Nr.55 ended with: “At the same time we were starting to sense God’s leading in regards to going to Europe as missionaries. Things were starting to shape up and Holland and Belgium were coming closer……..!”

We thoroughly enjoyed fellowshipping at WBC. A Brethren Assembly is a bit different from other churches; I’m not saying it is better, but different. In fact there were three things that really touched my heart and with which I was in total agreement. 1. I believe that the Bible teaches that there should be a plurality of leaders or elders in every local church, not just one man. Pastors are often perceived to be a special group of people, on a higher level than the laity, like priests in the Roman Catholic Church and like priests in the O.T. Don’t get me wrong, I am not judging pastors and I thank God for every godly man who has felt called to pastor, but I never felt at ease being THE pastor of a church.

2. I believe the Bible teaches that all N.T. believers are priests. Most evangelical churches believe this but do not really put it into practice.

3. I believe that we ought to follow the example of the early Christians and have communion, or “breaking of bread” every Sunday morning. I found these three in practice at WBC and I rejoiced. I had always felt that the closer we stayed to the early church, as found in the N.T. the better. This conviction would later bring real blessing in Belgium. I realized that the Lord was showing us things and preparing us for our future ministry in Europe.

In the mean time we continued on with an evangelistic and preaching ministry. The elders of WBC “commended” us to full-time work of the Lord, which meant that they would support us as the Lord provided and that other assemblies were notified of this and would also support us from time to time. We continued to trust the Lord for all our needs and did not make those needs known. We had enough to live on but nothing extra and so when our three little girls asked for tricycles, we prayed. A few days later we received a phone call ……! (Go to Musings)