Nr.194 ended with: “And then, finally, shortly before leaving for Canada, we moved into our “dream house” provided by the Lord, what a joy………!” (See richardandmarina.net).

It had been about 3 years since last being in Canada and now after several months of visiting family and friends there and preaching about 30 times, we returned to Belgium. But during the summer of 2006 we went back to Canada, and this time with our whole family as there was going to be a Funk (Marina’s) family reunion. It had been many years since the last one and our granddaughters had never yet met their Canadian relatives.

The Lord was so good to us and provided for us. We flew to Calgary, in Alberta, where one of Marina’s brothers had rented two cars for us. We drove to another brother of Marina who had a farm just out of Three Hills, AB. Our granddaughters were so impressed with the outstretched landscape and the long roads. While driving on one of those, one of the girls said, “Is this road never going to end?” Imagine their surprise when a day or so later we drove from the farm to the highway, turned left and stayed on that road for about 500 km through part of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and then turned right, into Pike Lake Provincial Park where the reunion was being held. It was a wonderful weekend indeed with at least 110 family members. Marina comes from a family of eleven children.

After the reunion, we drove back to Calgary and spent some time in the Rocky Mountains. Living in Belgium means being only a day’s drive from Switzerland and Austria. We find the Alps very beautiful, while the Rocky Mountains are very majestic. We were all very impressed with God’s wonderful creation.

Then our children and grandchildren flew back to Belgium, while Marina and I took a plane to Toronto to spend some time with our oldest daughter Rosa who, because of her illness, had not been able to be at the reunion. The next three years were spent in preaching, teaching, visiting and meeting with church leaders, while Marina continued with encouraging women, through visitation, and over the phone. At the same time, we were getting more and more tired and I was starting to find it difficult to deal with some of the problems, so we began to wonder about our future. There were some 24 churches now and quite a number of workers, so, should we continue in Belgium, even though we were not able to be as active anymore as before? Was it right for our home church and others to keep supporting us financially, should that support not rather go to younger workers?

In 2008 we made a trip to Canada to see how the Lord would lead…………! (Go to Musings).