In Memoriam of Erich Höllein

This past Thursday, my grandfather would have turned 90. This had actually been one of his goals; as he loved life - especially after his retirement in 1986.

In the summer of 2008, when he was admitted to the hospital because of a quite aggressive and fast developing type of cancer, he said to the doctor: "I would like to live three more years!" They were discussing how they should proceed with treatments, but I'm so thankful that they never even had the opportunity to start chemotherapy on him. He went to his rest during the night of July 14 of 2008 - while I was waiting to board my plane at the airport in Denver, Colorado. I was volunteering at Eden Valley that summer, and a couple of days before, I was told that grandfather was dying. It was a traumatizing experience. I remember getting out of the train at the railway station in my home city. I had only expected my father to pick me up, but it turned out a whole delegation waiting for me, as my aunt and uncle were also present. Then my aunt shared the bad news with me. Well, I found comfort in the Lord. Maybe it was actually the best that could have happened (question is if he had recognized me at all if I had come a few hours earlier). At least he knew that I was on my way, and he was looking forward to seeing me. And he was also looking forward to the "new Heaven and the new Earth", as pointed out in Revelation 21. This made me think about resurrection morning; when the dead in Christ will wake up from their sleep. I will have to make sure to find him quickly then!

Grandfather was a believer, however he didn't talk much about it with others (indeed, this topic has always been kind of a taboo in my family). I remember at about age 19, when I was a baby Christian and didn't know anything about the Adventist church yet, I once spent a few days with my grandparents at their vacation appartment in the Black Forest. On Sunday, I wanted to go to the Lutheran church in this small village, and since grandfather was Lutheran, he would come with me (grandmother is Catholic, so she would attend her church in the meantime). I remember an interesting question the pastor asked the congregation that morning: "Would you like your sins to be forgiven?" It came as a surprise to me, because a Lutheran pastor wouldn't usually ask such questions to their flock (they would rather tell them: "All your sins are forgiven now" or something like that), so I was hesitant to give an answer - all the more Germans are not really used to interacting with the pastor or whoever is speaking up front at church. However, my grandfather affirmed loud and clearly: "Yes".

Anyway, the experience of losing him taught me a very important lesson, i. e. that we should never take things for granted. If you say good-bye to somebody close to you today (no matter who that person is or in what kind of health condition they are in), how can you know that you will ever see them again? When I came for a visit from the US in the summer of 2007, I had no clue that this would be the last opportunity to see my grandfather alive. When we departed, I was sure I would see him the following year when I would come visit again. Well, I did get to see him, but his body was cold, and he couldn't see me anymore.

The very last picture I took of both of my grandparents in the summer of 2007
during my last visit in Germany before grandfather got ill

Yesterday, grandmother turned 87. I'm so thankful how she has been able to cope after this loss. They had been married for 63 years after all, so in the beginning it must have been really difficult for her. Nevertheless, she is doing just great considering her age.

My grandfather's death was the second loss in my family that I experienced. In 1990, it was my great grandmother who went to sleep (also due to cancer). Another dear person I look forward to seeing again.

Indeed, the more people pass away whom I have appreciated, the more I look forward to Heaven. As difficult it may be to lose them for a time, the happier the reunion will be on that great day when we all meet again!

Now this hymn comes into my mind:

1. Sing the wondrous love of Jesus,
   Sing His mercy and His grace;
   In the mansions bright and blessed
   He’ll prepare for us a place.
   • Refrain:
     When we all get to heaven,
     What a day of rejoicing that will be!
     When we all see Jesus,
     We’ll sing and shout the victory!
2. While we walk the pilgrim pathway,
   Clouds will overspread the sky;
   But when trav’ling days are over,
   Not a shadow, not a sigh.
3. Let us then be true and faithful,
   Trusting, serving every day;
   Just one glimpse of Him in glory
   Will the toils of life repay.
4. Onward to the prize before us!
   Soon His beauty we’ll behold;
   Soon the pearly gates will open;
   We shall tread the streets of gold.

On my way home from the bridal shower...

...I got completely lost. There was construction work on part of the main metro route, and already on my way to the bridal shower, I had to leave the metro, go upstairs and enter the metro bus (which took us to the next metro station), go downstairs and finish my trip with the metro until the terminus.

On the way back home, I went together with Rona and another young lady. It was already dark when we went upstairs to take the metro bus. Then I realized that I might as well walk the rest home. I was aware that it might take me a little longer then by public transport, but I felt I needed a walk. So I said good-bye to them and off I went. However, I somehow lost my orientation - I had thought I knew where I was going, but in the darkness, the surroundings often appear differently. Thus, I ended up at some pre-metro stop far away from my home. So I decided to just take the tram from there, which would take me to a metro stop (from where I could easily get home). Well, it turned out a rather long trip, and I only got home around 10:45 PM - way past my bedtime!

Nevertheless, this was an opportunity for me to observe people. Fortunately, I had my MP3-Player with me, so I could listen to spiritual music and didn't have to listen to what was going on at this time of the evening. Usually I'm safe and secure in my bed after 9 PM. I really can't say that I felt comfortable amongst all these nighthawks. After all, when it gets dark, the moral declines, and people behave differently. However, it was very interesting to observe the people who where on the go on this Sunday evening: There were the Europeans for example: people from all the different EU (and non-EU) countries, speaking all these languages, which I sometimes cannot identify. Then the black people of course - mainly from Africa, but also from the Caribbean. Another group are the Muslims (mainly from North Africa) - the group of people amongst which I feel the least comfortable here in Brussels. To the Muslim men, European women are prostitutes. Yes, that's a fact. After all, in our Western society, it's absolutely normal (and expected) to have premarital sex (you are not normal if you wait until you get married). In many Muslim countries, a woman can be killed by her family members if she fornicates before she gets married. In Turkey, they still practise this, although it's prohibited by law - so no wonder why we don't want to have them join the EU. So for a Muslim man, the Western women are the ones they can "practise" with. Of course, this doesn't apply to every male Muslim living in Brussels - nevertheless, I don't feel comfortable amongst them.

Muslim lady at the bus stop - she was actually wearing a veil
which fully covered her face. In fact, they recently
prohibited these veils in Brussels

Anyway, it was an interesting evening experience. And again, one of my most burning questions came up:

"Who is going to tell all these people about Jesus?"

In Habakkuk 2:11, it says:

"For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it."

I hope the stones in Brussels won't have to cry. May the Lord qualify the called in order to finish the work in the capital of Europe.

Rona's Bridal Shower

While living in the US, I only once got to attend a baby shower, which I really enjoyed. On Sunday, I attended my first bridal shower. There is a young couple getting married in our church; she is from the Philippines, and he is from Madagascar (what a mixture), and they are going to exchange vows on September 11 (what a date). It was the very first bridal shower ever held within the English speaking church in Brussels. A sister, who is originally from Chile, organized this event. Her husband is American and works for the NATO, and that's why they are currently in Brussels. She obviously got to appreciate the American traditions while living over there - like I have.

We still had a church board meeting in the morning, which turned out quite long (by the way, we have a new pastor, but this is a different story!). Arrived at home, I needed to eat and take care of some other things, so I was late for the bridal shower. They were just about doing the part when individuals had to give advice to the wife to be. It was almost finished, but they also wanted me to contribute (from my rich experience, haha). So I had to destroy a balloon, in which was a slip of paper. On it, the question was asked whether I agree that respect is important in a good marriage. This somehow reminded me of a saying that I shared with them: "A man wants to be admired - a woman wants to be loved.", and I told them that it implied to me that a man also would like to be respected by his wife. Some of the married women immediately agreed with me - to some others it was a new thought. Most of the about 15 women present at the event were married by the way - some of them divorced and remarried, one widowed, and besides me, only two were never married.

After supper, it was time for the bride to open the gifts. About 50% of the attendees where from the Philippines. Bridal showers are also a tradition over there, so many of the attendees already had lots of experience with these kind of events. In fact, Rona told me it's a custom there (amongst secular people) to present a box with a naked man who is then supposed to seduce the wife to be. How terrible!

Anyway, Rona started opening the gifts, and it turned out that at least ten of the sisters had bought her some kind of lingerie. In my innocence, I hadn't even thought about the option to give her something like this (well, at least now she doesn't have to invest in such items anymore!). We were just asked to bring something special for her. In fact, I was the only one who gave her a "spiritual" gift, i. e. a beautiful CD with German and English Christian songs that I had acquired at our camp meeting. But when she held up the CD, they all assumed it was something for the wedding night! So I needed to clarify that this was definitely not meant for this occasion! I told them how much blessed I had been with these songs, and I emphasized in particular one German song on that CD, of which I shared the translation of the chorus:

From Your mouth, I can hear the most beautiful love song,
At your ear, I can say what the soul touches,
At your hand, I can fall and You lift me up,
At Your table, my hunger shall be satisfied.

Isn't that beautiful? I even found it on YouTube. Unfortunately, the recordings there are all with drums. This is the softest one I found: Click here.

Another question was whether a husband should be perfect. All the ladies said: "Nobody is perfect", but I vetoed that he should at least strive to be perfect. Well, the next question was: "Perfect in what way?" So another lady said: For example spiritually, or physically. Then another sister said: "Ok, spiritually, I understand - but how can he become perfect physically?" I suggested by exercising and eating a good diet. I think this is a challenge for most of the husbands of the ladies who were present at the shower.

The bride to be opening presents

The CD which is not for the wedding night

One of the African sisters was very thoughtful to give Rona this modest apparel,
as the bride is going to meet her African father-in-law very soon!

Food is ready. A wide variety of dishes: from vegetarian spring rolls
to burned chicken wings

This is the only piece of lingerie that I dared taking a picture of ... Cute, isn't it?

To be continued...

Wow!

It's almost midnight now and I'm sitting in my living room. One of the heaviest thunderstorms I've ever seen is coming down. It's raining cats and dogs. Thank God I woke up about around 11:30, since my bedroom window is wide open and the rain already began to wet my bedroom floor.

I was rather going to post this blog on Sunday evening, but I've changed my mind. A daughter of a friend of mine sometimes calles her posts "TMI" ("too much information"), and this is exactly my experience these days: So many things happening. What shall I share, what shall I keep? Ok, here goes:

The Sabbath day was just lovely. It was very warm with blue sky and sunshine. What a treat! My time at church was interesting. Not that we had a particularly interesting sermon. In fact, I left the sanctuary before it even started, as there was a sound problem and my ears couldn't handle it anymore. Furthermore, I still have some challenge sitting for a long time, as I had to get some chiropractic treatments last week. Just the day before I left for vacation, I had another show-down (a very bad one) with my deputy head of unit. This really had an impact on my back. Of course it didn't get much better while I was at camp meeting, and since I had to wait until I was back to Brussels ten days later, this didn't make things any better. However, I'm almost restored by now.

Anyway, back to church: I decided to go downstairs and take a peak into our French-speaking church. Another boring sermon was presented there. So I stepped outside on the street, and there was one of our Philippino ladies talking to a Flemish brother, who is maybe in his late 50's. He is divorced and looking for a good wife. The sister had strong doubts about the feasibilty of finding a good wife. She is also divorced, but remarried to an American who was baptized in another denomination. She said, after her divorce, the one and only important thing to her was that her future husband would believe in God. Sadly, they never got any marriage counseling. Thus, there were a few things that surprised her after they got married, for example that he was (and still is) a smoker. In fact, he had lied to her about it. Nevertheless, he comes often with her to church (whenever he doesn't have to work on Saturday), and he seems to be quite open.

In the meantime, the service at the French speaking church was over and they started serving cakes and other sweets, as well as coca-cola. I asked the elder what was going on, and he said that they just had a child dedication and this was to celebrate it. Aha. Then I went upstairs for our church potluck and when I saw one of the little boys drinking the ice tea that was served, it dawned on me why many of our children have such an attention deficit and are so hyperactive. It's really high time to have a health emphasis week at our church!

Ok, the storm is almost over by now, however it's still raining cats and dogs and it starts to drop into my fire place. But maybe at some point I will get back to sleep!

Rhineland Project

Yesterday, I had to head back to Brussels after spending some wonderful days at the "Rhineland Project", the medical-missionary short-term school I had mentioned in my previous blog. This project is taking place in a huge mansion house (a former boarding school, but now an apartment house), situated in a beautiful small town in the Westerwald region of Germany (about one hour from Cologne). In fact, it's only about half an hour away from the place where our camp meeting was held, so I could actually have gone there directly from there! We had lovely weather most of the time, and I wish it had been like this at camp meeting as well.

The project is such a blessing. The initiative and realization of it has been done by a brother who normally works as an architect. Jens attended Meet Ministry in Tennessee a while back, and ever since he is applying what he has learned by organizing all kinds of projects to train new (medical) missionaries. When I shared this with a friend in the US, she said: "Dr. Jackson would be proud" (that's the leader at Meet Ministry). Indeed, the knowledge that is received in these institutions by people from various cultural backgrounds is literally being applied all over the globe. I remember when I first came to Uchee Pines, there was this young pastor from Hungary who originally wanted to stay only about three months to improve his English. Well, he ended up doing the whole 18-months training, and now he is doing a great work in his home country.

The highlight was the health expo on Sunday afternoon. We invited the whole neighborhood. Although not too many "outsider" people came, it was fun teaching the eight laws of health to the church members and as well to a few non-Adventists.

What follows are some picture impressions, but it would be too much to post all the nice ones I have. I think I will post more on Facebook.

The mansion house - we actually used only two apartments and the  ground floor

Left: Vojta from Czech Republic preaching - Right: Jens interpreting

Kitchen duty

Health Expo: "Information & Massage"

I was banned outside with my "Air" booth. Hilarious! In fact, they only asked me  two hours before it started whether I would be willing to help out...

A curious little boy from the neighborhood

How to exercise properly

James from the US - specialist in cutting trees - quite impressive how he was able to climb this huge  one

And this is how the tree looked afterwards - good job!

Morning exercise

Headed where?

Amougies

Today was my first day at work after vacation. The weekend retreat with my local church was a wonderful experience. The place we stayed at is about one hour from Brussels, and it's in the middle of nowhere - as far as this is possible in this densely populated country.

It was such a blessing, although it wasn't very well organized. The African sister who used to be in charge stepped back, and the others just didn't manage without her coordinating everything. Plus our pastor has been busy packing his container for Canada, so he couldn't really take care of things. But I took it with humour. On Sabbath, the weather was absolutely perfect. I enjoyed every minute in the sunshine. Indeed, this was a compensation for all these cool and rainy days in the last few weeks. It was a true gift of God, because today, it's cool and rainy again.

There were two special young ladies attending our retreat. Galina from Bulgaria, who only recently started working in Brussels. She is very sincere. Also one of our African young men brought a fellow student from university. Her name is Andrea and she is from Germany. She just got acquainted with the church there, and through the invitation of our brother, she first visited our church service while I was at camp meeting. I was glad that she spontaneously decided to come to the retreat, as it was a great opportunity to get to know her. She is like a sponge - in fact, I've never seen this. Being catholic by origin, she feels very comfortable with our beliefs and wants to learn as quickly as possible. I already gave her an internet link where she can order the Sabbath school quarterly, and she can't wait to read the Desire of Ages. What a blessing to finally have somebody from Germany in my church!

We will really miss Pastor Kyala, but I'm happy for him that he can begin something new in Quebec. There is a lot work to be done there as well, after all. As for the Belgian leadership, there is still no leader in sight, so maybe they will have to import somebody from somewhere!

This coming Wednesday through Sunday, I'll be off to the next adventure. I still have some annual leave, and given the fact that it's still very quiet at my work place, I decided to take advantage and visit a short-time medical missionary school, which is being held about one hour from the city of Cologne. I learned about it on our camp meeting and was intrigued by this concept. Not everybody can take a whole year off after all, and this offers an opportunity for an intense training in medical-missionary work, agriculture, True Education, etc. for those who can come during the summer school holidays. There are different speakers on various topics, and now they are also having a few health guests, so I may be even able to help out with treatments. I really look forward to it.

Belgian countryside - there are no mountains, but lots of hills

Pastor Kyala

One of my favorite "carob chips"

Attendees

More kids

Getting ready for campfire

Andrea from Germany and Leonard from Zimbabwe

The geese greeting me

Counting The Blessings

I'm in Germany with my parents and younger brother after returning back from camp meeting yesterday afternoon. It was a great blessing - to put it mildly.

As expected, the Nebbletts and their messages and songs were a highlight throughout the week. I'm especially thankful that the Lord is able to touch the hearts of the young people through them. I interpreted part of the medical seminar given by Edwin Nebblett who is an MD. The information that he gave about brain health was highly interesting and timely.

I know that it is a blessing whenever Frank Fournier speaks somewhere, and that's why I suggested to invite him to our convention. However, I wouldn't have imagined that his presence with us would make such a tremendous, extraordinary, and deep impact on all people involved at our camp meeting. When he made an altar call the last evening, quite a number of young people came forward who decided to be baptized. Overall, this hour of consecration was just overwhelming. I'm sure the Lord had planned this for us, however it became obvious to me that the enemy didn't like this plan. Indeed, Frank would have had many good reasons to cancel his trip to Germany even in the last minute. It just seemed way too much for him to fly in from Sacramento directly after the ASI convention, his wife being sick on top of it - plus he missed the OCI board meeting. In addition, the German air traffic controllers threatened with strike - exactly for Monday morning last week, when he was supposed to arrive. Interestingly, this strike never happened, although they seemed very determined to defend their rights. Yes, the air traffic controllers may control the airspace, but God controls the whole universe!

It was quite challenging for us not to have Thomas with us to help with the organization and a smooth running of the meetings, but by God's grace we managed. Due to my busyness throughout the week, I haven't taken many pictures, but here are a few impressions:

Frank Fournier preaching

The Nebblett family singing

Hour of consecration Saturday night

At the end of the meetings, I decided to stay one more night in order to get some rest before moving on to the next place. So on Sunday, I was able to spend some time with the Nebblett family (who also left the place only yesterday morning), which was very blessed. I was the last one leaving the Christian recreation center, and it was such a peaceful sunny day. I wish we could have had more days like this during camp meeting time, but unfortunately, we had more rain then sunshine, and it was quite windy (just unpredictable in this part of Germany). Nevertheless, we were truly showered with God's blessings.

This was how the park in front of the building complex looked like at my departure. I should really have taken a picture of that tree on the first day of camp meeting as a comparison. When I arrived at August 7, only the leaves to the left were yellow. What an early fall!

I'm planning on driving back to Brussels already this coming Wednesday instead of Sunday. I really need to see my chiropractor, furthermore I decided to attend the yearly spiritual retreat of my church in Brussels, which is going to take place this coming weekend at a beautiful place in the countryside of Belgium. Our pastor is now definitely leaving for Canada, and this will be our last time with him.

I'm ready for another blessing, I think.

Countdown

I’m back to Brussels and I’m enjoying the sunshine – at least for a couple of days.

The funeral was very sad, yet not as dramatic as I had thought it would be. Sonja appeared to me quite strong. Of course there is still an element of shock in this whole experience, and now there are still lots of things to be organized, plus her newborn gives her a lot of distraction. This shows me again how close joyful and sorrowful events can come together in life. I pray that the Lord may give her strength, comfort and peace, especially when she will start processing everything.

Well, it was nice to spend a few days in the country, although the weather wasn’t very summery. My almost 92-year old grandmother was happy to see me. She could very well relate to Sonja’s fate – in fact, she was even younger in age when her husband fell during World War II; and she was also left alone with two little children. Nevertheless, it's definitely no easier today to cope with such a loss than it was then, although the social systems in Germany are stronger now.

There are still lots of little things to be done at work, and I’m really looking forward to vacation now. But only six days left, and I will be headed to Germany again. I’ll write more after camp meeting.

Saddened and Distressed

I think these two adjectives best describe my experience this week (more about the saddening part in a minute).

July is usually a very busy month in our offices. A lot of things have to get done before the "Summer Hole" in August (at least this is what we would say in German). In particular, I have been quite busy with a rather complicated procedure, which has to be adopted before the end of this week. The thing is that I have a hard time working with one of my deputy heads of unit, who is the manager of this particular case. She has this Southern European temper, and she just yells at me (or at whoever else working under her) whenever she is stressed out. She is not a mean person at all, but she just can't control the volume of her voice. What especially bothers me is the fact that she apparently doesn't like people to be proactive. Today, I took an initiative that she disliked, and again, I got yelled at (although I had done nothing wrong in that sense). Now I better ask her before I do anything on my own, or she will be angry again. I really don't like being restricted in such a way, and of course it's very hard to deal with this kind of temper-outbursts in a Christian manner. I don't know if I have reacted as I should have, but I pray that the Lord will guide me in this matter.

So I'm definitely ready for vacation now - and thank God it's very close! A week from Monday, our annual "hoffnung weltweit" (hope worldwide) camp meeting will start. It promises to be a blessed experience again. This year, our speakers will be the Nebblett family, Frank Fournier from Eden Valley, and Alberto Treiyer, a theologian from North Carolina. I look forward to the seminars and to the whole experience, which is certainly one of the high points of the year.

However, this year our camp meeting is unfortunately overshadowed by a very sad event. It is not even 3 months ago when Thomas, one of our team members, was diagnosed with a malignant non-hodgkins lymphoma in his throat. Thomas used to be our treasurer and his wife Sonja the clerk of our ministry. In 2009, after their first child was born, they decided to resign from their offices, yet still remained involved in the ministry work (that's why I was asked to take over Sonja's office). When Thomas found out about his disease, he decided to go the non-conventional way and found a naturopathic doctor to help him treating this. He also got a lot of support from his father-in-law, who knows about natural healing methods, and who also gave him some fever treatments. When it became evident that the tumor wouldn't shrink properly, they decided to have surgery done. This took place at the end of June and it was successful. Things apparently started going better for him, although he was still weak. Ten days ago, Alberto and his wife Patricia from our team visited them and an anointing service was held in their home. We were all prayerful and very confident that the Lord would heal him. Last Saturday though, he had to be admitted to the hospital again. He was in very bad shape and the doctors didn't think that he would survive the night. On Sunday morning, Thomas passed away - only four days after the birth of their second child. Of course, this came like a shock to all of us. Nobody would have ever expected such a sudden demise. I feel so sorry for Sonja and the rest of the family. Of course it's also very hard on Thomas' parents. How do you comfort somebody who has to go through such an experience? I think there are no words that can take away this pain. I just pray that the peace of our Lord and Saviour may surround them in this difficult time. It shows me again that there is absolutely nothing here on earth we can take for granted. Things may happen in our lives that we may never fully understand, yet the Lord is still in control, and there is nothing that He doesn't allow for a reason.

Anyway, I spontaneously decided to travel to Germany on Thursday afternoon, in order to attend the funeral on Friday. It will take place about 5 hours up north from my home town, but since I have family (of my father's side) living very close, I decided to visit them over the weekend. It will be a 6 1/2 hours train ride from Brussels. Please join me in prayer for Thomas' family.

Busy

Lately, it has been rather fast-paced for me at work. About two weeks ago, it was particularly stressful. Things went crazy in one of our cases, and the assistant in charge was out of office. So they had to draw on every resource possible, and one evening, I even got home only after 8 PM. Since the end of last week, the workload has become lighter again, but this is only the peace before the next storm. Now another one of my colleagues is on leave, and we will have to replace her with two huge tasks. Bottom line: I really look forward to my vacation in August!

I've been praying for the leadership of our church in Belgium. At the beginning of June, there were elections for the next 4-year term of the Conference officers. The Pastor of our English-speaking church, who is also the Conference President, didn't want to continue in his office, but they absolutely didn't manage to find a successor. Each eligible person declined. In the meantime, our Pastor also accepted a call to Quebec. So in principle, him and his family will leave Belgium in the fall. However, a replacement for him is still to be found, as well as somebody who could become the new pastor in our church. But who shall take over these tasks? I think our church in Belgium is facing a big challenge, and I've been praying that the Lord may establish a leadership according to His will. I'm sure He has a plan for this little country, nonetheless this appears to be a very difficult time.

I keep receiving not-so-good news from the US. While I was staying at Uchee Pines, we had a lovely elderly couple helping out for a while. Dr. Jackie worked as a physician and her husband Duane helped on the farm and with maintenance, until they decided to finally retire. I just learned that he died from cancer last week. I'm sorry for Dr. Jackie. I'm also very concerned about Dr. Strachan, the psychiatrist at Uchee Pines. Back in February, him and his wife Lou Ann were in an automobile accident on icy road conditions in Oregon. Lou Ann didn't get a scratch, but he was severely injured with complicated neck fractures, which left him paralized. The last thing I heard is that he is finally home in California, but is still in critical condition. He still needs a ventilator to help him breathe, and he is very weak. Nobody knows if he will ever fully recover from this injury. I've been praying a lot for him. He was such a blessing at Uchee Pines, and now it looks like he will never be able to do this work again. I really don't know why the Lord allowed this to happen. But He who does all things well, He knows.

I recently came across a very beautiful song. It's about how the Lord comes through to us in our trials. Click here if you would like to listen to it - it's definitely worth 5 minutes of your time!

We pray for blessings, we pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering

All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops?
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near?

What if trials of this life
Are Your mercies in disguise?

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough

And all the while You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near?

And what if trials of this life
Are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us, when darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It's not our home

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears?
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near?

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst
This world can’t satisfy?

And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise?

EU News

Last year in March, I wrote about the conference I attended at the EU Parliament on the work-free Sunday movement, which was supposed to be the kick-off meeting to relaunch the debate on Sunday protection in Europe. This initiative was spear-headed by a few MEP's, and some very influential people were there, like László Andor, the Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs. It was his Directorate-General, which launched a consultation within the Commission about the review of the so-called Working Time Directive at the end of last year. These interservice-consultations always have to take place before any new legislation can be voted on the level of the Parliament and the Council. It means that a working paper is sent to all other relevant Directorate-Generals within the Commission and they have to give their input. It was also sent to our service, and although our unit wasn't supposed to prepare the reply, it accidently found its way into our functional mailbox. That's how I became aware of it. I couldn't write about it here at that time, as it was still a working paper. But in the meantime, I found out that the "Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee, and Committee of the Regions reviewing the Working Time Directive)" has been published. As I had expected, nothing has changed in the assessment of the Sunday issue. Point 5.1 says:

"The question of whether weekly rest should normally be taken on a Sunday, rather than on another day of the week, is very complex, raising issues about the effect on health and safety and work-life balance, as well as issues of a social, religious and educational nature. However, it does not necessarily follow that this is an appropriate matter for legislation at EU level: in view of the other issues which arise, the principle of subsidiarity appears applicable."

Very interesting. For those who don't know, subsidiarity is an organizing principle that matters ought to be handled at the lowest possible level of an institutional hierarchy. So the EU shall only decide on matters which are better decided on EU level than at the level of the indiviual Member States, and other matters shall be left to each Member State to decide. Now, according to this statement, the question whether Sunday should become officially a work-free day, should be decided on the level of each indiviual country belonging to the EU. So it seems that we are still far away from a EU legislation on this issue. Of course things could still change, as the new Working Time Directive hasn't been finalised and voted on.

Tomorrow, there will be a conference of the "European Sunday Alliance" here in Brussels. They are going to discuss the review of the Working Time Directive, and similar to the conference in March, they have invited some experts and stakeholders who will give their input on the advantages of a work-free Sunday. I only found out about this event today, otherwise I would have considered attending this conference. I have no idea what impact this initiative could still have on the ongoing legislative process in this matter, but I have the feeling that at this point, we are still far away from an EU Sunday legislation. But why are things not going forward?

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to watch on 3ABN part of the ASI Europe convention, which was held in Konstanz, Germany. Ted Wilson was invited as a speaker and I really appreciated what he shared. One thing he said struck me: "We call ourselves Adventists, but why are we still here?" Good question. The blunt answer is that we haven't done our homework yet. There is still so much to do for Jesus to come back. Lately, I have been asking the Lord more earnestly that He may show me how He wants to use me in His work. I pray that He may reveal Himself to you and me in this matter, so that we can soon accomplish the work which God has committed to us.

I hope I can give an update on this issue in due time.

"We as a people have not accomplished the work which God has committed to us. We are not ready for the issue to which the enforcement of the Sunday law will bring us. It is our duty, as we see the signs of approaching peril, to arouse to action. Let none sit in calm expectation of the evil, comforting themselves with the belief that this work must go on because prophecy has foretold it, and that the Lord will shelter his people. We are not doing the will of God if we sit in quietude, doing nothing to preserve liberty of conscience. Fervent, effectual prayer should be ascending to heaven that this calamity may be deferred until we can accomplish the work which has so long been neglected. Let there be more earnest prayer; and then let us work in harmony with our prayers."--Testimonies, vol. 5, pp. 713, 714.

In Germany

I'm in Germany since last Friday visiting friends and family. As always, it's nice getting a break, especially at this time of the year. Yesterday, I went to Stuttgart (about an hour from here) with a friend from my home church. We visited mutual friends there. Sylvia is German and used to be in our church (in fact, she became acquainted with the message there), and her husband Marlon is originally from Tobago. They have a little boy, almost two years old. We had a nice time together and time went by way too fast. Needless to say that I'm very thankful for still having friends in my home country I can connect with.

Tomorrow, I'm going to attend a funeral of a dear old man from church. I really liked Brother Erwin and always enjoyed visiting him at the nursing home where he spent the last few years of his life. I had hoped to be still able to see him, but he passed away the week before I came. But I'm glad for him that he can rest in Jesus now. Ninety-seven is a high age after all, and especially the last time was very rough for him.

So I'm keeping myself busy. This coming weekend, we will have a board meeting of our German ministry, about two hours from here. Then on Monday, I'm going to head back to Brussels.

I really enjoyed last week's Sabbath school lesson. Isn't it beautiful how righteousness by faith is depicted in the third chapter of Zechariah? I like the EGW quote below. Indeed, He will not forsake us - if we look and believe on Him!

"Joshua, standing before the angel of the Lord with defiled garments, represents those whose religious life has been faulty, who have been overcome by Satan's temptations, and are unworthy of God's favor. Today human beings stand before God with defiled garments. All their righteousness is "as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). Satan uses against them his masterly accusing power, pointing to their imperfections as evidence of their weakness. He points scornfully at the mistakes of those who claim to be doing God service. They have been deceived by him, and he begs for permission to destroy them.
     But they trust in Christ, and Christ will not forsake them. He came to this world to take away their sins, and to impute to them His righteousness. He declares that through faith in His name they may receive forgiveness, and perfect Christlike characters. They have confessed their sins to Him, and have asked for pardon, and Christ declares that because they look to and believe on Him, He will give them power to become sons of God.
     Their characters are defective, but because they have not trusted in their own merits and excused their sins, because they have asked for forgiveness through the merits of Christ, the Lord receives them, and rebukes Satan. Because they have humbled themselves, confessing their sins, He refuses to listen to the enemy's accusations. He has abundantly pardoned the penitent ones, and will carry forward in them His work of redeeming love if they will continue to believe in Him and to trust Him."
     --Letter 173, Aug. 5, 1903

Double Birthday

Today, I didn't have to go to work, as it is "Schuman Day", which marks the birth of the European Union. It was on 9 May 1950 when then-French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman made a governmental proposal to create a new form of organization of states in Europe. This is how it all began, and of course there were many steps along the way until the EU would become what it is right now. And of course, we can see the fulfillment of prophecy in all these developments.

Anyway, it seems that I'm predestined to work for this institution, as today is also my birthday. I've never spent it all by myself in Brussels, so I thought I would do something special. I took the train to Aachen in Germany this morning and enjoyed the day there. There is a nice thermal bath, which was very relaxing. I also got to do some shopping. They have some interesting fountains and sculptures there, as you can see below.

So this has been a nice long weekend, but alas, tomorrow I have to go back to work!

Stenshult

Yesterday, I made it back from Sweden. It was really nice getting to know this place and the people there. The seminar with Pastor Mayer was very blessed and the message timely. He is also very pleasant to be around with. Compared to other institutions I've been to, it's a very small place. There are only three full-time staff members and currently, they have only one student, a young man from Africa.

During the additional days that I spent there after the weekend seminar, I got involved in the daily routine of this institution: I attended the classes, and helped out with sowing and transplanting in the gardens. Again, I was reminded that I miss country living.

The title of Pastor Mayer's seminar was "Security in an insecure world". One thing that stood out to me was how he connected Psalm 91:1 and 27:5. In Psalm 91:1, it says: "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." But where is the secret place? Psalm 27:5 says: "For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavillon: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock." The rock refers to the tables of stone, which are the ten commandments. They were kept in the Most Holy Place. So we have to go by faith into the Most Holy Place experience with Jesus. The 10 commandments are an expression of Christ's character. We need to let Jesus have control over all aspects of our lives and to give Him power over our sins.

The two main buildings on campus

Guesthousing

Pastor Hal Mayer

Sowing seeds

Off to Sweden

It has been a splendid sunny weekend in Brussels, I only couldn't spend a lot of time outdoors. Yesterday, we had a special Sabbath for the immigrant churches, i. e. all the churches that are not French- or Dutch-speaking. These are the Romanians, Hispanics, Lusophones (Portuguese-speaking), French-Africans, and our International Church. They do this every year, so that the non-Belgian church members can get in touch with each other. I don't know what our church in Belgium would do without these congregations. The membership here is already quite meager, but without the immigrants, the church would almost die out I guess.

This afternoon, we had a church board meeting, which turned out to be quite long as usual. One of the points of the agenda was the issue of immodesty in dress, especially displayed by some young females. In fact, this is quite an issue at our church, and I somehow feel sorry for the brothers who are exposed to this every week. I suppose the problem is the ignorance of the young ladies about what they can trigger in them if they dress like this. But of course it's a sensitive issue to deal with. We agreed that the Pastor will give a talk on this subject, and I really hope that the Holy Spirit will convict them. My general observation ever since I'm sitting on this board is that we talk way too much about internal problems. But I guess this will be the case until Jesus comes back. After all, the first Christian churches were not without issues either, so there is nothing new under the sun.

I'm quite excited, as I will be traveling to Sweden at the end of this week. There is a self-supporting place there called Stenshult, and they are going to have a special weekend seminar with Pastor Hal Mayer from Hartland. I've been in touch with him for a while, as he is speaking a lot about current political events, and I've been providing him with information about the things going on here in Brussels. He has been wanting to meet me, but so far, I've never been able to attend one of his seminars in Europe. So I thought this is a good opportunity to finally meet him and also to get to know this place. I'll be staying there for five days. So far, I've never really been in Sweden, I only travelled through during my last trip to Scandinavia. In fact, I really ought to visit this country; after all it's the land of my forefathers. Yes, I'm Swedish in the seventh generation. It was sometime in the Eighteen Hundreds when a woman from Sweden came to an island in north-eastern Germany together with her illegitimate son. She worked as a cook for a Duke residing on this island, and her son was the great-grandfather of my paternal grandmother. Quite a story. I wish I had time to do some genealogical research while there!

Spring is in the Air

Yes, indeed! This past winter was long and dreary enough after all, and it's great to see that nature comes to live again. Even though I don't have much nature surrounding me, I'm delighted to see each blossoming tree and budding flower around here. The sun is shining warmer and warmer and the days are getting longer. Thank you Lord it's spring again!

A sigh of relief

I gave my health presentation today and it went pretty well. There were about 20 colleagues attending. I had the impression that it was well received by most of the attendees, except one lady who didn't agree with me on some things. I found this a bit difficult to handle, but at the end it was fine. I think that there is still a lot I could improve as for my public speaking skills, but of course the best way is to get up there and talk. So I'm thankful that I had this opportunity and I'm even more grateful that I was able to share the 8 laws of health with some secular people. I think I didn't go too far as for the "trust" part - but  hopefully I gave them some food for thought. The lady from the human resources department came up to me afterwards, telling me that she was planning on starting a working group on "Health and Wellbeing", and that she wanted me to be part of it. Of course I agreed, and I hope that this will give me more opportunities as the Lord leads. My former colleague from Greece also came, even though he works in a different area of town. He sent me an e-mail afterwards, saying: "I can subscribe to 100% of what you said, the only question being how one could put them in practice! We will anyhow discuss more on Thursday..." Yes, I will have a lunch appointment with him then, so I will see!

My cooking class yesterday also went well. I even had two men attending. They always have a lot of questions, and it was pretty exhausting. But I like to do this work, and hopefully next time, I will also have some non-Adventists attending. I was actually able to establish some contacts with people outside the church who were interested, including a couple in the neighborhood, but they couldn't make it this time.

Ok, so what's next? I don't know if there is more I can do other than the things that I've been doing, but I hope the Lord will make things very clear to me. He has me here now for a reason, no doubt about that, however there is always the temptation to get somehow discouraged because my opportunities are so limited. I recently came across an interesting quote of Dr. Charles Stanley, an evangelical pastor:

‎"If God has placed you in a certain position, He will handle all the
details concerning it and your life. Your only responsibility is to obey
Him and leave the consequences to Him."

I find this very encouraging. After all, God is the one who knows all the details of our lives, and He can certainly handle them all. May He help us to obey Him and to listen to His voice today.

What an Opportunity

Winter time is still not over here, however the sun has been shining often these past few days, and this of course makes a big difference. At work, things are going fine. The temporary arrangement with me having to be in the unit's secretariat in the afternoons is actually not that bad. My head of unit is nice to work with after all, and this also gives me more opportunity to socialize with my colleague Cristina.

I'm currently working on the so called Car Price Report. This is a compilation of the prices of the most popular car models marketed in the EU, which is published by our Directorate-General every year. Since our unit deals with this sector, it's up to us to prepare it. So I've been swamped by excel tables which have been filled out by over 20 car manufacturers. It's my task to transfer the data to our tables, add new car models and bring everything into the right format. Another colleague, who is an economist, is going to do some calculations later on and finalize the report. I was joking with him the other day, because of the fact that we are working in this sector, however we both do not even own a car! Last year, there was another colleague who was in charge of this task, and I just assisted her. Now, I'm on my own with it, which I was a bit apprehensive of, since I'm not an expert in excel. But I'm thankful that I have been able to solve every problem so far.

Last week, I received an unexpected e-mail. I had mentioned some time ago that I got to talk to a lady from our Human Resources department on giving health presentations at our DG. She was really open to it and wanted to schedule me, but the problem was that our HR manager wasn't sure whether he wanted to have any training courses offered which are not related to competition policy. I've been put on hold with this again and again, so I didn't really expect it to happen anymore. Well, it seems that he finally made up his mind, because I've now been asked to give a talk! It will take place on 21 March during lunchtime. I'm quite excited and very grateful for this opportunity, but also quite nervous of course. I'm going to give a presentation on the eight laws of health. The day before, on March 20, I had already scheduled another cooking class at my home, so I will be very busy those days! I hope and pray that everything will turn out to God's glory.

Well, I better continue preparing my presentation :-)

On the occasion of the international women's day, one of my male colleagues sent out this mimosa today to all the females in the unit. Very thoughtful, isn't it?