(Jan 7-13) Sunday, we visited Bethel Kirk. We had a hard time getting there. Our guide slept in and by the time we left we missed the bus. Karen from Zav Centre was going by car, so Tom Wilson and I hitched a ride while Heather and the kids stayed at the Centre and went to the service there. Bethel is a Flemish church in a primarily Turkish and Moroccan neighborhood. The sermon was on being salt and light. The congregation is a mixture of Flemish and Dutch. Pastor Gottlieb (Loved by God) is a Dutch immigrant who has been ministering to this church for 8 years. He is encouraging the congregation to reach out to their Muslim neighbors. We got a ride from Jonathan the youth pastor at Bethel. He graduated from Colorado Christian University (where Larry Crabb teaches) with a degree in youth ministry. He was excited about two young men who are taking on leadership within the group. Both pastors are bi-vocational. They work in the public schools, where each student is required to take one of five religious classes offered. Many evangelical pastors work in the public schools teaching Protestant kids, during the week and pastoring on the weekends.
This week’s training focused on cross-cultural leadership development, team dynamics, and Biblical strategies for handling conflict.
Thursday, Tom and I got on the bus on the way to Bethel Kirk. I looked at Tom and asked if he had the directions. He said, no I thought you had them. We should have gotten off and found the directions and phoned the missionary we were to meet. But instead we thought that we could find it on our own. We got off too early and wandered around for almost an hour and a half. We asked directions in an internet café and eventually found it. Then we passed out tracks and invitations to a church outreach in the rain. We had a great time eating at a Turkish restaurant. I had tripe soup and lamb on pita. The yogurt drink was fantastic.
Friday night, Tom and I went with the pastor and invited people to come to a meal at Bethel. He would go into a pub and invite everyone to come. Pastor Gotleib is very winsome. He coaxed several people out of the pub and into the church. One couple was just curious to know what a Protestant church believed. After the meal we brought the leftovers to the Brussels train station and handed it out to the homeless.
Saturday, the Danielson family, dear friends from Wichita who are currently living in England, visited. We spent the day in Ghent and saw a really cool castle built to keep out the Vikings.
Week of January 14-20
On Sunday, we missed our bus stop and ended up walking for an hour trying to find the church. Heather had to stop and nurse Elijah on the steps of a Moroccan bakery. The kids were hungry and tired so we sampled their flat bread and drank some yogurt drinks. By the time we got to the church we had three crying kids. The sermon had just as the sermon was underway and the nursery is on the other side of the sanctuary. The pastor stopped his sermon and said, “Jeff, why don’t you take your children to the crèche, eh?” We had to traipse down the center aisle, past the pulpit and into nursery. The congregation was very forgiving, but I had to swallow my pride. I have found that when you enter a new culture, you often feel helpless. I pray that God gives me a good sense of humor, because I am going to make a ton of mistakes.
This week we discussed a Biblical paradigm for understanding culture, how to deal with culture shock, and took some tests that showed our specific weaknesses in adapting to other cultures. Heather and I found this last exercise helpful in understanding how to love each other through this process.
Friday, Tom and I passed out tracks again. We got into some better discussion because we had a French interpreter with us. Heather and Theresa went to the red light district to invite the prostitutes to an outreach our church is having Friday the 26th. This deeply impacted Heather and has moved her to pray for these women. Please join her.
Saturday, we visited a family friend in Brugge. Kathleen and her husband, Diedier, live in a 16th century house within a beautiful medieval village. The kids loved exploring the “dungeon” of a basement and sleeping in the attic. We attended mass at the Holy Blood Basilica, where Kathleen sings in the choir and Diedier serves as a lay reader. We had some fascinating discussions about history and religion in Belgium. It helped me get an insiders view of Roman Catholicism.
