Belgium Easter Conf. Report
Last week (15 to 17 April) we had a Bible Weekend with the letter of St. Paul to Philippiens, chapter 2 & 3. We rent a house in province of Bastogne for this meeting, around 140 km from Brussels. This area is famous of “Bastogne battle” between German & US army during World War II. American actor Tom Hanks visited here 2 or 3 years ago. For me it was a spiritual battle to prepare two bible studies & one message for SWS. Before our Easter conf, my mind was tired & upset when I looked only on my hard work & also spiritual situation of Belgium. If you know, this year will be my 20th year of mission in Belgium. When I prepared SWS message based on chapter 3 of Philippiens, I was touched with St. Paul advanced oriented spirit without looking back to his past. Sometimes I looked back to my past, my fault, my mistake, my failure & dry spiritual ground. But this time, I looked up Jesus through St. Paul’s letter & his faith even his worst situation in prison. Through the bible study on chapter 3, I found one purpose & one hope. One purpose is to learn Jesus Christ (Ph 3:10), one hope is that my lowly body would be transformed into glorious body when Jesus Christ comes again. (Ph 3:21). With this one purpose & with this one hope, I decided to depend on God only day by day.
Brother Romeo (Ph.D in Economics, UCL) & sister Gaelle (EU commission) participated to this conference. Actually, they found this area in Bastogne by themselves through internet site. They are now working with stable job as a Ph. D student & employee in EU commission. With their stable job, social position & enough salary, they have lost humble & spiritual desire. During our Bible study on chapter 3, I asked them if they really consider Jesus’ words as excellent or relatively good or bad. They did not answer. I asked them again if the knowledge of Jesus is excellent, why do we seek constantly “garbage”. They were much upset by these questions. Until now I have been always gentle & soft during bible study; but this time they were surprised by attitude. Anyway they performed a joyful duet special song during SWS. Their prayer topic is to have hope & vision in Jesus through words of God & to have shepherd heart for Belgium campus young souls.
Now we are studying Luke’s Gospel. (this week chapter 16b). Please pray for my deep bible study & SWS message. Nowadays I’ve found my French level is not good. I pray to find a proper way to reach high level French speaking for his Glory. Thanks for your prayer support & care for me & for this ministry. God be with you & let’s see in Seoul at WMR 2011.
In Christ, Joshua