Nr.94 ended with: “We had a time of prayer and then someone mentioned that the old Windmill, close to the center of the town, was for rent. An old dilapidated Windmill as church building,,,,,,?”

A new church in Beerse? It had been on my heart for some time; don’t forget we believed that the Lord had led us to Belgium to build churches, not buildings, even though they became necessary too, but gatherings or assemblies of true born again believers. The words of Jesus in Matthew 16:18b, were always on my mind, “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” My constant prayer was, “Lord, build your church.” I firmly believed that this was the purpose for our being in this country. I was also convinced that planting churches was the best and fastest way of evangelizing the world, notice the apostle Paul’s ministry, and also the best way to change the world, as Christians are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, Matt.5:13-14, and are built up in local churches. So my heart was thrilled when people in and around Beerse became Christians. And through these Christians I came in contact with people further east in the province of Limburg, but that is for later.

We went to talk to the owner of the mill, who gave us the key to go and look at it. The sails/blades had been taken off, but the large round tower was still there. There were several stories with a good size round room on the main floor and also a large hall, which could seat close to 200 people. There were also living quarters, a house with two bedrooms. But the whole place was in bad shape and a lot of fixing would have to be done, yet we saw it had tremendous potential. We looked at the place a couple of times and then after much prayer we agreed to rent it. The next Monday morning I drove from Antwerp to sign the contract and get the key from the owner. I went to the mill feeling excited that this was now ours. With a happy heart I walked into the building but became suddenly utterly shocked……! (Go to Musings).