EQ Summit

I safely made it to the US last Sunday. It was a wise decision to first stop at Uchee Pines, so I had a couple days to adjust to the time zone. Of course it was also nice to stay with my friend Amy and her family, who I hadn't seen for over three years.

Now I'm at the Emotional Intelligence Summit in Dallas and of course the information flow is kind of overwhelming. I haven't had a lot of time to reflect, but what stands out to me is the fact that this Depression Recovery Program has indeed helped a lot of people. Today, we heard some encouraging testimonials of participants who went through the 10-day program. As I have also attended the "Training the Trainer" seminar, I have all the material now to run this as well, but I'm still not sure how I could do this at home. I could only do it in English after all, so this limits the audience. But I will see; maybe I could do something at my own place. Even if it was only for a few people, it would be well worth it.

The key note speaker, Dr. Robert Emmons from California, gave some interesting suggestions on the topic of gratitude. How can we grow it? Some of his challenges were to write down a "gratitude journal" and to make a "what I take for granted list". Very interesting. Tonight, we are going to learn about music therapy. The hotel is a pleasant place to stay in, and I have met a lot of nice people here.

Tomorrow, I'll be flying out to Northern California, where I'm going to stay until Thursday; and then my next stop will be Eden Valley in Colorado. My itinerary is indeed packed, but this is how I have chosen it, so that I can make as many visits as possible. So I hope everything will be working out fine.

Hotel surroundings

They have a nice heated swimming pool

The ISDA Babies

Things are really happening in my church. In 2012, about 10 children were born into various families. Indeed, the ladies at Brussels International Church seem to be quite fertile. Or maybe it's just multiple answers to the "standard prayer" of our Ghanaian Elder:

"Lord, those who are seeking life partners, please provide for them; and those who are seeking the fruit of the womb, please give them!"

Well, at least the latter part of his prayer has been thoroughly answered - even for those who didn't explicitly pray for it :-). Nevertheless, all of them seem to be very happy with their new babies - although quite busy of course. Since there are usually lots of family members of the babies to be dedicated come to such services, we rented a bigger venue, actually a small theatre in the city center. Even the Conference President came to perform the dedication.

All the children and parents with the Conference President

Waiting for the blessing

The oldest children where 7 and 9 years

Kennely - one of the African babies

Cecilia

So in one week I'll be headed off to the States. Can't wait to see my friends in California, Colorado, Utah, Alabama and Arkansas. Indeed, quite an itinerary, but I wanted to visit as many as possible. I'm also looking forward to the Emotional Intelligence Summit in Dallas, which will start on February 20. I will fly out already on February 17 though. I'm going to stop at Uchee Pines to take a couple days to get over jet lag. It will be so nice to be "back home"!

In the meantime, my Dutch classes have started. Although this language is so close to German, I still need to get used to the pronunciation. I wouldn't have thought that the teacher would be able to maintain the whole class time only speaking Dutch, but it works. At least I haven't had difficulties to follow, however others without any knowledge of German have to rely more on the pictures in the text book and the body language of the teacher. I hope I'll be conversational soon.

I've been reading in the book of Isaiah these days. I noticed the verse in chapter 45:6:

"That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else."

Interestingly, until chapter, 46, this statement is being repeated twice, namely in chapter 45:21, as well as 46:9. So why did the Lord put so much emphasis on the fact that there is none like Him, or none beside Him? Maybe the people of Israel needed this reminder. I think of the distractions that we have nowadays in our secular society. Even if we do not literally worship other gods, we may get distracted with things that seem important to us and that may stand in between the relationship to our Saviour: the job, the spouse, children; yes and even the ministry work we do could consume us to the extent that we neglect the time with our Maker.

It's my desire to strengthen my walk with God, and not to allow anything or anybody to stand between or to weaken this relationship. "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you" (James 4:8). It's a sure promise.

Church Events

This afternoon after the church service was over, it was so beatifully sunny outside. Thus, I decided that I couldn't stay longer inside, so off I went home to go and enjoy this rare moment of the Brussels winter season - only to find out that there were heavy clouds in my area of town. And now it's even snowing! Well, maybe that's the opportunity for me to post a blog on the recent happenings.

The Health Expo training weekend with Valérie Dufour was very blessed, yet unfortunately not so well attended. But at least we have all the tools and material now to conduct a children's Health Expo. There are actually many possibilities, but we would like to start off with an Expo for the children of the local churches. The advantage with it is that you don't need as many volunteers as for the adult Expo. So I hope we can manage to organize ourselves to get the health work really going here.

The banners for the children's Health Expo - very colorful

The ASAM (Adventist Single Adult Ministries) last weekend with Andrea Hicks from F.O.C.U.S. Ministries was also a blessing. In fact, the church was packed on Sabbath morning, and I counted about 70 people staying back for the afternoon workshop, which is quite an unusual number. The attendees, whether single or married, really liked the presentations and Q & A sessions, and Andrea enjoyed her stay in Brussels very much. I'm glad that we were able to have her, and it's my hope now to continue with this Singles Ministry. There is definitely a need for it.

Andrea in action

With Andrea, Emma and Felicia for a non-vegan treat in Brussels
(Belgian wafles :-)

So church life has been rather busy, and the next event is coming in a week's time: Our big baby dedication. I'll be posting about it.

Meanwhile it has stopped snowing and the sky is blue here :-). Crazy weather patterns.

Back To Normal

So here I am, back to Brussels after Christmas break. I arrived here last Thursday lunchtime and went more or less straight to the office. However, it was quiet last week because many people took the advantage to  take the whole week off. One of my colleagues brought me a nice bouquet of flowers for the new year - how thoughtful of him! But no second thoughts please ;-)

Anyway, the prophecy seminar in Germany was blessed, however prophecy has never been my strength or favorite field of study. The main reason is that it is strongly connected to history, and I just don't enjoy history. Furthermore, it was sooo much information, and it was quite difficult for me to get the gist of it, respectively to apply it to my life as a Christian. And I think this is where the rubber hits the road after all. I do think that it's important to know about these things, but I wouldn't put too much emphasis on it. Nevertheless, the atmosphere was nice, as I had expected. There were even a few bright and sunny days during my stay in Germany, but now it's grey and dreary again. I'm longing for spring!

However, my US adventure is getting closer now. In six weeks, I'll be headed off to travel back and forth within the States. The original plan was to attend the  Emotional Intelligence Summit with Dr. Neil Nedley in Dallas, but I would like to take advantage to also visit some friends: In Alabama, California, Colorado, Utah, and Arkansas. Quite an itinerary, isn't it? Unfortunately, I won't be able to stay for very long at each place, but I wanted to take advantage and visit as many people and places as possible, given the fact that it will be off-season. Some of the domestic flights do not cost much more than 100 Dollar at this time of the year.

From tomorrow on, I will be taking voice lessons again - with the wife of my boss, who is a musician from Japan. I look forward to it. At the end of this month, I will also be starting with Dutch lessons at the local university. It's high time that I learn the second official language in this country. Even though I'm living in a French speaking area, I feel kind of paralyzed without these language skills.

So a new year has begun, and life goes on as usual. What will 2013 bring? Well, it will definitely bring us closer to Christ's second coming, and the world needs to get ready for His return. May the Lord help all of us to be prepared - and to prepare others for this awesome event!

In the Swabian Alps - near Stuttgart

Christmas

I'm almost headed off to the prophecy seminar, just wanted to post a few pictures from our Christmas events. It was nice being with family again. Christmas eve, we spent at my grandmother's place, and the traditional Christmas lunch took place at our house. Now as I can't see my folks all year round anymore, I enjoy it even more when I see them at these rare occasions, even though I don't really appreciate the commercial aspect of Christmas, and therefore would rather spend it quietly somewhere with friends.

Anyway, we had a blast. My cousin played the accordion, and my younger brother the flute. Of course I had to provide for my own menu, but all in all it was a blessing.

Flori and Antje playing

My brother and sister-in-law captivated by their eye-phones - hilarious!

My aunt Renate and uncle Hermann

Antje checking out her gifts

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Caroling

The youth of our church had a special item on their programme this weekend. They went Christmas caroling at different homes of church members. Last year, they did this for the first time, and apparently it was a huge success. So this year, I decided to sign up as well. I actually considered it more an outreach event, and so I didn't expect them to only sing at my place. In fact, I sent out an e-mail to my neighbours inviting them to let me know if they are interested in having them sing. Only one lady replied saying that they would be glad to have them come to their house.

So all 20 participants (including children) arrived at my place and we had a great time. I think I've never had so many people in my living room, but it worked out well. They shared a few nice songs, munged on my cookies and pop corn, and then they went downstairs to also sing for my landlord. Then we went to the lady's house. They really liked their performance, and one of the men staying in that house also wanted them to sing for a friend of his who had his birthday. He only lived a few houses away, but the man figured that his friend was actually at the supermarket. So he ushered the whole crew to the store down the street, found his friend, and they started singing. It was good fun!

Our little intervention at the supermarket

And here is the little video I made.

And this is how my place looked like after the raid

So you never get bored with this church! The same evening, I also had a meeting with the responsibles of the other French speaking church concerning our Health Expo activities. After all, the training on children's Health Expo will already take place the second weekend of January; and then we need to find a place to do a public Expo (both for adults and children) somewhere in Brussels. I really hope it will work out. My biggest concern is the number of volunteers we will need. But the Lord will provide somehow, I'm sure.

Now I have to work only four more days and off I go to Germany. I'll be spending Christmas with my family, and then I'll be attending a one week prophecy seminar near Stuttgart. So my time in Germany will definitely not be boring. I would have wished to escape the winter again for a little while - just to get some warmth and sunshine in order to survive better until spring, but in February/March I'm going to spend a few weeks in the US, partly in California and Alabama, so this will probably be a nice compensation!

Madou Tower

I'm not supposed to write about my work on this blog, but I'm just going to share about the building in which I work, so I suppose that this is ok (hoping that they will let me know if there is a problem ;-).

Anyway, it's already four weeks ago that we moved to another building, but only now do I find the time to blog about it. The background is that our growing Directorate-General has been spread out to several buildings, and although all of them only on walking distance from each other, this was obviously not an ideal situation. Thus, it has been decided to move the whole DG into a 32 story tower about 15 minutes walking distance from the previous buildings; and the colleagues currently occupying the tower moving into our buildings instead.

Of course this cannot take place all at once, so the maneuver already started this past summer, and is supposed to be finished by the spring of 2013. So about half of our Directorate had to pack their moving boxes last month, including our little task force.

Although it now takes me about five minutes longer to get to my office, I must say I like the new work place. It's more modern, and even the neighborhood is not as bad as I had assumed. I thought the next park would be too far away to get some recreational time during lunch break, but if I take a shortcut, it's actually not that remote. So far, the office situation is not ideal for us, since half of our team looks into the inside of an artrium with almost no sunlight (I don't know what kind of architect had this bright idea), but this situation will be remedied soon, and we will all have outside windows. We are on the sixth floor only, but if I want to see a beautiful sunrise/sunset, I can always go to a higher level. I actually look forward to that!

So all in all, I'm happy with the new situation. It's important to have a pleasant work place; you spend a lot of time there after all!

There are some other things I wanted to share, but I'm still behind with everything. I hope I can catch up in the next few weeks!

Madou Tower - view from my old office building

This is how my office looked like on the day I moved in

And a couple of weeks later - at my little Thanksgiving reception

Time Is Flying

Indeed, only five more weeks until Christmas break - I can't believe it.

There were two big happenings in the past few weeks: The ASI meetings in Hanover, as well as the seminar with Restoration International at "Die Arche" in the north-east of Germany. Both events were very blessed.

Well, I should have rather gone somewhere to the beach or to the mountains in order to recover from all the stresses of the previous weeks, as well as from the bronchitis I had contracted in October. However, I didn't want to miss the ASI meetings, and I definitely don't regret having gone there. It was just not as relaxing as I had planned it to be. I was one of the volunteers helping with the interpretations into English for those who didn't understand German. That included my friend Violeta from Belgium, who actually took me there with her husband Sacha. They had registered already in the summer, and eventually I decided to join them.

Anyway, Walter Veith from South Africa was the main speaker, and it was very nice to see him again. But like last year in Bavaria, I didn't have much opportunity to talk to him. I hope to be able to travel to South Africa again at some point, because he is always so busy when he is traveling. This would also give me an opportunity to see his wife again, as well as some other friends. At least I have a nice picture with him :-).

It was actually the first ASI meeting I attended. So far, I had only followed the ASI meetings in North America via 3ABN, and I've always enjoyed them. I finally became a supporting member of this ministry, and they actually did an interview with me there - about my activities in Brussels (to be published in the German ASI news).

Walter and I

Fat ladies in Hanover

My stay at "Die Arche" was also very blessed. In fact, I would have wished to be able to just stay in Germany and then go to there right at the beginning of the seminar, but I had to go back to work as I didn't have enough annual leave left. I also had to finish some preparations for our upcoming office removal.

So I arrived there two days later, but I still had a very good time. It was so nice to see Tom and Alane Waters again. I had them in my home church in Germany in 2002, and ever since, I have only seen them a couple of times. The seminar was very interesting as usual, and the other people attending were very nice. Furthermore, I was kind of overwhelmed about the beauty and quietness of the country surroundings there, as well as how cosy this place is and how warm the people who are working there. All in all, it was a great experience.

I like how they interact which each other

Very photogenic - both of them

So here I am, back to the grind. It was a rather interesting week after I came back from Germany, as I had to get adapted to a new working environment. Well, I'm still in the process of getting adapted, but it's good for the brain to build some fresh neuropathways every now and then!

Ixelles Cemetery

I guess it's time for another blog post!

Tomorrow, I'll be headed off to Hannover, Germany. The annual ASI convention will be held there, and Walter Veith will be the main speaker. I really look forward to it. I'm going to help with the interpretations into English, for those few attendees who don't understand German - including my friend Violeta from the Flemish part of Belgium, who will be attending together with her husband Sacha. They are actually going to give me a ride there.

My roommate Larissa is still staying with me, however her programme in Brussels is coming to an end tomorrow. Then she will be continuing in Tilburg, Netherlands, for the next part of her master's studies. It has been a real blessing having her at my place, and I hope she will be doing as well at the other places as she has been here.

On Sunday morning, we went to IKEA (I accidentally found out that they had an open Sunday), as I needed some items for the home (bedding, kitchen stuff, etc.). It was a wonderful sunny day, and in the afternoon, we took a walk to the nearby cemetery.

Well, normally it's unusual for me to visit a graveyard unless there is somebody resting there that I have known. I like to visit the local cemetery at my home town from time to time, since both my grandfather and great-grandmother are buried there. However, in this case, there is no close relative or friend of mine whose grave I was interested in visiting. In fact, I haven't even known them. It actually concerns twin girls who were born prematurely to a young lady of my church. She was only five months pregnant when there were sudden complications, and so she had to give birth. The little infants were alive, but they were not viable. Of course this brought a lot of grief into the family. Myself and some other people from church attended the funeral last April, which was very sad.

This is how the patch for the premature births looks 
like. Each child has this stone with a star on it. 

Some of the graves even bear a name

And some are even decorated with toys around

A visit to a cemetary is always interesting. For example, I saw a tomb of a woman who died a few years ago, at the age of 39. And this is what her mother wrote on that grave:

To my unique daughter
Pray for me that the Lord will help me
to overcome this grief of thirty nine years
Because by myself, I won't be able to do it
Know that the Lord will render you justice.
Your mommy who loves you so much

Well, if she meant that her daughter should pray for her, that sounds a bit weired to me. She is sleeping after all. Nevertheless, this text expresses a lot of pain and grief.

There was also a grave with a broken stone that nobody seemed to care about any longer. A man who died in 1944 was buried there - his wife followed in 1981. This made me think of my great grandmother, who was a widow even for longer than 37 years.

Of course it's always a time of grief and sadness if you loose a loved one, at whatever age. However, I think it's particularly tragic if somebody has to die who hasn't even had the chance to live! Well, the young mother of these twins will be able to raise them on the New Earth. There, she won't have any trouble disciplining them; she won't have any sleepless nights because of them - she will just be enjoying them! I think we have a great source of comfort here. I actually realized that I will have a sibling on the New Earth that I have never seen; as my mother also had a miscarriage in her life. Maybe it will be the sister that I had always wanted. This thought makes me smile indeed. What a wonderful hope we have!

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." Revelation 21:4

This and That

It's past 11 PM and I'm sitting in my living room. I woke up relatively shortly after falling asleep. I think I was lying on my right hand or something, and then there was this pain in my hand. Strange.

Anyway, I've been on sick leave. My chiropractor urged me to slow down. He is right. It has been impossible for me to fully recover from my pain, as I always went back to full-time work too quickly. Plus they haven't exchanged my office chair yet, which is giving me this pain. The foam is too hard for me, since I have no natural padding (i. e. body fat on my buttocks).

But nothing to worry about. In fact, I really look forward to part-time work this coming week (the doctor said I should work only half days, and then slowly increase). From December on, I will have every Friday afternoon off from work. Yes, I'm going to be on a 90% regime. I think this was the best decision I could have ever taken. Of course I will earn less money, but it will be so worth it. My health is more important than money after all.

On Friday, I saw my dentist. He relieved my tooth pain (just by removing some bacteria which got "trapped"), and then I ended up having an interesting conversation with him - about health and the NEWSTART concept.

On my way to his office, I went through a park.

That's a normal picture in Brussels. Actually, at this time of the year, you see them rather lingering at the metro stations, because it's warmer there.

Only about five minutes away from that bench is the Berlaymont building, the main Commission building, were all the Commissioners and their cabinets are housed, as well as the Legal Service and the Secretariat-General. My friend Agnieszka, an Adventist from Poland, works for the latter as an administrative assistant. On Thursday, I met her and two of the other "EU/SDA workers": Jana from Slovenia, who has been here for a little over a year; and Emma von Romania, who just arrived in June. She is a legal adviser at the EEAS (European External Action Service). This is the newly founded diplomatic service of the EU, headed by Barroness Ashton from the UK. On the picture below, she is the one left to President Barroso (front middle man). The one left from her is Vice President Almunia, the one who is in charge of competition matters. I still haven't met him, but I hope to be able to meet him soon.

Then I went to the metro. There was a group of controllers on the stroll. They look really scary. They always catch a lot of people without ticket. That's interesting, because in Germany they are always in ciwies when they control the passengers. Thus, nobody can flee from the bus or tram, because they don't notice that somebody is going to control them.

Anyway, I'm still not sleepy enough to go back to bed, but I hope I will be soon!

My Little Friend

I'm on sick leave these days. It feels so good not having to push you to go to work. My back problem is getting better and better, and I'm confident that I can go to the office on Sunday - at least for a few hours. I really need to catch up.

Anyway, my roommate Larissa went on excursion again today. Her class already went to Antwerpen last week and today it's Bruges. Lucky them! As I have noted before, it's probably the most beautiful place in Belgium - at least amongst the "man-made" stuff here. Of course the hills in the Ardennes are much more beautiful. But after all, they are made by somebody much smarter then any human being.

I just noticed that there is a little spider coming down from my kitchen ceiling - one of these tiny ones. In the past, I would kill them. But since they are supposed to eat insects and other "false friends", I decided to save his life. Now I have a little friend in my house!

I'm heading off to the EU quarter now. The "EU/SDA workers" have a lunch appointment today. This means the five Adventist ladies who currently work for the EU institutions in Brussels: Agniezska, Jana, Ina, Emma, and myself. I really look forward to it, especially as Emma is our "newcomer", and she doesn't know Jana and Agniezska yet. She works as a legal adviser at the "European External Action Service", the newly established EU's diplomatic service, headed by Barroness Ashton from the UK. Before, it was our Directorate-General "RELEX" (external relations), and I've always wanted to work there. After all, they may send you on Delegation to Geneva, or to Washington, or to Iraq. However, this may not really be the place where I should be, so I gave up applying there.

My friend is getting closer (I mean the spider is coming down on me). I'm not sure if I really like it! But I guess I will have to overcome my phobias...

Thank you all for your prayers my dear friends!

Can't Sleep

For several reasons.

I will probably write about them later - I just wanted to share with you the two songs that I've been really appreciating to listen to these days:

The first one is sung by the Nebblett youth: "At the Crystal Sea"

The sescond one is sung by Emily Bond and Robbie Folkenberg: "Write them on my heart"

Just click and listen when you have a few moments. I'm so thankful for these songs. Thank you Chantée, Sean, Joshua and Natasha; thank you Emily and Robbie!

"The liberal soul (the soul of blessing) shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself." ~ Proverbs 11:25 ~

Catching Up

Ok, here comes the next chunk of information about the recent happenings in my life. I'm going to start with the latest:

Yesterday, we (our task force) were invited at the house of one of our colleagues who is going to leave our unit at the end of this month. He invited us over for a brunch. I was running a bit late, as I had a one-hour phone conversation in the morning, which threw me a bit off my schedule. I had also forgotten to recharge my GPS fully before leaving the house, and so after descending from the metro station, I had absolutely no idea where to go. Unfortunately, I hadn't written down Gunnar's phone number, but thank God I had the one of my boss on my cell phone. So I called him, but he was still on the way with his bicycle (plus three-year old son). However, he was able to give me Gunnar's landline number, and so I called him. He explained everything to me, and so I was able to find the way. So finally I arrived there half an hour late - however I was still the first guest!

The next one to arrive was my boss Philippe with his cute little son Aubery. Then little by little, the others showed up. The problem was that there was the annual "Brussels Marathon" and many streets in the city were blocked, which caused a lot of traffic jams. For me, this wasn't a problem, since I had taken public transport. Antonia wanted to come by taxi, but the driver was only able to drop her off near a metro station. Unfortunately, Kai was not able to come at all because of the traffic, which was a pity. This reminded me of last year at this time, when I gave a cooking class at my home. Quite a few were not able to come either, just because of the traffic.

Anyway, we had a blast. I supplemented the food choices by some home made granola and scrambled tofu. They really liked it, and my boss (and some other colleagues) said they wanted to place orders with me for monthly supplies of my granola. It's a recipe from Walter Veith, and it's really good - only sweetened with dates and bananas. I told Philippe that I would be happy to provide him with that if his wife could give me some music lessons in return (she is a voice teacher by profession). So maybe we could then prorate the lessons with the granola - we will see! My British music teacher recently left Brussels after all, so this seems to be a medium-term solution.

All in all, it was a very pleasant day. Gunnar and his wife have a 8-month old daughter, Lea. She is the cutest. She was so happy to see everybody - very social. Little Aubery was a bit shy at first, but then he started playing with all of my female colleagues - and really enjoyed it. I think he is going to that phase every child that age goes through - that they feel drawn to the parent of the opposite gender. Thus, he is very interested in spending quality time with women in general. Well, I left before he could try it with me! I already had an encounter with him earlier this year, when we were invited at Philippe's home. Indeed, he is also very social.

I gave Gunnar the book "Education" by Ellen White - one of my favorites. I'm sure they will be blessed by it.

I will probably post some pictures of the event later - I still need to ask my colleagues for permission. Not that I necessarily have to do that, but I decided to.

The weather yesterday was fantastic - an absolute contrast to Saturday weather, where it was raining almost constantly. Really strange weather patterns in this country!

Don't Know Where To Start

Please bear with me. I've been wanting to post for a while, but firstly, I just couldn't find a dull moment to write down any of my adventures, and secondly, things have been happening so fast that I can actually think of at least three different posts I could write, and I really don't know where to start.

Shall I write about what happened at my work place lately?

Shall I write about what happened at my church this weekend?

Shall I write about the political developments in Europe?

Well, one thing has been following another in quick succession. Right now, I still have Nadège from France visiting. We met at our camp meeting in Germany last month, and I spontaneously invited her to come to Brussels to share about her experience with "Congo Frontline Missions", an ASI-sponsored project, where she has been working as a full-time missionary. It has been such a blessing having her here. The church members were intrigued by her story.

So there have been three women in my house this weekend, since I have also Larissa staying with me. She is a student from Northern Germany, and she is completing a masters programme in "urban cultures". The first six weeks of the programme are happening in Belgium, and so she ended up staying at my place. It has been a blessing having her here. It's nice to have her company, and she is also a great help at home. And together with Nadège, we've had a blast! Today, Nadège and I did some sightseeing in Brussels, as she is traveling back to France only tomorrow. She came over to Europe to renew her visa, but very soon, she will be going back to her mission field.

I'm going to write more as soon as possible. Right now, I'm a bit under pressure, as I'm going to give another health talk at my work place this coming Wednesday: "How to strengthen the immune system." Well, I'd better make sure to really know what I'm talking about!

Police at the Grand Place in Brussels Center

In front of the Berlaymont - main Commission building

Nadège

"Parc Cinquentennaire" - Jubilee Park

Nice view

Just A Few More Pictures on Aachen

One of the many sculptures in this city

A terraced shrub garden with a terraced water fall running through it 

It was warm - also for the dogs

I think this man played a lute

It was very nice to listen to

Staying busy

This past Sunday, I came back from my weekend trip to the city of Aachen. As I had reported on my blog, I have been there already in the fall of 2010 for a seminar with Dr. Timothy Jennings. This time, they invited Ron Halvorsen and his wife from Florida. In fact, he is a very interesting speaker. He shared about "Prayer Walking" - a concept to prepare big cities for evangelism.

With Ron and Carroll Halvorsen

Of course it was also a blessing to see my friend Tanja and her husband Ilja again, since we haven't had the opportunity to get together since the last seminar there. Again, they did the video recordings, and they did an excellent job.

It wasn't easy going back to work on Monday, but I'm getting into it. The workload is slowly increasing, and it will definitely become more in the next few months. I'm thankful to be in this food task force, as it's getting more and more interesting. Food is something that concerns everybody in the world after all. And there is definitely lots of work to be done when it comes to competition/antitrust concerns in this field.

Anyway, I feel honored and privileged to be at this particular post right now. Of course, it gives you a lot of insights what's happening on EU level. And fact is that my Directorate-General has a lot of power. Furthermore, there are lots of interesting things happening right now on the political floor in Europe. President Barroso gave his famous "State of the Union speech" today. More on this on an upcoming post!

And here is an encouraging bible verse that somebody sent me today:

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33

La Foresta

I thought before the next adventure comes, I should take the opportunity and share about our church retreat, which took place last weekend.

We were guests in a former monastery near Leuven, which is about 30 km outside Brussels in the Flemish part of Belgium. The venue was quite impressive. They have lots of guest rooms there, in which the monks used to live. However, there seems to be only one monk left in this place. I even met him, but couldn't communicate with him much, since I don't speak Dutch.

Anyway, we had beautiful weather and the spiritual meetings with our Pastor were really blessed. Only the food needed some improvement (to put it politely), but this can certainly be fixed for next time. There was also another group present while we were there. Interestingly, this turned out to be a weekend seminar on how to find God within yourself, or something like that. At least this is what I understood during the conversation I had with one of the participants. They didn't think that God can be found somewhere outside themselves, and thus, they endeavored to learn looking within. Very weired. I wanted to give this lady a GLOW tract on health, but she refused (the monk gladly accepted it though).

Anyway, I have lots of good memories from this weekend retreat, and I look forward to the next one!

The main entrance of "La Foresta"

Lunch time: French Fries (yuck)

family time

Discussion group

Relaxing outside

The meeting hall

Play time on Sunday morning

Can I hold the little doll?

On Saturday morning, somebody slipped a piece of paper under each door. It was a paper with a spiritual message. We were wondering whether somebody of our group had this bright idea, but we came to the conclusion that the monk of the monastery might have provided us with it. It said the following:

The Difference

I got up early one morning and rushed right into the day. I had so much to accomplish that I didn't have time to pray.

Problems just tumbled about me, and heavier came each task. "Why doesn't God help me?" I wondered. He answered, You didn't ask," 

I wanted to see joy and beauty, but the day toiled on, gray and bleak. I wondered why God didn't show me. He said, "But you didn't seek."

I tried to come into God's presence. I used all my keys at the lock. God gently and lovingly chided, "My child, you didn't knock."

I woke up early this morning and paused before enter the day. I had so much to accomplish that I had to take time to pray.

I guess every guest in this house receives such a flyer in their respective language. What a beautiful ministry. The monk might be "out of the loop" at this place, but he can definitely not be blamed for not doing the Lord's work.

On Sabbath after lunch, I took some time to stroll around a bit around this monastery. There is something special about this place, and I'm definitely planning to come back. But there was more that the Holy Spirit put on my mind when I was walking around this stately building, glancing through the beautiful and quiet surroundings. It's this burden that has become heavier and heavier on my heart lately. This burden for the ten million people in this little country, which is not bigger than the State of Maryland. I didn't say a long prayer while I was strolling there - I just said:

Lord - give me Belgium!