Nr.65 ended with: “Herb and I started going from door to door to find out how people in Belgium thought about God and Jesus and so on. Two things really surprised us, or should I say shocked us……..!” (See richardandmarina.net)

But before I tell you about this, I first want to mention how surprised we were at the Lord’s undertaking and provisions. We had left Canada without a salary or promise of full support. Our home assembly supported us monthly, but that was always less than half of what we needed. Where was the rest going to come from? We had no idea, but we knew we were in the will of God and that He would provide. And now after having been in Europe for 6 months, we could truly say that every month enough gifts came in for us, some from people we didn’t even know, how wonderful, praise the Lord. He is faithful and can be counted on!

So now, what were the things that shocked us? The first one was the fact that at least 90 to 95% of the people had never seen a Bible. This was to us unbelievable for a “Christian” country. One of our neighbors told us that her father used to have a Bible, but the local priest had come and taken it. I heard the same thing several times. We were told that the Bible was a forbidden book. I looked this up and found this: The Council of Trent (1545-1564) placed the Bible on its list of prohibited books, and forbade any person to read the Bible without a license from a Roman Catholic bishop or inquisitor. The Council added these words: “That if any one shall dare to read or keep in his possession that book, without such a license, he shall not receive absolution till he has given it up to his ordinary.” Previous councils had also taken that stand. Of course, this has changed and now in catholic schools the children have a Bible, but they are told right from the beginning that the Bible is full of mistakes, so how can one trust it? It may surprise or shock you what a seminary professor, who later became a bishop told me……! (Go to musings)