Many hands make for little work

(The following reflections are part of the celebration of Sinterklaas, which happens here in Belgium on 6 December.  It's the day when Sinterklaas, affectionately called "the Sint", comes to town and brings presents for all the children. )

It's the line of my childhood that my mom always said, as she tried to rope all 4 of us kids into helping out with household chores:  "many hands make for little work". Somehow, as a kid, and especially as a teenager, I never felt that to be true. Perhaps it's because there was always at least one sibling, sometimes even two, who managed to make their hands do even less of the little work that we were all doing together.  It was at that moment, when I was feeling jealous about all the extra work that I was doing (because of course, I was the only one really working!??), that Mom would sharply say "Barbara Jean, your green eyes are showing again".  We all knew what that meant....jealousy popping up all over the place.  And you can imagine that,  when I realized that my eyes are green, I quickly replied "Mom, my green eyes are always showing....it has nothing to do with being jealous".  (I was a teenager so imagine that line with a little bit of attitude with it as well

Thankfully, there were no jealous eyes showing up with our women, just a lot of eager hands to make the cold, solid cookie dough into cookies to be enjoyed by the kids.  Here are a few examples of the "goods" ~

Getting started....

Decorated and on their way to the oven....

Sure to make someone happy :-)

Some things never change.  Traditions are a good thing, and fun to celebrate at this time of the year.  So, of course there had to be at least one memory created in the kitchen....smoke coming out of the oven, not enough baking paper so cookies stuck to the cookie sheet (that works, though....samples for everyone!)  Every year as we bake cookies together to prepare for Sinterklaas, there are always a few that don't quite make it to the party.  That just makes for a round of taste treats for those eager hands that aren't jealously looking at how they can get out of the work, but are looking instead to make the work go quickly so that we could enjoy each other's company.

And in the midst of it all, there were loads of recipes being shared from literally all over the world.  Christmas traditions celebrated in one land are different from another land that is different from another land which is also different from our new homeland, Belgium.   Most of our guests have never celebrated Sinterklaas before. Boy, are their kids in for a fun surprise!

Yet amidst all the excitement and home baked goodness of these party plans, my heart is yearning for the greater celebration that is soon to be upon us.  Advent is my favorite season of the church year.  It's a time when we're asked to wait, to remember again the mystery of Christ's coming to earth.  Our children's program at AIPC this year will be about looking at the Christmas story through the eyes of a child.  The opening remarks of the program are a stern reminder to all of us....let's not get so caught up in the traditions and trappings (i.e. stuff) of the season and forget that Jesus is born.  He's come to earth.  And He's coming again!!

So here's my Advent challenge to each of us.  

May we find time for the traditions and cookies and holiday cheer, without ever losing sight of the reason for it all.  Christ's coming to earth.  Let the celebration begin!

Dankende ~ Giving Thanks in Flemish

Okay, so truth be known, Thanksgiving is one of those days in the year that is really hard to celebrate if you live outside of the US (or Canada too, though they celebrate their Thanksgiving in October).  All the things that are important for the day ~ turkey, stuffing, cranberries, pumpkin pie or some other variation, green bean casserole, Macy’s parade, American football ~ really don’t have much to do with why the day is celebrated and set apart.

It was President Abraham Lincoln who set the 4^th Thursday of November apart as a national observance of giving thanks.  Here in my world in Belgium, life will go on as normal ~ though we are canceling our women’s Bible study for the morning but it has nothing to do with Thanksgiving (too many people were missing out today and we’re finishing an 8 week course on when God’s people pray….and we want to finish well!)  Since it’s Thursday, I will hang out with our group of ladies at the local refugee center.  And, you guessed it, our theme for the day:  Thanksgiving!  It’ll be a chance to introduce the ladies to American Thanksgiving (and yes, I cooked down a pumpkin and made pumpkin puree in order to make pumpkin muffins, 2 different recipes, yummy!)  But more importantly, we’ll take a few moments to reflect on giving thanks.  It’s not just the one who has permission to stay in Belgium that needs to give thanks.  Each one of us, no matter what our life situation is like in this day, needs to give thanks.

I love the idea that President Lincoln set apart this day for giving thanks.  Set apart:  it’s the simplest definition of the word “holy”.  What could be more holy than taking time and giving thanks for all the good there is in life?  Our craft project with the women today is decorating a glass jar with beautiful paper and then taking the opportunity each day to write on a slip of paper a note of thanks.  Even in the midst of the immigration/asylum seeking process, there is much to be thankful for.  My prayer is that the women will understand how important it is to say “thank you”, “merci”, dank u wel” and “vielen dank” in any of the official (and unofficial!) languages of this land where we will celebrate Thanksgiving today.

So, bring on the kalkoen (turkey).  The pompoen tart (pumpkin pie) is already baked, the aardappelen (potatoes) will be roasted with herbs in the oven and the veenbessen (cranberry) sauce is a new recipe this year…..initial taste tests scored good results!  And may there be a Thanksgiving celebrated in your life every day of the year, not just that one Thursday in November.  We have so much to be thankful for ~ every moment that your heart beats and your lungs cause you to breathe in air and you don’t even have to think about it is cause for giving thanks.

Jar of thanks ~ not only was the project fun, and the food yummy, but great conversations around what we have to be thankful for ~ it made the day seem less lonely being so far from family and friends back in the US.

3 countries, 2 Swansons, 1 anniversary celebration

Steve and I were married on November 6, 2004 at my home church, Edgebrook Covenant in Chicago, IL.  When all the dust settled down after the wedding (and the celebration the following week in Minneapolis, MN and the celebration in Bangui, Central African Republic among my Central African and missionary friends), we decided that this was such a fun adventure, we'll be newlyweds for life! Celebrating the newness of our marriage, our desire to serve each other and our God, is something that gives us lots of energy and life as we embrace our silver hairs.  

A friend back in the US gave us a great recommendation for our marriage: keep an anniversary journal.  Each year, as we celebrate our anniversary, we take a few moments and reflect on what has happened in the past year ~ the good and the bad (and sometimes ugly!) memories of that year.  We challenge one another to continue on in love and service.  It's been an incredible part of our marriage journey to relive each of our 9 years.  And we have so much to look forward to in the future as we continue to commit to this precious gift from God.

We managed to get away for a couple of days, and would like to share some of the sights of our time away.  I'm leaving it up to you to guess which countries are the 3 represented in the pictures (hint: you can tell by the flags, if you know your flags or have an idea where in the world we call home!)

Ready...set...guess which countries we're in?

Getting ready to hike before it rains!

And the 3 countries are...?

I will follow you wherever you go...

Happy camper!

That's me up front, checking out a house to buy...but I'm thinking too many window treatments!

I wonder how many places there are in the world where 2 people can kiss and be in 3 different countries at the same time?

Compassion for immigrants

These reflections are based on a typical day here in life and ministry in Antwerp, Belgium but were prompted by a simple comment in a devotional journal.

As we finished off our morning devotions together, the prayer focus for the day was “compassion for immigrants”.  My reply to this statement in our devotional book:  wow, how cool is that!  Thursday is my busy ministry day, first with welcoming so many immigrants and foreigners into my home as we study about prayer together.  And then it’s off to an afternoon’s worth of fun with women, welcoming them into our  neighborhood and into our world as we build bridges of friendship and care.                                 

 

My father immigrated to America through Ellis Island in New York via somewhere in Germany.  We never heard his entire immigrant story; perhaps it was too painful to share with his children.  But with all the buzz here in Antwerp about the newly opened Red Star Line Museum (www.redstarline.be), it has made me even more curious to figure out how my dad got to America; what welcomed him in Chicago when he finally arrived; who were the people in his neighborhood who made him feel at home; who had compassion on him as a foreigner, new immigrant, and registered displaced person through the Red Cross.  

You can imagine, then, that the story of immigration means a lot to me personally.  I never understood that my father had a foreign accent until I was in college (already 20 years old) and a friend asked "who" had answered the phone at our house, “you know, the guy with the heavy accent”.  That was Dad.  His accent was just his.  There wasn’t anything foreign or heavy about it.  I’ve become quite sensitive to accents over the years, as I’ve done a lot of language learning in preparation for ministry in cross-cultural settings.  We all carry our accents with us.  Mine happens to be an American accent, which comes out when I speak Flemish (the local language here).  And native French speakers have told me that I speak French with an African accent, thanks to all my years  living and working in the heart of Africa (and that actually makes me giggle!)  In any event, our accents and our immigration stories go with us.  Just like they had gone with my dad when he came from the former Yugoslavia and for so many others in the generations before us.

In the world that we live in today, no matter where you live, there is someone who is an immigrant, perhaps someone who has been a refugee or asylum seeker, someone who needs the compassion and love of Jesus to be shared with them.  My prayer is that we all can make it a daily habit, not just a prayer focus for the day!

FYI planning to visit the Red Star Line Museum in Antwerp on a day off....soon!

It's all about Belgium

It was yet another week of our mobile group of ladies, so today we pulled out a map and covered it with many things that are common in Belgium.  We talked Belgian languages (3 official languages being French, Flemish/Dutch and German), Belgian cuisine (mussels with frites and mayonnaise, which is what the Belgians prefer rather than ketchup!), Belgian customs, Antwerp folklore (the real story behind the name Antwerpen), the Ardennes (southern Belgium with mountains/hills where they speak French) and Flemish culture, including their beer culture and traditions.  We looked at flags (all 3 of them: Belgian flag, Flemish and the Wallonnia flag), we looked at Belgian lace (why Brugge is so famous) and Flemish tapestry. We talked about Rubens (famous Flemish painter), Antwerp as the second largest port in all of Europe, Antwerp's beautiful Onze Lieve Vrouw cathedral, Belgian chocolate.....can you imagine that we had some fun?  We looked at the coast of Belgium (along the North Sea), the capital city of Belgium (Brussels), where Napoleon met his last battle (Waterloo) and the battle sites of WWI and WWII in Ieper.  It was a fun way to get to know a bit more about your new homeland.

Some of our visual aids ~

Now, you would have thought that one of Belgium's finest snacks would have rounded out the entire experience, but alas!  Dried figs, dates and almonds were the specials at the Moroccan nuts booth at the local market in our village yesterday ~ and what a hit those taste treats were!  I love the diversity of this ministry world that I live in.  Next week's snack:  Belgian pralines (you know, the hazelnut filled chocolate bonbons invented by Belgium....but then again, I don't want you to get the impression that I'm sitting around eating bonbons!)

Indian summer intersects with ministry

Today has been just a glorious day ~ Indian summer has arrived in Belgium, and just yesterday when I glanced at the five day weather forecast, there were too many rainy and cloudy days looming on the horizon.  But just now, that same forecast shows sunny days and 70 degrees on all five days that are coming before us.  

It's Thursday today, and in my ministry world, this day is reserved for working with women.  We started out with our second week of studying about prayer in my home.  I am blessed to be studying with some of the most amazing women in Belgium.  At one point in our prayers this morning, we said "God, we just feel like dancing".  So many things that we had prayed over last week have been answered in ways that we couldn't ever have imagined.  Lives being transformed, health being restored, immigration issues being resolved.  We are keenly aware of how God answers our prayers when our hearts are pure before Him.

And then it was off to my next group of women, and today we had to be mobile.  So our snacks weren't the usual coffee and tea, just juice boxes and water.  We shared boxes of raisins, the new harvest of clementines (little tangerines), grapes that just burst with sunshine.  Since we were being mobile today anyway, and since the sun was just shining so brightly, we just sat around the picnic table and enjoyed a surprise dose of Vitamin D.  Our project today was making jewelry together, and each friend went back to her world with a new necklace or pair of earrings.

Some of our work tools ~

I love it when life surprises us!  When a girl gets weary of the rain forecast only to find that sun is bursting forth all over....that's a nice surprise.  When a group starts small and then grows to where there isn't enough room around the table....that's a nice surprise.  When God answers our prayers even when we're thinking "does God even hear me?"....that's a nice surprise.  

I like surprises....how about you?

Time to go work in the garden.  Fall is here, but spring will come.  Have to get my tulip bulbs in the ground :-)

Living abundantly in an era of scarcity

What happens when you get a bunch of missionary colleagues spread out across Europe together for a couple of days of staff meetings and retreat?  Competitive edges come out all over the place when you try to have a bit of fun!  We always have a fun night together, and this year our teams were orange, yellow and purple, as noted by the brightly colored bandana scarves that we all were wearing.  Whether you chose to wear your bandana as a fashion statement (as most of the women did, quite European fashion tied loosely around your neck), or as a pirate scarf on your forehead, or looped loosely through your jean belt hole (that was the typical male fashion statement), or as a babushka scarf (this missionary shall remain unnamed!).....there sure was a lot of laughter going on in the room that night.  We laughed a lot, found out who really likes to win (and this time, it wasn't me!), learned a lot about animals and things related to the sea, and celebrated an amazing time together as colleagues in ministry but more importantly as family in the body of Christ.  Our speaker began our time together with confessions of a Costco lover, and brought us into teachings about "God as a God of abundance and how God understands a key part of our brokenness is the lie of scarcity.  God deliberately and intentionally gives enough.  He delights in unexpected surprises.  And He wants us to walk through life believing in His abundance."  I will never be able to stock up on supplies again without revisiting the words that were taught to us during this important week of meetings.  (And remember: I'm one of those missionaries who had to purchase 3 years of supplies and pack barrels for each term of service in the heart of Africa!)

Preparing a place for reflection and worship

One of our last assignments was to go for a walk on the grounds of the retreat center and thank God for His abundance.  As I left the room, I quickly went back to fetch my camera, so that I could document the things that I would see in the next 3-5 minutes that represented to me evidence of God's abundance.  Enjoy with me what I saw on that walk....

Thankful for my new bike in Belgium!

Thankful for the ability to read!

Thankful for the beauty of God's creation!

Thankful for good friends (and competitive spirits!)

Guess what we're thankful for in this photo??
this was a major paella dish, and Pia said that
 it was small compared to what they use in Spain! 

So thankful for the love of my life!

Thankful for new colleagues and friends ~

Thankful for memories and color~

Consider these words from King David in 1 Chronicles 29:10-16...

David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly saying, "Praise be to you, Lord, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.  Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours.  Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.  Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things.  In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.  Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name. But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this?  Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand".

Are you experiencing a life of abundance lived out in service to our God who gives to us abundantly, amidst our present generation that worries if there will ever be enough?  Food for thought.

March ~ a month of celebrations!

While updating the MosaicImages blog and going through the archives, look what managed to be just saved as a draft and never made it to being posted on the blog ~ enjoy!

Can you guess the story behind this silly picture?

My birthday is March 3rd, and having married into a family that celebrates the tradition of breakfast in bed for the birthday girl, I was already feeling quite spoiled that I was treated with a Swedish oven pancake on a Sunday morning.  You need to understand the Sunday morning routine in our home:  Steve is often up by 6am and working and praying in the office as he prepares for Sunday morning worship at AIPC.  So I wasn't expecting breakfast in bed, since I figured he was already quite busy.  Then there was another surprise:  yummy chocolate cake, complete with yummy chocolate frosting (did I mention that the cake was yummy!) at church, complete with the entire congregation singing to me.  What a great feeling to be so celebrated.

And then there was International Women's Day, which is always celebrated around the world on March 8th.....celebrated around the world but not in the US, go figure!  We started our celebration on Thursday, as we made beautiful jewelry with the women who would be celebrating together on the next day.  On Friday, the group of volunteers who works with refugees locally began cooking and spreading the appetizers on the crackers, setting the tables beautifully with table linens, flowers and spring colors to chase away the winter grays.  There was a song to welcome each country that was represented by the women who came to the celebration.  What fun to see their joy and pride as their country's flag was flown around the room.  Lots of photo ops this day, as we were all dressed so beautifully in honor of Women's Day.

Some of the beauty that showed up on the beauties!

And in case you were thinking that the celebrations were over and done with all in one day, the party kept going on!  At our local church that Sunday after International Women's Day, we, the women of the Antwerp International Protestant Church, took over.  We were responsible for the singing, the ushering, the greeting, bringing the flowers, leading worship, and preaching.  And all of this in the midst of the drama stage set-up at the school where we meet for worship!  If you've ever been to AIPC, you won't recognize this next picture which shows you where the pulpit was for the morning.  I love that "we are the church", that "the church" for us has little to do with a building but rather it's a body of Christ followers who are meeting to lift praises to God and to make what is a common theater arts building during the week a place of holy ground on a Sunday morning. 

And for those inquiring minds....the silly picture at the beginning of this post was taken at the international women's day party.  It's a silly cheeks mask that I'm wearing ~ not sure why that mask showed up at the party, but it was totally worth all the laughing and great smiles that made for a fun day of celebration.

And then He gave bread....

It’s a busy Sunday at church, but then I ask "when isn’t it a busy Sunday"?!  But this particular Sunday, we had guests (potential colleagues in ministry plus their baby), a young couple in crisis, a farewell to very dear friends who were going back home to Africa, and a church council meeting that required Steve’s presence.  Oh, and did I mention, that I was sick on top of all this?  The kind of  “I don’t want to kiss you (the common way to greet people in Belgium), or worse yet shake your hand” kind of sick.  The nurse in me knew that I should have stayed home, but there was just too much going on.

As we left Steve behind at the meeting, saying good byes in the parking lot, getting one family cared for and approaching my car with the other family, I realized that we would need bread for lunch. I remembered that I only had a few morsels of crusty baguette bread at home, certainly not enough and certainly too dry to share with my guests.  And then, at that moment, God provided.  Another friend came over in the parking lot and gave me a sack of bread: leftovers from a dinner the night before, something to share with the pastor and his family.  God gave manna to the Israelites in their time of great need in the desert.  His gift to me in this day: a bag of bread.

But more than that bag of bread, God is continually teaching me to trust Him.  I almost called my friend (the couple in crisis that I mentioned earlier) to share with her this overwhelming sense in my heart that “God is in control.  He knows everything that we’re going to need.  Look, He just gave me a bag of bread.”

Tomorrow will bring a new set of crises. There will always be good byes in this life and church council meetings that the pastor has to attend.  Yet in the midst of it all, the busyness of life, am I willing to trust that God will provide?  He does give more than bread.  I just have to be ready with my eyes wide open to see His mighty hand of provision in my life.

It’s time to make a sandwich!  Tuna with lettuce and tomato anyone??

My literally overflowing bread basket!

Party in a bag

When I lived in the Central African Republic, one of the missionary kids came to our Friday night pizza/movie night all dressed up.  Her reply to my questions about her attire was this:  "aunt barboca, it's time for a party and I'm the party girl".  I learned from a small child that planning for a party is a good thing.  So, though I didn't wear any special attire, I did plan a party recently.  It was with dear friends, and the party supplies were easily transportable in a large blue IKEA bag.  Since it was a kids' party, balloons and streamers were a part of the decorations.

It was a fun afternoon, complete with party decorations, a great meal, cake, birthday songs, presents, and lots of laughter.  The neighbors even joined in on the party, though their participation was through loud honking horns as someone in the neighborhood was getting married.  We all stood out on the terrace to enjoy the view, and I found myself remembering the joy of my own wedding day.  At the end of the day, the left over streamers came back home with us, as did the IKEA bag.  Since we don't have kids at home, we left the balloons with our friends for their children to enjoy.

And now enters the most memorable moment for me/us of this party.  We were given an envelope, with loads of hearts and our names written in very clear letters.  In the envelope was a most beautiful gift, shared by friends who had purchased this gift while we were apart last year.  It was their way of remembering us, and honoring the beliefs that we hold dear to our hearts.  Check out the detail of the bracelet in the photo.  The mother of Jesus is there.  The Jesus that we are trying to serve and witness to the world is there.  That bracelet now sits on my desk.  I glance at it throughout my day, remembering the gift of my friend.  More importantly, remembering the gift of Jesus coming to earth.

Life is good.  Plan a party.  Bring it in a bag.  Surprise someone.  And expect yourself to be likewise surprised!

Pause to pray ~ an important part of the journey

World Day of Prayer ~ have you ever celebrated it in your world? I remember the first time that I was introduced to this important celebration in the world, in Cameroon in 2003 when Karen (my missionary colleague and good friend) and I were "refugees" waiting to get back to CAR after a political uprising there had displaced us over the border into Cameroon. We were living at a Lutheran mission station, and as we were coming up the hill from the market, we stopped in the local church. Something of importance was going on, as there was a large and rather loud gathering of women in the church.  I didn't quite get "it", why a group of Lutheran women in Cameroon were celebrating and praying for and raising funds for women in another country (sorry, friends, my memory escapes me to remember which was the highlighted country that year!)

I have been blessed by World Day of Prayer celebrations ever since.  In Antwerp, WDP is celebrated in the Flemish speaking community as well as the English speaking community here in the northern part of Belgium.  We English speakers gathered and despite the winter cold of the first Friday in March, it was a great experience in many ways.  We celebrated in St. Boniface Cathedral, which had just in 2012 finished a major renovation project and is a protected monument in this country.  The building itself was quite beautiful, but even more beautiful were the people who came together to celebrate.

Our focus country was France, who are our neighbors here to the south and west.  Our focus scripture text was Jesus reminding his disciples in Matthew 25 "For I was a stranger and you invited me in".  Amidst the joy of the music, the cold of winter, the bright colors of the ribbons that we all carried in our hands and used to join together at the end to remind us to welcome the stranger among us, there was this word:
"We welcome people into our cities, our schools, our churches, and most important, into our lives.  Reflect, for a moment, on a time in your life when you have received a gesture of welcome.  It feels good, you feel cared for, your self worth is affirmed, perhaps you even feel loved.  Now just imagine what a simple gesture of welcome can do to a foreigner, a refugee, someone who has fled homeland and family and the familairity of life.  Important words from Hebrews 13:1-2 instruct us on the following principle: "Let mutual love continue.  Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it".  What I have learned as I welcome the stranger in my midst is this:  presence is, in fact, more important than presents. We, the body of Christ, have a responsibility to learn to care for the needs of our neighbors.  It begins with a cup of coffee, which leads to a story.  If we listen with our ears only, we learn of different countries, cultures and traditions.  If we listen with our hearts, and take the time to listen (and it does take time!) our hearts can only burst with the love of Christ.  That love gives us the courage to continue listening, to pursue the friendship, and to go deeper in relationships and share what it means to be a Christian, one who chooses to follow Jesus.  So bring on the strangers, Lord Jesus.  We here in Antwerp stand ready to welcome them.  Because in welcoming them into our midst, we also welcome you."

It was an important opportunity ~ to pause to pray, to encourage one another in our journeys towards welcoming the stranger in our midst, and to share a cup of coffee and meet someone new in the English speaking world.  Today, I'm just thankful for the World Day of Prayer!

Fresh squeezed orange juice

Truth be known, an alternate title for this blogpost today could easily be:  winter survival strategy in Belgium. Back in January, I wrote about a grey, wintery, rainy drive to the airport. Today I'd like to share about a grey, wintery, rainy day.....oh, pick any day in the last 3 months! Just a few moments ago, while sitting in the chair at the dentist's office, I was surprised that the light that was shining quite brightly in my face (my eyes were closed because that's what I do best while sitting in the dentist chair, especially as he approaches you with a needle and several whining drills!) was not the overhead light needed by the dentist. It was, in fact, the sun bursting out for a blast of Vitamin D. Now, sitting at home, the sky is all clouded over again, and I'm actually appreciating the bluish tint to the grey as contrasted with the ever present green shrubs that line our street.

Winter is a tough season to experience in Belgium. When my husband decided to give me a citrus press for Christmas, it was an open invitation to bring some sunshine into my grey Belgian world. I'm amazed at God's provision of really good, sweet, juicy oranges during this season (okay,let's be honest: it's God's provision and modern day transport that brings the oranges up from Spain, since Belgium doesn't do oranges!)  I love the fact that I have to "work" a bit in order to get my freshly squeezed orange juice. It reminds me of God's good provision, of vitamins and how important they are for our health. I love the smell, the texture, the taste of these important vitamins. And yes, I am a pulp girl!

It is also a tough season for friends that we are befriending in our immigrant world here.  To be far from your homeland, limited in your ability to understand language and culture, not sure how to get around in this foreign land....our ladies often need a dose of encouragement when we meet together every week.  So, bring on the clementines (cuties, for you who are reading this in the USA).  We enjoy our vitamins together, we share the joy of friendship amidst the challenges of not having a common language.  We laugh together about language learning, and the difficult pronunciation of Flemish for tongues that are accustomed to speaking French, Arabic, and any of a host of other languages.  And when the snow comes, it's time to have a little bit of fun with that as well.  Being with someone who is having their first experience of snow is one of life's purest pleasures. It reminds me of my years in Congo and the Central African Republic, when we often would bring African friends into the kitchen to touch ice in the freezer in order to begin to understand how cold snow/ice really can be. Helping someone figure out how to bundle up for winter with layers brings me back to my childhood growing up in Chicago, where snow days were a regular part of the school year (as regular as teachers' strikes in Chicago).

These plants are "winter hardy" according to the garden specialists

Just some winter ramblings about the color grey, fresh squeezed orange juice, and sharing vitamins and life with new friends.  And just when you've had enough time to read this, and send me a word of encouragement (or a word of challenge to get over the winter slump), don't you just know.....the sun will come out in great abundance.  I long for that moment!

Being inconvenienced for the gospel

In order to best understand this post, you need to imagine yourself in this situation: It's winter in Belgium, which doesn't necessarily mean a cold winter or even a snowy winter (which is what this Chicago girl really looks for in winter!)  But it does mean a dark winter, and often wet and rainy, and for sure the color grey is involved in the winter mix.  Having lived in Belgium for 8 years now, I've accepted grey as my new favorite color and have even learned to appreciate the nuances in the color grey as it presents itself in my world here in the heart of Europe.  But don't add gray and/or rain to the mix when I need to get to the airport, especially to an airport that I'm not familiar with, and leaving in the dark at 5.45am from home!

This is the situation that I plunked myself into a couple of weeks ago, just after Christmas, as I was helping a new friend here transport her family back to the airport to return to their homeland. They had come to celebrate Christmas here in Belgium.  They had come to celebrate her big birthday.  They had come to celebrate love and family.  And anytime there's a celebration like that, it's always hard to say good bye.  Especially to say good bye in the dark.  And even worse, saying good bye in the dark and trying to be quiet so that we didn't wake the little boy who is still asleep in the apartment.  Trust me, this wasn't an easy morning.  And it was happening at 5.45am, to be precise.

As we continued south to the airport, I was at least 6,000 miles away, transported back to a morning worship service that we attended in MN.  The pastor, who was incorporating part of our story of working among people who are still waiting to know the truth about Jesus, gave a challenge to the congregation that morning.  I never figured that his words of challenge would accompany me all the way to the airport on that dark rainy morning here in Belgium.  Pastor's words:  be prepared to be inconvenienced for the Gospel.  God needs us all, those who claim to be followers of Jesus, to be willing to be kicked out of our comfort zones (or our beds on a cold wintery Saturday early morning!), to be inconvenienced for the Gospel.  This story rang true for me in a really unique way this past Christmas, as I finally "got it".  Mary, the mother of Jesus, was one who was inconvenienced for the Gospel.  There wasn't anything convenient about being a young woman engaged to be married, a virgin, and then showing up pregnant.  Yet she walked into that inconvenience for the sake of the Gospel, in order that Jesus would indeed be born into our world and become the Redeemer that God had promised a long time ago.  Somehow, my inconvenience at 5.45am going to the airport paled greatly in comparison.

Sweet end to this story:  my husband Steve decided to accompany me on the airport run, since I wasn't so sure of the route to get there and it was dark after all.  Between the gps, Steve navigating and a carload of passengers eager to get back to their homeland, the trip ended up being quite uneventful.  As we said our good byes (which was about the only word to say since both Steve and I don't speak any Bulgarian!), tears were shared.  I'm not sure what those tears meant, but they were speaking to this heart of mine that was pondering about being inconvenienced for the Gospel.

When we returned to Antwerp, I went back to my friend's apartment.  Her son was still sleeping (okay, by now it's light out, but it's still grey....because this is what Belgium does during the winter!)  We had time to share a hot cup of tea and reflected on all of the joy that had been celebrated in her tiny apartment during the last two weeks.  Her Christmas tree still lit up, her eyes sparkled as she remembered all the fun and laughter and people who came out to celebrate with her and her family for her big birthday.  And my heart was touched once again by what it means to be inconvenienced for the Gospel.  Sometimes it's living halfway around the globe, far from my own family and friends.  And sometimes it's just an airport run to help my new family and friends in the heart of Europe.

I'm already looking for the next chance to be kicked out of bed!