Saturday

Another day off to rest! Whew!

Ok, that’s not entirely accurate. There was very little rest.

Today the plan was to go into Bokrijk, their equivalent of our Colonial Williamsburg. And the plan required us to get an early start – earlier than usual! After so much physically-demanding labor all week and nights of less-than-adequate sleep, it was difficult to wake up for this, but we all did and are glad for it.

Bokrijk is a park where they have consolidated buildings and villages from areas of Belgium from many years ago – some back from the 1100s (a church we went into!). The architecture, building materials, and of course period-dressed employees of the park all contributed to the atmosphere of antiquity, as did some of the park workers in the buildings who were cooking or making yarn or doing various activities in the manner they would have been done way back in the day. It was pretty neat to see, and was also just a good time for the team to bond together some more along with our Belgian hosts who guided us through: Chris, Ivan and Vivianne.

Milt practiced his Dutch on the Baker in Bokrijk

He enjoyed talking to Milt so much he grabbed him for a picture.

After a short rest back at various hosts’ homes, we attended an outreach event that the Diepenbeek church had been sponsoring and promoting (and for which we had helped pass out several thousand flyers throughout Diepenbeek!). The event was competing against awesome weather and an important soccer game on T.V., but I believe that the event was a success in that we did see a couple of unbelievers there, at least one of which Eddie got to talk to about the bible and Jesus Christ and her eternal destination (oddly, she believes in reincarnation but she has no idea why she believes this). To pull unbelievers into an event like this would be difficult in America, too, but in Belgium I this is truly God’s work. Pray for those that attended that do not know Christ that they would consider the words of the message, the actions of the believers there, and be drawn to Christ.

Dr. Hank Gelling

The speaker seemed really good although it was hard to judge his message as it was in Flemmish but Eddie was very happy with it. Watching Dr. Henk Gelling speak even when you can’t understand him is really interesting, however, as he is an animated and expressive speaker, and you could see the audience connecting with him. The topic of his speech was how 2009 was the year of “angst” (fear) but 2010 could be the year of “hoop” (hope) – a hope found in Christ, of course.

Erin and Adry perform

Imagine our surprise when we read the flyer about Dr. Hank Gelling speaking... and there would be music provided by an American performer. Who's performing we ask? Oh! That's us! LOL. What would we have done if Erin hadn't been with us? She has a beautiful voice, and she and Adry, who played the guitar, chose a few songs and practiced for about 10 minutes in a hallway after the Zutendaal Bible study. And they pulled it together beautifully.

Milt and Val with Pasquale and his fiance

Milt shared the gospel with Pasquale at a Bible Study 6 months ago when Milt was visiting. Soon after Pasquale came to the Lord. He and his fiance (also a believer) came to hear Dr. Gelling speak and were able to visit with Milt and Val for a bit, too.

It is wonderful to me to see the hearts of the people here in the Belgium church so concerned about evangelism and reaching their friends, families (who don’t take kindly to their sons or daughters becoming Christians – we’re seen here kind of like a cult) and neighbors. It can be discouraging when you lose the perspective of who is really in control of things here, and who is responsible for the success of any of our work. Please lift up these soldiers of Christ in your prayers, to be encouraged, strengthened and renewed as they continue persevering here.