A Month of Knowledge in Review

**Disclaimer - this is a longer than usual read**

   One of the most interesting things we learned a year ago when we began the process of starting our support team building with MTW was the little phrase

"R & D"

It took us a while to see the advantages of using this little tool, but now we use it often, as do many other people in ministry adventures.  It stands for

ROB & DUPLICATE. 

Nothing evil or sinister mind you - just a way of sharing great ways of reaching out to friends and family through "borrowing" others ideas, knowledge, photos, and great synopsis' of events to let you know what we are doing.
  That being said, the following is from our fellow Summer In Belgium CCMI family member Drew Laughlin. He did a great job of "wrapping up" our month of learning and so I am borrowing (with his permission) his short email to share with you, with emphasis by us. (CCMI - Cross Cultural Ministry Internship)

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

The verse above from Ephesians 3 wraps up the hope that we carry with us as we leave CCMI and begin the journey to our various fields. As we have learned over and over this month, the task that lies before us is greater and more challenging than anything we could ever do on our own. We are moving to places where atheism, Islam, agnosticism, and idol worship run rampant. We are moving to places where Christianity is not the "norm." In one since, this gets us very excited. The harvest is plentiful and God has called us to labor in it. On the other hand, it's terrifying because we are leaving everything and everyone that we have known and that has comforted us for the last 25-40 years. However, we go with a great promise that our Father is able to do immeasurably more than we could ever hope or imagine. He is able to take the dry bones and build them up and breath life into them. He is able to shine light into darkness and that darkness cannot overcome it. Yes, we face a great challenge as we all move forward but our God is greater than every challenge we will face!! Therefore, we go forward into our fields not with fear but with confidence!!! We know, because He has promised, that He will be with us and that His kingdom will advance to every tongue, tribe, and nation!!

I could tell you a lot about what we've done at CCMI this summer. We've practiced team building. We've learned strategies and be practices of learning a language. We learned about cultures and how to adapt to them. We've built relationships with different churches. We've shared our faith. We've laughed. We've cried, we all have a few more grey hairs than when we arrived, but the greatest thing we have learned at a deep, heart level is this: Our God is faithful!! He is working!! He will accomplish His purpose!! 

Thank you for your support and prayers over the past 4 1/2 weeks. Thank you for loving us well. We look forward to continuing our journey together as we take the next steps in our calling.  (Drew & Marianna Laughlin, MTW missionaries in Bulgaria)

   Drew summed it up perfectly and we echo his THANKS for all the support we have recieved from you all.  We would like to add a few more highlights for you from our month in Belgium.  

This is our Bethelkerk "Outreach Team" that shared some hands-on love with the families and children who visited the Park Josafat in downtown Belgium in the afternoons of the week of July 19-22.  We played games, painted faces and did puppet shows for them. Well, we followed along while Pastor Gottlieb (back row left) led it all in French with his two sons and another church member. It was a privilege to work alongside the Flemish church as they are trying to reach out to their changing community of mostly Turkish and Armenian families.

And this is how moving works in the big cities with small stairways! There is no
way we can share with you all the sights and sounds and smells of Belgium - but one interesting
photo of how different it is in another country is good.

Our classroom for 30 days. We had 8 mentors from MTW who shared the month
with us and several other special guests
who joined us for sometimes a day or several days at a time
 to lead us in topics ranging from
Language Learning to Church Planting,
 from Thriving on the Field to being Culturally Intelligent,
and from learning to live in community to conflict resolution.

Howard was on the worship team for our month in Belgium along with Curtis, Marcus and Cat.
Every morning we began the day with a half hour of song, devotion and prayers.
 It was a special privilege to pray for the other people heading out into the field.
Mission to the World CCMI summer 2015 had folks heading out to
 Tasmania, Malaysia, Turkey,
Japan, Mexico, Canada, Spain and Bulgaria.

Look closely - you should see small mirrors, and funny shaped mouths, and possible our
tongues making funny shapes - we learned that different languages make different
sounds than the English language does by moving their tongues to different places
and by stopping air in different parts of your mouth. It was hard work and sometimes hilarious.

And we went over a whole bunch of tests that we took before we headed to Belgium -
 tests that reviewed our Cultural Intelligence, our Personality type,
our Emotional Intelligence and our Conflict Resolution type.
All things that you need to know in a high stress environment.
Very interesting and very humbling.

Getting to know another language is not the only thing you need to learn -
you need to know how the people in your new home think.
What do they think about their politicians?
What do they think about religion?
What about their history? What about laughter?
Is it a matriarchal society?
Howard found a Belgium businessman who was on his lunch break one day
and asked him some interesting questions to find out what he could.
Sandy found a Spanish lady who was born in Belgium, but whose parents
came from Spain over 45 years ago to find work and have raised their family here -
she loved the country and spoke Spanish, Flemish and some French.
She also recommended a good local restaurant and loved to go swimming at the local pool!

And then there were those surrogate grand-kids we were able to love on for the
month - here are Mary Claire with one of our mentors, Tricia, and Samantha
 with her mom Heather.

And I wanted to make sure that Heather and Marcus's son knew all about
posing well for photos!

Howard and Michael discussing the finer points of traveling around Belgium by train (or not).
The Parks family is heading to Tasmania.

Our "leading ladies" for the month - Mischa, Minette, Jan and Tricia.

There was so much cool graffiti everywhere - especially along the train lines.
I am working on a special blog just with cool photos.

Howard and I met and spent time with a local business owner, Rene, who was 84 years old .
He used to be a cobbler,
making over 100 prs. of shoes a week. Now he does some small shoe repairs
and has a small shop were he sells household goods and wood crafts that he makes.
We got his address and will stay in contact with him.

We ate well at the Zav Center (Operation Mobilization) in Zaventem. Here we are enjoying
our final big lunch - a buffet set out for us with fruits and seafood.
There were many interesting and unknown tastes - but we were game.

The final Wednesday evening we were there we held a special dinner for the Pastors and families
of the churches where we worshipped all month.
There were 4 churches we attended - a Flemish (Dutch) church,
a French church, a Turkish church and an Armenian church. 

On our final day morning, each family group spent 15 minutes or so sharing what they
learned from their time in Belgium - we all got very creative. Here Curtis and Marissa are
seeing if we were "Smarter than a Missionary" in what we learned during the month.

And here are the Interns who came and helped with the children of the families who attended.
There were 7 interns and 2 leaders of the interns.
 Even the children had booklets that they went through
 to help them cope with their new lives in another country and culture.

Our last meal in Belgium - Howard sharing olive eating skills with Calder.

Sandy and Heather and Samantha enjoying our Italian food.

And the month wore us out! We are back in Canada and excited to begin
our work here full-time.