Nr.177 ended with, “We signed and had ourselves a house, but……………..!” (See richardandmarina.net)

Yes, we had just bought our first house, thanks to the two Belgian couples who gave us interest free loans. When years later we sold the house, we had enough money to buy the condo we are living in now here in Elmira, Canada, and we still thank the Lord for the love and kindness of these brothers and sisters in Christ who made this possible.

And yes, we had just bought a house for quite a reasonable price, but……., it was an old house and needed an awful lot of renovations. And so for almost three months, besides holding Bible studies, preaching and visitation, we worked on the house. Thank God for our co-worker Henk Gelling, who came from Limburg quite a number of Saturdays, bringing along two or three other men, to help us with the work. And then in January 1991 we were able to move into it. That same month on the 16th, our first grandchild was born to our second daughter Lily and her husband Bart. Little Emma Vanhyfte was a bundle of joy and we thanked God for her. And now, in 2016, she is married to an Englishmen and they are together involved in missions.

I had been holding home Bible studies in the northern part of Ghent and a number of people had become true born again Christians. Baptisms took place and these folk joined the Ghent church which was located in the south of the city. But this caused the assembly there to become so large that the building was filled to overflowing. Something needed to be done. To find a larger building was pretty well impossible and not affordable. So a group of believers, many from the north side of Ghent, hived off and we started a new church in Mariakerke, a northern suburb of Ghent. This assembly became known as the travelling church, as for different reasons we had to change buildings a number of times. We even met for some time in an old castle in Ghent.

In the east of Belgium, the work had continued to grow too and there were now 12 assemblies. In East Flanders four, also four in West Flanders and in the Antwerp region four. All praise to God, how wonderful had the Spirit of God moved, amazing, 24 churches in less than 20 years, and that in such a difficult West European country, unbelievable! All we can say is, look what the Lord has done! And what a privilege to have been allowed a part in that all. But just as God is real, so is the enemy and we had experienced his opposition many a time already in different ways, and now unknowing to us, he was attacking again and we were to soon find that out…………..! (Go to Musings).