Nr.70 ended with: “You see, I had three things against me……!” (See richardandmarina.net)

This is actually something personal but I want to share it with you to give you an idea of why I was feeling so discouraged on the way home from Northern Ireland where I had such a wonderful time. You see, I had three things against me,

One, I was a Dutchman, “nen Hollander”, they say in Belgium. And the Belgians and Hollanders are not really in love with each other. Most jokes in Holland are about the Belgians and most in Belgium about the Dutch. I am having a hard time withstanding the temptation to tell you some, ha! So I always felt self conscious about being Dutch. Often I carried my Canadian passport with me and when people asked me where I was from, as they could hear on my accent that I was not from Belgium, I would tell them, that I came from Canada. Their reply would usually be, “You speak good Dutch”, to which I would reply, “Well yes, thank you.” But then the question would come “Have you maybe lived in Holland?” And then I would have to come out with the truth, “I was born in Holland, but I had nothing to do with that.” That would sort of break the ice and they would smile. However, I never got over the feeling of being a stranger there, except when people became Christians, then it changed.

Secondly, I had never worked with Roman Catholics in Canada and Belgium was more than 90% Catholic, why the Lord sent me there, only heaven knows. I knew very little about the Catholic faith and what they believed, but I learned pretty fast.

In the third place, I had never done personal work, I am a preacher, the larger the group, the better it goes, but give me one person and I hardly know what to say. The Bible talks about the gift of evangelism and both my wife and I have that gift, but while I present the Good News to groups, she does it on a one to one basis. My co-worker Herb was also that way and that’s why we teamed up so good. But talk about preaching to large groups in Belgium……….?! (Go to Musings)