more evidence

Crazy Horse Memorial

evidence we're in South Dakota

Anyone here, please feel free to read this, but this post is really for my Ichtus colleagues. Here's a list of experiences so far that tell you we're now in South Dakota.
1) I met with a supporter...in his combine.

(This is not the actual combine in which I rode, but it is the same model.)

2) My son won a turkey and my daughter won a pig in a small town raffle (mmmm, bacon).
3) I was served roast buffalo.

(not actual buffalo I consumed)

4) I locked myself out of the van I'm driving and the mechanic at the local repair shop helped me by attaching a wire to a broom handle and successfully reaching through an open side window and pulling the door latch. I locked it because I'm now from a city. And the guy who loaned me the van didn't give me the key for the door locks because he's not.
5) This is the van I'm driving.

(Yes, this is the actual van I'm driving)

6) People don't lock their houses. One family I stayed with don't even have a key to the farm house they rent.
7) I watched the sunrise from my bedroom window, without getting out of bed.
8) I spoke about Ichtus at 3 churches this weekend...all of them were in the countryside.
9) I had a couple of moments while driving in which I could see neither, building, nor auto (other than mine), nor person.

10) Tumbleweeds blew across the road in front of me as I drove.

(This is not actually one of the tumbleweeds I saw, they were moving pretty fast.)

11) I drove through a Native American Reservation.
12) I have frieten withdrawal (and I'm very sick).

Carry on without me my good colleagues. And I'll keep telling folks about you.

crossing cultures (aka marriage)

Sometimes marriage is challenging for missionaries...and everyone else, too. It occurred to me that if I approached my marriage the way I've been trained to approach a foreign culture I might become a better husband. I'm going to briefly describe a tool for crossing cultures well. It's called The Entry Posture Diagram. There are two ways to enter a new culture. I'll call the first the high road. On the high road we enter with an attitude of openness, acceptance, trust, and adaptability. The low road, however, is marked by suspicion, fear, superiority, and prejudice.

When we encounter cultural differences (like a new language, strange foods, or a different sense of humor) we experience dissonance. Dissonance causes us to feel frustration, confusion, embarrassment (like the time the spring loaded bus seat surprised me and I ungracefully sat on the floor), or even aggression. Now it matters greatly which road I’m on. If I entered the culture on the high road I will now put my efforts in observation, inquiry, listening, and initiating. If I entered on the low road I will instead cope by criticizing, rationalizing, and choosing isolation. High road coping results in understanding, empathy, and deepening relationships. Low road coping results in alienation, withdrawal, and broken relationships. The experience of dissonance comes again and again, and at any point in time a change in my attitude can mean switching roads.

Now let’s apply this to marriage. If you’re like me you married into another culture. When we visit my family everyone’s in bed by 11:00 (or asleep on the couch with Fox News or ESPN in the background). But 11:00 with Trina’s family is the time we get out a game and make some nachos. And of course the differences cover other, more significant areas too, such as dealing with conflict and child rearing. When we’re with Trina’s family or when I notice how Trina chooses to manage certain aspects of our home, I can think, “That’s not how my mom did it.” Or, “That’s interesting. I wonder why she...” Can you see which thought will lead to trouble? You can probably think of instances where you thought one way or the other. You probably didn’t know you were choosing between the high and the low roads.

So let’s choose the high road and relate to our spouses with openness, acceptance, trust, and adaptability. The holiday season is almost here and you just might experience dissonance over turkey dinner with the in-laws. What a great time to practice taking the high road.

mijn blog

I had an assignment in my Dutch as a second language class to write a blog post about life in Belgium. I thought I would post it here. The clever among you can no doubt figure out what it's about.


Ik vind België een heel interessant land, doordat het is een land met veel geschiedenis. Ik heb naar plaatsen van de eerste en de tweede wereld oorloogs gegaan. Bastogne is een speciaal plaats voor mij want mijn nonkel heeft in de "Battle of the Bulge" gevechten. De "In Flanders Fields" musea in Ieper maakt mij droevig. De muziek, de beelden, en de verhalen brengen de realiteit aan de historische gebeurtenissen. Er zijn ook kastelen, meesterwerken van de kunst, kathedralen, en diverse andere interessante dingen. Maar het meest speciaal deel van België is het volk.

De mensen van België hebben een reputatie voor zijn verlegen en gesloten. Dat is niet mijn ervaring. We hebben veel vrienden in onze buurt, onze kerk, en de school van onze kindjes. We hebben vriendelijkheid en gastvrijheid gezien. We hebben ook vrienden van over de hele wereld. We hebben in onze nederlands cursussen mensen van Noord en Zuid Amerika, Europa, Azië, Afrika en Australië ontmoet. Hebben we in our English cursussen Mensen van Noord en Zuid Amerika, Europa, Azië, Afrika en Australië Ontmoet.

Waarom niet komen en zie voor jezelf?

Germans in the Woods

This summer (thanks to a conference that took us to southwest Belgium) we had the opportunity to visit Bastogne and the Battle of the Bulge memorial. I recently stumbled across this video from an interesting website called StoryCorps. I think you will find it interesting.

StoryCorps » Germans in the Woods

hiding our weakness

I often find a desire in myself to hide the fact that “ik ben Amerikan.” Mostly I want to hide my lack of proficiency with Dutch. You might say I try to hide my weakness...

for the rest of this post go to the Ichtus Blog where several Ichtus staff and I regularly post. I'm the only one who posts in English, but hopefully soon my Dutch will be good enough to change that.

the hammock

This weekend we started enjoying a hammock. There is kind of a long story that goes with it (but I'll try to keep it brief). One of the things we discovered in our shed when we moved into our house in Gent was a hammock. A friend told us he had inspected it and it would need cleaning and repair because mice had defiled it (in that special mouse way that makes you want to set fire to something and then go take a shower). Last summer was full of tiring activities like learning to ride the bus, waiting for our number to be called at the city's administrative building, and shopping for second hand furniture. We never got around to cleaning and repairing the hammock (nor did we burn it and take a shower). A few days ago my wife was apparently overcome by the need to relax. So she moved cleaning the hammock 48 positions up the to-do list, right to the top. Bleach, detergent, broom, garden hose, these were the tools of her toil. Well, we found out a couple things. 1) It wasn't mice, it was rats (as evidenced by skeletal remains...maybe we've been watching too many cop dramas lately). And 2) the damage wasn't as bad as we expected. Today was a gorgeous day in Gent. I helped Trina move the hammock into a shady spot and instead of a normal Sunday afternoon nap she upgraded to a hammock nap. When the kids came out from their conventional naps they wanted to be with their mom on the hammock (that is, they wanted to be on the hammock their mom happened to occupy). And this evening after putting the kids to bed we laid on the hammock, read a bit, and talked our way to dusk. We also decided it was time to light the giant citronella candle we also inherited in our shed. So the hammock (and to a lesser degree the candle) saved us from a mind-numbing expedition into tv land.

So here's what you learn about missionary life.
1) Missionaries should all have a story involving rats (or at least the skeletal remains of one).
2) Missionaries often need a little help to relax.
3) Missionaries usually can't just go out and buy a new _______(insert whatever item is damaged, lost, stolen, or defiled by rodents).
4) God seems to know just what missionaries need. Sometimes someone pulls into our driveway and delivers it for him, and sometimes he makes us get out the bleach.

OK. Maybe these things don't apply to all missionaries, but it's part of our story. We're thankful all the time for people who have been called to places where the rat stories and other hardships are serious. But God has called us here, to a pleasant neighborhood in a beautiful city. And if he's called you to small town South Dakota life, or if you're someone proving indeed you can go anywhere from here*, please be faithful and press on.

*the motto of South Dakota State University

photo tour of Belgium

For those of you who are curious about where we live, are considering a vacation to Europe, or are procrastinating, here's a brief video tour of Flanders.

de-baptism catching on in Flanders

To do list:

1) make a Living Will

2) get an organ donor card

3) get de-baptised from the Catholic church

Here's an excerpt from an article in Flanders Today about an interesting trend in Belgium.

“I became a member of the church when I was three days old. I had no choice in the matter. Now, 36 years later, I want them to cross my name out of the register.” Last week TV presenter and Mechelen alderwoman Kristl Strubbe informed her Facebook followers how to become “de-baptised” as a Roman Catholic.

Read the article in its entirety here.

Halftime Weekend Video

One of my colleagues put this video together. Enjoy.

so that's what they think

Here's an interesting quote from Belgian Lt. Col. Bart Hubrechtsen. On preparing his troops to go to Afghanistan.
“My troops need to be able to react to unforeseen obstacles with an absolute minimum of force. We are not Americans. We have to act with the necessary respect for the local people and culture, rather than just shooting willy-nilly at the people around us.”

Read the entire article from Flanders Today here.

there is no mundane

mundane
adjective- 1. of or pertaining to this world or earth as contrasted with heaven; worldly; earthly: mundane affairs.

We're just a couple months from completing year 1 in Belgium. We're nearing the end of our third level of Dutch classes. We're growing in our understanding of what Ichtus is about and what we have to offer. But we still have difficult days. Today is one of them.

Trina's dad is having heart surgery today (Wednesday). We have known for some time that he has a bad valve and would someday need surgery. That "someday" has come, and knowing it was coming doesn't keep it from being a little scary. Please pray for Dave's surgery today. And pray for us. Part of the Christian life, maybe the biggest part, is trusting God. We desire to be close to family at times like this, but following God's call to Belgium means we have to trust him to care for our family.

Is that really so different than if we lived in South Dakota? Whether we are trusting God from the waiting room or trusting God from across the ocean, the important part is God. It occurred to me yesterday that when I talk with people here—a parent at the kids’ school, a neighbor, a language classmate—I am thinking (at least in the back of my mind) about this person's need for Christ. I didn’t live that way in Brookings. The awkwardness and discomfort of life in another culture, away from the things to which I grew very accustomed over the course of my life, has helped me realize that we should live as if there is no mundane.

My family and I count the cost, we keep a sort of spiritual accounting. We long to see a payoff for the hard things that have come our way because we have followed God. So on one side of the scale we place struggling through Dutch class, leaving family, trading a car for public transportation, leaving the space of South Dakota for city life, and on the other we look for what God will place. Will it be spiritual growth for us, building unique values and experiences in our children’s lives, seeing Belgians transformed by the Gospel of Jesus? We have to trust that in God’s economy it is all worthwhile.

So if you are someone surrounded by things familiar, I hope you will learn from us. There is no mundane. Please look for God today. Ask him to use you, not just when you lead a Bible study, teach Sunday School, or go on a short-term mission trip, but in the conversation with the cashier, or mechanic, or your 4 year old daughter.

train crash

Some have asked about the train crash near Brussels. We were not on this train and don't personally know anyone who was. But if you're interested in a report you can take this link.

Flemish Catholics reticent about beliefs

I subscribe to a newspaper called Flanders Today. It is a Flemish news source in English. I thought the following excerpt from an article might give insight into the religious climate of Belgium (Flanders in particular).

Flemish Catholics reticent about beliefs

Three-quarters of observant Flemish Catholics are hesitant about describe themselves as such, according to a poll of the readers of the magazines Tertio and Kerk & Leven. Young people in particular are reluctant to let others know about their faith: 86% said they would keep quiet about it among peers.

The figures are worrying for church leaders, since the polls targeted active church-goers rather than those who are only nominally Catholic. “I think they’re right,” said Kerk & Leven editor Bert Claerhout in De Morgen. “Certainly for young people, it’s not easy to speak up for your beliefs.” The problem helps explain why half of the respondents were in favour of Catholic schools, with a return to catechism lessons.

The article can be read in its entirety here.

We have sponsored a boy named Djeverson in Haiti through Compassion for several years. Compassion could use your gift at this time of disaster relief.

Haiti Earthquake