KEEPING TRACK OF ERWIN & GAIL: Back in the UK

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.