Nr.74 ended with: “My wife and I have lived “out of God’s hand” for 52 years now and we have never lacked anything. The Lord has not always given us what we wanted, but He has provided for our needs, it is absolutely amazing! How can anyone say that God isn’t real……?!” (See richardandmarina.net).

But there was something else that amazed us, even more than God’s provisions, and that was the change we saw in the people that became Christians. The Bible says that the “Gospel is the power of God to salvation,” Rom.1:16. It also says that the Word of God is truth and has power to set free, John 8:31-32. We saw this happening again and again and it was so wonderful. Often after a Bible study somewhere I would drive home late at night with tears in my eyes as I had witnessed again the amazing power of the Word of God. I was so thankful to have been called by God to preach and teach His Word and see what it accomplished! It was beautiful to witness people changing for the good. People being born again and renewed, now experiencing the joy of the Lord. But more of this later.

Let’s go back to that first little church which began on April 2, 1972 in our living room. And even though I mentioned before that I found the first year in Belgium very difficult, people were becoming interested, especially when they saw the changes in the lives of some new converts and the small group began to grow and outgrow our living room. So we started looking for a building to rent somewhere and we found one in a street called de Uitbreidingstraat, which word means “Expansion Street”, very applicable! We moved into it in 1973.

1972 had been a very busy year. Besides the start of a small church in our house, I spoke at several youth weekends in Holland and one in Northern Ireland. We had a group of young people from Holland stay with us for a week of Bible study and training. And we had quite a number of visitors from Canada. During one month we had more than 40 people staying with us for several days and nights. Then Marina had a breakdown…………! (Go to Musings).