Winter-Comeback and Cooking School

Ten days ago, when I landed back in Brussels, I had expected to see first signs of spring instead of snow again. But I thought this should really mark the end of the winter now. Far from it! When I woke up last night around 1 AM, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this covering of snow. I learned that the last time that this happened in Belgium was in 1916! So how would the turnout for my cooking class be, which was planned for this morning?

This time, it didn't take place at my home, but in the basement of the church building. I teamed up with the Health Ministries leader of the French speaking church, a physician lady from Bulgaria. We decided to organize this class for both language groups: I would demonstrate some vegan recipes, and she would give a little health talk. There used to be cooking programmes in the past, and thus there is an oven and many utensils at our disposal.

As expected, some people who had signed up couldn't make it (because of the weather conditions and also for other reasons), but some showed up without notifying; so at the end there were six ladies participating. We had to improvise quite a bit, and of course the effort for me was much bigger than doing it at my home, having to bring a lot of things (especially the food items). However, the participants were very open and appreciative. Of course it's a challenge to organize a programme like this, because you never know how many people will come in the end. However, the feedback is always so rewarding; so I think we have to continue!

Anyway, now it's time for spring to come...

At the university premises - no, this wasn't taken in January,
but today, 24 March!

Readapting

I finally returned home this past Thursday almost uneventfully - except that they had accidentally routed my luggage via Amsterdam, and thus it did not arrive together with me; but thank God it could be retrieved.

In retrospect, I'm thankful for the trip, in spite of all the unplanned events. The invididual visits were short indeed, and I covered a lot of territory. It was good to see so many precious people - like Dr. Strachan in California who is still in a very bad condition two years after his car accident. I knew it would be hard for me to see him like this, and my heart goes out to him. Nevertheless. it was a blessing to visit, and I appreciated him smiling. It was also a nice to come to Eden Valley and Uchee Pines again, as well as to visit the Meyers in Monument Valley. I'm very impressed with their ministry; and I think it's great that they are going to start a lifestyle center there very soon.

Now I'm trying to get back into normal life, which has been a bit challenging, but I'm praying for the Lord's guidance and strength!

At the Golden Gate Bridge

With the Meyers 

The "teardrop" in Monument Valley - nice view!

Stuck in New York

The continuation of my journey has been interesting in many ways. My various visits were blessed, and I hope to be able to write more soon and also post some pictues. But right now I'm stuck in New York.

Everything seemed ok when I left at Ann-Marie's place in Arkansas yesterday morning. However, my flight from Minneapolis to New York couldn't leave on time. Due to bad weather conditions in New York, they would only allow a certain number of planes to land at a time. Thus, we actually boarded the machine and were sent off again twice (!) before it could finally take off. Crazy. The worst thing of course was that I didn't make my connecting flight to Brussels in the evening and there was no other alternative than waiting 24 hours for the next flight. So I'm sitting in my hotel room now and are about to get ready to go to the airport again. So how do you spend a whole afternoon at JFK airport? Well, I guess I will figure out...