Christmas 2011 in Brussels Click for more!

Happy New Year from all of us here in Brussels! The weather may still be very cold and wintry, but ministry wise we feel like we are entering a new season of our lives. It feels exciting if a little daunting!

Nicki has started the new year by increasing her hours with Alternatives.  As well as the Thursdays she now helps out on Monday and Wednesday mornings, doing administration and communication with churches, supporting the team of volunteers and answering phones. She is very excited to work alongside Clara who heads up the ministry as they balance each other well and share a passion and hope for the ministry.

Thursdays are the day when Nicki has more direct contact with clients (and often their husbands and partners).  One day is never the same as the next and last Thursday was a particularly busy and diverse day.

It started with a Mothers and Babies special party for the New Year.  It was actually a postponed Christmas party but due to the general strike before Christmas  nobody could travel to us on public transport! Fourteen women and their children attended the group and enjoyed drinks and nibbles before we sang songs with the children. One of the team members then shared what Christians believe about Christmas.  As 80% of the women attending the groups are muslim at the moment we have found this an excellent chance to share our message of hope in the gift of Jesus.  Gifts were then given to the families from Alternatives and a local church.  Everyone left smiling!

Nicki, then quickly went upstairs from the party and to the counselling room where two appointments waited.  The first lady was from the Ivory Coast and was seven months pregnant.  Clearly feeling overwhelmed and dazed her story came out haltingly.  Her journey here had involved a traumatic and long boat journey, no doubt made worse by having left a young child there.  On entering Belgium she quickly fell pregnant but was left to face the pregnancy alone.  She is homeless (sleeping at a friends) and with no income not having registered.  In fact we are the first place she had visited for an appointment of any kind and we quickly realised she must have been in shock  preventing her from doing anything.  We gave her contacts and details of where to get help and we shall meet with her again this Thursday to help her further as she has nothing for her baby.

The second woman had come for a pregnancy test and was very quiet and nervous. She already had two children and was very relieved when the test came through negative. She suddenly became very animated wanting to talk more about her options.

To end the day Clara and Nicki made a home visit to one woman who referred from social services.  We were able to deliver to her home two cots and baby clothes; until she had adequate furniture and clothing for her children they had to stay in care.  She has attended one of the mothers and babies meetings and our hope is she will return again, this time with her children.

Days in Alternatives are not always so intense and busy but that gives you a flavour of the type of women we encounter. Please pray for all the group meetings and counselling sessions that Jesus remains the centre of all we do and say.

Kevin in the meantime has very much enjoyed having a quieter pace of life over the last months, but is also eager to explore the freedom his new role offers for his gifts. He has reviewed how the leadership transition has gone in Brussels and is providing on-going coaching and support to the leadership team as well as taking on a few projects for them. He is working on forming a team of young people to go on outreach in the summer to the Olympics as well as exploring his church planting ideas. Kevin would really welcome your prayer at the moment as they are many options to explore all over (see diary dates below.)

That is all for this month except to say Ellie is out of plaster and we are all well!

Till next time,

Kevin and Nicki, Sam, Ellie, Luc and Josh

Diary Dates:

• 19 January: National Leaders Meeting, first meeting of the new year with senior leaders in YWAM Belgium
• 20-22 January: Forum Evangelistes: Kevin is attending a weekend conference for French speaking evangelists. Close to Brussels.
• 23 January-3 February: Kevin is taking a two week introduction course in Dutch (in the morning). In the afternoon he is hosting Lukas Spuller a young German student for a work experience placement. (Lukas was in Kevin’s youth group last year before moving back to Germany)
• 29 January: Nicki talks in the two Brussels Vineyard services about Alternatives
• 6-10 February: Western European Leadership Conference: Kevin goes to London with some colleagues for this. It is always encouraging and vital for networking.
• 10-11 February:  Nicki attends a ladies retreat

Time to send a line or two to let you know what we have been up to over the last weeks. The kids have all be doing well with the exception of Ellie who had a tumble at school and has a mild fracture of her foot. She is hopping around on crutches but is fine. It was a surprise: we expected the boys to be the first to break something!

Ellie Hopalong Colyer and her two sidekicks, Josh The Sticks and One Shot Luc

We are starting to slow down a little more and that is giving us more time to reflect, recharge our batteries and refocus on the coming seasons. Nicki’s time was taken up with a lot of extra meetings due to the new schools but now we both feel like we are on top of things for the first time in… well a few years! We took the time the other week to go together to deliver a cot to an expecting mother, a contact from Alternatives. It was good to work together, Kevin assembling the cot (IKEA can prepare you for a lifetime in missions!)  and Nicki chatting and drinking tea with the client. It was important to sit and take time to drink tea and chat and the lady was deeply touched with just some simple friendliness and sharing of our experience of being parents.

Kevin has been very much absent from the YWAM offices except for some occasional training sessions and a board meeting. The team threw Kevin a big party one evening to thank him for the 7 plus years of leading Brussels. It was a lovely evening, and we were both deeply touched and encouraged.

The main thrust of the next months is a short sabbatical for Kevin. The recent transition has been exciting but it is important for him (both of us, really) to take stock and gather our forces for the future. In addition to the National leadership role, Kevin has been thinking and praying hard about the other part of his future focus in promoting and planting new and relevant churches in Belgium. This season has felt like a time for letting go of a number of things, not just in YWAM and it has been like God has been gently re-arranging a number of pieces on his chess board. There have been several  ”divine encounters” where God has brought people into Kevin’s path and connected him to others that seem strategic for the future.

Kevin has also signed on for his Dutch class (coming up in January) and started an online Evening School of European Studies. A colleague in the Netherlands runs this course and it is really inspiring. You are welcome to join  (even at this late stage)  it is really very good. Kevin has also joined the Kairos Course, a missions course  run over a couple of weekends. There are Kairos courses near you where ever you are.  Highly recommended! Kairos is an intensive, but deeply challenging study that looks at what the mission of God really is and how we can play our part in it. It has come at the right time when Kevin needs to refresh his understanding of missions as he ponders the future.

Till next time, love from all of us.

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

Diary Dates

• 18-20 November – Nicki in the UK at the CareConfidential conference for Crisis Pregnancy Centres
• 28 November – 1 December – Kevin teaching in Carlisle on the Discipleship Training School (on Relationships)
• 25 December! Christmas Day – Celebrating in Brussels
• New Year – visiting our friends Markus and Leonie in south Germany

Click for more photos and movies!

Oh my! The days and weeks have flashed past since the last time we wrote. Our holidays were great – we even had one whole week without rain (nearly) and we reached the start back to school pleased by the break but wetter than we would have liked!

Sam and Ellie, Nicki, Luc and Josh had a fabulous time in the Vacation Bible School. Nicki worked as a group leader with seven wonderful kids under her and was thrilled when one of the girls made a first time commitment to follow Jesus. Sam was a first time graduate helper and thoroughly enjoyed himself. Kevin helped out a tiny bit, speaking to the graduates one day and being a part of the final Friday evening session and helping one of the kids to make a commitment too. A highlight was hearing testimonies from the kids of what God was up to: Sam also shared on how much God has helped him since his baptism by giving him more self-control. Wow.

From then we plunged instantly back into the return to school. Three boys starting new schools and Ellie entering a new class and level of intensity too. Ellie is doing well; she LOVES the increased Dutch she is learning and was back in with all her school buddies straight away. Luc and Josh have taken to school incredibly well. “Bikesssssss!” is how Josh describes it (because of the final play time). Luc likes his “big teacher” and wants to be known as “Luc-ey” at school. School is very demanding of them – they are coming back exhausted but happy. Sam is at St John’s International School and loving it. He leaves at 7:20 each day on the school bus (right outside our house!) and is back after 4.30pm. Long days for him, and getting himself organised, and learning the ropes is exhausting him. He has little energy for homework and can only grunt at us until he has had his tea! It has been a bit of an emotional roller-coaster ride at times but the care and attention given to Sam from the school has been excellent. He is very much in the right place. What an answer to prayer! Thank you all for praying for us and standing with us in this journey.

Kevin has completed the handover of his Brussels job to a team of four. He now has only one job to focus on: the YWAM Belgium leadership role. The new team are doing well and the process of passing on Kevin’s knowledge of the job has gone well. The  bulk of the information has been shared and each of the team has a hefty manual with oodles of interesting (and less interesting) information in it. There will be a little on going training and coaching over the next months. But in general Kevin will be keeping a much lower profile. It is gratifying already to see how this new team is rising up to take hold of the responsibilities and looking at how they can build and improve on what Kevin has already done.

Kevin and Nicki are not idle now though. We thought we would be, but we did not realise just how many extra visits to the new schools, back to term colds and coughs the family would get, and junk we would need to tidy in the basement (piles of low priority stuff that has been rightly neglected till now!). But we are enjoying having lunch times together, talking and praying more and generally feeling a gradual diminution of the pressure of twindom on our marriage!

We may even write the next newsletter a little sooner!

Love,

Kevin and Nicki, Sam, Ellie and Luc and Josh

Dates

• October 3-7: Kevin in Malaga – Western European Leaders meeting
• October 7-9: Nicki co-leading Alternatives Team Retreat (yes, the Friday is overlapping – please pray for that!)
• October 14-16: Nicki away with Carol to Amsterdam for a weekend break!
• October 22: Possible “Light Party” fun outreach event for 2-8′s
• October 25: Kevin leading YWAM Belgium Board meeting
• October 27: Kevin having four wisdom teeth extracted.
• October 31-4 November: Kevin doing practical work on YWAM Building – repairing external walls 14m – 18m above ground!

Sam’s Baptism (Click for more pictures)

This summer has been wet all over for us! But in a good way. Sam was baptised in the river Ourthe at our recent church’s away weekend in the Ardenne. Over the weeks leading up to the weekend Sam became more and more sure that this was what he wanted to do. He took the plunge with three other kids and one adult, all of whom we have seen grow in faith during their time at the Link. It was a wonderful moment and Sam has demonstrated following the baptism that he is serious in his decision to follow Christ; and we can see it in the small but important choices he makes!

Shortly after Sam passed another landmark as he finished his last day at primary school! This year has been a fantastic one for Sam, he had a great teacher, and overall it was a wonderful way to leave his primary education. He is still very excited about his new school, St Johns. Ellie finished the year well, also, receiving good marks and a glowing report from her teachers. Luc and Josh: we were pleased they were not thrown out of their nursery by the end of term!

Although some things go quiet in Brussels during the summer (very quiet) the YWAM team have been busy taking young people on outreach and working in Brussels in summer clubs and other outreaches. It has been fabulous to hear stories already of people meeting Jesus and lives being changed.

One of the biggest changes on the way for Kevin in his work is that he is going to be passing over the leadership of Brussels to his current leadership team, who will work as a team replacing him in this role. This will happen in September. Kevin has been working towards this all year and we are both thrilled that it will become a reality. This will free Kevin to focus on his National Role, (which means he will be studying Dutch) and also exploring ways to plant French and Dutch speaking churches in Belgium. Both of us will have the opportunity to work together more in the Autumn which we are excited about. For now we don’t have crystal clear schedules in place. Kevin has a lot of work to do to transfer all his knowledge of his job to others and train them for September. And of course we are eagerly awaiting our summer holiday! So watch this space for more info soon!

Love,

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

Since our wonderful news that Sam has his place at St John’s school, life has continued as “normal” for us which generally means one week is never the same as the next!

Click for more! Photo’s by JK

A highlight for Kevin in this past month was the YWAM Brussels open day. Many people from different nationalities and denominational backgrounds came through our doors to find out more about our diverse team and all that we do. As well as benefiting from the special offers in the bookshop people were able to relax in the bar, take a drink and listen to the band. Upstairs the offices were busy with displays and video clips showing the various ministries including the Alternatives counselling room and office. One addition to this year’s Open Day was the introduction of seminars in three different languages. Kevin kickstarted it with a seminar on friendship evangelism in French! It was really well received especially by some people from a Columbian church who have since asked Kevin to teach on the subject again in their church!

For Nicki, the highlight has been going into one of the European schools (children of families predominately working in the European union and parliament) to teach six classes on the issue of abortion and our approach to this in Alternatives. Misconceptions around this topic were addressed and we got them debating about when life truly begins. Through discussing various real life scenarios we challenged them to consider the issues men and women face around unplanned pregnancies and the possible implications of decisions made at that time. Many of the teenagers took leaflets with the Alternative’s details at the end of the lessons. Nicki is now praying about further opportunities to go into schools in the city.
Thank you for your prayers upholding us in our ministry,

Love Nicki

Kevin teaching at Receive the Power

Dear Friends,

Last Saturday Kevin was asked to lead some workshops at a festival “Receive the Power”. This is how it went:

I went to the festival just outside of Brussels in the splendid May sunshine. There were six other staff there and I was thrilled to see them in actions, speaking, playing music, talking to the participants and generally serving in as they could. The festival is a preparation day for a couple of hundred young Flemish Catholics, who are going to go to join about a million other young Catholics in the World Youth Days in Spain this summer.

I was asked to speak on leadership and personality styles and was aided by Frankwin, who was an amazing interpreter. I have not worked with him like this before, and it was great! The poor guy had a challenging time as the workshop requires a lot of adjectives explaining personality preferences! Anyway, the twenty participants went away happy.

Marieke, Frankwin and Patrick perform at the Festival

But it was I who was perhaps most pleased to see the team members so ably serving at the event and giving 100% all day. Yesoon, who is Korean, was speaking about how special the young people were to God. She has improved massively in her English now (and is working on Flemish and French) and I have coached her on preaching and teaching. So I was so thrilled to see her confidently teaching the young people. They were so taken with her that one group insisted on a group photo after her session with Yesoon in the middle!

I hope you enjoyed this little snippet of what we get up to!

Love,

Kevin, Nicki, Sam, Ellie, Luc and Josh

We just wanted to send out a prayer request as we really value your support.

Many of you have been aware that we have been applying to a secondary international school for Sam, needing to start from September. Sam recently had more psychological tests (taking 8 hours… phew!) confirming his diagnosis of having an expressive language disorder and ADHD. Despite his struggles he has done really well at school and has a great attitude but his psychologist has confirmed that he can only be educated in English and still requires much more therapy. Of all the international schools in Brussels she recommended St John’s to us. That was very encouraging, as it was the only one we were applying to, as it offers some bursaries to missionary children! St John’s has a good reputation and would be ideally suited for some of Sam’s learning difficulties with on site language and occupational therapists and school psychologists.

For over eight months we have been going through the process of applying for the bursary which has involved lots form filling, letter writing and “jumping through hoops”. We have now done all that has been required of us and we are just waiting for the outcome. We have been told there are limited bursary places and a number of people applying (although not told how many). The deadline for all the applications is tomorrow (30th April) and then the board will meet to discuss who will receive the places. We should know within two weeks.

Without the bursary Sam would not be able to go to the school as the fees, including therapy sessions, would be around 30,000 euros a year!

So, can we ask you to thank God with us that He has the perfect plan for Sam and indeed us as a family. We are praying for His will to be done… and are learning as a whole family to trust in our faithful God.

Many thanks and prayers for you all too!

love Nicki, Kevin, Sam, Ellie, Luc and Josh.

Brussels is full of beautiful blossom in the spring

Dear Friends,

It is finally Easter and all six of us are on holiday. It has been a long time in coming, has it been like that for you? We are relaxing before a quick trip to visit friends in Germany. Currently Brussels is very pleasant with plenty of warmth and sunshine and beautiful blossom everywhere…

What have we been up to?

• Ellie was on TV! She was interviewed on a school trip to a book fair (about 1:16 in: link)
• Nicki has been studying hard with the Alternatives team on the Post-Abortion counseling course. The training is in French and this makes her brain ache. However, Nicki and all the team are increasingly convinced that this will be a fruitful ministry here in Brussels.
• Kevin has blasted through a mountain of finance work (something he does not enjoy at all) and passed YWAM through a Tax audit, the Annual General Meeting and a five year report for another Tax office. Huge thanks to the team who help him here: Richt Jan, Sheila and Agnes.
• Luc seems to have an invisible mole friend who lives in a hole in the Garden.
• Kevin has spent a lot of time with the team explaining and preparing for a transition our of his role as YWAM leader in Brussels and into a broader National role. This is all to happen in September and we will fill you in as we know more!
• Sam captained Europe against Asia to victory in a school hockey tournament
• Kevin has been working on Wednesday nights with a seekers group with the YWAM’s Team Contrast. He has been leading some nights, and coaching some of the other team members, one of whom we have just sent off on his DTS! Very exciting. Plus lots of nice food too!
• Nicki spent a week at a seminar in Holland, which was very refreshing and instructive.
• Josh is developing his singing voice. Vocals are a bit limited at the moment to “Mummy, Mummy, Mummy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy etc.” but he is quite tuneful!
• And a million other things too!

Richt Jan standing next to 450 French Bibles

One exciting story of what God is doing through different teams here in Brussels is about Richt Jan and the 1.50€ French bibles he sells in the bookshop. Richt Jan estimates that he has sold about 3,000 of these bibles over the last two years. That’s a lot of Bibles. Many are sold as gifts or for evangelism. We have recently been praying and pondering where they are and what is happening with them. Then we heard that Frankwin, from Team contrast, had taken a couple of gift wrapped bibles with him to the Central station outreach.  Every Thursday the team go there to worship and share Jesus with many people there. As he was singing and playing the guitar one lady who was walking past stood out to him. Sensing God’s nudge he got a team member to take a bible as a gift to her…

It turned out that the lady had been seriously seeking and searching for God over the previous weeks and was utterly amazed at being given a bible from a stranger. Just a cheap bible and a lot of sensitive obedience to God makes for a few miracles!

Till next time,

Love,

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

PS For more photo’s please click on the image below…

Click for more photos!

A very happy New Year to all of you! We are all well, healthy, happy (although somewhat crazy due to two very TWO year old busy boys!) and disappointed that the snow has gone. Why disappointed? Well we discovered the joy of sledging. Despite the lack of a sledge or two (they all sold out surprise, surprise!), we  found a couple of excellent alternatives: a tough plastic sign and a wonderful plastic airfilled packing material that gives a fast and comfortable ride down a decent slope!

Click for more

We made the most of the snow, and one of the best park hills in Brussels nearby to sledge. At first Sam and Ellie were embarrassed with our homemade sledges, but seeing everyone else there with plastic bags, a road sign and even a baby bath(!) cheered up. Luc and Josh were the stars, showing no fear at all, and often quite content to chase the sldeges down hill and then up hill again! Despite some rough treatment (Sam, Daddy, Luc and Josh on at once!) the sledges still fine and awaiting a fresh snowfall.

We spent a quiet Christmas in Brussels, very much missing visits from our family, as only 1/3 of visitors made it due to snow and another feeble effort from Eurostar. We make up for it by inviting our friends over. On Christmas day we had Jan-Piet and Heddy, the twins God Parents, for a British Christmas dinner. JP and Heddy are Dutch, and despite being very familiar with British traditions were amazed by the crackers we pulled saying: “We thought it was only Mr Bean who pulled Crackers at Christmas.” JP was a good sport though, wearing his paper hat for many hours!

Sledging and Snow – click for more…

Our last update was in October. That is a poor show. What have we been up to? Nicki has been hard at work twins wrangling and working at Alternatives. She took a weekend away in the UK at the Care Confidential conference, where she could network with around 600 delegates from other Crisis pregnancy centres and get some much appreciated inspiration and input AND catch up with some wonderful friends she had not seen in ages (Mark, Crissy and Helen and Tony!) She also worked very hard on co-ordinating dozens of Shoeboxes full of Christmas presents for the Mothers and Babies.

Kevin has had a packed Autumn at YWAM Brussels. This autumn and winter has been marked by having many people come to Brussels for training and outreach. The Team hosted a group of 46 students from YWAM’s Discipleship Training School in Herrnhut, Germany (close to Dresden). We hosted Kevin and Courtney, a lovely American couple, who were DELIGHTED to be around the Twins and were a dream to host (they were out all the time!!!) There was also a week’s training event Kevin and the team organised and invited other YWAMers from around Europe to join in. It has been busy indeed,

One of the most enjoyable times Kevin has spent recently has been the evangelism he has done. He has been speaking on the Alpha-like course the Team runs on Wednesdays. It was very gratifying to do one evening, where despite jumping in at the last minute, and doing the talk on “If God is loving why is there Suffering?” off-the-cuff to hear that one non-western participant say “I feel drawn to this Jesus”. The course has been a lot of fun although it was deeply challenging to take part in the French speaking small group as Kevin’s French is not at it’s best in the late evening! (Not that good in the morning either!). He also had a blast going out carol singing with the Link on a chilly Saturday morning. Kevin, despite having a loud and easily heard singing voice, enjoyed chatting to all and a sundry, inviting them to the Link and giving out oranges! There were a multitude of nationalities who stopped to listen. Kevin discovered that the Germans and French share the Christmas Carol tradition, whilst the Belgians, knew of it, but generally don’t celebrate Christmas with Carolling.

What is next? We are all getting back to school and work. Kevin has a Tax Audit this Friday, which is demanding much extra paper work as he has to figure our what is a “Kadestral” and what is “Patrimoniale”, let alone a “Person Morale” (clue – it is not what you might think). He finds it all very “belasting”. The week after is a training week for the whole team sharpening their relationship skills.

Although there are not many key dates to mention each week is so often packed training people, encouraging others, sharing faith, changing nappies and homework! Please pray for us for energy and to keep our focus clearly on God in the daily pressures.

Love,

Kevin and Nicki and co.

by Sam (11)

Snow
Snow
Snow
Snow
Trees
Toys
Fat man
A man who should be in bed
Sheep, cow, pig, horse and baby
Smelly baby
Snow
More Snow
Not snow
Snowman
Frozenman
Can’t get to sleep
Sleep by tree
CHRISTMAS DAY (get sock)