Nicki much better!

Dear All,

Thanks for the many prayers, calls and emails over the last few weeks. Nicki is starting to get much better. She has mobility again and the pain has decreased in her knee so that she no longer needs painkillers. It has been quite surprising but none the less appreciated! We went for the doctors appointment on Friday. He looked at the MRI scan, checked the analysis of the fluid drined from her knee and the blood results and was satisfied that there was no serious problem with her knee. In fact he explained that Nicki has probably had an “unexplained swelling of the knee” which can happen from time to time and may not be connected to the serious throat infections. She has a final appointment with a Rheumatism specialist to rule out any problems there, but the Doctor seemed confident in her progress. She will start 9 sessions of physiotherapy on Monday (which Nicki hopes will include the massage bed she enjoyed when pregnant!).

So it is the all clear really. Let’s chalk this result up to God – there have been so many people praying for her and us all.

She is daily improving which is a great relief to us all, especially Sam and Ellie who were understandably getting a bit worried. Kevin’s mum has been fabulously helpful and without her we wouldn’t have got through the last weeks. Kevin is now on compassionate leave until January to make sure Nicki gets 100% fit. This is helpful for him too as trying to juggle work and home at this time has been very taxing. Phew!

So to cheer us all up here is a little video for you. We have been trying to catch Joshua dancing on video for a while, as he is such a groovy mover, particularly when he swings with trousers about. This is the best we have in time for this email though.

Till the next time, thanks for praying, have a good Advent!

Kevin and Nicki

November News!

Dear Friends,

The last few months have been full of change and adaption as we got back into the world of school runs, homework and the rhythm of term time. Ellie is in her third year of primary school. The work level has increased dramatically this year which was a shock to all of us and took some weeks to adapt to. Ellie now has reached the level where the school uses Dictations as a key tool for learning. This (as all French speakers have confessed to me) is dreaded by everyone, but is just the way it is done! She is getting the knack of it now though.

October 2009 Baudwijn Sea Park (click for more)

YWAM Brussels has adapted too. We have said farewell to 3 staff members, Liam, Steve and Christel, although none are leaving Brussels! They are all moving on to other things. Liam to university and Steve and Christel to full-time ministry outside of YWAM. It is nice to know that they are still here in Brussels serving God!

We have also welcomed two short-term staff members (Esther and Therisa) and three long-term staff members, Marieke, Ye-Soon (from Korea) and Rick. Marieke also married Frankwin who came in the spring. So we have also all had a wedding too. For a small team, this is a lot of change. The new people bring a lot of energy and creativity. Marieke, Ye-Soon and Rick have all joined Team Contrast to do creative evangelism. On top of this Patrick and Mariette (who lead Team Contrast) have just had a baby boy!

For Kevin and his leadership team there has been a lot of orientating people to the base, plus looking at how we organise ourselves. The Brussels team are now taking on more of the organising of the community and managing the building and staff times. Kevin has also been spending a lot of time preparing the way for other staff to come to Brussels. He has been back and forth to the local town hall, the immigration departments, on and off the phone to America, Africa and Russia to sort out paperwork for visas and other problems with staff we are recruiting from overseas. To be honest a lot of time has gone into getting his own documentation sorted out! It is rarely straightforward and on a number of occasions the officials have given wrong information (recently resulting in Nicki spending a wasted two hours at the town hall with the Twins!) Both of us find this sort of thing exasperating (as does everyone living in Brussels!) and not the kind of exciting missionary life we want to write home about!!!

Joshua and Luc are now very busy little people. They have entered Toddlerhood with a gusto that thrills and exhausts us in equal measure. The biggest challenge comes when they get ill. Nicki recently coped magnificently with a bout of sickness that hit the twins for 10 days or so. Sadly the 10 days did not overlap so it became longer! That was a significant drain on Nicki and all of us. But the boys are fine mostly, happy and cheeky and love their books. Sam has started with BUC Rugby club, a French-speaking club. He is loving it and doing very well for a novice. His speed, fearlessness and willingness to tackle anyone makes him a useful player! The club is French-speaking and he is doing well there.

Nicki and Kevin are both working hard in the children’s work at the church. We are taking turns to do different age ranges. We enjoy it a lot and love seeing the kids faith grow and develop. Recently the 9+ age has moved to better accommodation but further from the main church. It is a better environment for the kids and everyone is seeing the benefits! Kevin has also made time to run an Evangelistic Linux Computing morning too!

That is all for this time. We will base ourselves  here in Brussels for the rest of the autumn and  Christmas. We are looking forward to it.

Kevin and Nicki

What we were doing all summer when we could have been writing blog posts

Dear everyone,

It is hard to know where to begin as we reflect back on a great summer. We mainly spent it in Brussels as a family although we did manage a quick trip to the UK for one week. In some ways the summer months are slower paced and yet when we think back to all that happened it doesn’t seem that much quieter!

This year we were delighted with the outreach that YWAM was involved with. Summers are key times for availability of young people and this is the time of year that YWAM had its origins in. So summer time is always looked upon with expectation. This year was no exception. The Go Team from West Flanders sent 30 Flemish young people to 5 nations for a month of life-changing outreach. In Brussels ‘Team Contrast’, hosted a total of 80 people who came from all over for evangelism in Brussels. The largest group was 50 Korean King’s Kids, the participants from 6 to 16 in age, and leaders a-plenty with them. They certainly shook the place and took every opportunity to get out into the city transmitting the Love of God to others often in many non-verbal ways. It is hard to explain, but a very wonderful to experience.  Other teams came. One bold team from Finland from time to time prayed for people they met on the streets in their evangelism. One girl on crutches with a painful ankle was instantly healed after the team prayed, causing quite a stir! It was a great summer and one that we pray will be built on for the future.

Summer 2009 – click for more photos!

One great thing to be involved in as a whole family was the VBS (Vacation Bible school). This huge holiday club is a joint venture by International Baptist Church, St Paul’s and The Link. We have done this in previous years and Ellie and Sam now consider it a MUST in the annual calendar. It was a week jam packed for the 5-11 year olds with Bible stories, songs, games, crafts, small group time, memory verses and challenges. In total 180 children/teenagers were involved including the crèche and graduates (11-16 year olds).

Nicki was able to assist Jane on the music station teaching the children songs and dances. She thoroughly enjoyed herself and will especially treasure memories of many children jumping up and down shouting “you’re powerful” to God!

Kevin was leading the graduates programme and really enjoyed the week, particularly seeing the teenagers coming alive to God and being empowered in leadership. They had two sessions a day specially tailored for them and then they helped out on one of the stations or assisted a crew leader. The highlight for Kevin was on the Thursday when more than eight of them stood to rededicate themselves to Christ. Please pray for them as they go back to family, school and church life that their new found enthusiasm for Christ will continue.

Luc and Josh experienced the VBS for the first time and celebrated their first birthday with the other children in the helper’s crèche. The first few days were a little difficult for the boys (and their mum!) as they took in the new surroundings and programme but by the end of the week they were doing really well and dancing along to all the songs!

So it is now back to school for Sam and Ellie and all the staff have returned from their holidays. Nicki is looking forward to working more with the mothers and babies programme for Alternative’s and Kev will be looking after the boys once a month as she leads the discussion/support group with the women. There are lots of staff arriving just now at the base and a couple of staff have left. We are anticipating about 4-6 new people coming over the next few months. Please pray that they all settle in!

Well, that is more than enough news for one letter but we look forward to telling you all about the new staff who are joining us in the next letter! Check out our website for another post full of movie clips of the twins in action.

Love,

Kevin and Nicki

Some great videos of the twins

We have had a busy summer and very often forgot to take the camera along with us! However, we have some little video clips you might like to see!

Josh and Luc show of the Frankenstein technique of walking

Sam’s Nature Film

Ellie sings to Josh and Luc

Luc grooves!

June News from the Colyer Clan in Brussels

Dear All,

Click here for more photos…

We have had an action packed May and June (so much for taking it easier after the house move) and had a lot of fun as a result! May and June are odd months in Belgium as there are a large number of bank holidays at surprising times of the week. So it has been a lot of short weeks and long and busy weekends (that we made the most of).

We have had a pleasing number of visitors to the house. Ellie usually offers her room to visitors and happily shares Sam’s room (“Daddy! Sam’s strangling me because he says I wont stop singing!”). The house is great! We are finding we can get a lot of peace and quiet. One day Kevin arrived home knowing that there would be one extra child for a sleep over and was surprised to learn there were three extra kids upstairs! That is the advantage of five floors. It has been great having people to stay and experimenting with eating breakfast in the backyard. Nicki can host a housegroup on Friday mornings, which suits many women with small children. They have a babysitter who takes the kids up to Luc and Josh’s room, which is easily big enough to house them all. The house is a great blessing.

All the kids are doing well. Sam is thriving in a new drama club at school and Ellie loves her ballet class and recently performed another beautiful tragedy (Butterfly’s burning their wings on Glow-worms!?)  at the school’s May Fair. Josh and Luc are on the move. The stair gates are going up (much to their disgust). They both have cut two teeth each and are crawling with increasing speed and confidence in a forward direction. Josh is constantly pulling himself up and it can’t be long before he will be walking! They are getting a reputation for being active. One nick name for Josh that we like is “the squirmy brown one”. He got this name because of his utter inability to lie still when his nappy is changed! (We do recall that Sam, at a similar age, once needed three people to change his nappy!)

We have been very active as ever at the Link. Nicki is taking Sunday school lessons again. Josh and Luc are now going into the crèche so we are both freed a little more to help out. We also managed to get out to Kevin’s monthly evangelism night at Bier Circus called “God and my Pint” (a low key, social discussion based evening with 100 beers to choose from!) Kevin has also put in many hours delivering evangelism training to the Link house groups. He felt it went very well, and the feedback has been positive. The Linkers feel much more confident in how to share their faith in a relevant and simple way. It was very enjoyable for Kevin who was very pleased with the level of boldness and confidence in the different groups.

This month for Kevin has been a hectic one in YWAM. He has had to pull together YWAM’s accounts, and get them audited and ready for the Annual General Meeting. Ordinarily this is straightforward, however the accountant dropped off the scope for weeks necessitating a last minute rush. As well as this he has been working on PR and produced YWAM’s annual report as well as helping to organise the Brussels’ Open Day. He also held a week long conference for his KnowledgeBase project (http://www.ywamkb.net). Currently he is working on staff development by implementing evaluations. Of course there has been a myriad of other tasks and meetings with people.

A lot of the work is essential background management, without which YWAM would grind to a slow halt. But it is the little bits of outreach and people development that he really enjoys. Kevin has been meeting with a young Belgian guy called Nickolai, giving the occasional evening of coaching and encouragement. This is a lot of fun as Nickolai is very open and teachable. Kevin also was invited to give a school lesson on Methodism in the local European schools’ religion class. It meant a fair bit of research but it was great fun to teach the class, who really were interested in understanding the concept of “Justification by Faith” that Wesley taught as his heart was “strangely warmed”. Kevin also really enjoyed the Open day where he stood on the front door and welcome all passing to pop into the YWAM centre and find out what we do. We had a large number of non-Christians come in and it was lots of fun to explain (in French or English) the reasons why we do what we do! (And of course the person behind it all, Jesus)

Coming up next is the summer break. Nicki is especially looking forward  to it, as are Sam and Ellie who are feeling tired after the long school year. We are planning on taking an early break in July and going camping together in Holland. We will pop briefly into Stroud but will be spending the eight weeks break here in Brussels. Next year we will have furlough time and will be planning on being in the UK for much longer.

Lots of love,

Kevin, Nicki, Sam, Ellie, Josh and Luc

News from the Colyers (at last!)

Dear All,

I have finally found time to write about the last few weeks. The biggest event for us as a family has been the move! Yes, we are in a new place, with a new phone number and we are re-connected to the internet. We have felt out of touch with everyone, but now we are settled we can get back in contact again!

2009-04-18 trip to Stroud at Easter

We are now renting a tall and skinny house, about two kilometres north of the YWAM centre in the district of Schaerbeek. The address is 24 Rue Thomas Vinçotte, 1030 Brussels. The new phone number is +32 (0) 2 304 6924. Please call! The email address stays the same, as does Skype. The move has gone really well, thanks to some fabulous help from Kevin’s mum, friends and team members. In fact we had so many offers for help we felt really bad turning people away! It is great to have such a broad network of people around us who love to help! The move went without a hitch and the only breakage was a small figurine of Ellie’s. (Yes, there were tears!) We love the new place, the extra space and the new neighbourhood. It is somewhat Turkish around here.

Some gifts are still coming in but it looks like we have met our financial target that we set. Thanks to all our generous supporters who have helped us in this way. It really has made a difference to us. We also hope it will inspire other team members in the YWAM centre to take a leap of faith and move out too. Our apartment is already filled with single people sharing, who previously were living on the top floor of the base. This is great and the top floor space they have left is being filled with new staff members.

Yes, the YWAM work is going very well too. We have had a number of single staff join recently. Daniel (from New Caledonia) is here short term working in counselling and in the bookshop whilst Frankwin (from Holland) is long term joining Patrick and Mariette doing youth work and evangelism. Willen and Marina Nel have also moved to Brussels to work with the Kerygma Team. They will be aiming to start fellowships amongst Muslim people. We love seeing the team expand like this. The fresh dynamics that are brought to the team really revitalise us! We are hoping for more. Please pray that those staff in process will have no blockages to hold them back from coming (particularly in the area of visa’s).

Brunel

One of the more exciting moments happened the other day when Kevin was passing through the bookshop after posting a letter (what a thrilling life he leads!) when he realised that Richt Jan was in the process of selling a Bible to a man and was also explaining where to start reading it. Kevin decided to stay a while to help other customers so Richt Jan would have the time to talk to this man as he was clearly exploring faith seriously. After a little while the man left. Richt Jan explained that he was in fact a Muslim, who wanted to read about Jesus (revered as the Prophet Isa to Muslims) from the bible himself. We prayed for him right then. It turns out that the bookshop team have been praying daily for Muslims and this man was the third who has come in since they started praying. It has almost never happened before in the long history of the shop!

We look forward to chatting, skyping or emailing you soon!

Take care,

Kevin, Nicki, Sam, Ellie, Luc, Josh

We’ve found a house to rent!

Dear All,

24 Rue Thomas Vinçotte

Having grown unexpectedly to a family of 6 we realised we were bursting at the seams in the apartment in the YWAM Building. Well after talking about it for a long time we have now found a place to live! Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement to keep looking.

Vital statistics: 4 bedrooms (we are going to make the dining room a lounge so that the upstairs lounge can be used as a bedroom!), a small yard, laundry room and another basement room (a den for Kevin!) even a basic garage just next door. It is thin, narrow and tall (on 5 floors) and in need of modernising and some love, but nothing we can’t deal with for a tenancy for 3 years. It is 2 km from the YWAM office and the schools are roughly halfway in between the new house and the office. It is just in the right area we think.

The backyard. Small but you can put a sandpit or two in it.

All going well we will be able to have it from the 15th March, probably moving sometime in the week following. The address is 24 Rue Thomas Vinçotte, 1030 Brussels. You can see the house on Google Maps.

We have been blessed for the last 5 years with a reduced rent in the YWAM building and also no utilities bills. Our new financial challenge is to take on the new rent and bills!

This is where you come in! We need your help to make this move so that we will have a secure family home in the city now our needs have changed!

During our summer fundraising we were so thrilled to have new support and increases in old support. Yet, the plummet of the pound has wiped out all of the gains we received for now. We also have some new Euro supporters that have come along though which is great.

Our new house will be 950 Euros plus 250 Euros for utilities (1200 total). Our current rent is 650. We have gained about 150 in extra Euro support and a pledge for 100 more just recently. That leaves a gap of 300 Euros to go. Can you help us bridge that gap? Just three houses below!

We’ll be in touch with more news soon.

We’re very excited!

Kevin and Nicki

January Jottings

Dear everyone,

I cannot believe we are nearly at the end of January! This month has flown by, mainly because it has been a busy start to the new year with many good things happening. We hope that you all had a great Christmas and New year. We loved our first Christmas as a family of six (Sam and Ellie enjoyed opening the presents for their younger brothers!) and we had a fantastic New Year staying with our friends in Germany (see photos!). We were all too tired to see the new year in properly though so instead had early nights (definitely a season for grabbing sleep when we can!)

January pictures – click for more

We returned to Brussels ready for Kevin and the team to do the inventory for the bookshop and the bar. It’s always a good way to start a new year, with the whole team working together rather than on different things. Due to an effective computer system the inventory was done in record time this year and was remarkably accurate (and encouraging!)

We have had some extra life brought to the base this month with the arrival of an outreach team from New Caledonia (all French speaking). They were often found with Patrick worshipping God the Central Station using their traditional dances. They even managed to get some of our team to do one of their dances in a staff meeting! As well as teaching young people in the city, the team also helped with a 24/3 prayer time on the base. We all took time slots to ensure that as much prayer as possible was done for Brussels and Belgium over a three day period. Since it has been renovated, one of the offices has been permanently set aside as a prayer/meeting room. For me personally I found it a peaceful place to go and listen to God. With many things in the room set up to aid prayer it also helped creativity and keeping focused. Having the team here was also a good chance for Kevin to do some teaching in French. He did some training for them on Evangelism which went down really well and encouraged Kevin in how much his French has improved.

(Video showing the New Caledonian team performing in the tunnel and the reactions they got.)

There have also been some answers to prayer regarding gaining new staff. We have a number of people applying at the moment to join us on staff but we have had some blockages due to visa problems. It has been a complex situation concerning how we relate as an organisation in the country and at one point it seemed that certain visas would only be permitted if we declared that we would only work exclusively with certain denominations. As this goes against our YWAM values of being inter-denominational we knew we needed to stand firm and engage in much prayer. Thankfully we think God has opened a way and in fact has strengthened out relationship with some key people in the process! Please continue to pray with us that the application processes will go through quickly from this point on for Ye Soon (from Korea), Miwuh (Cameroon), Marina (Eastern Europe), Frankwin (Netherlands), and yet others who are just starting applications.

Looking ahead, February will start with Kevin visiting Berlin for five days of meetings with European leaders  (2nd – 6th). It looks like he will be contributing to sessions on Church planting and Communication. Mid way through the month the whole team will also be going on retreat to the Ardennes to draw closer to God and each other. This time we will have some Argentinian guest speakers Jose and Rosana Liste who are working with YWAM London. Please pray that this will be a time of refreshing and encouragement for all the team.

Finally, please can we ask you to pray with us for a new house/apartment. We have seriously started hunting now for a new home. We are prepared to compromise on bedrooms but really need somewhere on the ground floor and with a garage or parking space. We would also really like a garden and to be near public transport on route to the schools and base. We are aware we need a bit of a miracle… as properties close to us are very expensive and the cheaper accommodation is way out of the city. Thank-fully we have a great God who knows our needs.

With much love,

Nicki, Kevin, Sam, Ellie, Luc and Josh!

Christmas Greetings

Dear All,

How quickly the weeks have shot past as we approach Christmas! I hope you are feeling ready to enter this wonderful festival time and enjoy worshipping the one who is the real purpose of the season.

After the past few hectic months in YWAM we have had a slower month here in Brussels. I think I was ready for it. I have been working with my leadership team and enjoying that very much. Mariette and Jorien are very capable and positive people, making them a joy to work with.

December in Brussels (click for more)

Much has been happening in our family world as we have had weekend visits from Nicki’s mum and partner and also my dad and sisters. It has been a lot of fun to see everyone and we have been frequent visitors to the Christmas market in the city centre. This year both our skating and the weather has been better leading to many magical moments together and less wet trousers.

Sam has been performing in his school pantomime as both Town Crier and Postman (a “First Class Male”) and diligently learnt his lines. He really enjoys acting and I am sure we will see more of him up on stage in the future. Ellie took the staring role of Mary at the Link nativity but was slightly upstaged by Luc who was Jesus. (Joshua was understudying Luc as he was grizzling away in my arms!). Now school has finished for both of them they are looking forward to a good break, roast dinners, Wallace and Gromit and skiing in Germany!

You might have missed that last bit, but we have been invited to stay in Germany over New Year with our long time friends Markus and Leonie. Their house is about 8 hours drive from here and they are only about 45 mins from German ski slopes. We are thrilled as we know how much Sam and Ellie love snow and it has been a longing of Sam’s for many years to ski. So we get a few days there together and resting with Markus and Leonie and their kids.

So we hope to recoup much energy over the Christmas break. We hope you too get much rest and enjoy the peace of the season too. This year has been a roller coaster of emotion with the difficult pregnancy, the anticipation of the twins and the great excitement of their arrival.

We couldn’t ask for better babies. We are stunned and grateful for the way they are easy to manage, sleep the night through and radiate smiles! They are a constant source of cuteness around us, which keeps us going when we get tired.

All the very best from us. We hope to see more of you all this coming year but we feel very much in touch with all the cards, thoughts and presents everyone has given over the last year.

Kevin, Nicki, Sam, Ellie, Luc and Josh

Latest Colyer News

Dear all,

Finally we are getting back in touch with you all! Time certainly flies by at the moment as we juggle ministry and family life, but thankfully things are settling into a routine again!

October was extremely busy for Kev. Now that he is The National Co-ordinator for Belgium he has a number of new responsibilities. He is overseeing the Kortrijk team and also the Kerygma team. This mostly happens as a part of the new National Leadership Team and Kev has been working at building that team. As well as that he needed to fly to Malaga, where his new line leader lives for a meeting of all the Western European leaders. It was good to meet with other team members and he also got to hear about the church that his new boss, Stephe, has been planting with his wife Rite and friends. There are a couple of video interviews you might like to watch to find out a little more about the excitement of church planting!

He has also been forming a new leadership team in Brussels consisting of himself, Jorien Creemers and Mariette Brandes. It is coming together well and they are enjoying the experience of working closer together. He has also managed to squeeze in a couple of Dutch lessons here and there.

Visit to Plymouth and Next Wave and more!

Kev had to go back to Malaga a week later for another initiative he has been part of; the New Teams Network (more videos). This gathering was to support all those in YWAM who are starting new evangelism teams or initiatives and would like to work together to support each other. It was very exciting to hear of projects in Vallencia, Milan, Carlisle, Leeds, Paris etc. and to really give people a huge encouraging boost to keep going. A leader from Paris wrote about Jono, who came to Spain: “Jono a été complètement boosté par le temps à Malaga! Merci Kevin!” Kevin was really thrilled too.

Right after he got back it was into the car and off to Plymouth. It was wonderful to see many of you during our trip. The evening on “The Next Wave” was a great success and thank you to all who made that possible for us. We were really blessed to be able to stay in a lovely house owned by members of St Judes Church. It was great to have a spacious house to ourselves that we could also invite people back to and was only 2 minutes walk from the church. It really felt like a holiday. It had been far too long since we had all been in Plymouth so it was great to introduce Luc and Josh and catch up on news. Being able to visit the Next Wave was also really inspiring for Sam and Ellie who were both able to give tours by the end of the evening reception!

We are so sorry to all our friends in Stroud as we had to change our arrangements for visiting. My grandmother (last grandparent) took a turn for the worse just prior to our visit so we changed our plans and came early leaving Sam and Ellie in Plymouth. We had chance to pray with her and she said some very special things to us which we will treasure. She had been very ill for many months with cancer and was not expected to live much longer than Easter. However, she was determined to see the twins and so held on to meet her latest great-grandchildren. She passed away just a few days after our visit. We were so grateful for that special time with her and for her precious example of a faith in God. Because the earlier visit meant more travelling we decided to stay on in Plymouth after our return so we could rest. We discovered that travelling as a family of 6 can be exhausting (it took 15 hours to get back to Brussels!) and we needed the rest! Once again, sorry that we missed seeing everyone in Stroud and we hope to visit some time soon in 2009.

The twins are doing wonderfully well. They are starting to sleep for 8 hours now, for which we are grateful! They are charming their way across Europe and stopping people in their tracks when they go out in the buggy. We are so pleased at how Sam and Ellie are daily building a fun relationship with them and inventing games they can play with their younger brothers. Sam and Ellie are also doing really well at school. Sam is once again achieving 15/15 in his spellings and Ellie recently had a glowing report too.

One more pressing prayer request is for our hunt for a new home.  Getting out with the babies is getting more difficult due to our many stairs to the apartment and rarely being able to park nearby.  They have also been sleeping in the same cot in our room but are VERY quickly outgrowing that!  So we are starting the big hunt for a new place that will be more suitable.  Please pray we find somewhere ASAP which we can afford!

There is always so much to write about but that is it until next time!

Love,

Nicki, Kevin, Sam, Ellie, Luc and Joshua