The Windshield Wiper

When I pulled out of the driveway in the rain that morning, I first put on the headlights, then the wipers on what was the occasional or intermittent mode.  I then reached over to turn on the radio, and felt really compelled to leave it off.  "This is a silent retreat, Barbara Jean, which can start in this moment in the car as you pull away from home", a quiet voice seemed to be urging me on in silence.  As I continued a lovely ride through deeply wooded side streets (as opposed to going on the motorway to the convent where I was headed), I was aware of two things:
a.  The windshield wiper on the front window.  In intermittent mode, it made me consider that it's a lot like God in my life.  The ever present rain drops (not only in winter time in Belgium but in a more broad sense, the "rain drops" of life), make the windshield blurry, making it difficult to see what is coming.  And then the windshield wiper wipes it clean, and everything becomes clear once again...for a short time.  It's good to have to depend on the windshield wiper to clear away the raindrops.  How much more good it is to depend on God for the faith that is needed when life's "rain drops" make the the windshield blurry, when sometimes it's not always clear what awaits me on this journey.
b.  The windshield wiper on the back window, also in intermittent mode, was making the back window almost always clear.  Even in the midst of the heavy rain, thru the back window it was quite easy to see where I was coming from.  How easy it is so often to see clearly through what we've already experienced, which was and is in stark contrast to what was going on in my front windshield.  Just like life, in so many ways.  The old adage "hindsight is 20/20", meaning that we can always see so much more clearly through what we've already experienced because we have experienced it, came to mind.  (I even began to wonder how does one say "hindsight is 20/20" in Dutch??!)

Room with a view

What an invitation to come away and be silent!

A randome gate that once must have lead to somewhere....

On a journey ~

The quiet cemetery reflecting the hope of the cross

It was an amazing 30+ hours of silence ~ "pure torture" for one friend who wrote in response to my time away.  But for me, a good time to reflect on faith, God's intermittent cleansing strokes, like the windshield wiper, in providing clarity when I need it, faith to trust Him in the journey, and always a clear picture of how God leads and directs with an amazing track record of being with me on the journey through the years.  Be silent.  It's a good place to be.

And for the Dutch speakers among us:  "Achterafgezien is het duidelijk".....somehow the 20/20 gets lost in translation!

Mrs. Europe

Recently our European missionary staff had its annual meeting and staff retreat.  This gathering serves 2 goals:  the first being to do mission business, sharing updates, challenges, joys and frustrations and gathering the many stories of how we see God at work across Europe.  The second goal is a time of training, and this year we met Mrs. Europe.  Our speaker, a European, personified Europe as Mrs. Europe, which made this vast continent come alive for me in ways that I had never considered.  She has a home, and invites us to come and stay with her. We need to take time to hear her story, a story characterized by war/conflict/tension.  Mrs. Europe is the mother of a family, but it's a family divide by divorce and one in which reconciliation still hasn't happened today.  There is a small surviving Christian family in Europe, and we have to connect with that family.  He taught on how the church is the uniting force when all other things are falling apart.  We talked about the role of the international Christian community in Europe (obviously a subject close to our hearts as our local congregation represents 30+ nationalities). 

In looking to the future, we learned of how the future of mission in Europe is spelled m-i-g-r-a-t-i-o-n. We have to be mindful, as we teach, challenge and mentor the future generation in our churches, that we are preparing a new generation for intentional international Christian communities.  We also looked at Acts 13 from the New Testament, how no one was from Antioch in this the earliest Christian community.  Already in the time just after the life and death of Jesus Christ, Jesus followers were an international group!           

Art projects from our family fun night

I just had to include this cute cat~

The view from the window

When we got back home to Belgium, to our community at AIPC, our hearts were filled with gratitude as we look at this internationally international community of Jesus followers working out their faith as each one tries their best to navigate the path for growth in their journey with God here in Europe.  Last Sunday, as we celebrated giving thanks (of course, for us Americans, giving thanks has to happen in November, right??!), as I watched one little girl dancing in the school cafeteria as we waited for the dessert table, I realized this child was such a great reflection of who we are.  Already at age 4, she's speaking 2 languages at home with her parents, fighting in Flemish with her older siblings (that's the language that they're learning at school, so it often becomes the language for play and sibling rivalry!), she's also being exposed to English in her children's church classes at AIPC.  And she's dancing in the joy of the Lord!

De Arch van Noach (commonly known in English as Noah's Ark)

For all of you who have ever read about Noah’s Ark in Genesis (the first book of the Bible),  you probably have wondered what was the real size of such an ark….what did it look like….how did people live in it…..how did you go to the bathroom in an ark? (some of the questions being asked by our 7-9 year old kids in Children’s Church at AIPC). 

Well, wonder no more.  You can visit a replica of Noah’s Ark, if you happen to be anywhere near to Dordrecht, The Netherlands.  Since we’re just about an hour away here in Antwerp, Belgium, a group of us from church (we were 20+, old and young alike), decided to climb up into the ark and have a look around.  Whether you were young and fascinated by the elephants and zebras and many little birds, (and trying to figure out which ones were real and which were fake animals!), or you were older and tried to figure out how did this thing actually work in Noah’s time, it was an amazing experience.

Think about it:

~God told Noah to build an ark.  And Noah did it.

~God protected all of his creation by commanding Noah to bring 2 of each variety of animal into the ark with him.

~It rained and poured for 40 days (anyone remember the Sunday School song “it rained and poured for 40 day-se, day-se, nearly drove those animals crazy, crazy”?!)

~So many of the details of the flood are mysterious, i.e. only God could pull off a wonder like that….yet the fact remains:  God saved his creation.  He had a purpose in it all.

~And just in case you wondered what Noah's first view of earth might have been after the flood.....

Organizational reset

Recently I attended a meeting in Amsterdam ~ how fun is that!  Getting back home to Antwerp, a friend asked “so how did you like Amsterdam?”  I giggled, since all I saw of Amsterdam was the central train station, and the streets that I quickly walked down in order to arrive on time.  Oh, and I did meet a few friendly Amsterdamers (is that what we say in English for someone who is from Amsterdam...or maybe it’s Amsterdamites?) who helped me with directions since I was trying to save the tram money and get some exercise and got turned around (ergo: lost) in the process! In any event, I sure wished that I had had time to enjoy Amsterdam but wow, I learned so much from the meeting.

Bottom line:  God is at work.  In many places, among many peoples, using His followers to bring the hope of Jesus to a world that is quite hopeless and lost. 

At a conference like this, there are many people from many organizations sharing many ideas.  I felt like just a simple worker sitting in the presence of some of the biggest and best organizational leadership….so, like, what did I have to offer?  (At one point, when they needed a secretary to take notes to report back to the larger group, it was decided that since I was the one person at the table who had a computer, I could take the notes and turn in the report….perhaps that was my offering to the meeting!) The statistics were flying around, Skype brings a whole new perspective to any meeting, and then there was the panel discussion on organizational reset.

Organizational reset???? What does that mean?  A basic understanding that I gleaned was that mission organizations are having to rethink how to do missions, which is a totally good thing! In the end, it wasn’t so important for me to take notes on all the organizational resets (or is it resetting?) going on in the world.  What I did take away from the meeting was this concept:  from time to time, organizations/individuals/ministries have to take note of what’s going on, and think outside the box about new approaches to ministry and life.   We have to creatively reconsider what’s going on.  “If you keep on doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep on getting what you’re getting” was a point well taken during the course of our two days together.

So, journey with me as Steve and I participate in an organizational reset in our ministries here in Antwerp (it sounds so impressive, don’t you think??!)  We want to be reflecting Jesus in all of our worlds: at AIPC, in the community, at the center for asylum seekers, at the grocery store, in the halal butcher shop.  If you have ever participated in an “organizational reset”, either professionally or personally, I would love to hear from your experience.  I sense that God is going to ask more and more of us, which is good, because we want to know more and more of Him and to stay focused on His direction in our lives.

Okay, just so you know....I cheated with this picture!  This isn't Amsterdam, it wasn't even taken in the Netherlands or Holland or any of those gardens up north where there are lots of tulips (actually it's from a tulip garden here in Belgium).  It's the wrong season for tulips in Belgium just now, but I figured windmill, tulips, Amsterdam...

All about giving

O bless the gifts our hands have brought, and bless the work our hearts have  planned ~
On any Sunday morning at the Antwerp International Protestant Church, you will find the congregation coming together to worship and share God's love.  For years, we have always sung the tune "Give thanks with a grateful heart".  In keeping with a very helpful image that a pastor from Kansas shared with Steve and I before our return to Belgium this past June ("You are going to establish new relationships with people and a place that you have history with"), we have done a few things at home and in our places of ministry to help us remember the "new" in relationships as we settle in to life again in Belgium.  For example, at home, we've moved the furniture around and put the wall hangings in new places.  At AIPC, we now sing a new song of thanks as a part of our worship.   It goes like this:

Today I'm especially rejoicing in the words of this new song.  We sensed it on the Sunday back in August, as we  brought the team of VBS volunteers forward in worship to be dedicated to service and prayed over as we began our week with the kids  "These are the plans, O Lord, we've made".  In the course of this past week, there have been a lot of planning meetings, and some meetings yet to come this weekend:  planning the outreach ministry at the local center for asylum seekers/refugees, planning the fall season of children's church, planning the youth and family ministries at AIPC.  Without a full time youth work (for now!), we are depending on the talents and gifts of the local church to meet the needs that are staring us in the face just now. What a sense of peace in my heart today - amidst all the plans already made, and those yet to be made - that these are the plans we get to offer to God.  Whether they are His plans or not, that remains to be seen!  

Stay tuned.......

The real gates of Babylon

The VBS (vacation Bible school) team of volunteers here at AIPC tends to work like a well oiled machine.  A few trips to the local Media Markt (electronics superstore) for their large cardboard boxes provided the basics for our decorators.  our goal"  to make our chapel space look like the gates of Babylon.  We cut, we painted, we glued, we stapled ~ and the cardboard lion that we stuffed ever so carefully in our suitcases back in Chicago in June looked so friendly on our decorative stage.  (To the Group Publishing Company, whose curriculum we used, I hope that was the intention!!!)

 Our kids learned all about Babylon, about the life of Daniel, how he developed courage in his lifetime as a Jewish foreigner in Babylon.  We sang about God watching over you, 24/7 watching over you; how in this world full of changes, God is faithful through it all; He's still in control, our lives are in His hands.  How cool to hear one neighbor girl, who wasn't so excited on day 1, to proclaim loudly into the microphone on day 4 "God is altijd bij ons" (God is always with us!!!)  Thanks to my great teen volunteers, we planted hanging gardens, made musical flute (the project that made us less than popular with parents as the kids shrieked out their flute music at home), and hid the secret word Jehovah (Hebrew for "God") in our jewelry box necklaces.

As we were putting Babylon to rest on that final Friday afternoon, one of the adult volunteers asked if there was going to be VBS next summer.  My prompt reply:  as long as God keeps sending us children at AIPC, we will remain committed to teaching them in the ways of our great God!

Very interesting post VBS note:  On a recent trip to Berlin, Steve and I visited the Pergamon museum, where part of the real gates of Babylon are protected in an exhibit there.  The postcard lover that I am, we then sent postcards of the real Babylon gates to several kids who had just attended VBS.  One child's innocent remark to her dad:  "Daddy, I didn't know that Babylon was in Germany".

Back to Belgium

"Home" again in Belgium ~
As a follower of Jesus, I do understand that this world is not my home, I'm just passing through.  As a foreigner in Belgium, who just came back after 11 months living abroad, somehow this place feels so much like "home".  Recently, while eating in China Town in downtown Antwerp with friends from Malaysia, Belgium and England, the table conversation went round and round about being "home" again in Belgium.  End result of conversation:  we all declared that in the end, we are just tourists here, those who will find their final home in heaven with Jesus.  Wonder what kind of mansion Jesus will have prepared for us?!

In the meantime, one does have to settle into some place to call "home" and for us, that feels good back in Ekeren, Belgium.  We are beginning this season of ministry holding onto an image that was given to us by a dear pastor friend in the US:  we are establishing new relationships with people and a place that we have history with....which means a lot to both of us just now.  We have history with these people and this place, Belgium, so some things have been totally easy to adjust to:  getting around on the tram/bus, grocery shopping, the local village market.  Yet some things have become a bit foreign:  doing the immigration procedure in a totally new office in downtown Antwerp, getting re-used to the bike path (I almost got taken out by 2 mopeds during my first bus trip!), paying to use a shopping cart and to use a public restroom.

We're super excited about the growth that we see in the church, and look forward to learning together what God has in store for us in the coming months and years.  Come join us in our home in Ekeren.  Somethings are really the same, and somethings have been changed around (don't worry, AIPC gentlemen, there will still be plenty of room for your study and conversations on Saturday mornings even with the relocated furniture in the living room!)

So why Mosaic images? Perhaps a definition or 3 would be helpful....

According to the Oxford Dictionary (on my Kindle, first time ever in life that I'm not quoting from Webster's Dictionary on the bookshelf), mosaic is defined as: "a combination of diverse elements forming a more or less coherent whole". Another common definition: "a surface decoration made by inlaying small pieces of variously colored material to form patterns or pictures".

According to Covenant World Mission, "the goal of the Mosaics Project is to bring the transforming power of the good news of Jesus to immigrant or otherwise marginalized communities in Europe. These communities represent a mosaic of ethnic backgrounds, religions, languages and cultures from all parts of the world. These people often have limited or no access to the gospel as it is promoted in traditional ways. The Mosaics Project seeks to bridge the cultural and linguistic gap to present Christ and not a Western form of Christianity."

The Mosaics Project is intended to allow opportunities for the Gospel of Christ to emerge in various communities in Europe, to the "unreached" of Europe.

We're gathering images - through photos and words - to celebrate the diversity that God has created in our world. These images reflect our relationship to God and our relationship to those whom God has placed in our world. The beauty of a mosaic (the kind that is made up of small pieces of material making a pattern) is that it takes an incredible variety of small pieces in order to make a beautiful "whole" pattern. So it is in the reality of life. Many small pieces coming together to make a beautiful "whole" - which, to me, represents the beauty of being in Christ. That's my goal - to be a small piece of the variety of people, places, cultures and religions that make up something that is both beautiful and pleasing to God.


Join us in the journey as we put together the images that represent our lives and ministry in Europe as we seek to be a part of the beautiful mosaic that God is creating and bringing together in our world.

We’re having way too much fun: visiting supporters who are encouraging us in this missionary journey with their prayers, finances, and opening their homes and hearts to us; watching God at work as our travels and studies have really come together.  It’s a missionary’s home assignment dream come true…having moments with family and friends, both spontaneous and planned.  We've learned to be creative in order to preserve Sabbath and rest.

IF you have wondered where we’ve been:

Barb (who is a serious fan of postcards!) has been delighted to surprise friends with cards from Tulsa, Dallas, Seattle, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arizona, Upper Peninsula of Michigan, lower Michigan, Minnesota again,  Boston, and yes, Minnesota again. We are excited about upcoming travels to Rockford, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, California, and yes, Minnesota again! Did you pick up the fact that we’ve spent a good amount of time in Minnesota?  We’re thankful to all the local churches in Chicago that we’ve connected with and look forward to what this spring holds for us in the Windy City.

Looking ahead to Belgium and beyond!

~We leave Chicago for our return to Europe on June 27, 2012 – excited??!!

~Pray for our remaining time in the US, with supporting churches, family and friends, that we would finish well.

~We praise God for His faithfulness in covering all of our financial needs this year, and look forward to partnering in mission, finances and prayer in 2012.

~Pray us through the transitions that lie ahead of us, as we leave family and friends once again and get involved in the next phase of ministry in Belgium!