were even allowed to bring Isaak along. This allowed for a break for Mama, and I and the boys got to go on a road trip.

- Coloring the Days of Creation -

Sue and Lucinda were nice enough to let me lead some of the singing with the kids. Boy are there some pretty voices in there. I love singing with kids 4 - 10 yrs. They are so much more enthousiastic than grown ups. Thank you Lord for opportunities like these, and thank you for people like Sue and Lucinda to put them together!

Nov '09 - Jan '10 Newsletter

2010-03-04T17:06:00.004+01:00

Belgian Breeze Newsletter
Nov. '09 - Jan. '10

To download our latest newsletter click here.

"Gelukkig Nieuwjaar"
"Happy New Year" from Ghent, Belgium. We hope that the passed holiday season provided you with a lot of good memories. With this first newsletter of 2010 we hope to wish you a blessed new year, and are glad we get to share some of the joys and challenges of the past few months with you.

- Holly, Gideon, Luk & Isaak -

Fall and Winter Projects
Along with our weekly outreach to the people in Ghent we are involved in trying to encourage the local churches here in Belgium. One of the projects this fall took shape as a footbal tournament where we invited the churches to bring a team ready to compete. We had a blast playing and visiting. Holly organized a crew of people who served food to 112 people, and I had a chance to share with the group about how we are Gods workmanship speaking from Ephesians 2. Close to Christmas I got to sing at a Christmas concert with Listen Up! and two other singing groups. It was a wonderful time of music, but also a time of pointing others to Christ at a time of year that they might be open to Him. The first day of 2010 I got to take off for Winter camp where we hosted “Survivor Camp”. No water, no heat, but lots of fun in the snow. We focused with 22 young adults on the challenges of surviving as a Christian in todays world, and shared experiences and wisdom from scripture about how we can be more than survivors by putting on God’s armor, talking from Ephesians 6. These projects along with other youth gatherings provide for opportunities to serve and raise up in the Lord.

- Holly and Crew Feeding 112 at Soccer Tournament -

Ghent Contacts
Our weekly Bible studies have continued through the fall and winter. These have become moments of growth in God’s word, and moments where God’s word challenges previous beliefs. People I meet with weekly include Herman, Zakia, Chris, and Tressie. Keep them in your prayers. Zakia, is muslim and a single mother, she has a great respect for Jesus, but dabbles in astrology and lives a lot of her life in fear. Pray that all of these studies will reveal a God who comforts, communicates and loves. In December we had an opportunity to invite all of our contacts over for a dinner at our place. It was a great time to introduce them to our place, and to eachother. I have continued to meet with church leaders in Ghent. I enjoy learning from their experiences, and hearing where the difficulties in this field lie. One morning a week I try and go out and ask people with a religious survey. I enjoy this interesting research, and like learning what makes people tick. Many people are willing to share their opinion. I have given out our church contact information to people who have seemed more interested in learning more. Please keep these planted seeds in your prayers.

- Hosting Ghent Contacts for Dinner -

The Ghent Family Grows
In December we were blessed to meet Armstrong, a young man from Cameroon who has now joined the church in Ghent and has even taken a turn to preach. He grew up in the church in Africa and is studying Soil science in Ghent. He is an encouragement to us, and we hope to encourage him in his walk with Christ as he is away from home.

- Survivors at Camp -

On the home front
The holiday season was spent with friends from around Belgium, and we enjoyed Christmas celebrations with Paul and Carol Brazle and family, our aunt and uncle that work in Antwerp. After survivor camp the first three days of the year, we worked on the heating in our house. We went from 4 working radiators to 8. So we feel like we are living in luxury, especially since this winter has seen a lot of freezing temperatures. Gideon (4) loves going to school and building forts with blankets in the living room. Isaak (1) still climbs on everything, and loves everything electronic. Sometimes we feel like we are trying to keep our kids from killing themselves. Holly continues to keep all 3 of us boys from getting into too much trouble. She is the perfect nurse, hostess, and friend. We thank God for showering us with blessings.

Please Pray
For open hearts in Ghent – For teaching of young people – for upcoming camps – For upcoming outreach – For our health – For wisdom - …

More Information
We welcome your questions and comments about our life and work. If you want to keep in touch with us you can find us at: www.BelgianBreeze.blogspot.com. We thank God for you and your continued financial support which allows us to serve together with you in taking the gospel to the lost here in Belgium.

Spiritual Food in Germany

2010-03-03T15:04:00.002+01:00

- Patrick Speaking on Ephesians -

For the past few years we have used "the kids" excuse to not go to a retreat that we have enjoyed in the past. But this year we decided that we would take turns going to classes and get some much needed spiritual encouragement and food. We found that food at ABSS. Advanced Bible Study Series hosted at the Gemunden encampment in Germany.

- Food goes well with good fellowship -

The classes we got to take included topics like church planing, Ephesians and the mission of God. It was great to study these subjects, bounce ideas off of fellow christians, and to learn from this wonderful group. The kids were great, and enjoyed having cousin Jesse around along with the snow outside to help keep them busy.

- Playing Blocks with Jesse -

- Snow Adventures -

Thank you Lord for a chance to recharge spiritual batteries, to be encouraged by friends and coworkers in the Kingdom, and to spend some quality family time together.

- Having fun with Ladies Retreat Beads -

Video Game Ministry

2010-02-23T11:53:00.006+01:00

- Console Weekend Announcement -

I kind of called this blog post Video Game ministry with a smile on my face because we never think of Video Games as having any redemptive quality, but over the past few years where we have hosted a video game boys youth rally in Deurne, we have found that the fellowship that surrounds these events is priceless.

- The Gaming Crew -

On the weekend of May 12-14 we had our 7th annual Boys youth weekend where we invite the boys to bring their video games, Playstations and Wii's and we spend a weekend playing games together and encouraging each other. We don't allow bloody games or trash talking, and encourage games where you get to work together and have some healthy competition.

- The Resident Zombies -

This weekends theme was, "Do you have enough Power". We focused on the fact that we don't have enough power on our own but that God gives us the power that we need to walk the Christian life we are meant to lead. We fed off of scriptures like 2 Cor. 12:9 - "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." and 1 Peter 5:10 - "And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast."

- WIth good games come good food... Fries -

The guys had good input on how God helps us through tough times, and I challenged the guys not to leave God's power behind, but to pick it up and to use it in their daily life, in times of temptation, and in times of sharing the gospel.

Thank you Lord for those who helped out with the weekend, thank you for the hearts of these young men longing to find you in a world that distracts so quickly. Thank you Lord for an opportunity to share with kids who don't come in contact often with the church. Please work powerfully in their lives.

For more Console weekend pictures click here.

Visiting Brothers and Sisters Underseas

2010-02-02T12:11:00.002+01:00

- Gideon on a ferry in Portsmouth -

Underseas? That is right, for the first time this past week we drove our car onto a train last week, that took us under the seas, well, the North Sea, to England. We went to England to visit some friends of ours. Glenn, Vanessa and their daughter Faith, met with us at the Ghent church for over two years before moving to England this past year due to Glenn's work.

- Breakfast at Hotel Dujardin -

We enjoyed some time away, enjoyed quality visits with Glenn and Vanessa, loved playing tourist, and were encouraged to be able to join in on the Bible study at New Forest Church of Christ. The warm welcome of Gary and Sarah and their family was an encouragement to us and we were glad we could sing together and share some thoughts about scripture together

- Singing in New Forest CoC -

- Gideon's new friends at New Forest -

Thank you Lord for your people spread around the world who continue to bless our lives, and friends where you can always feel at home.

- What Gideon called the Pirate Ship -

I tried to tell Gideon the English don't like it when you call them pirates.

Winter Activities

2010-02-02T11:51:00.003+01:00

So I admit, I have some catching up to do. So here is a note giving you some snapshots of what our winter has been like the last few months. God is good, and has been blessing us with wonderful moments to teach, share and to fellowship with believers and unbelievers.

- Football fellowship, an idea stolen from the Swiss churches, was a great time of soccer fun, and fellowship. We played together, we ate together, and we sang together with more than 100 Christians from around Belgium and the Netherlands. Kudo's to Holly for feeding all of us together with her stellar team of volunteers. -

- Christmas Concert - We (Listen Up!) were able to join up with two other groups to sing in a Christmas Concert near Leuven. It was a wonderful time to share the message of Christ to a great audience. The words behind us say, "no gift compares to you" and that is the message we wanted to share. It was also great to see old friends and to visit, since I grew up in the Leuven area. Special thanks to the Trinid Singers for letting us sing with them.

- Christmas Dinner - We got to host Christmas Dinner at our house which mean great company, wonderful food, and even some playing on my cousins new Wii. Being away from grandparents at Christmas time was hard, but the spiritual family that we have here in Belgium is a great substitute.

- Survivorcamp - Was a cold retreat to our Bible Camp. We focused on surviving in this world, and thriving in our spiritual walk with the Lord. It was a fun time of wood chopping, fire huddling, snow walking, and singing in a winter wonderland. We had a crew of 23 show up even though they were warned there would be little heat, and no running water. What a brave crew.

- Haarlem Youth Weekend - The second weekend in Haarlem I was able to pack our van full of kids and head up to Haarlem for a youth weekend that focused our young people on being hospitable. I didnt have any responsibilities except to get kids there, so it was nice to hang out and visit with the brothers and sisters from the church there.

- Camp Meeting - Once a year we get together with Christians from around Belgium and The Netherlands to talk and pray about the Biblecamp that we help out with. We also take the opportunity to announce when the camps will be and to invite people to come and help with it. It is also the perfect opportunity to sing together and learn new songs. In the above picture Rob is teaching us a new song.

Help from Canada with Street Evangelism

2009-11-18T20:41:00.002+01:00

- Some Friends from Canada -

A few weeks ago we had the Canadian invasion lead by Eric Nyrose who came to Belgium years ago as an apprentice through Western Christian College. He brought a group 4 other students to come and experience ministry on the Belgian mission field. They served at Fall camp in the French part of Belgium, helped in Antwerp, in Maastricht and then came to Ghent to help us out.

- Asking Faith Questions In Ghent -

These guys were a blessing! They encouraged us in our work, and they helped me with a difficult missionary task. Going up to perfect strangers and doing some missionary research talking to people who speak a completely different language. They got a lot of cold shoulders, but also got some people willing to share. We went out for an afternoon and a morning. Stopping half way through each time to talk about reactions people were giving to the questions. Each person we came to we would ask 3 questions. Have you read the Bible, what parts? Have you been to church, why? And Do you think Faith has a part in todays society, what part? We got a lot of different answers and found some people who did believe, or who used to but had been turned off in one way or another. In many cases I was able to tell them about the church, and that they were welcome to contact us for further information.

A special thanks to the ABC campaign crew. You guys were troopers. You did things, my wife would never dream of doing. You guys streched your comfort zones for me, and that helped me in my work a great deal. Thank you!

Apr - Oct '09 Newsletter

2009-10-16T15:10:00.004+02:00

Belgian Breeze Newsletter
April - October 2009

To download our latest newsletter click here.

Long Time No See
So I admit, it was embarrassing to me when I looked at my newsletter file and realized that it had been since April that I had written a newsletter to you. I hope that you have been keeping up with us through our blog, which gets more regular updates. That being said, it is good to be able to share with you what God has been doing in Belgium, and how we can join Him. We hope this newsletter finds you doing well.

Church Encouragement and Equipping
God is good, and we see that continually as we serve here in Ghent, and the local churches around us. We have continued to have a teaching role in 4 churches, but are cutting back our involvement this year with the Antwerp church so that we can focus more on reaching out to Ghent. We enjoyed the opportunity in July to direct the young adult camp, where the theme was: Looking for God. We had the chance to put some of the young adults in leadership positions and enjoyed watching them grow. I got to teach lessons to a group of 30 on where God can be found, and how we know what His will is. In the Ghent church I try to encourage everyone to take a role, whether it is sharing a thought, choosing songs, or bringing a message from scripture. It has been a blessing to watch the young men in our church share their insights from scripture.

Summer Projects
This summer we hosted two young men from Lake Cities Church of Christ, Zack and Nathan. They stayed with us for 7 weeks as interns, and worked hard: distributing, plastering, sanding, painting, organizing activities, guiding campaign groups, praying, preaching, and encouraging the missionaries. They were a blessing! A week of Music camp brought more than 100 Christians from all over Europe to a week of singing, learning music, and fellowship. I got to teach a class on preparing and leading devotionals. It was a great time of encouragement and worship. One of our supporting churches, Church in the Falls (OH), sent us some reinforcements in the form of a Young Friends campaign. These 13 young people came and were an encouragement to our youth group in Antwerp, and reached out to the young people in the neighborhood. 4 of those young people attended a retreat out at the Bible camp with the group at the end of the project.

Ghent Contacts and Projects
After a summer break our weekly Bible Studies have started up again. Right now we meet with Herman, Zakia, Chris, and Tressie. They are all at different places in their walk with God. Herman struggles to know how to live out his faith, and Chris asked me last week. “I want to know how to connect with God, can you help me with that?” We thank God that we are able to be here to provide answers to questions like those. Since we have taken a smaller role in the church in Antwerp I have focused on my research on the outreach that has been done by churches in Ghent. I have met with 3 church leaders, attended a church leadership meeting, and attended 2 church services so far. I am starting to see where God has been at work, and where we might be able to join Him. This is exciting work, as I get to see the spiritual health of the city up close. Pray that this study will be God lead, and that it will lead me to join God at work in the right places in Ghent. At the end of the summer we had to say goodbye to 5 of our regular members as study and work took them to other places outside of Belgium. It was hard to say goodbye, but we know they will be a blessing to others. Pray that our church can grow and not be discouraged by these goodbyes.

Needs
God is good! This is something we see daily in His world and in our lives. We have more than we could ever ask or imagine. Since our fund raising trip in 2008, all of our monthly support has come in. We were also blessed to be sponsored by our campaigners to put a living room floor in. Our greatest need is prayer. Please pray that Ghent hearts will be softened for the Gospel. There are people asking faith questions, it is our hope that we can provide the answers God has given. Pray that we can have eyes to see where God is at work. Upcoming prayer needs: Fall camp - Church wide soccer tournament – New Bible Study Opportunities – Ghent outreach research - …

On the home front
Isaak and Gideon are growing fast. They are a joy, and an adventure. Isaak looks for any opportunity to climb, and Gideon loves to talk. Playing with blocks and reading books are daily activities around our house. Holly does an amazing job running the house, hosting campaign groups, visitors, raising her children and husband. I am so thankful to be able to work as a team with her.

More Information
If you are interested in more up-to-date news on our family and work you can find this at: www.BelgianBreeze.blogspot.com. Thank you for your love and financial support as we serve together with you in taking the gospel to the lost here in Belgium.

Summer Visitors, and Summer Goodbye's

2009-10-15T09:37:00.002+02:00

- Worship in Ghent -

This summer at the Ghent Church of Christ we were blessed with a lot of visitors. Kristin came from Brussels, Zack and Nathan came from Keller, Texas, The huyghebaerts came from Roeselare, Paul and Carol came from Antwerp, and the list goes on,... . All these people came not because they had to, or because the cookies and coffee were so good, but they came to be an encouragement, and to worship. They were a blessing and I thank God for each one of them that came this summer.

- Fellowhsip in Ghent -

But this summer also brough a lot of goodbye's. One of the young families that has worshiped with us for over a year had to leave due to Glenn's job. They were moving to England, and eventhough England looks close on a globe, the church commute would have been a little rediculous. So we had to say goodbye to Faith, Glenn and Vanessa. Two of the students who had been worshiping with us for over a year had to leave as well. They had finished their studies in Ghent and were going on to other places to continue their studies. Jo-Anne is going on to study in Portugal, and Emmanuel is going on to study in Denmark. They were all great blessing to the church here. Thank you God for letting us get to know them for a while, and please bless these people in thier new homes!

- Worship in Flemish -

Copa Benelux November 2009

2009-09-18T08:51:00.004+02:00

Je komt toch mee spelen eh?
You Playing?
Vous Jouez avec nous?

[NEDERLANDS]
COPA BENELUX
21 November 2009
9:00 tot 21:00
Bloso centrum Herentals
Vorselaarsebaan 60
2200 Herentals
België

Beste voetballiefhebber en supporters,
Wij hebben het genoegen om mee te delen dat de tweede editie van het Copa Benelux voetbaltoernooi plaatsvindt op 21 november 2009. Omdat we van dit toernooi een jaarlijks evenement willen maken die in de herfst plaatvindt hebben we dit jaar twee toernooien. Vanaf volgend jaar zal het ieder jaar in de herfst plaatsvinden.
Graag willen we iedereen bedanken voor hun aanwezigheid op het toernooi in maart. Wij hebben er heel erg van genoten. Dank u voor al de reacties op de opiniepeiling. We zullen rekening houden met jullie inbreng en zo het komend toernooi nog beter te maken.
Met uitzondering van enkele kleine veranderingen blijft het toernooi hetzelfde als de vorige editie. We zullen iets vroeger eindigen zodat iedereen op tijd terug naar huis kan gaan. We zullen een warme maaltijd aanbieden (met goede afspraken zodat er geen spelers overgeslagen worden). Er zullen ook enkele prijsaanpassingen zijn.
Het toernooi zal rond 9u beginnen, en zal eindigen rond 21u (maar dit hangt uiteraard af van het aantal ingeschreven ploegen). De locatie is het Bloso-sportcentrum in Herentals, 30 km ten oosten van Antwerpen. Het is gemakkelijk bereikbaar via auto of trein (een routebeschrijving zal in een volgende email staan). Er zullen twee maaltijden voorzien zijn (middag en avondeten).
Gelieve in te schrijven in de pro-league of fun-league. De pro-league is voor spelers vanaf 14 die graag een beetje competitie willen. De fun-league is voor spelers vanaf 10 die spelen 'for the love of the game', en is dus minder competitief. Iedere ploeg heeft minstens zes spelers nodig (dat is hoeveel spelers er op het veld staan). Opgelet, er moet altijd minstens één meisje op het veld staan. In de fun-league is minstens één speler van minder dan 14 verplicht. Er mogen zoveel spelers als je wil op een ploeg, en er is geen maximumleeftijd. Vind je niet genoeg spelers of heb je geen ploeg? Stuur dan een e-mail en we proberen ploegen samen te stellen.
We zouden graag hebben dat iedereen minstens een week op voorhand betaalt. Dit maakt het veel gemakkelijker voor de organisatie. Maar we begrijpen dat dit voor sommigen niet zo eenvoudig is. Dus we hebben besloten dat spelers die zich minstens een week op voorhand inschrijven en betalen beloont worden door minder inschrijvingsgeld te moeten betalen. Het is aangeraden dat spelers hun inschrijvingsgeld aan de ploegverantwoordelijke geven en dat die dan het geld overschrijft.
De prijs voor vroege inschrijvingen bedraagt net als vorig jaar 15 euro. Dit omvat twee maaltijden, versnaperingen, drank, en huur van de sporthal en kleedkamers. Gezinnen betalen voor iedere bijkomende speler 5 euro minder (10 euro voor de tweede speler, 5 euro voor de derde speler en iedere volgende speler). De prijs voor supporters bedraagt 8 euro. Gezinnen betalen 2 euro minder voor ieder bijkomend familielid (met een minimum van 4 euro). De prijs voor spelers die na 14 november betalen is 20 euro. Betalingen kunnen op de rekening nummer van Dennis van Erp gestort worden: [IBAN: BE73 7330 2261 3760] [BIC:KREDBEBB]. Meld zeker uw ploeg en voor welke spelers er word betaald. Stuur aub uw inschrijving via e-mail, door te bellen, of aan ons persoonlijk te melden. Laat ons ook aub weten wie de ploeg vertegenwoordiger is.

Je krijgt binnenkort nog informatie. Je mag ons gerust bellen of e-mailen als je vragen, opmerkingen hebt, of wil helpen.
Voor foto's van vorig jaar kan je hier terecht:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/belgianbreeze/sets/72157622270483271/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sraabs/sets/72157615386537888/
Het bijgevoegd bestand is een poster met info over de Copa Benelux
Vriendelijke Groeten van,
Luk Brazle, Pieter Good, en Dennis van Erp
0032 474 80 73 49

[ENGLISH]
COPA BENELUX
21 November 2009
9:00 to 21:00
Bloso centrum Herentals
Vorselaarsebaan 60
2200 Herentals
Belgium

Dear football-appreciator and cheering section,
We are pleased to announce that the second edition of the Copa Benelux football tournament will take place on 21 November 2009. Since we want to make this tournament an annual event that takes place in the fall we have two tournaments this year. Starting next year the tournament will occur every year in the fall.
We would like to thank everyone for their presence at the tournament in March. We really enjoyed it! Thank you for all your reactions on the survey. We will take the results into consideration.
With the exception of a few small changes the tournament will remain the same as the previous edition. We will end a little earlier so that everyone can go home in time. We will offer a warm meal (and make sure everyone has enough). And there will be some changes in the price.
The tournament wil start around 9am, and will end at about 9pm (depending on the number of teams that have signed up. The location is the Bloso-sportcentrum in Herentals, 30 km east of Antwerp. It is easy to get there by car or train (directions will be given in another email). There will be two meals (lunch and supper).
Please sign up in either the pro-league or the fun-league. The pro-league is for players 14 years old and above who like to have some competition. The fun-league is for those players who are 10 years old and older who like to play for the love of the game, and who want a little less competition. Every team has to have at least six players (that is how many are on the field at one time). There must be at least one girl on the field at all times for your team. In the fun-league teams there must be at least one player that is younger than 14. You can have as many players as you want on one team, and there is no maximum age limit. Are you having trouble finding enough players to make a team? Please send us an e-mail or call and we will find a team for you to play on.

We would like for everyone to pay at least one week ahead of time. This will make it much easier for the organisation. However, we understand this may not be possible for everyone. So we have decided that players who sign up at least one week in advance will be able to pay a smaller entry fee. We recommend that players give their money to the team reprsentative so that he or she can deposit the money for the whole team at once.

The price for early registrations is 15 euro. This includes two meals, snacks, drinks, the gym and the changing rooms. Families from the same household pay 5 euro les for each additional player (10 euro for the second player, 5 euro for the third player and each aditional player). The price for fans is 8 euro. Families pay 2 euro less for each additional family member (but a mimimum of 4 euro must be payed). The price for players who pay after 14 november is 20 euro. Please deposit the payments on the account of Dennis van Erp: [IBAN: BE73 7330 2261 3760] [BIC:KREDBEBB]. Make sure to mention the team name and which players are being paid for! Please send your registration via email (in the body or as an attachment), via telephone, or personally. Please also let us now who the team representative is.

You will receive more information soon. Please don't hesitate to call or e-mail us if you have any questions, suggestions, or if you want to help.

Check out some pictures from last year here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/belgianbreeze/sets/72157622270483271/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sraabs/sets/72157615386537888/
The attachment is a poster with more information about Copa Benelux.
Greetings,

Luk Brazle, Pieter Good, and Dennis van Erp
0032 474 80 73 49

[FRANCAIS]
COPA BENELUX
le 21 novembre 2009
de 10h00 à 21h00
Bloso centrum Herentals
Vorselaarsebaan 60
2200 Herentals
Belgique

Chers footballeurs et supporters,

Nous sommes ravis de vous annoncer que le deuxième tournoi de minifoot aura lieu le 21 novembre 2009 ! Nous nous sommes vus à Herentals au mois de mars dernier pour le premier Copa Benelux. Ce tournoi aura lieu annuellement en automne à partir de cette année.

Nous remercions vivement tous ceux qui ont participé au premier tournoi. Nous nous sommes bien amusés! Merci de votre feedback via les questionnaires. Nous essayons de tenir compte de vos commentaires dans l’organisation actuelle.

À part quelques petits changements, ce tournoi se déroulera comme le premier. Nous terminerons un peu plus tôt pour que tout le monde puisse rentrer de bonne heure. Nous offrons un repas chaud (en suffisance pour tout le monde!), et il y aura une modification concernant les modalités d’inscription.

Le tournoi débutera vers 9h et terminera vers 21 h (selon le nombre d’équipes qui s’inscrivent) au Bloso-sportcentrum à Herentals (à 30 km à l’est d’Anvers). Il est facile d’y accéder par train ou autoroute (des renseignements plus précis suivront). Il y aura deux repas: le repas du midi et du soir.

SVP inscrivez-vous soit dans la division « pro league » ou « fun league ». La pro leauge est destinée aux joueurs qui ont au moins 14 ans et qui sont plutôt compétitifs. La fun league est pour ceux qui ont au moins 10 ans et qui cherchent tout simplement à s’amuser. Chaque équipe doit avoir au moins six joueurs (il y en a six sur le terrain en tout temps…) dont au moins une fille. Dans la fun leauge, il faut avoir au moins un joueur qui a moins de 14 ans. Il n’y pas de limite pour le nombre de joueurs par équipe, ni un âge maximum! Si vous avez des difficultés de trouver assez de joueurs pour former une équipe, n’hésitez pas de nous envoyer un mail ou appelez-nous et nous vous trouverons des co-équipiers.

Si possible, nous préférons recevoir les frais d’inscription au moins une semaine à l’avance. Par contre, nous comprenons bien que ce n’est pas toujours possible, alors nous avons décidé que ceux qui s’inscrivent au moins une semaine avant auront une réduction. Nous vous suggérons de vous organiser entre vous pour que le représentatif de votre équipe fasse un seul virement pour toute l’équipe.

En vous inscrivant une semaine à l’avance, les frais de joueurs s’élèvent à 15 euros. Ceci comprend les deux repas, les goûters, les boissons, le local et les vestiaires. Pour les joueurs d’une même famille (habitant sous le même toit) : la première inscription est de 15 €, la deuxième est de 10 € et les suivantes 5 €. Les supporters paient 8 €. Pour les supporters d’une même famille (habitant sous le même toit) : la première inscription est de 8 €, la deuxième est de 6 € et les suivantes 4 €. Pour les joueurs qui paient après le 14 novembre, les frais s’élèvent à 20 €. SVP faites le virement sur le compte de Dennis Van Erp : [IBAN: BE73 7330 2261 3760] [BIC:KREDBEBB]. N’oubliez pas d’indiquer le nom de votre équipe et les noms des participants qui ont payé ! Vous pouvez vous inscrire par mail, téléphone ou en personne. N’oubliez de préciser qui sera le représentant de votre équipe.

Vous recevrez bientôt plus de renseignements. N’hésitez pas de nous appeler ou de nous envoyer un mail si vous avez des questions, des suggestions ou si vous avez besoin d’aide.

Si vous êtes intéressés, des photos du premier tournoi se trouvent en ligne:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/belgianbreeze/sets/72157622270483271/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sraabs/sets/72157615386537888/
Une affiche avec des renseignements supplémentaires se trouvent en trombone.
Salutations,
Luk Brazle, Pieter Good, en Dennis van Erp
0032 474 80 73 49

Encouraging In Song

2009-09-17T07:57:00.003+02:00

The singing group I sing with, Listen Up!, was asked by 3 different couples to come and sing a their weddings this past summer. We love these opportunities, because we are honored to be a part of this special occaision, we are able to encourage the new couple, and we are able to many time sing songs pointing to Christ, in a setting where many of those present don't believe. We are able to encourage and share God's message at the same time. We enjoyed singing at Wim and Anita's reception, and at Liesel and Arno's wedding.

- At Liesel and Arno's wedding-

We were invited by Danielle to sing as a surprise at her daughters wedding in Switzerland. It was beautiful to say the least. It was also very fun to reconnect with our Swiss friends.

- Practice in A Nice Setting -

- The Setting -

- Singing Inside -

Thank you Lord for the love and dedication these couples have for eachother. We pray that their marriages hold on tight to you, and grow. Thank you that we had the opportunity to encourage them, and to share your message with those present in song.

Vacation in the Mountains

2009-09-15T07:08:00.002+02:00

- Waking up in the Mountains -

After a super busy summer, it was a treat to be able to escape with Holly, Gideon Isaak, and my uncle and Aunt and Cousin; Paul, Carol and Jesse. Paul had invited us a few months earlier to come and just relax in the mountains of Switzerland. At that time it was hard to plan vacation when there were so many things that still needed to be done, but it was good for us to go away, relax, visit, play tourist, and hike up some mountains.

- The Brazle Tent Compound -

- The hiking Crew -

Being there with Paul and Carol was super nice because our kids love them and Jesse, so we didnt have to continually entertain the kids. There was also another kid, Gideon's age a tent over so they played together a lot. The weather was perfect so we just enjoyed our time there. One day we had a big hike and Gideon did great. I caried Isaak in a pack, and that went pretty well as well. We were all quite sore when we left for home.

- Cereal with Mountains -

- Hiking with Mama -

- Jesse and Gideon love to Climb -

Thank you Lord for opportunities to breathe! Thank you Lord for your beauty and the great places you allow us to experience. Thank you for family that is so fun to go on adventures with. Thank you for great kids, and a wife that acts like going camping is a vacation. Thank you Lord!

More pictures of our trip can be seen here: Click here !

Grote Familie Dag 2009

2009-09-09T09:49:00.002+02:00

- Singing Together in The Sun -

"Big family Day 2009" - Is our annual Belgian Fellowship day where churches are invited from all over Belgium and The Netherlands to come and enjoy a day of fellowship, Singing, Eating, and the beautiful nature. This year close to 100 people attended.

- Hearing God's word from Willy -

The Church of Christ in Hever put the day together for us. They fed us with good food, fed us spiritually with news from God's word, provided kids classes, and challenged us to a Bible quiz. They even allowed me to lead some songs.

- Gideon helping me lead songs -

It was a wonderful way to be encouraged by the crowd, and to greet people that we hadn't seen in a while from other Churches. Since French and Flemish are official languages of Belgium we got to practice speaking to our brothers and sisters in different languages. All together we counted that 14 churches had representatives there, and shared news about things that had happened, and announced upcoming events.

- Sweet Fellowship -

Thank you Lord for time to worship with your people! I am looking forward to the next time.

- Talking with Brothers and Sisters -

Family Camp

2009-09-07T20:28:00.003+02:00

- Taking in Family camp Action -

A highlight of my year each year is being able to attend a week long Bible camp in Solwaster, Belgium. Families come from all over Belgium, The Netherlands, and this year even England to enjoy fellowship, Nature, Studying God's Word, and just a week to relax. This year's theme was the Christian Family so we focused a lot on what roles we play, and how we interact as a Christian family.

- Eating Together -

Isaak and Gideon did great. Gideon is at the age where he can have a blast with the other kids there, and can't get into too much trouble. Isaak tends to be in trying to drown himself mode, trying to run into the creek every waking moment. So he made things interesting. He enjoyed playing with the other kids as well.

- Gert-Jan Teaching the Adult Class -

- Nita teaches the kids class -

I got to teach two classes on how we communicate as a Christian Family. I enjoyed learning from the other teachers and discussions that week. We got to take turns teaching the kids class as well, and those are always a blast. There was a great group of kids that week.

- Time For The Camp Fire -

A big thanks to Johan for organizing the camp week. And a greater thanks to God for providing a place like that to enjoy His family and to be challenged by His word!

For more pictures of the week click here.

Saying Goodbye

2009-09-05T22:14:00.002+02:00

- Praying for Glenn, Vanessa, and Faith -

One of the hardest things this summer has been letting go of our friends Glenn and Vanessa. Glenn's work is taking him on a 3 year stint to England, and so they moved at the beginning of August. They have been attending at the church in Ghent since close to the beginning of the times we were meeting there. They are a joy, and an encouragement to be around. They will be missed. One of the most difficult things in being a part of a church is watching people go, but I have to remind myself not to be selfish and that these people will be a blessing to other people.

- Glenn, Emmanuel, Vanessa, and Faith -

We are looking at the bright side of them moving away and making plans to go visit them in England. We also know that they will be back. Please keep this young Christian family in your prayers as they face the stress of new jobs, a new culture, a new home, and new people. Help us to know how to be an encouragement to them. The last Sunday we worshiped together we spent some time as a group encouraging Glenn and Vanessa, and arming them with scripture that has helped us. We also sent them off with a prayer. Please hold them up to the Father with us as they start this adventure in England.

- Gideon and Faith Swinging in our Yard -

Youth and Music Camp

2009-09-03T08:46:00.002+02:00

- The Campers and Singers -

This year Listen Up! (the singing group I sing with) wanted to celebrate their 15 years of existence so we organized a music workshop that focused on learning new songs, learning how to sing better, learning how to lead worship better, learning how to read music, etc. It was a great time of fellowship as we welcomed people from all over Europe. This event happened in English, so that we could invite more people to come and participate. I enjoyed having my dad around who taught music basics while I taught a class on preparing and leading a devotional. We enjoyed hearing voices from Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, and even England. It was a lot of fun, and we learned a lot. Thank you for all of the fun memories guys.

- Learning a song Together -

- Youth Camp Crew -

At the same time as the music camp, we also organized a youth camp in the same location with 35 young people from all over Belgium and The Netherlands. We got to enjoy some good singing and fellowship with the Sing camp people, but we also focused on God's word separate from the music camp group. I was able to teach some classes to the young people on the theme of "Where can I find God". We also took some time to play some volleyball, football, lazer tag, and capture the flag. One of the big hits since we were in a new location is that we didnt have to do the dishes. We will have to wait until next year to have some Kitchen Duty Sink fellowship again. This year we also incorporated a daily time to to sit down and listen to some Christian music which we talked about. Pieter did a good job at picking out songs with a message, and presenting them to the group. This way the young people could be introduced to some Christian alternatives to the music on the radio. Overall it was a time of renewing friendships, getting to know God better, and enjoying activities in a Christian environment. A special thanks to my crew that helped make camp work this year. Pieter Good helped me with registration and Camp Café. Sue Foster took care of the girls cabin, which is not an easy job. Danny and Stephan made sure the guys stayed out of trouble. Zack and Nathan took care of making sure we were all entertained with a plethora of activities. It was a dream team. Thanks for your help guys!

- Discussion time at Camp -

Thank you Lord for opportunities like these.

Young Friends from Ohio

2009-09-01T13:11:00.002+02:00

- The Young Friends in Action -

In July our work here in Antwerp and Ghent was blessed by a youth group from one of our supporting churches who came on a project called "young friends". They came as a group of 13 to camp out at the church building in Antwerp, with the main focus of reaching out to the young people in the neighborhood around the church in Antwerp and to be an encouragement to the youth group in Antwerp. Thanks to God at work, and their willingness to reach out their mission was accomplished!

- The campaign group with their friends -

The campaign group met and got to know more than 5 young people from the neighborhood and their parents. They worked through English lessons every day, and ended the day with a party. 7 teens from our youth group were active with the project and were encouraged through the interaction with other Christian young people.

- Encouraging time at English Camp -

- Making New Friends -

The youth group was Christ to our church and our community. They were a blessing. As if this outreach wasnt enough they then came and camped out at our house in Ghent. Worshiped with the church here. Painted our livingroom, and distributed flyers.

- Off to distribute -

- Serving through Paint -

- CeeJay evangelizing on the streets of Ghent -

Thanks to the teens who gave up a few weeks of their summer to help us. Thanks to Josh for making this possible as well as the help of Oma and Opa, you guys are priceless! And thanks for parents and the rest of the Church in the Falls for sending this group of missionaries our way. Thank you Lord for continuing to send us to share who you are with others.

Digging Camp

2009-08-08T13:47:00.002+02:00

Ok so I realize that I have some catching up to do. Sorry that we have been absent from the blog for so long. The past 6 weeks have been crazy, and I am just now getting a chance to sit down longer at the computer. Sorry for that. But in the mean time we have had some wonderful things happen, and have a lot to report on. So in the next few weeks I hope to do some catch up blogs.

First we had dig camp...

- Gideon Starts To Dig -

At work camp we realized that our main drain under the parkinglot at our Bible camp facility had broken and needed to be replaced. So we rounded up the troops from all over Belgium, Flemish, French and English speakers and had a wonderful time of fellowship and manual labor. When the day was done the new pipe was in place and the trench that had been dug was filled again. Here is hoping we have a nice dry parkinglot this summer for the camp weeks. Thanks to all who helped. You made it a fun day.

- Keep digging -

- Deeper -

- The Pipe is in -

- The Hard Working Dig Crew -

Living in Christ vs Living in Fear

2009-07-02T16:46:00.002+02:00

- Biblereading -

This week as school ends for many Belgian school kids many of my weekly biblestudies have gone on hold for the summer. One of my study contacts, "Z", has a son that since school is out would make for a difficult study time, and she is going to be traveling out of the country for a month.

I mention Z because I want you to be praying for her. Eventhough you dont know her name I believe God is workin in her. For the past 9 months we have been reading through the life of Christ reading bit by bit out of Luke. Z has had a lot of trouble in her past, and lives in a life of fear and has no one she can trust. Many of our studies I tried to focus on what she is thankful for, and what she can hold on to. But her fear keeps her short sighted. Pray that Christ will be the one she holds onto who provides true comfort and peace.

Where do you think the role of fear intersects with the Christian life? Does it have a place, or do real Christians fear nothing?

Let The Interning Begin

2009-07-01T13:29:00.002+02:00

- Interns: Zack and Nathan -

We have never had interns before, but when our sponsoring church asked us if we could use some help from two guys that we knew that came a few years ago for a few weeks, we jumped on it. Every summer there is always a lot of activity, and having some extra hands around comes in handy.

- Moving Our Stuff -

The Interns, Zack and Nathan are here until July to learn, serve, experience, give, and share Christ. Their focus is to encourage us, the local church, and to fish for the lost. They have gotten off to a great start and we are enjoying having them around. They have already helped us plaster all of our downstairs walls, dug a 12 meter long trench for a drain at Camp, nocked out holes in the church's walls in Antwerp, cooked us dinner, stuffed mailboxes in our area inviting people to read the Bible, watched the kids, moved our livingroom upstairs, spoken in church, cemented our walls, sung in Flemish, and bonded with some of our young people.

- Digging at camp to put in a new drain -

Thank you Lord for extra hands and hearts that are willing to serve, and thank you Lord for those parents and families who are willing to send them!

- Gideon likes Interns -

Work Camp

2009-06-30T13:18:00.002+02:00

- Working Crew -

As a yearly tradition a group of guys and girls will descend on our Bible Camp in Solwaster, Belgium and we will fix what needs fixing, and clean what needs cleaning getting ready for the summer activities at camp which include 4 weeks of youth and family camps. This year when the call went out to ask for help, a lot of people heard and acted.

-Rene and Robin drywalled-

People removed cob webbs, cleaned campers, organized the kitchen, put up dry wall, laid tiles, cleared out pipes that were jammed shut, and fixed leaks. I got to work on some more tiling in the showers. It is always fun to meet new people, and to work along side of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

- Scott cleaning drains -

The 2 days of cleaning ended up being a great time of fellowship, and time to talk about plans for the future of camp. The plans for a new mess hall have just been handed over to the Architect who will ask the city for a building permit. We could have a new building by next year.

- Jim Fixing The Door -

Thank you Lord for such a beautiful place in the middle of nature. Thank you for your children who put their efforts into making it a nice place where young people and families can come together to worship you, to learn about you, and to encourage eachother in faith. God bless the camp weeks that will be going on there this year. Amen!

Jan - Mar '09 Newsletter

2009-05-06T13:35:00.002+02:00

Belgian Breeze Newsletter
January - March 2009

Arriving in the New Year
Gelukkig Nieuwjaar! Happy New Year from Ghent Belgium. We spent the transition from Old to New in the air flying home from our furlough to the States. 2009 has brought a new start to projects and meeting with contacts that has been refreshing and exciting. We apologize that our newsletters have not come regularly. We had a lot of work to catch up on after our 2 month-long trip to the States. We are excited about what God has been doing, and the opportunities possible in 2009.

Teaching and Serving
I (Luk) have been able to jump back into my teaching roles at the churches we work with in Ghent, Antwerp, and Bruges. Our home church in Ghent did a great job while we were gone, and we were glad to know they missed us and let us help out when we came back. In January I was able to take a van full of young people from Antwerp to the youth rally in Harlem, The Netherlands where I was asked to lead a devotional on temptation. Anchor: The young adult get-together in Antwerp in January was a movie night that ended up being a time of fellowship, discussion and worship. Our annual boys weekend was attended by 20 young men who came to play video games together as well as focus on God's word in talking about our self-esteem, and how being made in God's image affects us, the way we see ourselves, and the way we treat others. Our teammate Dennis, friend Pieter and I organized a church of Christ indoor soccer tournament in March just to offer another opportunity for fellowship and fun for the churches in Belgium and The Netherlands. We had a great deal of help from the whole Ghent church, and we had a great turn out. We hosted 113 people for a day of soccer and where we also took the opportunity to spend some time in worship and prayer in three languages. Holly worked her magic and fed the whole group. Holly also enjoyed an uplifting time with ladies at a retreat in Germany in March where they talked about "unity" focusing on John 17.

Ghent Contacts
I enjoyed starting up my weekly studies again with our contacts in Ghent after being away for a while. Sue (our teammate) kept up the studies while we were away, but I had missed my friends and enjoyed talking about scripture and life questions again. Please keep the people we are sharing Christ with in your prayers: Zakia, Vishal, Herman, Kenny, and others.

New Car & Fundraising
When Isaak showed up in June we started to realize that two kids in the back seat limited our ability to give people rides, we also started having some trouble with our car being reliable so we started looking in January and February for a good car to take the place of our Nissan sedan. I like cars, but looking through the sea of used cars was not my favorite thing. We did some test driving, and ended up finding a nice 7-seater minivan. We are very happy with it and excited about how we will be able to use it with our work, and how we will be able to bus people around who come to help. This purchase was made possible because of the response to our fundraising. Thank God with us for His provision, and thank you to those whose generosity is making this work possible. We are only $50 a month away from our monthly goal and we are $2500 away from our one-time $20,000 gift goal.

On the home front
We were met by friends at the airport when we flew back home and were kept awake for New Years day during a party at our place. It was so nice to sleep in our own bed again. January weather froze our pipes so some renovation was put on hold while we thawed and repaired some of our plumbing. It took Gideon a few weeks to get into his Flemish again but he loves going to school full days every day. One of Gideon's highlights of the past few months was going to a petting farm, "een boerderij" and so he has had a lot to talk about. Isaak has graduated to the class of movers and shakers. He is a fast crawler and pulls himself up on everything. Holly and I have enjoyed our Christmas present to each other; weekly swing dancing classes. It is nice to have time for just us. A huge thanks to our teammate Sue for babysitting for us.

Please Be In Prayer
For the lost in Belgium - Those contacts we are meeting with weekly - Spiritual growth of our youth - Developing godly answers to hard questions - Summer campaign & intern plans - ...

More Information
If you are interested in more up-to-date news on our family and work you can find this at: www.BelgianBreeze.blogspot.com. Thank you for your love and financial support as we serve together with you in taking the gospel to the lost here in Belgium. In His love, Luk, Holly, Gideon and Isaak.

Playing for the National Team

2009-05-06T13:20:00.003+02:00

- Some Excited Belgian Soccer Players -

... for the national church of christ soccer team that is. This past weekend we went all the way to Switzerland (7 hr drive) with 27 people from all over Belgium to play some footbal with Christians from all over Europe. Two years ago I had been told about this European church of christ soccer tournament, and we had a blast last year. This year we went back with a larger group and came back with the trophy.

- They Even Let Me Play -

The highlights of this Friday-noon through Sunday afternoon adventure included playing many games with brothers and sisters who I had never met, moments to sing praises together on Friday night and Sunday morning, and all of the visits during the meals. This trip we also took 4 people from the french church in Liege with us, which was exciting. We have not had very much contact with eachother (we being the Flemish churches) and this was a step in the right direction. It helped me work on some of my french as well.

- Saturday Night Devotional -

Our young people get pretty pumped for something like this where they get to travel to a new place, get to know new faces, and play some footbal for their church. You can't beat that. The young people, and the older people came back with a renewed energy and great feeling, eventhough the trip was very tireing.

- Stephen aiming for the Goal -

Thanks again to the church in Shaffhausen and Zurich for their initiative in making a great place for us to come and fellowship. See you next year. Thank you Lord for brothers and sisters all over who teach us what real love is, how do walk more like you, and teach us some better footbal moves at the same time.

- The Tired Crew On Their Way Home -

We ran the race!

2009-05-01T09:32:00.003+02:00

So Luk and I decided that we really needed to start doing some serious exercising back at the end of February. Last year, Luk ran in the Antwerp 10 mile race and decided to run it again. I found out that they also did a 5km race as well, so I decided that would be my goal. So we started training, Luk said it was easier for him this time, the training an all, mainly because he knew what he was getting into this time! I had never run a 5km race, so this was all new for me. But we both started training, trying not to overdo it and taking it slow, but realizing that we didn't have a whole lot of time to prepare for the race that was on April 26th. Thankfully it worked out well, we would watch the kids for each other so the other one could go for their run. Gideon really loved to stretch with us when we got back, so cute! Anyway, the day came pretty quickly, we both felt good, if not a little unprepared, but praying for the best. Along the way, Luk also encouraged our Auntie Carol to run the 10 mile as well! So last Sunday, we went to church in Antwerp, then I got dressed and had a little sandwich and took the tram to the other side of the river in Antwerp where the races started. My race was at 2:30pm, I got there a little early so I was able to look around and have a nice walking warm-up. Luk, Sue, Gideon and Isaak stayed at the church building with Auntie Carol, cousin Jesse and our friend Johan and Katarina Gerber, who came down from Rotterdam to run the 10 mile as well. Before the 5k started, we had a bit of a warm-up from a local fitness club, which was just a bunch of jumping, so my calves were burning! During this warm-up, another lady came and stood by me and we started talking and decided to run the race together, as long as the pace seemed good for both of us. (Her name was Katrine)So the race began and we set a good pace and stayed with each other the whole time. I finished the race in 32 minutes. I was very proud of myself, having run the whole time. i wasn't sure I could run the entire thing, but it really felt great! The weather was perfect, partly cloudy, not too hot, but not cold, just perfect!

My finish! (I'm in the blue, on the left)

Gideon checking out my participation medal

After my race, I tried to call Luk and Sue to find where Sue was with the boys, but my phone decided to stop working, but luckily I was able to receive calls, so Sue called me after a few minutes and told me where she and the boys and Uncle Paul and cousin Jesse were. The 10 mile was about to start and they were on the opposite side of the barracades as me, so I had to wait until all the runners passed by to cross the path and find them. Thankfully, I found them pretty quickly after I was able to cross. All of us searched for Luk and Auntie Carol and our friends, Johan and Katarina, but we didn't see any of them. But there were over 14,000 runners in that race, so it would've been unlikely anyway!

Looking for Papa

We decided to go to one of the many cool spots for the kids to play. We went to a sand area where there was a "sunken pirate ship" to play on and around. Gideon and Jesse had a great time! Although Gideon does have issues about his hands and feet getting dirty, which is really funny and cute. Isaak just played on a blanket we spread out on the grass. Sue and uncle Paul went and got some fabulous fries for us to eat, which was fantastic.

The cool play area

Then it was time to go find everyone. On our way over to the finish line, Luk called us and told us he had finished and wanted to know where we were! He did great, he ran the 10 mile in 1 hour and 38 minutes.

We found each other and had to take off right away, so we didn't get to see and congratulate Auntie Carol or our other friends! But we had to get home for church at our house. We walked to our car, which took 20 minutes, just because we wanted to park on the outer edge of everything so we could get right onto the road, which worked perfectly. We made it home only 5 minutes late. So unfortunately, Luk and I were a bit gross for church in Gent, but oh well, no one minded! Luk said he felt great and was very proud of himself for running faster and better than last year's race! Our results were printed in one of the papers on Monday, so we got the paper and searched for our names. We found me pretty quickly, and Luk found Auntie Carol pretty quickly, but we couldn't find him. We didn't know our times, since you wore a chip that was activated when you crossed the start line and then finished when you crossed the finish line. So if it took you 5 minutes to get to the start line, then it worked accordingly, but the time at the finish line was from the start gun, so we knew when we crossed the finish line, but had to guess at our actual times. So we also did some searching online, and wasted most of our Monday doing such searches. By the end of the day, we found several pics of Luk running on the official site, and by Tuesday, we found an official pic of me, and our official times online along with video of each of us crossing the finish line. So fun!! We also found out that they posted the wrong times for a huge section of the 10 mile runners int he paper, so that is why we had such a hard time finding Luk, he was under the wrong time. Auntie Carol finished in just under 2 hours, I don't remember the official time, but she did great as well!!
We praise God for this opportunity and had such a wonderful time, we are going to run at least one more race. Either the end of May or beginning of June. We have to find one that works for us, since many are on Sunday afternoons, and we have church, so it is more difficult. There is one in Gent we would both love to run in, but it is on the day we get back from our trip to the states. We arrive back in Brussels in the morning, and the race is in the afternoon. So that is a bit too close! Oh well, we will see.

Building and Fellowship

2009-04-02T11:09:00.002+02:00

- I love playing with Blocks -

We see as one of our goals in our work in Belgium is that we embody the hands, feet, and words of Christ. We long to show to people that you can give of yourself because our Savior has given us much. For the past few weeks I have taken my free days to help out some friends who needed some extra help. Holly gave the go ahead that I could give up my time with her and time working on our house to help a friend in need.

- Good Friends: Anneleen & Jorre -

- More Good Friends: Peter, Jorre & me -

Anneleen and Peter and their son Jorre are doing some major renovations at their newly bought house, that has some history to it. They have not been able to live in it during the winter because it was not livable which meant that they have had to live at their Parents. Anneleen is a childhood friend of mine that I have been able to stay in touch with off an on since we moved to the states when I was a teenager. She has always had a great love for fellowship and a genuine searching heart for God. She is a jewel. It has been good to get to know Peter beter and talk to him about what he values and strives for.

- The Building Crew -

The project has been to build some walls for their new livingroom and kitchen. It has been fun to learn how to do this, and to watch it progress. It has been fun to have my good friend Pieter go along as well so that we can encourage this young family with some good manual labor and some encouraging words.

- Progress -

The reason I mention this young family in this post is to ask you for prayers. As with every family going through renovations they have hit a time of discouragement. The winter meant there was little progress, and setbacks are hard to swallow. Please keep this family in your prayers as they try to balance family, work and house renovations. For that matter, keep all families who are balancing these things in your prayers. Including us. Thank you Lord for an opportunity to help like this to be your hands, feet, and encouraging words.

Our Boys

2009-04-02T10:47:00.002+02:00

- Brothers -

Here are some pictures of our cute kids. What can we say? God makes cute kids that is for sure and we are loving experiencing these gifts that we get to keep in our house. Don't get me wrong, we do sleep a bit less, and we have a lot of snotty noses to wipe, but those extra things, are nothing in comparison to the smiles, laughs, words, sounds, hugs, tickles, winks, songs, and fun we get to have with these guys. Here are some pictures from our first taste of spring last week. We look forward to some more days to play outside in our courtyard. You wanna come and play?

- Brothers At Play -

- In The Grass -

- Enjoying the Sun -

Thank you Lord for such beautiful gifts! Help us be the parents we need to be for them. Amen!

Football Fellowship

2009-03-28T12:29:00.003+01:00

- Copa Benelux '09 -

Football Fellowship: Is that possible? Can you have fun and be a Christian at the same time? "Yes!" is the message we try and share with the people in Belgium. Our main message is that Christ is the way of course, but a message that comes along with that is that believing in God doesn't have to be strange or outdated. Many people in Belgium think that faith is for the uneducated or the old. Well 2 weeks ago we set the record straight with what we called the "Copa Benelux 2009" and went head to head against other churches (for fun of course) so see who could have the most fun playing football (soccer) together.

- The Eindhoven Team Ready To Play -

Scripture calls us to glorify God in all that we do, and we believe that means even if one is playing sports. So we called our players to good sportsmanship, and self control on the playing field and had a long day of football. We have to admit we stole the idea from the Swiss churches who have been hosting an all Europe church of christ soccer tournament for several years. Our team mate Dennis, and good friend Pieter jumped on the idea and ran with it. The organization of this day that hosted 10 teams and fed 113 people ended up being quite the task for all of the members of the church in Ghent but it was a great team building experience.

- Score Board Running, and Announcing Crew -

- Sandwich Making Crew -

It was such a joy to watch young and old from 9 different churches in Belgium and The Netherlands enjoy playing and talking together. Just before dinner we took a break from football to sit down together and to honor God in song and read some scripture together. Since we had Flemish, French and English speakers there we did the worship in 3 different languages. I am going to have to work on my French. Thanks to Robin for translating into French for me. What a blessing this time was together.

- Praising God In Song -

Holly was in charge of the food and did a great job. What a task to feed and keep 113 people happy. Gideon and Isaak didnt get to play footbal, but they were troopers playing with all kids of people all day. Thank you to all of the babysitters out there.

- The Beautiful Food -

- Maastricht CoC: Some Of The Winners -

- My Tired Crew -

Thank You Lord for providing moments to share in fellowship, fun, praise, and learning in this way. Thank you for reminding us that your family is larger than our building can hold, and thank you for people who teach me how to serve though their service.

"That they may be one"

2009-03-23T08:48:00.005+01:00

2009 European Ladies Retreat group picture

"That they may be one" was the theme of this years English speaking European Ladies Retreat, held in Thallichtenberg, Germany. From March 5-7th, we enjoyed a wonderful retreat at a beautiful castle that was turned into a hostel (Burg Lichtenberg). The ladies from the Kaiserslautern Church of Christ in Kaiserslautern, Germany (K-town for short) organized the retreat, for the second year. We focused on John 17:1-26, studying how we can be unified. We had some wonderful sessions in a building we called the "Tithe Barn", where we worshiped and sang songs and enjoyed the lessons.

The Tithe Barn

We also had prayer/discussion groups, to discuss the lessons and pray for each other. I had a wonderful group and really enjoyed meeting some wonderful ladies from several different countries (a few from England and Wales and a few from Dublin, Ireland and then several from churches in Germany). During the three days, we had some wonderful meals from the cafeteria at the hostel.

The cafeteria, not just for food, but fellowship as well!

The ladies from K-town worked very hard to make it a wonderful time for all of us. They organized lots of crafts, bringing all the supplies to make mini scrapbooks, and puzzles and games, and also set up a separate room called the "24-hour cafe" where we had coffee and tea and hot cocoa and then TONS of snacks. They also set up a missionary table, where all of us missionaries were able to pick up some fun American goods. I got cake mixes and peanut butter and Pop-Tarts and canned pumpkin. Many of these ladies are from military bases and can get American goods easily and relatively cheaply. This has been the tradition for a very long time, and we missionaries have come to love the chance to get a little taste of "home".
My aunt Carol drove her minivan, bringing not just me but Sue Foster, Deedee Bundy and Amanda van Erp. We had been talking for a few weeks before the retreat that maybe we would like to try and host the retreat next year. After much prayer, we decided at the retreat to volunteer to host the 2010 European Ladies Retreat! We called ourselves the GAB ladies (from the Gent, Antwerp, and Brussels C of C).

The GAB ladies: me, Deedee Bundy, Carol Brazle, Sue Foster, and Amanda van Erp

We are very excited and already planning meetings to organize next year's retreat. We reserved the same hostel/castle (Burg Lichtenberg) and are meeting with the K-town ladies in May to get pointers and information from them. Please keep us in your prayers, we are excited and nervous! :)

Boys Youth Rally in Antwerp

2009-03-11T11:50:00.003+01:00

- The Boys Youth Weekend Gang -

For our sixth year in a row we hosted a Boys only youth rally in Antwerp a few weeks ago. Six years ago some of our young men came to me with the idea of us having a video game youth weekend. I only wanted to encourage their initiative, but still asked: "So how do you fit God into a video game youth weekend?" They said that I would figure out a way to do that. So that is what we have done the past years.

- Super Smash Fellowship -

We have focused on anything from addiction, self-control, and this year we focused on how we see ourselves, and how God sees us. Belgium is not a stranger to youth suicides due to pressures from school, parents, and peers. So it was important for us to talk about where we get our value from. We looked at scriptures like: "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made..." from Psalms 139, and learned about how we should treat others from Phillipians 2 "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."

- Looking At Scripture Together -

Sure there were a lot of hours of gaming, that gave a chance for kids from all over Belgium and the netherlands to interact. We also had several young people who we hadn't seen in a while so it was good to reconnect with them. Please pray that the seeds planted will grow in these young mens hearts.

- Sunday Morning Worship -

Plumbing is Fun

2009-03-04T11:53:00.002+01:00

- My latest Renovation Project -

I promise it is! Well until you have to deal with all the leaks. But that is part of the fun. Who knew that my time with Key City Plumbing in Abilene Texas would turn out to be so handy. My summer job at the plumbing company taught me a lot about soldering, Fitting, and cutting pipe. I also learned a lot about plumbing working on the Antwerp Church building with my uncle Paul.

- More Pipes -

The point of this? I am just thankful that God prepares us at the right time, in the most creative ways for things we will need in the future. He sends the right people to challenge us and to teach us what we need to know. God, please keep up the good work.... and please let there not be too many leaks.

Oh and the pictures are of us rerouting our central heating water. The hot water heater works great, but the old piping does not lead to all of the radiators we are placing. Hence the need for a new water distributor, which is what is being put together in the pictures. Plumbers are welcome at our house, and anyone else for that matter.

Hoot, Movie, and New Car

2009-02-13T09:38:00.003+01:00

The past few weeks have been filled with some sick kids, sick parents, and some serious book keeping, which are all not appart of my list of favorite things. However, there have been exciting times as well that balanced out the not so fun activities. These included:

- Guitar Fellowship -

A Hootenanny: Great food, fellowship, singing and guitar playing. A group of about 30 converged on the church building in Antwerp on a Friday evening. We enjoyed chilli dogs, some card games, visiting, and some "country roads" played on no more than 8 guitars. It was fun, and a great time to catch up with some people from the church in Antwerp, and Eindhoven.

-Jona and Pascal Jam Session -

- Movie Night -

Once in a while we organize a movie night to invite the young people to so we can enjoy some time together with them. The group spends the night at the church building and we eat a breakfast together.

- The New Wheels -

Thanks to our supporters we have been able to purchase a new car. Over the past year we have realized that two kids seats in the back of a sedan it doesn't leave a lot of extra room for giving people rides. We often take young people to activities, or take people to church so we were looking at getting a larger car. We found one that fit our needs and bought it this week. Thank you to all of those who helped us purchase this car.

Jongens Console Weekend

2009-02-03T08:58:00.004+01:00

[For English See Below]

- Console Weekend Poster -

Het is weer tijd om uw console in te pakken en naar Deurne te komen om een weekend van gamen te ervaren. Wij gaan even stil staan bij de vraag, "Wie ben ik?" en wat heb jij met God dan wel te maken. Kom maar af.

Het Thema: Identiteit:Wii Ben Je?

W i e ?
De Jongens van onze gemeenten (+12jr.) en hun vrienden

W a t ?
Gamen, Film, Tijd met God, Thema: “Identiteit: Wii Ben Je?" bespreken,
Eten, Leuk samenzijn, …

W a n n e e r ?
vrijdag, 20 februari vanaf 20:00 tot zondag 22 februari om 14:00

W a a r ?
DeGryspeerstraat 92, 2100 Deurne, België

W a t b r e n g i k m e e ?
Bijbel, Schrijfgerief, Toiletgerief, Slaapzak, uw vrienden,
een console (PS3, Wii, Xbox 360,…), een TV als het kan,
zo veel controller’s mogelijk, spellekes en 5 Euro AUB.

De leiders zullen beslissen welke spellen geschikt zijn voor dit weekend.
Kom je af? Laat het ons dan aub weten! Heb je vragen? Vraag Luk dan:
0474 807349 of luk.brazle@pandora.be

Foto's van vorig jaar / Pictures from last year

[English]

The Theme of the Boys Youth Weekend:
Identity: Who am I?

Who?
This weekend is for the guys from our church (12+) and their friends.

What?
Gaming, Movie, Time with God, Discussion of the Theme: “Identity: Who are you?",
Eat, Fun, Just hanging out, ...

When?
Friday February 20th starting at 20:00 until
Sunday February 22nd ending at 14:00

Where?
DeGryspeerstraat 92, 2100 Deurne, Belgium

What do I bring?
Bible, Pen and Paper, Sleepingbag, your friends, a gaming console (SP3, Wii, Xbox 360,...) Bring a TV if you can, and as many controllers as possible, games, and 5€ please. [If you dont have a gaming console, don't worry about it, there will be plenty to play on.]

The leaders of the weekend will decide what games are appropriate to play.
You coming? Please let us know! You have any questions? Ask Luk then:
0474 807349 or luk.brazle@pandora.be

Meisjes Jeugdweekend Februari

2009-01-30T09:24:00.004+01:00

[For English See Below]

- Meisjes Weekend Poster -

Op wie ben jij?

Meiden 12+
13 februari (20.00) t/m
15 februari (14.00)
Jan Tooropstraat 6
5642 AK Eindhoven
nita@blaakmeer.net
0499313544
0619570066

“Daarna kuste hij Rachel, terwijl hij zijn tranen de vrije loop liet.” Genesis 29: 11
- Romantische verhalen uit de Bijbel

Benodigheden:
Slaapzak, lucht matras, “de usual” zwem spullen (+5 euro als je friet bij het zwembad wilt eten) , 10 euro, rugzak, Bijbel, schrift, pen, zaklamp, spelletjes, video spelletjes (game cubes, controlers, enz.), liedjes over de liefde.

[ENGLISH]
Theme: You Do You Like?

Girls 12+
13 February (20.00) to
14 February (14.00)
Jan Tooropstraat 6
5642 AK Eindhoven, The Netherlands
nita@blaakmeer.net
0499313544
0619570066

“Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud.” Genesis 29: 11
- Romantic stories from the Bible

What You Need:
Sleepingbag, air matras, swim suit, (5 Euro's if you want to eat fries at the swimming pool), 10€ for weekend, Bible, Paper, Pen, flashlight, games, videogames (game cube, joysticks, etc.) Songs about love.

Home again...

2009-01-28T15:10:00.003+01:00

- Home Sweet Home -

After a 7 week long trip in The States we were looking forward to being home. We were welcomed back by friends at the airport, and a wonderful party at our house since it was New Years day. It was great to be greeted by our friends and to sleep in our own bed again. We were also met by sub freezing temperatures for a week or so which led to some frozen pipes. So that was an adventure in and of its own. We now have our water pressure back, and are happy to be able to flush the toilets again.

- Youth Weekend in Harlem -

The first few weeks were filled with getting settled in again, getting Gideon to school again, getting studies set up again, and trying to catch up on all of the things we missed. There was a youth rally in Harlem on the schedule and there was a van load of young people who wanted to go, so I got to drive them up and enjoy the rally with them. They even invited me to lead a devo for the group where we talked about avoiding the temptation trap.

- Fellowship in Ghent -

We feel like proud parents as the church in Ghent continued to meet weekly while we were gone. We were glad they missed us though, as we came back and enjoyed fellowship and worship with them again.

- Worship in Flemish -

We have enjoyed all of the opportunities for fellowship with the church in Ghent and in Antwerp in January. 19 of the young adults got together on a Saturday night and enjoyed a movie, discussion and refreshments. Then all of the Flemish speaking congregations were invited to the camp meeting for some summer camp planning, to worship together, and learn some new songs. Thank you Lord for opportunities like these!

- Scott teaching some new songs -

Visiting Oma and Opa

2008-12-19T21:31:00.002+01:00

Je hebt gelijk Anneleen, hier is de volgende...

- Hurrah for Gingerbread -

What a blessing we have today in being able to communicate as well as we can across the ocean. There are many priceless moments, but only a few as priceless as being able to get off an airplane to round a corner and to have your three year old son yell "Oma, Opa!" I don't think I should thank Al Gore for the internet, but I will just thank God for the ability to web cam with grandparents. It makes being across the world due to our call quite a bit easier. My parents have told me about how they had to introduce me and my siblings to my grandparents multiple times. I thank God for mentors, parents, friends, and co-workers who support us in this work, even though it means we take their grand kids far away from them.

- Isaak and Opa -

- Gingerbreading with Aunt Karina -

- Riding the Polar Express with Oma -

- Snow fun with Uncle David -

- Watching Oma Clog -

- Oma Clogging -
(Seeing this was worth all of the flights!)

Sharing Your Story

2008-12-09T19:45:00.003+01:00

"What are you doing over there in Belgium?" is the question we have heard a lot this past month. Wether it has been from an elder, a child, a printing shop worker, or from family; it has always been an exciting question to answer. It is kind of funny to us because a lot of people in Belgium ask us the same thing. "Why are you here?"

- Our Hosts and spiritual family: The Morgans -

This question has helped us stop and think and evaluate what we are doing over there. It has been a good evaluation time, and now more than ever we see God's working and places where God can use us to share His story with them.

- Encouragers: The Winklers -

Every church we have visited on this trip so far (I guess only 3 in total) we have tried to make it clear that this ministry that we are a part of in Belgium isnt just "The Brazle's work", it is not that thing over there thousands of miles away. It is a partnership with every single one of the members of the churches that support us in prayer, fasting, and financial support. From the kids class teacher, to the youth group teen, to the leading elder, they are all team mates with us in this work. And as we go back to Belgium it is their story that we cary with us. It is their story that we tell the local christians to share with them that they are being prayed for, to let them know they were prayed for before they even knew Christ, and that their brothers and sisters care for them even from the other side of the globe, all because they have a common Savior who gave up heaven for a manger.

- Our Cousin and Empathizer: Matthew -

When we come into churches and into homes on trips like these it isnt our work that we are selling you on, it is a story that we tell that is the story of your church. The people we introduce you to through powerpoint and pictures are not random people who we have met, but brothers and sisters you have helped lead to Christ and help mature in their faith. Mission work is not for the super Christian soldiers who go to the front lines to fight. It is for a family headed up by Christ, to use our individual gifts in sharing His story with others. God gave you a story to share. Please share it with someone. If you dont know your story, ask someone else. Sometimes we need to be reminded though someone else's eyes.

- Our Family our Support: Holly's family in Colorado -

Thank you for your prayers as we have traveled. The boys have been great. So flexible. I think Gideon is going on sleeping in his 15th bed, and still goes down like he is sleeping in his own bed. Thanks to all of those who have helped us feel at home and a part of the family in strange places. It is your God motivated hospitality and love that is a part of your story and our story that we go to share with the lost and the saved in Belgium. God is good and we see that daily.

Sept - Oct '08 Newsletter

2008-11-23T22:03:00.004+01:00

To download our latest newsletter click here.

Greetings
Welcome to our Fall newsletter. We hope and pray your Autumn is just as beautiful as ours has been. It has been colorful but rainy, but this is typical Western European Fall weather. We have been busy with school, Bible studies, saying bye to Karina, welcoming our teammate Sue Foster and preparing for a furlough in November and December. Let us tell you all about our last two months.

Beginnings galore
September marks the beginning of the school year for all the children in Belgium, and it marks the start of many of our regular activities. People are back from vacation so we start up our Bible studies again. Luk was able to start up three regular Bible studies with old contacts. September also meant following up with the contacts made through Let’s Start Talking (LST). We printed, folded and stamped letters to all of the LST contacts of past years and have weekly meetings scheduled with eight contacts in and around Ghent. September also marked the beginning of our youth activity calendar. Luk sat down with some people with a heart for the youth in the church in Belgium and The Netherlands and planned out some activities to bring the teens and young adults together for fellowship and teaching opportunities. Luk designed, printed and sent out calendars and letters inviting 155 young people to take part in this years activities in Belgium and The Netherlands. Through the distributing that was done this past summer by the Canadian campaign group, Luk was able to take Bibles and Bible studies to 4 people in and around Ghent who had expressed interest in reading the Bible. Please pray as all of these seeds are planted that they will fall on good soil.

Sue finally arrives
Finally, our 5th teammate, Sue Foster, arrived on September 17th. She had been waiting for confirmation on her missionary visa. It finally came this past summer and she frantically worked on getting more support raised before moving here. She jumped right into a youth weekend event in Maastricht and started helping Luk with the follow-up Bible studies from the summer Let's Start Talking campaign. She has been staying with us while she is looking for a studio of her own. She is also a great help with the kids, especially because she worked in a few daycares while she was in the States.

Opportunities to serve and learn
Luk continued to preach and teach Bible classes in Ghent as well as area churches like, Brussels, Antwerp, Bruges, Hever and Rotselaar. As a church in Ghent, the group was challenged to study through some tough questions raised by some of the members about divorce and remarriage. It took us quite a while to work through the study, but Luk is proud that the church worked as a group lead through God’s Word by the Spirit, to find some answers to our questions. In October, we were able to enjoy a Marriage Retreat organized by the Church of Christ in Eindhoven. It was encouraging to see 60 or more people who showed that they wanted to improve their relationships. Great thanks to Sue who provided entertainment for the kids so we could participate with this. From October 24th to 26th, we headed down to Fall Camp in the Ardennes. About 40 young people spent a chilly weekend together fellowshipping and talking about our theme: "Sex." Remco Dijkstra brought some talks about the topic, and there was discussion afterward. Luk had the opportunity to sing with his singing group, Listen Up!, that weekend along with another choir. The whole theme of the concert was to share the message of Christ with the audience of around 150 people. Thank you Lord for these opportunities!

In The Family
The last week of August we packed up the car and drove down to Solwaster, to the Bible camp. We decided to take a nice little break and take our vacation at camp. The weather cooperated very well, and we had a great time relaxing and playing in the creek and building fires. We took a few day trips, visited some friends, and took in the sights. It was a great time to relax with the family a little. On September 3rd, we dropped Luk’s sister, Karina, off at the airport. She had stayed as a nanny with us for several months, and while job-hunting here, she was offered a wonderful position in the States. We are missing her dearly, but know she is doing some great things back in the States. Gideon began his first full year of school on September 1st! He has been going full days, and he has loved it ever since. We celebrated his 3rd birthday recently with a great group of friends. Isaak is growing and changing every day. He loves to watch his big brother all the time and will smile and even giggle when you smile at him. He has been struggling with acid reflux, so we are trying all sorts of different things to help with that. We have tried to do some renovations here and there on the house, but those have been slow. Family time has taken priority lately. We hope to start some more projects after the new year. If you are interested in more up-to-date news on our family and work, you can find this at: www.BelgianBreeze.blogspot.com. Thank you for your love and financial support as we serve together with you in taking the gospel to the Flemish.

- In His love, Luk, Holly, Gideon and Isaak.

- The Family -

Texas: Stop #1

2008-11-18T21:39:00.004+01:00

Our sponsoring church is Lake Cities Church of Christ in Trophy Club, Texas. And we have enjoyed the past week renewing old friendships, meeting new faces, and being blessed by these brothers and sisters in Christ. We thank God for a family in Texas like these people who continue to support, encourage, and pray for their Belgian family. Here are a few glimpses into the last week:

- Visiting the McNeils -

- Lake Cities Fellowship -

- Lake Cities Youth Group -

- Blankets made by the 5th&6th grade class -

- Amusement Park: Wal-Mart -

Thank you Lord for providing a church family that helps us feel at home when we are thousands of miles from home. Thank you for people who care about missions around the world as well as in their back yard. Thank you Lord for healthy kids, and an amazing wife.

Fund Raising Update:

Monthly Support: We are still needing 95$ a month.

One Time Support: We have recieved 6,000$ of the 20,000$ needed.

God is good!

We arrived!!

2008-11-12T15:10:00.004+01:00

Well, we finally made it to the States. We ended up finally arriving at the DFW airport at 11:30pm on Saturday (Nov 8), without our luggage and only 4 hours later than expected!! Anyway, first things first...many of you have asked about our schedule while we are here and how to contact us, so I will get that settled first. We are using the old cell phone of Luk's sister, Karina. The number is 330-322-0427. So that and just email are the best ways to reach us. Now for the schedule:
Nov 8-22
We are with one of our supporting congregations, Lake Cities Church of Christ in Trophy Club, TX. We are actually staying with some family friends here, the Morgans, that are also members of that church.
Nov 22-29
We fly to Denver to spend the week of Thanksgiving with my (Holly's) side of the family.
Nov 29-Dec 6
We fly to Seattle, WA (actually to Woodinville) to spend the week with another of our supporting congregations, Woodinville Church of Christ.
Dec 6-21
We fly to Tallmadge, OH to spend time with Luk's family and with another of our supporting congregations, Church in the Falls.
Dec 21-31
We (the majority of Luk's immediate family) are driving down to Monroe, LA to spend Christmas with Luk's sister and brother-in-law, Rebekka and Adam, who are pregnant and due in January. So we are bringing Christmas (and her birthday party, which is also on Dec 25th) to her! We fly back home to Belgium on Dec 31st, and arrive in Amsterdam on Jan 1st, so we will celebrate New Years on a plane! :)

Ok, now about our flights. We left Gent Saturday morning at 7am with our friend Pieter Good, in Paul and Carol's van (thanks again to them for letting us borrow it!). We unloaded and said bye to Piet and got in line to check-in. We were able to get our seats changed to sit at the bulkhead so we could have a bassinet for Isaak, thanks to the wonderful United Airlines woman checking us in!! We made it through the Passport check just fine and got to our gate with enough time for me to get a coffee. Then we waited in line for us to go through all the security questions and then security check. We got on the plane and all was actually a bit ahead of schedule so we were quite happy. We had great seats, we were in Economy Plus at the bulkhead, so we had at least a meter (a good yard) of space in front of our knees! We also had individual screens to watch movies or tv shows, so again, that was great. The flight attendants loved Gideon and we got to go up and meet the super nice pilots and see the cockpit before we left, which was a bit overwhelming for Gideon, but very fun anyway. We started taxing to the runway and got on the runway beginning to take off, so we started going real fast, then slowed down, then real fast again, then slowed down and turned. The pilot came on and told us that we had first slowed down because the Air Traffic Control had told them to, then when we started up again they noticed there was a warning light on about the status of the landing gear, so we had to go back to the gate and have it checked by maintenance. So they started the movies and we waited for that to be finished for about 45 min to and hour. So we ended up not actually getting off the ground about and hour and 45 min later than expected. We had an uneventful flight, the boys did great and we are so proud of them! We landed and everyone rushed off the plane to see if they could make their connecting flights. We knew we missed ours already, so we took our time. We still had to go through customs and pick up our bags and then recheck them. One of the United Customer Service people by the baggage claim told us to be prepared to have to stay in Washington DC (where we landed) for the night. So we had that in mind when we finally got upstairs to the Customer Service desk to change our flights. Thanks to the great workers at the United Customer Service desk we had the option of changing carriers and flying AirTran to Atlanta then on to Dallas/Fort Worth that night. Otherwise we had to wait until Sunday morning at 8am to leave Washington. So we decided to go the Atlanta route, since we were only going to be in Dallas for 2 weeks and needed to see everyone on Sunday morning. So we ended up getting into Dallas/Fort Worth at 11:30pm (instead of 7pm when we were supposed to get there) and our luggage got stuck in another area and we couldn't get to it. So we finally got into bed at 1:30am and got some sleep, then were up and off to church by 8:30am, in some borrowed shirts so we didn't look too aweful! Anyway, that is the saga of our flights. I could tell more, but I am sure you are tired of reading about this now. So we will post more later, keeping you updated on our travels and happenings on the furlough. Thanks for your prayers and well wishes! Take care and God Bless! We are sending you all love and hugs and slobbery kisses from our boys! :)

Herfstkamp/Fall Camp 2008

2008-10-31T14:04:00.005+01:00

On the weekend of October 24th-26th, we had Herfstkamp (Fall Camp). The theme this year was "Sex", quite a controversial topic, but this lead to very interesting discussions as well. We arrived on that Friday evening and had some wonderful soup and pigs in a blanket and pita pizzas. Carol provided some wonderful food all weekend. We had a chance to just get set up and warmed up a bit and sit and talk to friends we don't get to see very often. The evening ended with some wonderful singing and a devotional time. We had a really wonderful turn-out this year, about 45 people, which is great since Fall Camp tends to be a pretty chilly camp, we never know how many will want to brave to cold.

Lesson time with Remco

On Saturday we had 3 lessons with Remco Dijkstra on "Sex". These were informative and interesting, learning what the scriptures had to say about it to how society sees it now. They were a bit uncomfortable and embarrassing at times, but it was great to have an atmosphere where this difficult topic could be discussed without feeling weird or stupid. We had a wonderful spaghetti lunch, which kept us warm during the afternoon activity of capture-the-flag or a nice nature walk. The weather was beautiful, sunny but cool, a perfect Fall day! After dinner, we had a time of debate, two groups were chosen and had to come up with arguments either for or against sex before marriage. It was an interesting exercise to help us better understand how to approach our friends who may not understand why we as Christians choose to abstain. We then had more time to just relax and enjoy the fire, or play cards or the guitar, or just sit and visit.

The evening was ended with another time of singing and devotional, then off to our beds. Sunday morning we ate breakfast then had a time of worship together. Then on to cleaning the camp up and then a light lunch before heading home.

Gideon's 3rd Birthday

2008-10-23T11:12:00.003+02:00

(Since I grew up in a tiny town in the middle of Nebraska, our newspaper was pretty small too. So growing up, whenever we had a birthday party, it was news in our local paper! So paying tribute to the tradition of letting everyone know exactly what happened, here is the run-down of our big party!)

Gideon turned 3 on Saturday, October 18th. We were at a marriage retreat, so we couldn't celebrate it that day. So we decided to do it yesterday (Wednesday, Oct. 22nd). I made homemade pizza and a chocolate and white cake for the birthday boy. We shared this fun evening with Paul, Carol, and Jesse Brazle, Glenn, Vanessa, and Faith Du Jardin(with their dog, Pawnee, too), Dennis and Amanda van Erp, Sue Foster, and Pieter Good (for a short time). We started eating around 6:15pm or so, Pieter had to leave right away, so Gideon got to open his present first. He loved it!! It's a cool red firecar, with fun blocks and road signs to go with it. We then tried to convince Gideon to actually eat some pizza, but all he wanted to do was either play with the car or open more presents. So we let him play with the car, while we enjoyed the pizza.

When we were all finished, we cleaned up a bit and then got the cake ready. We sang "Lang Zal Hij Leven" (Long shall he live, literally) the Flemish birthday song, then he blew out the candles, which took quite a while and ended up getting spit on the cake, oh well...and then we sang "Happy Birthday to You". Then the presents while I cut the cake. He got 2 Veggie Tales CD's from Sue. Then a cool Lego Digger from Paul, Carol and Jesse. Next were 2 cool animal sticker books and some chalk from Glenn and Vanessa. Then came the cool Matchbox racetrack, which could be more for papa then for Gideon, but still, Gideon loves it!! Next came a turtle shell from Grammy Cheryl and Grandpa T. When he opened it, he asked where the rest of the turtle was!! Too cute!! They also sent squirl tails and fethers, but we will give them to him in a few days, to space stuff out a bit. Can you tell his grandparents live on a farm in Arkansas?!! Next was a Buzz Lightyear costume from Opa and Oma. He hasn't actually seen Toy Story, but we were planning on having him watch it on the plane on our laptop, so that is a fun lead-in!! :)

He also got Crayola markers and coloring book, that only work on those kind of books, so they won't write on anything else. And a frog backpack from us. Oh and some cool Matchbox cars to go with the racetrack. It's funny, several of his gifts were courtesy of a gift card from my brother, Jeff, that he actually gave us for Gideon for Christmas last year. We just never got around to using it at Christmas, so we decided to use it for his Birthday. So thank you Uncle Jeff!! After opening the presents, we all had some cake and Gideon and Jesse played with his toys. And Papa got in on the racetrack action!! :) It was a really great evening and we loved spending it with our good friends and family!! Thanks to all who came and contributed to help it be such a fun event for Gideon (or G-Dog as he is also called!)! There are a ton more pictures on our Flickr site, so just click on one of these pics and it will take you to our page with all the pics.

in Him-- Holly

Family updates

2008-10-09T10:50:00.002+02:00

So it has been a while since we posted about what is going on with us as a family, we thought we would update everyone.
Gideon began school in September and has been enjoying every minute of it. He brought home a cold and gave it to the rest of the household, so now we are all almost over it!! He is now going full days, everyday. What a big boy!! And he is pretty much potty trained, having accidents here and there, but wearing "big boy" undies all day! He is learning new words everyday and loves telling us all about what he does at school everyday. We only understand about half of what he says, but still, we love that he is so excited to share with us! He still loves singing songs, his new favorites include a song from the Little Mermaid, "Part of that World", which he makes me sing and then sings along to parts of it. He also really loves the "Let's Get down to business" song on Mulan, with actions included, great fun!! He learned a new song at school "1,2,3,4 hoedje van papier" (1,2,3,4 hat of paper). It is really cute to hear him sing. He still loves "Blij, Blij" (Happy, Happy) and "Ho, ho, ho, hosanna" and the alphabet song. He also still really loves dancing around, especially when he is naked, super funny!! He is also now sleeping in a normal size single bed. He has done amazingly well, not getting out by himself for anything, just going down when we ask him to. We know we are truly lucky with him and his sleep habits, but we also know that we will probably have just the opposite with Isaak, just to be fair! :) We will see. He also loves to help me prepare food, as you can see in this video of him helping me with pizza dough.

Gideon the chef

Since he is going full days at school, he comes home pretty tired, but we don't let him nap (we did once and it was a disaster, major tantrums later), so we keep him busy until dinner time then he eats and crashes around 7 or 7:30pm and sleeps until 6am or so. So Luk gets up with him then and they get to enjoy breakfast together.
Isaak is doing pretty well now. He got the cold that Gideon brought home, which wasn't fun. And then he has been struggling with acid reflux, so the doctor gave us some anti-nausea medicine and that has been helping. He took his last dose today and has been doing great. So we will see if that will be enough to help him get back on the right track or if we need to do something else. Other than that, he is doing great!! He now weighs 7.38kg (just over 16 lbs.) and is 65 cm long (25.6 inches). He is wearing size 6 month clothes, even though he is just 4 months. He loves to coo and talk and suck on anything he can get his hands on. He also just recently started laughing, kind-of. We have tried to get it on tape, but haven't been real successful. He loves bath time, just like his brother. He loves to splash a lot and kick and get mama super wet. Again, just like his brother!! :) He loves his swing and takes naps in it during the day. He still sleeps in our room, but in the crib, so that is good. I am still nursing him every 3 hours and he sleeps for about 6 hours through the night, then he just needs his soother (pacifier) and will sleep for another hour or so before being really ready to eat again.

Isaak cooing and laughing

Our friend and teammate, Sue Foster, has finally made it back to Belgium!! She is the 5th member of our team and has been raising support and working on a visa to get to be a part of our mission team here. She got the news in June that she got her visa so she then frantically worked on getting her final support. She arrived here on September 17th and is staying with us as she settles in and can rent an appartment. She has started a refresher course in Dutch (she had lived in the Netherlands and took Dutch for 2 years, but that was 6 years ago). She will start helping Luk with the LST follow-up bible studies and with youth activities. She is great with helping with the kids as well. She has lots of experience with kids, having worked at several day-cares in the last 6 years. We are so thankful and praise God for her addition to this team!!

The Ghent team
(Us, Sue Foster, Amanda and Dennis van Erp)

We are trying to get everything together for our coming furlough in November and December. We will be leaving on November 8th, flying to the Dallas/Fort Worth area to spend time with one of our supporting congregations (Lake Cities Church of Christ) and staying there for 2 weeks. Then on to Denver to spend Thanksgiving with my dad and stepmom, and several other family members are flying out to Denver to spend that time with us as well, so it will be great fun! Then on to Seattle to spend a week with another of our supporting congregations (Woodinville Church of Christ). Then flying to Ohio to spend time with Luk's family and then the week before Christmas we will all caravan down to Louisiana to where Luk's sister and brother-in-law, Rebekka and Adam, live. She is pregnant and due in the beginning of January, so we are bringing the family Christmas (and her birthday party, since it is on Christmas day) to them!! Then we will spend the next several days there and then drive over to Dallas and fly home on December 31st.
The other news is that we said good-bye to Auntie Karina in September, as she went back home to the States. She got a job at Rochester College. We miss her dearly and wish she was still here, but we know she has lots of great opportunities back home. She also hopes to go back to school in January. Gideon still misses her and asks for her now and then. We love webcaming with her whenever we get the chance! So we are all very excited to see her in December!
We hope this update finds you all doing very well and we thank God for all of you daily!! Take care and God bless!! Toodles!
in Him-- Holly

Jong Volwassen "Anker" Activiteiten

2008-09-27T13:43:00.002+02:00

Young Adult "Anker" Activities
[For English See Below]

- Nieuwe Anker Schema -

Om het nieuwe schema in PDF te zien om het uit te printen click dan HIER!

Wij genieten van tijd samen met onze plaatstelijke gemeente. Dat is belangrijk. Zo bouw je elkaar op, kan je de Here samen dienen, en kan je elkaar helpen. De Bijbel toont ons hoe de eerste Christenen veel samen deelden, samen aten, samen werkten, en dat willen wij alleen maar aanmoedigen.

Wij weten dat het belangrijk is om tijd samen met uw eigen leeftijdgenoten te hebben om leuke dingen te gaan doen. Daarom beginnen wij aan het tweede jaar van: “Het Anker.” Dit is voor de wat oudere jongeren van 18+. Maandelijks organiseren wij de kans om samen te zijn in een ontspannen sfeer. Soms is het moeilijk om enkele dagen vrij te nemen, dus proberen wij af en toe gewoon een namiddag, of avond samen te organiseren. Maak er tijd voor, het is de moeite waard. Ben je gelovig of niet-gelovig, dat geeft niet, wij proberen samen uit te pluizen hoe wij best met God en elkaar kunnen omgaan.

Wij hebben voor u de data voor 2008-2009 op een rijtje gezet en die kan je hierboven zien. Ik stuur u ook een brief in de komende weken met deze uitgeprint. Hou deze kalenders bij je in je Bijbel, op uw frigo of hang het op in uw kamer. Hou het in ieder geval bij, want je wil zeker zijn dat je deze activiteiten niet mist. Vergeet niet je vrienden ook uit te nodigen. Vergeet niet af en toe te kijken op de website voor christelijke jongeren: www.christelijkejeugd.org Robin Huyghebaert heeft daar alles net in een nieuw kleedje gezet. Daar kan je berichtjes achterlaten, de foto’s zien van voorbije activiteiten, en de detailles voor de volgende activiteit vinden.

Wij zien er al naar uit om jou weer te zien. Tot Dan!
Voor Het Jeugdteam
- Luk Brazle

www.christelijkejeugd.org
www.bijbelkamp.eu

[ENGLISH]

- New Anker Schedule -

To download the new schedule in PDF format to read or print out please click here.

We enjoy the time we spend with our local churches. That time is important. There we get the opportunity to encourage one another, serve the Lord together, and help each other. The Bible shows us how the first Christians shared together, ate together, and worked together and that is something we want to encourage you to do.

We also know that it is important to spend time together with people your age. That is why we are starting the second year of : "The Anchor." This is an opportunity for young Christian Adults (18+) to get together. Monthly we want to offer the opportunity to get together in a relaxing setting. Sometimes it is hard to take a could of days to go to an activity so we are also planning activities on an afternoon, or in the evening. Make time to be at these activities. It doesn't matter if you believe or you don't, everyone is welcome to come and search together with us how we can live for God, and help each other.

We have put the schedule for 2008-2009 together in an overview which you can see above. I will be sending out a hardcopy of this in the mail in the next few weeks. Keep these calendars in your Bible, on your fridge, or hang it up in your room. In any case, hold on to it, because you don't want to miss these chances to be together. Don't forget to invite your friends. Feel free to take a look from time to time at the website for young Christians: www.christelijkejeugd.org Robin Huyghebaert has made that look nice, and made it very handy for us. There you can write notes, see pictures of past activities and read the details for the next activity.

We look forward to seeing you there. Until then!
For the Youth Team
- Luk Brazle

www.christelijkejeugd.org
www.bijbelkamp.eu

June - August '08 Newsletter

2008-09-23T13:56:00.002+02:00

Greetings
Hello from sunny Belgium. We are thankful to have enjoyed a relatively warm and sunny summer. We hope and pray you all have had a wonderful summer as well! Our work here continues to be a learning process, exciting, and full of challenges. We are so thankful for support from churches and individuals who want to give to the Lord's work even when it is not easy to give. Please let us tell you more of what we have seen God doing here in Belgium this summer.

Family Facts
Isaak Ahrens Brazle was born on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 at 5:37pm CET. He weighed in at 3.6kg (almost 8 lb.) and 49cm long (just over 19 inches). He had to be delivered via c-section because he was breech and his head was a bit too big. So we had the weird experience of planning our child’s birth-day! I stayed in the hospital with him in my room for 6 days then we gladly returned home. Isaak was a bit colicky for the first 6-8 weeks, but now is much better. He was a bit jaundiced, but that went away after a few weeks. He is now quite alert and sleeps through the night, except when he looses his pacifier! He loves making eye-contact with you and giving a big open mouthed grin and coo making eye-contact with you and giving a big open mouthed grin and coo! Gideon is growing like crazy! He had a great time in school, loving every minute of it! He went until the end of June for half days everyday. He really started trying to talk more after he started school, and mixes English and Flemish in his sentences! He still struggles with learning to use the potty, but has done better the last few weeks. We are so proud of him and try to remember that he will get this concept eventually!

Summer Activities
Our wonderful Let's Start Talking team from Oklahoma Christian University, Kaylee and Mica, finished up here in mid-June. They ended up having 16 regular readers. They were such a blessing and we praise God for such a wonderful team! We helped coordinate a Young Friends campaign of 13 young people from Western Christian, in Canada, who came to Antwerp this summer. They taught English to the neighborhood youth with classes, organized activities and games and hosted a 3 day English retreat down at the Bible-camp. When the Young Friends Campaign left Antwerp, a few stayed and helped distribute a flyer that offers free Bibles, Bible Studies, Prayers, and answers to faith questions. They stuffed about 30000 mailboxes (it's legal in this country) with flyers. We have been able to give 4 new contacts a new testament and a Bible-study because of their efforts. The third week of July brought Jongerenkamp (Young Adults camp). Luk co-lead the week with our teammate Dennis Van Erp. Luk loved teaching the classes during the week, sharing 10 lessons about "God's Church". 33 young people (representing at least 7 different churches from 2 countries) came to camp, with some new kids that had never been before which was an encouragement. Our whole family was able to enjoy Family Camp together 2 weeks later. Brothers and Sisters from many different churches around Belgium and the Netherlands come to play, learn, and sing together. The theme this year was the Holy Spirit and Luk got to teach 3 of the 15 classes. Family camp ends every year with a big fellowship day. It was very well attended this year which was an encouragement to all who were there. The church in Antwerp had a Sowing Day (Outreach Day) on August 16th in a local park. We were blessed with great weather and a great turn-out from the churches in Belgium and The Netherlands. We sang for almost an hour together enjoying the open air, then after a snack and some visiting, Listen Up! sang some songs. We were able to invite those who stopped to listen to the singing to church and give them a folder with information about the church in their city.

- Luk's Sister Karina: Super Nanny -

Auntie Karina to the Rescue!
We were blessed to have Luk's sister, Karina, here to help us all summer. She arrived at the beginning of May and jumped right into being a huge help, not only with Gideon (and eventually Isaak) but also with the house (tiling the shower). Gideon loved getting to know her and playing with her. Her help with Gideon made our transition from a one-child to a two-child family much more smooth! She has helped with practically everything here and has been a tremendous blessing and we thank God daily for her!

- David Chooses For Christ -

Growth in Ghent
David, one of the young men at our church in
Ghent, made the decision to be baptized. We went to the creek at the Bible camp, and a group of 30 or so people gathered to hear his declaration, and to watch his washing of sins. Praise God for his decision! Our good friends, Glenn and Vanessa Du Jardin, were blessed with the birth of Faith Cheyenne. She is a beautiful healthy little girl and is doing very well.

More Information
If you are interested in more up-to-date news on our family and work you can find this at: www.BelgianBreeze.blogspot.com. Thank you for your love and financial support as we serve together with you in taking the gospel to people who need Him. In His love, Luk, Holly, Gideon and Isaak.

Sharing God's Word

2008-09-23T07:03:00.003+02:00

-The Book: New Testament -

Thanks to the footwork and sweat of campaign groups that came through Ghent this summer we have been put in touch with people in Ghent interested in God's word. The campaigners stuffed mailboxes with a flyer that offered free New Testaments, Bible Studies, Prayers and answers to Faith questions.

So for the past week I have been stuffing some envelopes with New Testaments and Bible Studies, and taking these packets by the people's houses who had asked for them. Most people are pretty shy about talking about religion or even accepting free things because they know there must be a catch. So we gladly share these New Testaments knowing God's word has the power to transform.

Please be praying with us for these people who are opening God's word for the first time, that the seed will fall on firtile ground.

One of the reactions said this: "This is my question: Seeing I am no longer practicing my faith, am I lost? Or have I done what God meant for me and I made the right choices? Where can I find an answer for this? It seems interesting to me now that I am a little older and have some life experience that I can place these things in context now. That is why I would like to take you up on your offer of a New Testament and the Biblestudies."

These reactions remind me that God is working in people before we even meet them, or get in touch with them. Praise God for his active part in everyones lives.

VACATION!!!

2008-09-04T09:49:00.003+02:00

After a long summer of LST, Young Friends, Camps, visitors and the birth of Isaak, we decided we really needed a vacation! We are coming back on Furlough this fall, so we knew we couldn't do too much, but still needed to get away. So we decided to do a fun trip down to camp. It was inexpensive, familiar and very relaxing, which is exactly what we needed!! We packed up the car, to almost overflowing!!, and headed on down. We all stayed in the attic, which was nice and warm and dry and that way we didn't need to bring the tent. We love our tent, but this was just easier and was one less thing to pack. We arrived on Monday afternoon and stayed until Friday evening.

Tuesday, we got up and had a lazy breakfast and then got ready and went to an open-air museum called Bokrijk. This is a set of small villages made like they were 100 years ago in Belgium. It was facinating and tons of fun!!

Bokrijk

Gideon playing in the veggie garden at Bokrijk

Gideon got a little too overtired and crashed in his stroller for a short nap after lunch and I had to nurse Isaak while we were there (none of the benches had backs or arms, but Luk and Karina did a good job of finding me a realatively quiet spot where the bench sat up against a wall). Gideon got to decorate a small clay pot that was still drying, he loved it! And there were loads of animals for him to discover. It was a wonderful outing and everyone enjoyed it! We stayed until almost 4pm. When we got back to camp, Paul, Carol and Jesse arrived shortly after and we had a wonderful meal together!! They brought their raclette/gourmet grill and we brought ours and had a very wonderful gourmet meal!! We normally do this with them around Christmas, but Karina really wanted to have this, since she won't be here for Christmas-time (and neither will we), we decided to try this out at camp. It was wonderful!!

Carol brought all the food, and it was FANTASTIC!!! We decided it was the fanciest meal we ever had at camp, hands down!! :) Paul, Carol and Jesse Brazle were able to stay until Thursday afternoon. So much fun!! Gideon loved playing with Jesse at the swing and the creek. Carol taught a new "Body and Soul" aerobics class for Karina and I on Wednesday morning, what a work-out! Luk had Listen Up! practice on Wednesday, so he was gone most of the day, but we just hung out at camp and enjoyed not having to do anything! Later that afternoon, we went into Spa and had a little treat, coffee or ice cream or crepes. So fun!! We also started a fun puzzle we had gotten last Christmas (1000 Places to See Before You Die). It was a fun puzzel and everyone helped (even Gideon). We started it Wednesday night and finished Thursday before lunch! Too fun!! Friday we got up and had cinnamon rolls and then got ready and headed into Liege where our good friend, Lia Roberts, now lives.

She made us a fabulous lunch of homemade tomato soup, enchiladas and ice cream and coffee for dessert. We went sight-seeing after lunch and enjoyed every minute of it. We got back to camp around 5pm and cleaned and packed up and fed Gideon and Isaak. We then hit the road and Luk, Karina and I ate dinner. We made it home around 9pm or so, so it was a long day, but very fun.

We really loved our vacation and are so thankful we got the chance to get away for that time. So if you didn't hear from us the last week of August, that is why! :) There are lots more pics on our Flikr site, so just click on any of the pics above and then just browse through the others. We hope and pray you have all had a wonderful summer and that the school year has started off right for you!! :)

Shower for Baby Faith

2008-09-04T09:17:00.002+02:00

Du Jardin Family

Our good friends, Glenn and Vanessa Du Jardin, were blessed with the birth of their first child on July 30th. Their new daughter, Faith Cheyenne, is a beautiful healthy little girl and is doing very well. Amanda van Erp and I decided to throw them a good ol' American style Baby Shower! Vanessa and Amanda were wonderful and threw one for us when Isaak was born and Vanessa commented on how she loved it, so we knew we needed to throw one for them! :)

The baby shower crew

We had a great turn out and we were able to get good info from Glenn on what Vanessa really needed/wanted, so we all pitched in and got her a fabulous mixer. She adores it!! (If you can't tell!!)

Vanessa's 6-in-1 mixer

It was also great that one of Glenn's coworkers could come with his wife, so that was really wonderful! The other people who came were Richard and Andrea Amsoms and their son Tim and then Paul, Carol and Jesse Brazle, Amanda van Erp, Pieter Good, and us and Karina. We feel so blessed to have Glenn and Vanessa and Faith in our lives, as our friends, but more importantly as our brother and sister in Christ! They are truly wonderful!

Zaaidag Samenzijn

2008-08-21T09:48:00.002+02:00

- Sowing Day Fellowship -

What a day! Thank you Lord for good weather, and thank you Lord for people willing to come and lift you up in praise, reach out to the community, and play some soccer.

This sowing day started out as an idea while brainstorming. I think it was Richard who said why don't we go to the park, which is usually packed with neighborhood people on Saturdays and invite people to come to church.

So that is what we did. We invited people from churches in Belgium and The Netherlands to come and join us in song. We sang for almost an hour together enjoying the open air, and the praise. Then after a snack and some visiting, Listen Up! a singing group I sing with sang some songs. All while we were singing when people would stop to listen someone would approach them and invite them to our church, and gave them a folder with information about our church.

- Folder We Passed Out -

Thank you Lord for such fun fellowship and outreach opportunities and thanks to all who helped put it together.

Wrestling With Grace

2008-08-21T09:35:00.003+02:00

As a church in Ghent we have enjoyed trying to feel out the last few years who we are and how God is going to lead us. What do we look like as God's people, and what do we do as His community? have been questions we have talked about together as a new church. We have all been stretched and grown. We didn't know how much we would be challenged though.

A year ago a family started to meet with us that drives an hour to get to church. Both their sons play soccer on Sunday morning, and we are the only church in Belgium that meets on Sunday night. This family has been a blessing to the church here, and we have grown to love them as brothers and sisters.

Before the summer they approached us with a question, and challenged us to answer. The question was. I was a Christian, I cheated on my husband, and left him for another man. I divorced my former husband and married the other man, and have 3 children with him. What is the right thing to do to be right with God now?

This is the question we have been wrestling with the past three months. How far does God's Grace reach? Is she continuing to sin in her current relationship? Or has her repentant heart given God the opportunity to save? We have a very high view of scripture, but also realize that scripture was written in a certain time, place, to specific people, and that we have to understand the heart of God to make a decision.

Please pray for us as we continue to study and learn about this. We want to be lead by His spirit and not our own. This is a touchy subject for many, even here in Belgium. Please pray for wisdom and that we may have a clear answer.

Family Camp '08

2008-08-21T09:14:00.004+02:00

- Family Camp -

To see more pictures of Family Camp Click here!

One of the summer camp weeks is called family camp, which is where everyone is allowed to attend that didn't get a chance to go to one of the other weeks. I personally enjoy this week because you get the opportunity to talk to people that you usually don't get a chance to talk to. Brothers from Sisters come from many different churches around Belgium and the Netherlands to come and play, learn, and sing together. It is a great time of encouragement. This week Holly and Isaak came along for the whole week and we noticed that the kids did better, and slept better at camp than they do at home. What a blessing from God!

- Eating Outside -

We had good weather for the first half of the week. Which kept us outside, and enjoying some warmer temperatures. Many played in the creek, played games outside, or went into town for ice cream. Every morning we had 3 sessions which took a closer look at the Holy Spirit. We were challenged to grow in our understanding and in letting the Holy Spirit lead in our lives. I got to teach 3 classes. The Leading of the holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and The Holy Spirit and God's Word, were topics that I got to speak on, and learn from myself.

- Luk Teaches -

Another fun thing about family camp is that there are lots of kids, so Gideon enjoyed making new friends, and renewing old friendships. I enjoyed throwing rocks into the creek with Gideon which is something I did as well when I was his age. Thank you Lord for times of encouragement and learning like this, and thank you for a beautiful place like this to retreat to and focus on you!

- Gideon and Friends -

The family camp ends every year with a big fellowship day. It was very well attended this year which was an encouragement to all who were there. The singing was great, the visits were fun, and the sharing of what the churches are doing were uplifting and exciting.

- Fellowship Day At Camp -

Zaaidag - Sowingday

2008-08-11T17:13:00.002+02:00

[For English See Below]

Hallo Broeders & Zusters,

Hier is de gelegenheid waar we elkaar kunnen aanvullen en tevens ook de Here dienen!

16 augustus in het Rivierenhof, Deurne om 14:00 uur

gaat het allemaal door...
We hebben jullie hulp nodig om ons, maar vooral de buitenwereld aan te vuren. Graag willen we deze zaaidag de Here loven en prijzen in open lucht. We zijn nu al volop aan het bidden voor mooi weer, maar mocht de Here anders beslissen dan is er nog een mooie kiosk waar we kunnen schuilen. De routebeschrijving volgt nog...

Listen-Up zal ook van de partij zijn. We gaan folders uitreiken en trachten die dag veel zaad in het rond te gooien. Maar alleen is maar alleen... een vurig kolentje dooft namelijk snel uit maar een hele hoop blijft goed warm. Denk dus NIET ze kunnen wel zonder mij, want dit is wat onze vijand je wil doen geloven! Kom en versterk ons, wij gaan samen zingen, en hebben uw stem nodig.

Er zal drank en versnapering zijn en ook gelegenheid om gewoon gezellig samen te zijn en aan de buitenwereld te tonen dat Christenen NIET alleen zijn, maar een toffe leuke groep mensen met elkander die van de goede dingen des levens kunnen genieten en toch ook de Schepper kunnen dienen.

Alle hulp en ideeën zijn meer dan welkom. Laat ons nog eens de netten uitgooien en ook het zaad in het rond strooien. Eveneens belangrijk Laat ons allen samen VURIG bidden en zegening afsmeken voor die dag, dat er vele harten geraakt mogen worden.

In Zijn grote liefde,
Richard Amssoms voor de GVC Deurne

INFO:
16 augustus in het Rivierenhof, Deurne om 14:00 uur
Ontmoeten in het park (Zie Kaart)
Tram 10 Deurne
Parking via "Parkweg" of "Cornelissenlaan"
[Breng een vouwstoel als u graag in een stoel zit, een deken als u graag op de grond zit. Een voetbal of frisbee als u graag op het speelveld speelt.]

- Click op Foto om kaart te zien waar wij zullen verzamelen -
- Click on picture to see meeting point on map -

- Neem Tram 10 tot Cogelsplein halte -
- Take Tram 10 to Cogelsplein stop -

[ENGLISH]

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

I want to tell you about an opportunity for us to encourage one another and serve the Lord together!

August 16th, in the Rivierenhof, Deurne at 2PM

This is what's going to happen...
We need your help to get us and the outside world on-fire for the Lord. We would like to use this Outreach day (or Sowing Day) to praise and honor the Lord in the beautiful outdoors. We have already started to pray for good weather, but if the Lord has other ideas then there is a nice pavilion for us to take shelter under. The Driving directions will follow...

Listen-Up! is planning on being a part of the afternoon. We will pass out flyers and talk to people and do our best to plant as many seeds as we can. But alone is pretty lonely.... a firey coal will loose its heat quickly but with many coals all stays very warm. So DON'T think that we can do this without you, this is what the enemy wants us to believe! Come and strengthen us, we will be singing and need your voice.

Drinks and snacks will be provided at this fellowship in the park to show to the outside world that Christians are NOT alone, but that we are a fun group of people that know how to enjoy life and serve their Creator at the same time.

All help and ideas are welcome. Let us throw out the nets, and sow the seeds together. Important: Let us Pray with eagerness, and ask for blessings for this day that many hearts may be touched.

In His great love,
Richard Amssoms for the Church of Christ Deurne

INFO:
August 16th in the park, "Rivierenhof", Deurne at 2PM
We will meet in the park (see map)
Tram 10 Deurne
Parking areas off of the streets "Parkweg" or "Cornelissenlaan"
[Bring a folding chair or camping chair if you would like something to sit on, or bring a blanket if you would like to sit on the ground. Please bring a football or frisbee if you would like to play in the field a bit.]

New Faith In Belgium

2008-08-03T09:24:00.002+02:00

- The Proud Parents with Faith -

Thank God for healthy new babies! Faith was born this week to Glenn and Vanessa, two wonderful friends who attend the church in Ghent. They were married last year and moved to the area of Ghent so Glenn could work as an air traffic controller. They are both on fire for the Lord and are a great encouragement for the church in Ghent.

- Faith -

Faith is perfect. A testimony to God's goodness and faithfulness. She is the perfect mixture of her parents. Ten Fingers and Ten Toes, healthy, and eating well. Thank you Lord for Faith and her parents and their walk with you. Please bless this family as they start this new chapter of their lives together.

- Visiting Faith In The Hospital -

David Chooses For Christ

2008-08-02T13:08:00.002+02:00

- David at His Baptism -

David is one of the young men at our church in Ghent. For the past months he has been asking a lot of questions to his parents, and family, to his church here in Ghent and to me trying to figure out how to give his life to Christ. He finally decided that he wanted to be baptized and asked if I would help him with that. I was honored to be a part of it. We went to the Bible camp where there is a creek, and a group of 30 or so people gathered to hear his declaration, and to watch his washing of sins.

- The Family Welcomes David -

What sweet words to hear come from a young mans mouth; that he believes in Christ as the son of God, and that he wants to follow Christ the rest of his life. And all this in a world that is quite hostile to the thought of God being real, or being Christian as something rational. It is neat for me to see a person who is a third generation in a family of believers come to Christ. The faith is being passed on in that family.

Thank you Lord for working in these young peoples hearts! Thank you for their desire to take a stand for you, and to live for you. Please bless and guard David as he will be steping out in faith this coming year at school, and on the soccer field. And help us, his family, to encourage and to teach him to follow your way. Thank you Lord!

Canadians Distribute

2008-08-01T11:30:00.003+02:00

- Distributing Crew -

When the Young Friends Campaign left Antwerp they were nice enough to leave some behind who just can't stop helping. They helped at the Bible camp for a week with the younger kids, and then came to Ghent to help our church here. We have been distributing a flyer for the past two years that offers free Bibles, Bible Studies, Prayers, and answers to faith questions. We have had 18 responses up to this point, and are continuing several personal Bible-studies with people right now.

When these helpful Canadians asked what they could do to help we suggested they move out to the suburbs of Ghent to help us get this flyer out. So they have been trudging through the streets in the heat stuffing mailboxes (it's legal in this country) with about 12000 flyers so far. They even took some time off from that to come and encourage us in song one evening. It was a great time of worship singing together.

- Singing Together -

- And Singing Some More -

Thank you Lord for workers willing to pound the pavement to get your word out there. And thank you for providing encouragers to our work.

Oma and Opa Visit

2008-08-01T11:13:00.002+02:00

- Oma and Opa come to Town (It's way better than Santa) -

We thank God for the internet and webcams so our children know who their grandparents are. I admit, being a missionary today in Europe is not like it was 30 years ago, but it is always better having the grandparents here in person. So we thank Kristina (my sister) and all of our friends at the Church in The Falls (church where my dad preaches) for letting us borrow Oma and Opa for two weeks.

- Excitement on The Train with Oma ...

- ... and Opa. -

Time flew by, and it was too short but it was very sweet! Gideon got to ride the train and go to the zoo with Oma and Opa, Gideon got to ride in a canoe with Opa and Papa, the weather was great so we played a lot with water in our courtyard, and went to the lake several times.

- There was some resting... -

- ... and then some more resting. -

What a blessing grandparents are! It is neat to see them soak up every moment, smile, sound, and glimpse with our children. I have to admit I had my doubts that I would offer to give them a ride back to the airport. We wouldn't mind keeping them for ourselves. But we know you would miss them, and that God is using them where they are. So don't take them for granted, or else...

- Watching Elephants At The Zoo -

- At The Park -

Thank you Lord for showing us who we are through our parents and our children. You show humor, smiles, laughs, tenderness, caring, hugs, songs, dances, and unconditional love through both young and old. Help me to continue to learn from both, and to never forget how important the family is that you have made me a part of. I have blood relatives, but I also have "blood" relatives. Lord, help me to look at both relatives the way I look at my parents and my children.

Jongerenkamp 2008

2008-08-01T10:44:00.003+02:00

Right after Young Friends finished up English Camp, we came in for a week of Jongerenkamp (Young peoples camp). This year was my fourth year of being involved with this camp week. Gideon, Karina (my sister) and I left 5 week old Isaak and Holly at home and headed out for a week of Camp.

- Jongerenkamp Attendees -

Want to see more pictures? Please click here!

I co-lead the week with our teammate Dennis Van Erp, who also was responsible in the kitchen. I love teaching the classes during the week so enjoyed sharing 10 lessons about "God's Church" where we talked about topics like, Where the church came from, leadership in the church, What we do in the church and why, etc. There were a lot of good discussions and I was encouraged by many of the comments that were made that showed a great maturity in the group.

- Loving The Great Teaching Weather -

We had some new kids come this year that had never been before so that was encouraging as well. I worry about this week sometimes because most of our young people in this age range 15+ are working during the summer, and many choose for money over a week of camp. But this year we were blessed with 33 people at our camp in total. The boys sleeping dorm had no more room. We had young people from 2 countries, and representing at least 7 different churches.

- Voetbal -

Probably some of the enjoyable times for me were the quiet time that we got every morning. Where we sat somewhere around the camp grounds and read in our Bible, prayed, or just enjoyed the quiet. Several evenings we split up and sat in groups of three and prayed for each other. Every evening Stephan Raab shared a song with us, and then we talked about the Christian message that was shared in the song. Those were some of the highlights for me. I had a great crew to work with! Special thanks to my leaders team: Thank you Dennis, Amanda, Pieter, Grace, Nathan, Danny, Nadine, Stephan, and Karina for your work, and encouragement.

- Praying For Each Other -

Gideon did great. He loved the tent, slept well, didn't drink too much creek water, and entertained everyone at camp. He lived to tell about all of his tumbles, and I loved wondering what I was like at camp when I was his age. Karina is sent by God at the right time and in the right place. She did a great job watching him and taking care of him when I couldn't. We all missed Holly and Isaak though, and were happy that she came on the train to visit for one day. We were ready to be home though after having to miss her for 5 days straight.

- Gideon and Pieter at the Creek -

Thank you Lord for opportunities like these to focus on you and your word, and a safe and encouraging environment! You are the one who forms, builds up, inspires, awes, and saves us each and every day.

Young Friends in Antwerp

2008-08-01T10:23:00.002+02:00

Sorry there has been such a lull in the posting on our blog as of late. I hate to use the excuse that we were busy, because everyone is busy, but it has been a crazy last few weeks. God is good and He has been blessing us all the while. Thank God for the opportunities that He brings our way. I am going to try to share and catch up on some important posts in the next few days. Starting with this one:

- Young Friends Meet our Neighborhood -

At the beginning of July we were blessed with a Young Friends campaign in Antwerp. A group of 13 young people came from Western Christian, in Canada to encourage and help the church here. To prepare the church in Antwerp got together, made up a flyer and distributed 5000 in the neighborhood to invite the young people to come and practice their English with a group of Canadian young people.

- Young Friends Inviting People In -

It was hard to know what to expect since we had never had Young Friends, but we knew some of the people on the team so we were excited to work together with them. The teens from Canada did great. They hit the ground running, and went out the first few days they were here to the parks, and the basketball courts and invited young people to attend the classes. With vacation in full swing there were many parents who were glad to send their kids to classes, which were offered to young people from 13 to 20 years old.

- Young Friends Meeting Neighborhood Teens -

The first three days of the project the group invited young people to come and attend classes at our church building, as well as participate in activities and games that were hosted by the campaign group. 7 of our local church teens also got excited and showed up for that. 6 young people from the neighborhood also came and participated in the classes.

After those initial classes the group organized a 3 day retreat down at the Bible-camp. 4 of the young people from our neighborhood went down for that as well, and many of our teens went as well.

- Sunday Morning Worship -

In a neighborhood where we have had a hard time reaching out as a church, it was great to see the way these young people had no trouble breaking through even language barriers to communicate with these young people. We were able to invite these young people into our church, as well as some of their parents, they were shown how Christians really interact, and love each other. Thanks to our social campaigners they were invited and came to church that Sunday morning. Our own church teens were encouraged in their faith, and were shown how to reach out in their own community.

Thank you Lord for these opportunities. Help the seeds that were planted to grow, and help those of us left behind know how to tend to the message of Christ shared with these young people. And a special thanks to the Western Campaign group. You were great! Please come again!