Nr.129 ended with: “When we were together, she told me that she already had accepted Jesus in her heart. When I heard that I challenged her to open her home for a weekly Bible study……!” (See richardandmarina.net).

She agreed wholeheartedly and I was thrilled because every time we would start a study in a new town I would already see a new church there in the future! And so every Monday night, in the fall of ’76, her living room was full of curious people, relatives, friends and others she had invited. They all received a Bible and then the following week some would return with little pieces of paper in their Bibles, things they did not understand, and we would have some very interesting discussions late into the night. We would be going all over the Bible from one text to another and they were so surprised at what they found in the Scriptures. And, there was a lot of smoking too, so that when I got home and into bed with my dear wife, she would say, “Bah, you smell……” 🙂

Soon a number of these people accepted the Lord Jesus and became true born again Christians. Again and again I was amazed at the power of God’s word and how it could change minds and lives. We drove to Beerse with car loads of people to be baptized there as these new believers had a real desire to follow and obey the Lord. There was much rejoicing. For the first while these new Christians went to the church in Peer on Sunday morning to “break bread”, or have the Lord’s Supper, as it is also called. And the children had Sunday school. Sometime later a church was started in Koersel and they attended there until the time had come to start a work in Lommel. Marina and I helped with the beginnings of this new church. After the Lord’s Supper I would preach, while Marina taught the children in a bedroom and sang with them playing her accordion. What a great times that were. It was wonderful to see these young believers have a hunger for God’s word and grow in their faith. This was real New Testament Christianity, so simple, yet so beautiful. (Go to Musings).