I was a different person then

“It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.” -Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

What a great short quote from a classic old story.  It gives me something to ponder on as we approach a life changing transition: from life and ministry in Belgium to getting back to the US for a period of connecting and reconnecting and prayer and discernment with the ever present call on our lives to return to Europe to work together alongside a local church working among refugees.

Love the women that God brings into my world

My friends have changed over the years ~

But my thoughts today are related to who I was yesterday, even as I embrace who I am today and look forward to who I will be, the one that God is molding for His glory and service.  I’ve been thinking in recent days, about who I was when I came to Belgium in 2004.  I was fresh out of Africa, a new bride, and moving to Belgium with the intention of staying for a while.  (Random little side note here:  I had lived in Belgium on two other occasions, in 1997 for a 8 months of French study in Brussels, followed by studies at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp; and then again in 1995 for a refresher course to update my French before I went back to Congo/Zaire as a long term missionary nurse.)  

When we got engaged in June 2004

So I love Belgium!  I love Belgians!  I love my church, the Antwerp International Protestant Church www.aipchurch.org   And I love my God!

When we arrived in 2004, we were in love ~ we were in an exciting period of life ~ building a team together, as Steve pastored the church and I worked alongside volunteers in the church who were sharing their lives with refugees, the new immigrants that were arriving in our neighborhood, the “new Belgians”.  (Actually, that’s a phrase that we picked up from our visit to Malmo, Sweden earlier this spring.   The Swedes call the new immigrants and refugees “new Swedes”, and that has such a lovely spirit of inclusion about it.)  And we were twelve years (count ‘em!) younger than we are right now!

One of our first times experiencing the beautiful flowers of Belgium

Our flowers at home when we came back in summer 2012

We have seen God’s hand at work.  He has grown His church.  He has brought people to the truth about Jesus while they share in our midst. God has grown the faith of our children through many vacation Bible school songs and Bible lessons and oodles and oodles of kids’ crafts!  He has healed many, opened eyes, broken down walls of separation and brought restoration to families and couples.  God has also called some of His children home during our time here, a reflection on the babes that were called home to Jesus way too young and on the death of the oldest member of AIPC, who also was a charter member of the congregation, a day short of her 91^st birthday this week.

So, indeed, it’s true, it’s no use going back to yesterday, or a bazillion yesterdays (that word, bazillion, is in honor of my friend and missionary colleague Aleta Danforth who taught me that word during our years together in the Central African Republic).  Because I was a different person then.  And so were the people in my midst….we were all different then. 

The one remaining faithful unchanging element in my life:  God!

God hasn’t changed.

He’s still faithful.

He’s still the same as yesterday (or a bazillion yesterdays!)

And He’s still holding on to our future.

Which is a good thing.

Because I know that tomorrow I will be a different person than who I am today.

And every tomorrow that awaits me.

Embrace who you are today.  In anticipation of who you can be for God’s glory tomorrow!

And by the way….we’re still in love, Steve and I.  And we’re still in an exciting time of life, even as we prepare for God to direct us to our new place of ministry in Europe in 2017.

Definite evidence that I am a changed person in my years here in Belgium ~

Going back home

Today I had a rather surreal experience while reading the newspaper on the train.  There was an article about a chartered flight full of refugees who were voluntarily returning to their homeland.  I stopped in the middle of my reading, knowing that I knew two of the 100 passengers on that plane.  I have heard about and read about the voluntary repatriation program here for many years already.  But I had never known anyone who actually took the flight home.  And back to the land of XXX, where the fighting and violence that we see on the evening news is the day to day reality on the street.

My friend Sarah.                  

Her son Nick.                                   

                

We went out for coffee one afternoon and that's when she opened up and told me her story.  How when her husband had been kidnapped and they thought that he was already dead, she looked up their home and fled with her two children and son in law.  They took a truck ride. Then on foot. Then a boat trip. Then walked again for three days before finally arriving in my neighborhood.  I still remember the first time I met her teenage son.  It was last summer 2015 during one of our afternoon kids' clubs.  He had such a vibrant smile, and spoke English very well, which totally worked for us because no one on our ministry team that day was speaking Arabic.  I remember thinking what a nice young kid, so helpful with translating and just hanging out with the little kids.  Imagine how much fun it was to connect the dots and realize who his mom was when we started our weekly women's clubs in the fall.

Sarah quickly became one of my dearest friends. Perhaps it's because we are similar in age.  Perhaps it's her gentle spirit.  Her warm smile was always a welcome sight as we would arrive on a Thursday afternoon to visit with the women.  When we started the calendar project in 2016 (where the women decorate twelve monthly templates to a make a calendar so that they can learn the months of the years, days of the week and their numbers), I knew that we would have to find another project for Sarah. She was already on the list to be on that plane to return home, and so learning Januari tot en met December,, maandag tot en met vrijdag wasn't an important priority.  I found a small book that we decorated together as a memory book, and filled it with photos of her new friends here in Belgium....my photo was included in the mix.

The women that God has brought into my world...

Embracing diversity ~ it has to be a part of our lives!

We often shed tears together with the women here, as we develop relationships of trust that then allows them to open up and share details of their life and faith journeys. Sarah came one afternoon and was just bursting with joy.  She had received a phone call from XXX...her husband was alive!  We squealed with delight as we hugged and kissed each other.  God had heard our prayers! But then came the pronouncement: "I'm going home, Barbara, to find my husband".  No surprise there, in the sense that I have seen her radiant face when she talks about her husband or when she shows me all the photos from earlier days when life was good in their world.  I realized then in that moment that a person will go to great lengths to be reunited with the one they love.

So I prayed for Sarah and Nick today.  I prayed for their safe passage back to XXX. I prayed for a sweet and tender reunion with husband and father.  I prayed for a way out of their uncertain future.  And I thanked God for the gift of friendship that goes beyond cultural, religious and language barriers.     

Many colors, many faces, all needing a Savior ~