This week has been an adventure.

We ended last week with a day retreat centered on Bonhoeffer’s, “Life Together.”  It was a good reminder that all that we do is “In Christ.”  That our our work, our community, our worship and even our families should be surrendered to Christ and Him alone.

On Saturday we spent the day in Brugge.  It was pretty amazing for our first official day off from training or being involved with local churches.  We took a train from Brussels to Brugge and walked about the city.  Climbed to the top of Belfort (360 plus stairs), took a canal ride through the city.  It was a long day that was super enjoyable.  We did not realize that this eventful and rewarding day was needed for the week ahead.

Sunday was a train and two tram rides to our church where we listened to a sermons preached in french, translated to turkish and then translated to english for us.  It was a good time but could be very difficult to follow but we knew that the Gospel of God’s amazing grace was being preached and that the these brothers and sisters where giving Glory to God and enjoying him.  Our girls really enjoy the tea and cookie/cake time after the service.

Tomorrow we will wrap up our week of Language and Cultural Acquisition training. At first I wasn’t sure if this would be that applicable to our call to Oz, but I was wrong.  This week has helped me gain an appreciation for how different things can be and how even in a language that I speak I will still need to build relationships with people from the stance of learning not teaching.  There is an Aussie way and I need to learn it not try and get people to do it my way.  This is probably true in most things.  God’s way is better than mine because He knows His plans and desires more than I do.

We have Friday and Saturday off this week and then I preach on Sunday in the church we our worshiping with.  Not sure what we are doing on the days off but we hope to discover God’s beauty whatever we do.

Also discovering I need to sync photos with my wife so I can add some to this blog.  Mine are iphonetasitic (and very few)