Zondag
(Sunday)

If you have never had the chance to worship with a room full of people from another language and culture, you are missing out on a wonderful experience. This morning in church some songs were in Flemmish and completely new, others were songs we sing but they were doing them in Flemmish. We sang Shout to the Lord with the Diepenbeek congregation singing in Flemmish and we sang in English all together. It may sound confusing, but it was beautiful. Revelation tells us that people from every tribe and tongue will be worshiping around the throne, and I think we heard a little of what that will be like, you don’t want to miss that!

Don Preaches

Don preached this morning from Ephesians 2:1-10 and 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 showing us that God wants to use everyday people to do His work… and asking: Are we available to God to be used? When God speaks to my heart to do something, do I do it? He also looked at how sin can break that communication with God, but confession restores it. The sermon was very well received, our hosts Eddie and Gaby told us it was a very good and encouraging message. More moving to them was that even though Valare was translating for Don as he went, Eddie and Gaby didn’t need the translation at all. They said they understood Don clearly with no effort… their English is good, but their understanding was effortless when Don was teaching. Our God is powerful.

Sheri giving her testimony

Sheri also shared a testimony during the preaching of a time that God was prompting her to be baptized and she obeyed – even though she didn’t like the idea of speaking in front of people (which earned a chuckle from the group) or the idea of going underwater. But God used Sheri’s obedience to cause a child she babysat to ask her parents questions about baptism, and then bring her to the Lord one evening. It was beautiful, and two women commented to me after the service what a moving example it was. Simple obedience and God moves in powerful ways.

Erin and Don join the Praise Team

An innocent request was made of our team to choose a worship song to end with, and we all turned to Erin to choose. However, that was quickly followed with requests for Erin to join the praise team! She and Don both joined in for Open the Eyes of My Heart and did a great job. The church truly enjoyed as much of our participation as they could get.

Picnic!

This evening we also had the long awaited picnic! It was a LOT of fun. There was kickball, wiffleball, soccer, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, jump-rope, face painting, gospel-bracelet making, singing of American classics (video hopefully coming soon – it was a hoot!)… and over half the crowd we had were people from the neighborhood who just came to check out the crazy Americans. It was great to put some of the neighborhood in contact with the Diepenbeek church, and I know I was able to share the gospel with a young girl and a woman who came – I’m sure others in the group did also. Who knows how God will use this for His glory?

Don jumped in to mow the grass for the sports area... only after this picture did we learn that it is against the law to mow the lawn on Sunday! Oops!

Sheri is 1st base coach for one of our younger kickball players.

Jim and a new neighborhood friend talk Euro design and coin collecting.

Sheri's eager audience for hand-painting. The older seated girl was translating for her and was very helpful.

Our kickball power kicker.

Our Soccer Game

The music for the day... they were really enjoying it, and so was the crowd.

But once again, I am tired and signing off, more Werk aan de Kerk tomorrow! Keep the prayers coming we are joyfully serving and want to keep using every opportunity He gives us.