A trip back in time

The title to this blogpost could also read:  A visit to the capital city of Europe (a.k.a. Brussels, Belgium).  But a trip back in time more accurately reflects what happened on our recent day off.  Read on please!

Steve and I enjoy hopping on the train at our local train station, Ekeren, and filling out the train pass that for 7,60euros (about $10) allows us to travel anywhere in the country.  This is a really good travel deal, but on this particular Sabbath day (our day off), we opted to drive down to Brussels.   Steve had another treat in store for me that evening, a birthday surprise that included an evening with Michael Card in concert.  Michael Card happens to be my favorite Christian artist, who really speaks to my soul through his music and amazing knowledge of God’s Word, the Bible.  So onward and southward did we trek to Brussels, which happens to be the capital city of Belgium, also the capital city of Europe (much of the European Union offices and branches of the government have offices in Brussels).  It also happens to be the city where I first landed in Europe as I prepared to journey outside the USA in 1987.

On this day in March 2014, we went to my old neighborhood.  Funny, I thought, that in the almost 10 years that we’ve been here in Belgium, we have never found time to get down to my old “stomping grounds”, where I first landed and studied French for 8 months and then completed the course in tropical medicine for nurses at the Institut de Medecine Tropicale d’Anvers.  Little did I know 27 years ago that Anvers (French for Antwerp) would be such an important city in my journey abroad.  Back then, in 1987, Anvers was just the city up north that I traveled to every day for 6+ months to learn about diseases that I would see and treat on a daily basis in Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) and later in the Central African Republic.  In 2004, Antwerp became my new honeymoon home when I married Steve and we came to serve at the Antwerp International Protestant Church (AIPC).

My first apartment is just beyond the little blue building behind me 

IFCAD, that famed institute of French language study for so many of us in 1987

Where I landed well, complete with a room with an amazing view of the garden

AIPC, where the campus of a school becomes holy ground on Sundays

Anvers, Antwerpen, Antwerp....whatever you call it,  I call it "home"

The old neighborhood has changed ~ but then, don’t all old neighborhoods change?  Or perhaps it’s me that has changed.  I’m an older, and hopefully wiser, version of the Barbara that arrived in ’87.  The French school is still there.  The flower shop is still there, and the café where I had my first coffee with my French teacher, Mme. Vermaelyn.  The public phone booth that I used in January 1987 to phone my family to wish them a Merry Christmas (my family celebrates Orthodox Christmas together each year, a part of my father’s Serbian Orthodox heritage), is no longer there.  It’s now a bus stop.  We even found the home where I lived, and I found myself thankful for the family that welcomed me into their home and gave me shelter as a young student.  There are loads of fun memories in that place.

1987 in Belgium was a year of homesickness for me in many ways.  But it was my first year in journeying with God and understanding that He goes with me on every leg of the journey.  He is faithful to provide everything that I need, whether it be a family to welcome me, a place to study to be better equipped for His service, and protection and provision along the journey.

And sometimes, just sometimes, God even provides joy in the journey, and that for me was so evident at the end of this joyful day remembering His goodness.  Bonus:  my soul was totally fed by the words and music of Michael Card.  It was truly a day of Sabbath rest.

Good things happen when we choose to honor Sabbath.

How goes it with your Sabbath journey?

Birthday fun

My apologies in advance.....this is another post that got written in March 2014, right after my birthday celebration, but then got stuck in the "to post" file for several weeks.  The story is still one of my favorites.  And my artist friend is well on her way to creating beauty in our midst.


“I like my town but I can’t say exactly what I like about it. I don’t think it’s the smell. I’m too accustomed to the monuments to want to look at them. I like certain lights, a few bridges, café terraces. I love passing through a place I haven’t seen for a long time."
- Georges Perec, Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, “The Town”
 

I stumbled across this quote several months ago and decided even then that it really needed one day to show up on my blog.  I like Antwerp, I like Belgium, I even like Brussels (on a limited basis....and there will be a future blogpost on a recent visit to the capital city of Belgium and Europe).  It's not the smell that I like. In fact, the smell and pollution and poor air quality of Belgium, particularly Antwerp and northern Belgium, was big news yesterday when we were under a smog alert and had to limit access to using our cars and if driving, speed was severely limited, especially on highways.  I'm not so accustomed to the monuments down in Antwerp city, so I do enjoy looking at them.  I do enjoy some of the bridges and outdoor cafes, especially now that the sun has been out for the last week and the temps in the 70's so people are out and enjoying a coffee or other beverage.  I do indeed love passing through a place that I haven't seen for a long time.

But what I love even more than all this, is enjoying a day with a friend and a chance to celebrate!  And celebrate is exactly what we did....in great fashion....together....in the city.... with the sun warming our faces and our hearts.  We've been on a journey together since our first meeting on Easter Sunday 2013, when she clearly let us know that though she was visiting us on Easter, she wasn't interested in just another religion.  End of story.  Except that her comment actually becomes the cornerstone of her journey.  For indeed, she is well on her way to seeing miracles in her midst ~ as we've prayed together, studied together, fasted together, eaten all kinds of lovely meals together, played together, worshipped our risen Jesus together.  And most recently enjoyed a fun trip to an art supply store together.

Love the delivery truck holding up traffic for the drop off at the corner halal butcher shop

One artist, well equipped and ready to go!

A place that we were told to fear has now become a place of safety

Although on some days it may be about the monuments or the sunshine or the shopping, on all days it's about the gift of friendship, of lessons learned together, of being on a journey towards God and holding the hand of another as they too look to the beauty of creation and birthdays.

Memorable birthday 2014 ~ even in these advancing years!