KEEPING TRACK OF ERWIN & GAIL: October 2014

Now at this point, we have finished our last few days in The UK. In fact we have, at this point, finished our whirlwind tour of all The WEC properties in UK and Europe. We are sitting at Gatwick Airport in London waiting to board our final flight to Calgary where we will try to put some form of normality back into our lives for a little while at least. In the last three days we spent one day seeing the WEC Property at Leeds North of London then the next day we drove over to a place called Over Peover pronounced, here in this part of the world, Over Pever , but we can’t hold all the silliness that occurs over here against them because they don’t know better. Just think about it, they drive on the wrong side of the road for miles and miles at MPH speed limits. Then they buy their gas (Petro) by the litres with pounds sterling then, when they get home they buy their meat and produce buy the 100 gram and weigh themselves by the stone so how could you hold the mispronunciation of a couple of words against them. Anyways while we were in Over Peover we looked for some evidence of Gail’s family that seems to have immigrated to Canada from that area. We were not successful but did find a couple of very old churches and cemeteries with some head stone dating back from before any records we have of these descendants and feel confident that we, at least, were in the area where they would have resided. Yesterday morning we left Leeds and travelled to another very old WEC property in Derby where we visited with a Canadian Wecer before going to Bulstrode to spend a part of the night trying to sleep before coming here. I’m going to post a few pics and see if we can get this published before we leave here.

God Bless. With love

Erwin & Gail

P.S.

Well obviously I didn’t get this published at the Gatwick Airport because, try as I might, I couldn’t get on line there or when I did Google said I couldn’t go there because the connection was not secure. So to make a short story even shorter our flight took off on time landed ½ hr early in Calgary and we hit the road running and didn’t stop, except for necessary breaks, till we were in Meadow Lake Saskatchewan, about an 8 hr drive. By that time we had been up and at it for just less than 25 hrs and I was already in the mumble mode so talking to you then would have been incoherent at best. So here it is 7:30 AM here, or 1:30 PM in the UK and 2:30 in Europe and I am, not just a little, confused. It is great to be back on home soil all seems to have fared well during our absents, Kelsey was glad to see us and so far hasn’t left Gail’s side even to the point of standing outside the bathroom door when she couldn’t get any closer. Now, that the whirlwind tour of UK and Europe is over all that is left, of that, is to analyse just exactly what we learned and what God would have had us learn. Then we can tell you and anyone we can about the need for people, especially people who may not preach or teach but have been gifted with skills in all sorts of practical application, and to convince them that, although it may be viewed by many as a lesser sort of gifting, that they are, in fact, among the most needed missionaries in the mission world. Without them, the preaches and teaches, the church planters and leaders would not be able to get to the field let alone stay and be effective. So when God says go plunge a toilet, string a wire, build a hut or dig a well none of you will think that isn’t necessary and refuse to go, or to support or worse yet even pray for that form of ministry. There I go, preaching again, O well you may have to get used to that.

This time I will get those pictures up and this thing published. God bless you again.

Entrance to WEC ( Springhead house) in Leeds England

The main building WEC ( Springhead house) in Leeds England

Guess where

Church in Over Peover

Church in Lower Peover

WEC Building in Derby England home of Soon Ministies

I couldn’t find the little boy with his finger in the dyke, but then it dawned on me, after a thorough search of the Netherlands, that I heard this story when I was yet a little boy, so by this time he quite probably would be a very old man with a very crooked finger stuck in the dyke. Now I don’t have time to search the Netherlands over again so I’m going to propose that my theory, like the dykes of the Netherlands, has the potential to hold water and should I ever return the first thing I will do is look for that old man. Ok. Enough of the small talk, let’s get started with the things we set out to say.

We arrived here in the Netherlands at Cornerstone, a missionary training centre in Beugen NL. It is in fact considerably larger than what I expected. It has the capability of housing well over 40 students and the staff required to do the job. It is made up of three buildings, one being a former elementary school, one being a former convent and a girl’s school, and the other what they refer to as the farm house. The property is probably as large as the property at Gateway but, of course, more of it taken up with buildings making the yard seem smaller. I have had the chance to tour the building with Peter, the maintenance person, and have seen into the belly of the beast and all that makes it work. This is, of course, more work than one man can handle. This, of course, is more work than several good men could handle, but there is only one man here, and although he is a much younger man than myself, he is still one overworked man. So, my friends hold on to your hats because when I get back I’m going to be on your case. I’m going to hound you. I’m going to explain how God spent 40 years teaching Moses everything he had to know about the Egyptian government and all about His people, the Israelites and an additional 40 years teaching him all about life in the desert before He called him to give the last 40 years of his life in complete commitment to Him. Then, I’m going to explain how God has spent the last 20, 30 or 40 years teaching you all you need to know and is now calling you, at this point of retirement, to commit completely to Him for the next 10, 15, or even 20 years. He doesn’t want you sitting on your hands pretending you’re enjoying retirement; He wants you giving back just some of what He has invested in you. Half wasn’t too much to ask of Moses, half shouldn’t be too much to ask of you. OK, enough of the preaching Erwin, you could save some of that till you get home.

Back to a little on the lighter side, you know there are lots of castles in the Netherlands. But the builders were way more considerate of the old timers who have to tour them, so they didn’t build them at the top of very high hills. No, each one is built on the flat land where no climbing is necessary. Now I’m not sure that they were just being considerate or if the fact there are no hills in the Netherlands could have been the deciding factor. We visited one such castle in the town of Helmand, but it was not open to the public at that time so we just walked around it. We visited a working windmill right here in Beurgen, but even with all the sails to the wind there wasn’t enough wind power to grind the grain. The list of new countries we have been to was not quite big enough, so on Sunday we drove down to Belgium. Did you know that all over Europe the stores don’t open on Sunday, that’s right, I said don’t, open. Oh, the restaurants, the bars, and some petrol stations are open, but not the stores. So we were not able to buy any souvenirs but we did take a picture. Today, we went to an outdoor walk through history museum where it was supposed to give you a picture of how the three major religions were formed. That is the Judean (Old Testament), The Christianity (New Testament), and Muslim (the Koran) and how they all relate to one another. What I thought would be a good adventure turned out to be another one of those “Nobody’s wrong, nobody’s right, everybody’s right, this is a simple history lesson based on as little fact as we could safely use without offending anyone” kind of things, that leaves you wondering just exactly what was said and how you can apply that knowledge, or lack thereof, to any part of your train of thought. But it wasn’t a wasted day we did do a 5 km walk which seems to be the norm anymore, we had a lovely lunch together which is always a bonus, and we had another lovely car ride together. It all turned out great so now if I can get the internet to work in my favor I’ll leave you with a few pictures and talk to you later.

God Bless. With love

Erwin & Gail

P.S. Never did get that internet up and runnung so I am posting this from Leeds in the UK where we will spend the next 3 days.