Here I am, in a plane, high in the sky, somewhere between Qatar and Hong-Kong. When this blog gets online i hope to be laying in my bed in the Philipines. Last week we enjoyed a weekend with my parents. For the birthdays that had passed (and the bringing of my passport and Electronic ID cards) they decided to hop by. We ate sushi together with the students and they saw us in action during ‘IABC got talent’. Also walking and going to eat spareribs to celebrate the birthdays was part of the weekend. Saying goodbye stays difficult. Luckey we will see each other again in about six weeks. The remainder of the week was all preparation for the mission trip. It is a lot of organisation, a mission trip. I’m curious about how it will be. I’m very aware it will not mainly be about making the difference in the life of the people there, but more about the change it will make in our life. We can help the people who are already helping, but when we leave, they will still be there. We will return to a comfortable home with a shower, toilet and bed. They will stay living on a pile of garbage, a place...
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In a week and 6 days, we’ll leave for the Philippines! It is getting very close now. Each and every one of our group got responsibility over a specific part of the trip. My part: music and worship. Awesome, right? This means that I have to lead our Mission Class Worship Team, making sure that things sound good and that we can bring some kind of finished product. Last weekend we got the opportunity to try out playing together in a church setting. In Christiansfeld (a village a little further) people had organized an evening of prayer. We got together in a church like building; approximately 75 people were there. In the end of the evening we would get the chance to sing some songs together. We were supposed to bring a computer with the lyrics and the chords on paper for ourselves. When we arrived there, we discovered not only that the key to the building was lost, but we also realized that we only brought one set of chords, that there was only 9% battery left on the iPad and that we forgot the computer for the lyrics. In other word: one big disaster. Luckily we did have one set of the chords, so we could play....
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And then there was another … Boot Camp! Unfortunately this time no biking but hard core walking. The theme of the week was “Dry Bones” and this had some implications for our journey. As we were ready to leave Moïse gave small speech and explained what our goals for the coming days were. We were going to walk 30 km (which wasn’t too much in my opinion) and this without eating and drinking the lunch we prepared just before he started his speech. That way we could train ourselves in keeping our faith based on our character. So, divided in groups of 5 having a pretty decent map and the above average noise our group left at 9:20 AM to our destination. GPS turned on and there we went. The members of my group were Caressa, Luca, Mara and Loise. After walking for about an hour my left foot started to feel painful because I just did not have any decent shoes to wear. Around lunch time everyone started to feel his or her empty stomach (except for Luca, he already ate with the excuse: “A sandwich like this would be a waste to throw away”, a saying from his grandmother). At some point we decided to sit down...
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When life is though and it seems like there is no way out, God always has a way to pull us through. When we have the sense that we’re stuck and that problems are closing in more and more – He can still open up the way for us. He made a way for the Israelites: He opened the sea so that they could walk right through it. When the Egyptians followed them, pharaoh and army included, God swept them away at the right moment. On that day God’s people got saved, they could be free. God wants to open up the sea for us; He wants to drown our fears, for us to be filled with His love and joy. God made a way through the sea for the Israelites in Exodus 14, they could enter freedom. Today, God made a way through His Son Jesus Christ, towards Himself (John 3:16). We can be free of fear, loneliness and uncertainties, because in Jesus we have love, peace, joy, freedom and so much more. We can step into relationship with the Father again; He cares about us and loves us. We can be His children. Isn’t that awesome? We have God Himself as a father, the one for whom...
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Teaching, an extra-long FITN (until 3am), Mr. B, a seminar about God’s love… A lot of things waiting for us, a lot of things to do, but it was a very good week. Monday and Tuesday I was responsible for SEEK. This week’s theme: the Love of the Father. God gave His Son, so that the way to Him would be open again. Isn’t that awesome? Our Father in Heaven gave the best He had, to show us how much He loves us. Because that’s what he does, whatever we do, nothing can make His love grown stronger or weaker for us. He loves us with every love that He has, and since He is love (1 John 4:16), He literally gave Himself for us. I still can’t contain how immense this is. The question we can ask: What do we give back to Him? The Fire in the Night and seminar on Saturday had the same theme: love. For the FITN we asked the students to prepare a devotional; a short scripture from the Bible, applied to your personal life. This time the students had to add a prayer topic to it, in order for all of us to work with it. What a night! I enjoyed it...
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Holiday is over; the last part of the school year has started. Let’s get started again! Mom and Roeline left for Belgium again on Monday morning, and I had to start working for school again: preparing a SEEK and writing a book review. It was Easter Monday, so I didn’t do more than that. The sun was shining, so we decided to go out for a walk. Ice cream has to be a part of it. Only, since it was Easter Monday, all the shops were closed. Easter is celebrated more intensely here than in Belgium. The shops were closed from Thursday till Monday; well some of them were open on Saturday luckily. Since a few weeks we have Mission Class on Wednesday evenings. We talked about fund raising and what we could do there, or more: what do we want to do there? After a time of brainstorming, the following things came to mind: music, teaching, preaching and children. Probably these will be the main point of interests during the trip. Next Wednesday we’ll talk some more about it. Fire in the Night was also part of the program again this week. Being together with God, having time of worship and prayer… Every time I enjoy it to...
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