De Volgende Halte Is Diepenbeek

Let me first beg your indulgence. I am currently operating on 2 days with less than 3 hours sleep... and working on an AZERTY (as in not a QWERTY) keyboard for the first time in my life. My early warning system sits beside me with his eyes half closed attempting to help me avoid too many horrible typos.

We have all safely arrived in Belgium! Aside from one comedian check in agent telling us that my (Megs) passport wasn't working because it was stolen - it wasn't but he was really convincing for a moment - and almost not moving fast enough getting off the train in Diepenbeek, it was a smooth trip.


Before boarding our plane we huddled in the seats for a few minutes of prayer to get started right. Unfortunately, something shiny off camera distracted Hugh and Scott. :-) Just kidding, just poor candid shot timing.

During the flight, Don struck up conversation with Alex in the seat beside him, and found Alex is a brother in Christ. Someone has a picture of Alex and Don that I will try to post soon. Be praying for Alex as he heads back to Africa, home to family.

Once we arrived in Belgium we had to exit the plane onto the tarmac. So I snapped the above picture of our first moments on Belgium soil before airline personnel waved at me frantically forbidding further picture taking. Apparently Don was so excited he broke out in dance (he is obviously doing "The Robot"). Or that could have been the aforementioned candid photo timing.

Once inside and uneventfully through customs we were greeted by Eddie and Vivianne. we had a little time before we had to grab our train, so we stopped for our first Belgium coffee. It was moments after this photo was taken that Don, who has never been in Europe before, announced "I know that guy!" and strode over to greet someone walking by through the airport. He is somehow connected to CBC, but I didn't catch the name. What a wild coincidence!

We did catch our train, and had a short time between connections in Louven (above) and were able to take a short, brisk walk with Eddie as our guide. As we continued on to Diepenbeek Don engaged a woman in coversation who was sitting in the midst of our group. She was quick to tell us she was Catholic, and in the same breath tell us she doesn't believe in Heaven or Hell or creation. She was however very friendly and open to talking. She got to hear that God created her and loves her and the Bible says that Jesus is the only way to a relationship with that God. She didn't realize those things were in the Bible. According to our hosts this nominal Catholicism that doesn't actually believe - or know - much biblically is the norm in Belgium.

Besides all of that today has been a 'down' day, giving us some time to recover from the trip. Scott and I have already had two very good meals with our hosts Eddie and Gaby (pictured above with their son Johann and his family), a couple of good conversations already, and a beautiful walk around their village.

I've already kept my spell check up too long, so we are signing off now. Keep the prayers coming.