Keeping Up

Life right now reminds me of the endless hours I spent on the treadmill losing weight to be able to come here. Losing 50+ pounds meant many hours just walking in one place. By the way now I do 14.5 Kilometers (9 miles) in 30 minutes 3 times per week on our elliptical machine. The principle is the same. Lots of sweat and effort and mostly the same perspective.

Since Tuesday we leave home by 6:30AM and usually don't get home before 7:00PM. From about 7:00AM until 9:30 or 10:00 we pass out coffee and hot chocolate to people who choose to party all night. The vast majority are drunk but there are also the security guards, taxi drivers and others who are in the area. So far each day each of us has had at least one (often 2-3) very good spiritual conversations with someone. Lucy even had the same woman come back to her two days later to continue the conversation.

During the middle of the day we continue to survey the ministry opportunities for future Gentse Feesten.

Then we go to another church where we work to serve pannenkoeken (crepes) and coffee for four hours. We also take the time to have other spiritual conversations and invite people to come for a visit on a Sunday. (There are no paper plates and plastic forks here so we wash dishes and cups after every person eats) Then we have to walk across town to catch a tram home. We take care of our necessary business (like today is garbage day and we have to get that out), answer emails and try to remember to write here before falling into bed for a few hours.

It serves to remind us how hard it is here to find people who will even listen to the story of God. But we are reminded daily that God is opening doors and hearts so they are there if we will be faithful. I reminded a young lady who is a new believer, that we tell the story and God does the converting. She is fearless and wades into the midst of the drunks, but then she does lack some experience and gets discouraged. Another young mother has a heart for telling people about the Good News and we were talking about that just yesterday. Then one man became very angry and almost abusive and brought her to tears. Unfortunately that speaks directly to my carnal nature and makes it hard to remember my primary focus.

No moral or catchy idea here. Just the news. Gotta go brush something, wash something grab the trash on the way out so I can stand ankle deep in trash (watching not to step in other things) with my feet sticking to the beer-soaked cobblestones and tell people how much God loves them because He does. I remember that I was not too different than that many years ago and I am here now because someone cared enough and took the time to tell me about a better way. How will they hear unless we tell them?