Ministry Orientation and Flanders Sings

Yesterday was the orientation to the ministry areas. Took the Georgia portion of the team on a long walk through the ministry areas and got the layout of where we will be ministering and what we will be doing.

Cannot begin the Gent Festivals Ministry without taking in the parade (always a way to preview the craziness and scratch your head wondering what people are thinking) and Flanders Sings where you stand elbow-to-elbow with thousands of your closest friends (you better be friendly being that close for that long) and sing at the top of your lungs for 36 songs.

By the way, the beer showers are free and none of our team drank even if they do smell like beer. Ministry is messy.

Today is first day of ministry to the tram and bus company. We will worship this evening with a partner church. It is about 51 degrees this morning and yesterday we were in the rain showers for a while. Monday and Tuesday is supposed to be warmer (highs in lower 90's) and Wednesday is supposed to be stormy. Never sure when you hear the weather forecast. Gotta love having a job where you can be wrong so many times and still get paid.

Monday ministry begins at 6:30AM and the Arkansas Ministry Team arrives in the afternoon. Gonna be a long day for them (and whoever else is serving here). What jet lag? They get to sleep for a few hours. By the time they are ready (body clock) it WILL be time to get up for ministry. Glad most of them are young too.

Now is the time to pray intensely for open ears and hearts. Also pray for protection and health. Long days wear on the resistance. Praying for team members to securely strap on our armor is good. It will be needed. This kind of effort does not go unnoticed.

Not the end . . . only the beginning . . .

Now it begins

Walking through town today it is hard to miss that the Gent Festivals begin tomorrow. Things are a changing and the people are coming in.

The Festivals Ministry Team from Georgia arrived this morning. Took them to the hotel to dump the luggage and ran by a sandwich shop to get a sandwich to take with us to the church to pack cookies. Between our cards and those of our partnering churches we had cards for 4,000 bags. We ran out of card before running out of bags and cookies. May never know how many bags we have but our apartment now looks like a cookie warehouse.

The Georgia team is a great group with a great attitude. They are excited about what is going to happen and wanting to be the best vessels possible for God. God wants our availability and they are certainly making themselves available.

Tomorrow (Saturday) will be the in-country orientation and festivals orientation. Lots to do to get everyone on the same page. We will not always be in the same place but need to be on the same page of ministry. We will then tour the ministry sites and get ready for the beginning. Ministry starts on Sunday and goes every day for the next week.

Sunday we will be focusing on reaching out to tram and bus personnel. Pray for us as we are actively on the streets from 5:30 to 8:30AM Eastern time.

We will do our best to give you the details of what God is doing and how you can join us in prayer.

Day -1

Back from Madrid. Plane was 1 hour late leaving but we still got out of the airport ahead of the rush hour traffic. No wrecks or construction along the way. The traffic was heavy but the trip took the same as a weekend day. Truly a God thing!

Hit the ground (or Gent) running. Trip to get food for the team coming in on Friday. Went to two homes to pick up cookies and arranged the delivery of others for the cookie sack assembly which begins today (Friday) at 9:00AM. Hit places in Eke, Zwijnaarde and New Gent before getting back to the apartment.

So good to be able to understand and communicate more effectively. It has been a long time since we studied Spanish.

One load of clothes done and suitcases put away (they can't live out in our small apartment because the team is here for dinner tonight).

First Gent Festivals Ministry Team is in the air (as I write) and headed to Brussels. They will have a long day of travel and packing cookies.

When we look at the days ahead it is easy to feel overwhelmed with the size of the task and amount of things to do. Beginning from tired does not help. But God is a big God and able to do more than we can ever hope, dream or imagine. We do not want to dream small or only attempt the man-sized.

People are more attracted to God when they see Him at work in the present. Over the next 11 days we want to live in a way that demonstrates God's love, glory and provision. More than that, we want to give people the opportunity to connect with Him in a personal way so that they too can experience as well as see the greatness of God.

True, the size of the task seems overwhelming. But that just means the opportunities are great. Glass half empty or half full? Does not matter. What matters is God allows us to tell His story and reflect His glory. NOTHING is better than that. It is a big job and a big privilege. We are so thankful for the opportunity to be a part of what He is and wants to do.

Stay tuned. It is just beginning.

God at work

Just got word that our ministry T-shirts have been printed and are being hand-delivered to shipping. Will be shipped this afternoon. Thanks to all who have worked so hard to make this happen. God is the initiator and provider but He used some great people to design, print, and ship the shirts.

Sunday we leave for Madrid, Spain. Some have asked about our "getting away" just before the ministry begins. First of all, the temps there will be near 100 each day, not great get-away temps. Second it is our annual meeting. It is being cut short this year because of the funds but we will see colleagues we have not seen in a year. Always a great celebration and encouragement.

We come home on Thursday and go straight to work (literally). Before we can unpack we will be picking up cookies and getting last-minute supplies for the first Gent Festival Volunteer Ministry team that arrives Friday morning. We have a great plan to help with their jet lag.

Please step up the prayer for the daily ministry efforts and for us to make contact with the people God is drawing to Himself. Pray for open ears, hearts and minds.

Lots to do

The universal comment on the Gent Festivals "Intentional Acts of Kindness Cookie Outreach" seems to be about the amount of work involved.

We remember the amount of work invested last year. The preparation and distribution of 1,300 bags of specially wrapped cookies with notes of thanks took a lot of time and energy. We worked with local partners and an American team of 5 to accomplish the ministry.

In praying and planning for this year, two thoughts seemed to dominate. First, how can we touch more lives and touch them more effectively? (Here culture and capability play a part). Second, 4,000 seemed to be a number that became evident. Why 4,000? That came from our Prayer Partners.

James reminds us that we have not because we ask not, and we have not because we ask for the wrong motive. We asked our Prayer Partners to be involved because: 1) Prayer is the foundation of all we do and essential for guidance and direction; 2) The task was much bigger than we could handle; 3) God always answers prayer and almost always in ways that makes Him look good and/or advances His Kingdom; 4) The need here is overwhelming.

There are places in the world where people are hungry. Many are physically hungry because they lack the necessary daily supply of essential food. Many are also spiritually hungry because they see the utter hopelessness of their situation. They are physically and spiritually poor.

But how do you touch lives where physical poverty is minimal. Yes 20% of children live at or below the poverty level. Did I mention the "poverty level" is a number set by the government and does not mean you are homeless and have no food? Did I mention that many of these are children of immigrants that may not be here legally? (Recently three families of squatters who had illegally moved into a home were evicted by the owner of the home. In the three families there are 27 children)

But why 4,000 attempts to touch lives? It is 4,000 because that is the number of bags Prayer Partners provided. It is 4,000 because much less than 1% of the people here have no personal relationship with God. And there are 6 million Flemish with 450,000 living in our immediate area. There is lots to do because there is much need. No, not physical need.

We are reminded not to fear the threat of death that causes physical loss of life. We are to fear a death that produces eternal separation from God. Hundreds of thousands are faced with that kind of death. That means there is lots to do.

So it is not about our ability (although we do what we can and only do what we can do with appropriate quality) but about the need. And there is lots of need, thus lots to do.

The race is on

In a culture where decisions and actions are measured in calendar time and not minutes and seconds, it is hard to describe what "ramping up" looks like.

Here is an example. In America, on 4 November there was a national election. The results indicated there would be a massive change in government faces and policies. Yet by 20 January the next year, there was a government in place. The thought of this not being able to be accomplished never crossed anyone's mind. (At this point I will not offer editorial comment on what did cross the minds of many). But there was a major political shift in about 11 weeks. No bloodshed, no negotiation, no nationwide protests, just a new government. Americans make things happen.

In June 2007 there were national elections in Belgium. There was a "landslide" victory and everyone thought the person receiving a massive amount of votes would certainly be able to form a stable coalition government. Since then there has been no stable federal government. Due to the continuing conflict, in June 2010 there were once again federal elections. Once again there was a winner with a massive amount of votes. He said he hoped to form a government by 1 September. For now no one is placing bets on that being the case.

Quick and definitive decisions that lead to rapid actions are not generally a cultural phenomenon here.

So ramping up to action looks different. We have been led to increase the Intentional Acts of Kindness Cookie Outreach from 1,300 bags to 4,000 bags. Instead of one volunteer team of five we will have two volunteer teams of 13. This is certainly a challenging but not unthinkable task in our sending culture.

In our living culture, it could well be equated to putting people on every planet in the solar system at the same time. No one would imagine it. "What could you possibly do with all those cookies?" "A thousand cookies was a tremendous amount, 4000 seems ridiculous."

I suppose a group of wanderers marching around a heavily fortified city seemed like little threat to the residents of that city. One man's death changing eternity seems unimaginable. Building a boat to ride out a flood when it had never rained seemed like a flight of fancy or act of lunacy. Get the idea? There are things that seem unimaginable.

But that is just where God wants to work. He wants us to walk where we cannot imagine. Faith is stepping out of the boat and not seeing the waves but the hand of the One who has a greater vision.

One of our local friends was commenting on how much work all of this is. My response was, "If one person falls in love with the One Who loves him so much it is certainly worth the effort."

We ramp up not just to get bigger. Bigger is not better, better is better. We ramp up because of the magnitude and urgency of the task. There are millions of prisoners of war here. They are being held captive by one who want to subjugate and brainwash them. They are held captive by one who knows no love. How can we stand by and let even more be taken captive?

Ramping up is not a option, it is the only choice many will have.

Thursday 23 July

Yes I know Monday was not the 29th even if it felt like it.

The Flemish have a phrase that says they are busy from early in the morning until late at night. It is phrased in such a way as to indicate that it is a habit or continuous action. We could certainly use that to describe this week. But to date it has been an amazing week.

Here is a typical daily schedule. We leave the apartment just after 6:00AM to go to a church to prepare for the morning outreach to the crowd that has partied all night. We usually leave that church around 7:00 to go to the ministry area and are there until after 9:00 before returning and cleaning up for the next day. Everyone is having amazing conversations there. Even our English speaking team members are having meaningful spiritual conversations since many of the younger crowd speak English. I could go on about the conversations I had but here is a synopsis of one yesterday. I engaged a young man in conversation by offering him a cup of coffee or hot chocolate. He accepted the coffee and asked where it was from. I told him it was from God and I was just delivering it in His name. He told me he was an atheist and asked if I would still give him coffee. I told him it was no problem. That seemed to amaze him and get his attention and he asked repeatedly why I would give God's coffee to an atheist. After more chatting I asked him how he was absolutely there was no God. He told me he was not 100% sure so I explained to him he was an agnostic. He agreed. Just moved him one step closer to God. In a little while one of his friends joined us. The new agnostic told me his friend was an atheist. But he (the agnostic) began a very good presentation for the existence of God to his atheist friend. The basis of the argument was there had to be a God because I had given him coffee, said it was from God and he believed me. Plus it was really good coffee. It was amazing to watch.

After the morning outreach we prepare for a intentional acts of kindness cookie outreach to the sanitation workers. We usually distribute 40-50 gift sacks of cookies, tell them about their origin and just thank them for their hard work. So far no spiritual conversations but we are becoming well known as the people with the cookies and they are looking for us at lunch time. Everyone is glad to talk with us. One man told me he really wanted to move to America. I told him I had left a place free for him. His colleague told him he would not last two days there during hunting season since my friend was wearing a pair of bunny ears. The colleague said several people had thanked them for their hard work. I asked if the others had thanked them with cookies and he admitted our thanks was sweeter.

Following that we prepare to distribute cookies to the tram and bus drivers. On Monday and Wednesday we we distributed 350 bags for a total of 700. They too are pleased and surprised. On Monday I told a lady at the ticket counter she needed to be the first to get a sack. I told her they were all good but some more than others and I was an expert, just look at my waist. When we went back on Wednesday she said she wanted to ask a "dumb" question. She said she was baptized into the Catholic church but it had no meaning for her. She wanted to know the difference between evangelicals and Catholics. The deacon I took with me gave a brief explanation and promised to bring her some material that explained the differences.

We close the day with another outreach of four hours joining a church in serving crepes and coffee to passers by. Yesterday I had the opportunity to present the plan of salvation to a young man and he wants to continue to meet until he can fully understand it and find a personal relationship with God. Needless to say the highlight of the day.

Then we do team debriefings and get something to eat. Just a typical day but they are great days. Why, glad you asked. We are on the crest of God's answers to your prayers. The movement here is because of what you are doing there. Keep it up and so will we.

Gotta go. It is 6:00AM. More later.