DanChristensen

The Prince, the Princess, and the Accordian Player

2012-01-21T10:21:00.003-06:00

We spent the afternoon with Serve the City, Brussels.

On our way, on the metro, we entered the last car. In the area just where two cars join, there is a section with just two seats, close to the door. It was about 11:00 in the morning and there was a man, who looked like he might have been homeless, curled up in these two seats, sleeping cozily. At the next stop, a man got on with an accordion. We see him from time to time on the metro, playing for spare change. Well, he got on the metro and stood directly in front of the sleeping man, playing loudly. The sleeper stirred only slightly, but never opened his eyes. All of the passengers in our car got such enjoyment out of this, that we knew we would have to give him a coin. After he walked through our car with his cup, he passed by into the next car, giving one last loud pump on the accordion. A few moments later, the sleeping man stirred again and finally opened his eyes and reached for a large bottle of coke from his bag.

This was a special day for Serve the City, because Princesse Claire and Prince Laurent came to serve with us. At one point in the program we were to give a hug to three people we didn't know. The Prince and Princess got more than their fair share of hugs. Dan and I did not try to give them a hug.

The focus for the day was elderly people. There was a group that stayed in the community center and elderly people came for a dancing lesson. The other groups went to nursing homes and passed out chocolates. Dan and I were not in the group that Princesse Claire went with. She went with a group of teenage girls from a private school. The last we saw of Prince Laurent was him running (literally) in the opposite direction as the princess headed off down the sidewalk with the girls. I don't think he was scheduled to actually go to the nursing home.

This is the first time I have been in the presence of royalty. I wondered if you would have to bow or curtsey, but I didn't see any of that. They seemed to be pretty normal. Dan and I didn't try to actually meet them. We would like to have met them, but we didn't want to impose. We didn't take any pictures either, but a lot of people did. It seemed a little "paparazzi" to me. Still, I am very excited to have actually seen them.

The Day my Apple Died

2012-01-10T14:00:00.001-06:00

Most of our days in Belgium have been very enjoyable. As in “Can you believe God has called us to meet such wonderful people and live in such an agreeable climate?” At least we think the climate is agreeable. We like that it has never gone above 85 degrees Fahrenheit or below 30 degrees (so far this winter).

Last Sunday was our second church meeting. We had visitors, so we felt very blessed. Afterwards we went to an Irish Meetup, which was another good thing. The food and the company were very good, although the Irish jazz singer was ill and was absent. We felt bad for the organizer.

Then afterwards it happened that the macbook died almost completely (it was in the ICU). The keyboard and trackpad quit working!

So, I started researching, and again, it is a very common problem with Macs. What you need to do to correct it is remove the power source, then remove the battery, wait 30 seconds, reinstall all of the power sources, and then you push the switch. That seems easy enough, but you also have to push the apple, option, R and P keys all at the same time and hold it until the PRAM resets, (about a minute). It would be nice to have a Chihuahua to help. It worked the first time and lasted about 5 minutes. It worked the second time and lasted 2 minutes. Then nothing happened. But it would work with a USB mouse. So I thought maybe it would work with an auxiliary keyboard. So I went to bed, not to sleep right away though.

The next morning I woke up, did everything I needed to do, and researched some more and found the extended warranty had expired last month. I could buy a replacement keyboard for $65 to $129 USD. I went to a computer shop that sells inexpensive accessories and bought a USB keyboard for less than 20 euro, but that didn’t work to reset the problem and it wasn’t QWERTY.

Then I decided that I would go to MacLine, the Apple authorized reseller, and see if they could at least tell me for sure that the keyboard was bad. The keyboard was bad, but it was still under warranty because I had recently had it replaced there, and they had a rash of bad keyboards, and you could have the keyboard replaced three times over the life of the machine. So I came home very happy and they even did the work while I waited.

So that is a good story to illustrate our life here. There are lots of ups and downs. We do a lot of research to do the simplest things. We are so thankful for our friends here who are making the transition to a new country enjoyable. We are also thankful for technology. Even though technology is responsible for at least half our frustrations, it also makes it easier for us to live here.

Keep remembering us.

Dan and Elizabeth

Our first Christmas Season in Belgium

2011-12-05T05:18:00.000-06:00

Saint Nicholas Cookie

We have been living in Brussels for eight and a half months. Time is starting to move quickly now. We are still studying French, and Elizabeth really enjoys it. Dan is finding it one of the biggest challenges of his life. We are making lots of friends and acquaintances, and we both really enjoy that. We thought that you might like to know how we see Christmas celebrated in Brussels. (If anyone from Belgium is reading this and would like to add a clarification, please feel free.)

The Christmas season started to show up in the stores right after Halloween. Obviously they do not celebrate American Thanksgiving, so we were very curious when that would happen. We received our first Christmas catalog from a store about a week later; it looked very much like a US flyer. The intense shopping push began the first week of December and a little bit of the end of November. There are fantastic bargains - the price number is close to what you would see in the US, but the Euro is worth around 1.40 USD. They also pay twenty percent tax on everything and they include it on most prices advertised.

Children receive presents twice in December. Saint Nicholas arrives on December the 6^th with presents. He was known as Nicholas the Wonderworker and was the Bishop of Turkey in the fourth century. He was the son of rich parents who died while he was young. He gave away his fortune to help the poor and he became a Bishop at a young age. He is portrayed as a bishop riding a donkey or mule. Père Noël, or Father Christmas, arrives Christmas Eve night bringing more gifts to the good girls and boys. He looks more like a North American Santa than Saint Nicholas. Everyone has a traditional family meal on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Christ does not seem to be as big a part of the festivities as in North America. We have seen a few manger scenes around the city though. Please think of us while you celebrate the Holy season. We will be thinking about you!

A very, very long, sometimes green walk

2011-11-09T11:03:00.001-06:00

On Saturday the 5^th of November, we finished La Promenade Verte, the 60 km (37 mile) walk around Brussels. We have been doing this, an hour or two at a time, since summer. We started in Stockel at the Chemin de Fer (Iron Trail, old railroad grade) on the east side of Brussels. We headed southwest towards the Forêt de Soigne. We walked through several beautiful parks with swans, geese and ducks and nice meadows with families playing in them.

We even saw a Green Parrot condo in a pine tree. Some time ago Amazon Green Parrots escaped into the parks and invaded. The condo was like a purple martin house except the parrots made it themselves from twigs and leaves. We made it to the Forêt after a couple of days (remember only one to two hours at a time). We had a wonderful lunch at a sidewalk café and decided that we couldn’t walk across the forest all in one outing. So we got on the tram and returned home to think about what to do next.

We decided that we would head north from where we had started, and then there would be more access to public transportation so we wouldn’t have to keep going for an uncomfortable distance. We did well for the first mile or so and then we lost the trail. There is a special sign for the trail and evidently sometimes a truck would go around the corner too closely and break off the three foot tall post and you wouldn’t have any idea which street to take next.

We pressed on in the general direction until we ran into the outer ring highway, which we followed northwest until we ran into the markers again. This was the newest part of Brussels, next to the airport, and there were very modern buildings for business headquarters. Another day’s hike finished, we rode a bus back to our apartment. The next walk picked up where we left off except this time we printed Google maps and drew in the trail the best we could. The walk was through old European neighborhoods, the green part being play areas for children in large apartment complexes. We lost the trail again and used my phone’s GPS to find our way back to a tram stop. Just next to the tram stop we saw Elizabeth’s likeness immortalized in sidewalk art.

The reasons we decided to do the very, very long, sometimes green walk were:

We like to walk and if you like Belgian food you must exercise or you will become very large.

We wanted to know the city better; when you use public transportation you don’t see everything.

We were prayer walking - walking and praying for neighborhoods and people that they would be blessed.

This is going to be a multi-part blog, but we will write it more often than once a month so check back soon!

Dan and Elizabeth

Belgian Health Care System

2011-10-14T04:48:00.000-05:00

Since arriving here in March we (Dan) have had several occasions to learn about the Social Health Care System. For the most part we have been impressed with it. When you need to make an appointment with a doctor, you just call and set up the time, no matter what kind of specialty. This saves the expense of seeing the family doctor first, if you have a known disease or problem.

I have suffered from Crohn’s disease for many years, and when I arrived in March I needed an injection of Remacaide very soon because I was on an eight week regimen. So I looked online to find the best gastroenterologists and found one that could speak English and the appointment was in a week or so. The doctor is a professor at a university hospital, so his office is in the hospital. I saw him and the infusion was set up in the time frame that I needed.

The only problem that I have as an expat is payment. Before you will be seen or treated you have to pay. Seeing the specialist was only $45 but the Remacaide was around $4000 USD, so I had to alert my credit card company. The hospitals are nice, well lit and comfortable. When I came back for the infusion they had a nice recliner, wifi, a volunteer to serve juice, cookies and soup. They also had plenty of magazines to read. The only problem was that it took awhile compared to having the infusion done at my house in Tennessee. They had to make sure everything was done properly and that I was okay afterwards.

The big problem was with my wonderful Blue Cross insurance from the US. They required a proper itemized bill to pay from the provider. That seemed reasonable but the hospital in Belgium had up to six months to provide us with one. (It took about six months and three weeks.) They already had their money and if they normally are paid by the Government they know they will be paid so they do not get in a hurry.

If we had been in the health care system, when we arrived at the hospital we would go to the desk for appointments and payment and present our card, which would be swiped like a credit card, and then we would pay the small difference. For an office visit outside of the hospital, we would pay the fee and then submit it to our Mutuelle later and they would reimburse us for everything except three dollars or so.

You have your choice of Mutuelle (private insurance administrator). The Mutuelle is interested in keeping you healthy, so they provide incentives for you to take care of yourself, like half off electric toothbrushes and discounts to gyms etc. You have your choice of GP, dentist, optometrist, chiropractor, homeopath, acupuncturist etc. You can hardly buy any over the counter drugs except in a pharmacy. For prescriptions you pay just a few dollars, better than what I paid with my prescription plan.

We have found the health care system to be very interesting and nice. We like it better than in the US, and it is much better than what we know of Canada and Great Britain. For us to purchase their coverage is less than 300 euro a month. For citizens it can be as low as 6 euro a month, depending on your salary. (They are already in the tax system, and we would be paying our way in.) We will probably switch eventually because of the problem with having to be reimbursed by Blue Cross.

I don’t think that you could just bring the system to the United States and expect it to work as well as it does here. We thought that this would be an interesting blog subject. If you have any questions or ideas, let us know.

Madame C

2011-09-11T13:51:00.003-05:00

Madame C is our landlady. She is an amazing woman. To us she is the epitome of what you would hope a lady would be. She cared for people for many years volunteering at St. Luc Hospital in the Roseau house. She would work for 32 hours each weekend, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, in the commons or lounge area. St. Luc is a hospital for internationals needing transplants and other serious treatments. People come from many countries to stay at “The Reed” lodging. The lodging was named the Reed because it bends but does not break. Madame C speaks many languages - French, Dutch, English and probably others. She would serve coffee, lend books and magazines and encourage families of patients.

She also took care of our neighbor for fifteen years until she died early this summer, bringing her food and encouragement, making her last days more pleasant.

Madame C started her married life in the Belgian Congo with her husband and young family. He was a successful travel agent and they had a nice home. They had to leave it all behind when the Congolese started rioting and demanded independence. The Belgian and UN armies escorted the European Belgians out of the country as quickly as possible leaving properties behind. They then moved to Brussels and bought two apartments adding a stairs to the upstairs apartment. They raised their children and reestablished themselves successfully.

Twenty years ago Madame C and her daughter were involved in a serious car accident where her adult daughter died and Madame C sustained serious injuries to her neck. Some of the vertebrae were fused and she has lived in pain ever since, always maintaining a good, kind and caring outlook on life. When the children grew up and moved away she eventually decided to convert our apartment back to a rental. This is how we met her. She was the first Belgian we met and she gave us good expectations of what was to come in meeting other nice people.

One month ago she started experiencing severe back pain and went by ambulance to St. Luc’s. They gave her every test imaginable. She stayed there for the entire month, receiving many visitors and having her bed rolled down to Chapel each Sunday so that she could worship and receive Mass. This past Friday evening she returned home. They could not do anything to help her that didn’t have serious consequences (making her very immobile) so she decided to do the best that she can and use a walker.

We have come to love her and want every possible blessing for her. Some of you were praying for her a couple of weeks ago and we would like our friends to pray for her pain to subside and that she would continue to be a lighthouse to our community in Woluwe St. Lambert, Belgium.

You know you are in Brussels in the summertime if …

2011-08-07T06:46:00.007-05:00

… you see old men strolling along the sidewalks with their hands clasped behind their backs like Olympic speed-skaters.

… all the nice cars with roof racks have disappeared from the city.

… you are not going to French class several times a week but you are still doing lots of homework because you know you will go back in September.

… there are traffic jams on E-40 on sunny days because everyone is headed to the beach.

… in July every store had huge sales but they were sold out of your size.

… in August smaller local stores and restaurants cover their windows with newspapers or sheets and go on vacation for a month.

… there is a music festival somewhere every weekend.

… the metro system is more crowded than ever because the schedule is reduced.

… you don’t go to the city-sponsored outdoor movie because (a) it is raining (b) it is too cold (c) it doesn’t get dark until 10:15 p.m.

… the gore-tex raincoat that seemed expensive when you purchased it in the U.S. now seems like the best investment ever.

… you were, however, able to leave your raincoat at home for two days in a row.

… when the sun comes out you drop everything and go outside to enjoy it because you don’t know when it will be sunny again.

… you see a lot of Italian, Greek and Spanish tourists in town because they are escaping the heat and the crowds of tourists visiting their own countries.

… you see mini motor-homes parked on the street.

… you get to tour the king’s palace because he is at his vacation home in the south of France.

Summertime and the living is chilly

2011-07-14T13:37:00.001-05:00

Today was the coldest July day in nine years in Belgium. And we loved it! It got all the way up to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. It rained most of the day and the wind was 15 mph from the west (the North Sea). Everything was just the way we thought it would be here. We started out the day with our Bible reading; we ate Muesli (hot of course) and drank our coffee. We did some computer work, including checking email, facebook and the expats site. Elizabeth went up to the 5th floor to have her weekly French conversation with a neighbor. We had a sandwich for lunch and then went shopping at City Centre 2. There are amazing sales in July - it is kind of like the Friday after Thanksgiving. Everyone anticipates the "Soldes". We don't need much, so we didn't buy anything. But it is a great chance to people-watch. We had a snack of somosas from the Indian snack counter in the food court. We studied French for awhile so that we don't forget everything we learned for the last few months. Now we are watching French TV shows. In the summer we have also been going on long hikes in large parks, 90 minutes at a time. We are also planning and getting ready for fall events. This is our life in the Summer.

A long walk on a Saturday

2011-06-18T15:34:00.000-05:00

Brussels, and especially the part where we have been blessed to live - Woluwe Saint Lambert, is a lush, green and very beautiful place to live. Not everything is perfect, but it is very nice. We have found the people to be very friendly. Today (Saturday) we went for a very long walk of about two hours. The only time I had walked that long in Tennessee is when I got lost near Percy Priest lake. As we walked along the Woluwe Greenway we saw cute little boys chasing Trumpeter Swans. Luckily they didn't catch any. The Swans were bigger than the boys. We saw hundreds of Canada Geese. (Are they immigrants from North America also?) And, we finally saw some fish! I don't know if I want to spend $50 to "tease" them though. "Teasing" is a direct translation for fishing. We love to say it. Then we walked down an unpaved trail and it felt like we were deep in a forest. The only thing we could hear was airplanes overhead. Then we emerged into Old Woluwe. It looks like what you think of Europe - narrow cobblestone streets and flower boxes on the windows. We were going to take the bus home but it was too long to wait. Next we were going to see the bourgmestre (mayor) dedicate the reworking of our street, so we walked back to the church we occasionally attend, which is on our street. There we met some friends and walked with them to the Street Dedication. We couldn't find it! After asking for directions and consulting a map, we discovered we had made a wrong turn. We turned around and went back to find the procession was just beginning. We found the mayor and about 10 other people led by a New Orleans style band, with a motorcycle police escort. We joined in and walked in the parade down to the yard of a big, old church, where he made a speech, and then we had snacks and drinks. Then we went home and did more French homework. We met several people along the way and it was a blessed day!

Parlez- vous Francais?

2011-05-30T13:29:00.007-05:00

Learning French is quite the experience. Sometimes it is very hard not to burst out laughing! Today I found out that I was wearing "un slip" men's boxers or underwear along with "une chemise" a man's shirt and "pantalons" pants. Not to be forgotten, "une ceinture" - a belt. If I were to preside over a wedding or go to court I would wear "une costume" a suit with "une cravate" a tie. To cool off afterwards we could go swimming, but I would have to go home and get my "maillot de bain" and "serviette" Swim trunks and towel. I can never get the pronunciation correct because I am snickering under my breath. I did, because of your prayers, pass my first French Final. The next one is June 27th. Please continue to pray!

The other big experience has been going to the hospital for my Crohn's disease. I am pretty much symptom free as long as I do not eat very many frites. But I have to take Remicade at the hospital now, instead of in my living room with a nurse administering the IV as I did in Tennessee. So, as soon as we arrived in March, we had to call a gastroenterologist and set up an appointment for the next infusion of the Remicade. The doctor was very nice, once we found him. If you were a graphic artist and a salesman you could become very rich in Belgium. You follow the signs until you get close then they disappear. When you ask for directions the people at the reception desk wonder why they have so many people going to the wrong place. After all, they make it to their place every day. So I had the first treatment after blood work. Then in May I had an MRI and in June (this Monday) I will have a colonoscopy. The MRI was an experience! They put a 1/4" aquarium tube down my nose through my stomach and into my small intestine. They sprayed my nose with toothache spray to make it easier. They said just swallow, just swallow. The technician couldn't get it to go into the intestine so he had the doctor do it. When that was finished, the doctor walked with me down to the MRI. The infirmier (nurse) gave me pants and a shirt to wear. Size small. I looked very funny. Pants 9 inches too short so the fly wouldn't button, and a shirt I couldn't move in. As an accessory I had the aquarium tube hanging out my nose. They had pity on me and traded the shirt for a hospital gown. When I was in the MRI, after the first scan they put the tube to use. Two technicians took a quart and a half of contrast die in little brown jugs and filled huge syringes with it and then squirted it down the hose as quickly as they could. The doctor came out before I was finished changing and told me I was in very good shape. I hope you aren't reading this while you are eating dinner.

Two Months In

2011-05-10T12:16:00.000-05:00

Today we received our identity cards. We are very excited that we no longer have to carry our passports with us at all times.

We have been here now for two months in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert. We have each had about 40 hours of French classroom instruction and between 40 - 80 hours of French homework and study. We have met people in their homes, had picnics in the park, and had spiritual conversations with fellow language students. We are continuing to get to know our city by using the public transportation system.

I have decided to try to buy a folding bicycle to make getting around the city easier. There were four bicycle stores that I had researched on the internet that I wanted to visit. We plotted the stores on Google maps and threw in a castle that we have been wanting to tour. The route came out to be a beautiful little oval. Google maps said we could walk the entire route in 3 hours and 30 minutes. Having decided which order our stops would be, and with the addresses all entered into the GPS, we headed off to the Metro. When we came out of the Metro and headed to the tram stop for the next part of the trip, we found the tram was just pulling away from the stop as we dashed across the busy street against a red light. Looking at the schedule, we decided to head off walking since the next tram was not due for another 15 minutes. We were almost to the first bicycle shop when the tram passed us. When we came out of the shop we got on the next tram to continue to our next destination. Now some trams have screens on them, displaying what stop is coming up next. This was an older tram that did not. The tram was very crowded, and since I am very tall I could not see out the windows to try to read the signs on the tram stops as we passed by. The GPS was helping to let me know where we were, but after we had been on the tram for a few minutes, it lost its position through the metal roof. Finally, after Elizabeth squeezed by a few people to look at a map on the tram wall, we decided we should get off the tram. When we started looking at the map at the tram stop, we discovered we had gone several stops past where we needed to be. So we crossed the street and waited several minutes for the next tram to take us back in the direction we had just come. This got us close to our next shop but by now, we desperately needed to find a restroom and since it was past lunch time we stopped at a little Greek cafe for some salad (and the restroom). We ended up cutting our shopping trip short, only visiting 2 of the 4 shops, and deciding to leave the castle for another day. After another tram ride we made it to a Metro stop which took us back home - exhausted.

Even though we are living in an environment that is very foreign to two people who grew up in rural areas and have lived most of our married life in suburban areas, we are learning to get around the city with public transportation. We find it all worthwhile because of the relationships we are building with people in the city.

One month

2011-04-11T14:11:00.001-05:00

We have been here for one month now and we are doing well - at least we think we are (no one has asked us to leave anyway). We have had lots of interesting experiences, starting with a connection at Heathrow airport. It has to be the most confusing airport in the world. They should have someone help them redesign their signs. We felt lost and unsure until we were on the airplane. The airport does not tell you which gate the plane will board at until twenty minutes before departure. Then you scramble carrying your luggage for about a quarter of a mile.

When we arrived in Brussels Kyle was waiting for us with a driver to tote all of our remaining possessions to their apartment until we would find an apartment of our own. We got everything up to the fourth floor with few problems and then we set off to explore our new city. We purchased subway and bus tickets and then went exploring. We saw grocery stores, banks, parks, and what passes for Home Depot (Brico). The first Saturday we went to the public market in the city square of Stockel. Elizabeth bought a primrose which is now out on our little balcony and still blooming beautifully. The vegetables, flowers, meats, fruits and other wares created a beautiful spectacle.

All of the time that we were travelling around exploring the city, we were looking for apartments and taking pictures of signs advertising apartments for rent, as well as looking on the internet. We narrowed the possiblities down to five farorites and on the second Sunday Kyle and Peyton helped us scout them out. Then on Tuesday we went to see two of them. The first one was owned by a very spry 83 year-old lady. It was pretty much everything we were looking for. It is completley furnished with utilities included in the rent. We only have to pay for telephone and internet separately. There is no laundry though; we go to a nearby laundromat once a week. We came back the next day and signed the lease and paid the first month's rent as well as a month as a security deposit. We moved in later the same day. The other apartment we saw was unfurnished and generally didn't interest us much in person.

Our next major task was to find language schools. We chose different schools, both downtown near the US embassy and by the European Parliament. I am in my second week of classes and Elizabeth is in her third.

We have been going to French-speaking churches each week. We can understand 0 - 50 % of the message if we have the scripture passage. We have met two influential Belgian church leaders and have had meetings with them. One of them introduced me and Kyle to a long-time friend of his who he has been trying to influence for Christ. Kyle and I have begun meeting with this man separately for an hour each week for conversational help with the French language.

A week ago Sunday we made a little letter with our picture, telling a little about ourselves. We put a copy in each of the mailboxes in our building. There are about 12 apartments. The next day, one of our neighbors rang our buzzer and invited us for snacks the following evening. We had a great time visiting with this older couple who spoke very little English. Today we met two more neighbors in the foyer. One of them told us we had made a big mistake. When we went back and looked at what we had written we realized she was right. We forgot to include our name on the letter. Oops! She said there had been some other recent additions to the building and she didn't know who we were so that she could invite us.

I have also had an appointment with a gastroenterologist, and went last Friday for the Remicade infusion treatment I get every other month for Crohn's disease. I will post more about this later.

One week in the books!

2011-03-19T07:29:00.002-05:00

On Thursday the 17th of March we completed the first week of our adventure in Belgium. It has been a time of Great Blessing. We attribute the blessings to our great God who loves to bless and answer prayers of his followers, and we are thankful for the love and leadership of the Goen family. Kyle, Amy and the kids made it so easy to find things and know what to do next. We started out with getting minutes on LifePoint’s temporary phones, opening a bank account, registering with Etterbeek Commune, looking for an apartment online, and walking around and looking for signs on buildings. We also got a recommendation for a real estate agent that specializes in rentals to expats. We emailed and contacted him and he never got back with us. On Sunday morning we visited a French-speaking Baptist Church and heard a message about the ministry of Wycliffe Bible Translators. In the afternoon we went to the locations of four or five apartments and ranked them. On Tuesday we went to see our first choice and really liked it. We weren’t able to reach our second choice. We saw the third choice the same day, but it wasn’t nearly as attractive to us. Our apartment at A.J. Slegers is right around the corner from the subway stop “Josephine-Charlotte” and is on the second floor. After we signed the lease on Wednesday morning we went to the City Commune Hall of Woluwe St. Lambert and registered and completed our residency cards. The picture ID will be ready in about five weeks and then we won’t be required to carry our passports everywhere we go. On Wednesday afternoon, missionary friends from Tennessee came to visit the Goens and us, and we moved in. That took about 30 minutes, because they have a minivan that held all of our luggage. On Thursday because we were blessed to be able to get our yearly Metro passes (all public transportation for Metropolitan Brussels). That cost 966 euro for the two of us - we were paying 9 euro a day for single day passes. After that we signed up for internet, house phones and mobile phones (called gsm’s in Europe).

Now we are setting up the apartment. It has lots of storage and is fully furnished so we just need to set up an office and do a little decorating! Next week we start looking for language schools.

If you have not contributed financially and would now like to, you can do so by sending financial gifts to: Dan & Elizabeth Christensen, LifePoint Church, 506 Legacy Dr. Smyrna, TN 37167
(Please put a note in the envelope signifying it is for Christensen - Belgium.)

You can also give online by going to http://lifepointchurch.org/give and specifying in the memo section that you are giving for “Christensens - Belgium”

Thank your for your prayers and support God is Blessing!

Dan & Elizabeth

"First Daze"

2011-03-12T12:57:00.000-06:00

We have been in Etterbeek for a day and a half now and it has been very eventful. We were on our way to Crainhem to go to a Carrefour for school supplies for Jordan, Peyton and Evan and we walked into a Carnaval Parade. Of course we had to stop and get pictures and dance with the green characters - well I convinced Elizabeth, Evan and Jordan. If I had danced, the party would have been over and my visa revoked.

On the way out of the subway station Elizabeth ran into a sign pole, because she was involved in a deep conservation. Before those two exciting events everything has been going very well. We landed in Brussels on Thursday afternoon and walked the rest of the day. We went to the bank and were referred to another bank. The next day we finished the appointment and maybe on Monday we will have money available. Also on Thursday we activated temporary phones - $35 for 60 minutes.

Tomorrow we are going to a French language church that is attended by the Leader of the Protestant Synod. We are really looking forward to it!

More to follow!

P.S. to Larry - to your list "First Daze" you should add "Watch out for metal posts in the middle of the sidewalk". Elizabeth has a big goose-egg on her forehead.

It is finally time!

2011-02-27T20:26:00.000-06:00

It is finally time!

Our visas were approved last Wednesday, the 23rd of February. We were shocked and blown away. The lady from the Belgium Consulate in Atlanta called me on my cell phone just as Josiah, Elijah and I were getting back from fishing. I was busy storing the boat. We have to call back and tell her when we can come to Atlanta to pick up our visas and when we expect to arrive in Brussels. After waiting for so long, it feels like a dream that it is finally happening, but we have Andrea’s voice on our answering machine from when she couldn’t reach us. She called twice at home then called Elizabeth’s cell and finally reached me. I called Elizabeth at work and asked her, “Guess who I just talked to?” I was so choked up that I couldn’t answer who!

Elizabeth, when our phone call ended, let out a screaming war-cry, then shouted “I am going to Belgium!” so loud that everyone could hear her all over the third floor of the Gideon headquarters. She happened to be training her replacement that day and had a very hard time concentrating the last 90 minutes of the day.

We had just sent an e-mail to our travel agent, Annie saying that the price she quoted us for the 20th of April sounded very good, but what would happen if we did not get the visas by then? Elizabeth e-mailed her that the visas had been approved and we could leave anytime after the 9th of March.

So now we are very busy saying good-bye and closing down everything in La Vergne. We have to cancel the phone, utilities, etc. Then we have to start setting up an account with ING bank. Also, we have to pare our life down to approximately 200 pounds each and then we fly British Airways to our new life.

If you have not contributed financially and would now like to, you can do so by sending financial gifts to:

Dan & Elizabeth Christensen
LifePoint Church
506 Legacy Dr
Smyrna, TN 37167

(Please put a note in the envelope signifying it is for Christensen - Belgium.)

You can also give online by going to http://lifepointchurch.org/give and specifying in the memo section that you are giving for “Christensens - Belgium”.

Please continue to pray. It is making a difference!

Snow

2010-12-14T18:16:00.000-06:00

Sunday it started snowing in Tennessee.

This is always dramatic and adventuresome. Everywhere that I have lived the first snow of the year is hard on drivers, lots of accidents! The first year that I started driving I was driving a red Volkswagen Beetle from the 60's, this was in 1974. The first snow of the year my brother, sister and Exchange student from the Philipines, Jun were all freezing together in the car on the way to school. About a mile and a half from home on M-19 I shifted gears and the car started spinning in circles, which completely surprised and scared all of us. The car had one snow tire on the rear and we hit a patch of ice. It felt like it would never stop spinning, it was like a ride at the county fair. When it finally did we were almost in a neighor's field. Everybody but me got out and pushed us back on to the road and we went to school.

My dad was an inventor, always making stuff in his tool shed. When my brother and I were pretty young he built a snowmobile. The track was from an old manure spreader, the engine was from a garden tractor and everything else he welded steel and used wood and sheet metal to make the skis. It worked pretty good but was really heavy and the track flew apart occasionally. It pulled a toboggan well and you could skijor on snowskis with a water ski tow rope.Winter was full of fun adventures and it stayed snowy and cold for more than three days unlike Tennessee. More stories to come!

November 6, 2010

2010-11-06T09:19:00.002-05:00

Maybe a week or so and we find out about Elizabeth’s FBI fingerprint records. In the meantime we have been learning patience. We have been reading our Bibles, praying, being Jesus to people we meet and encouraging people to do more than they thought they could through Christ strengthening them.

We would like to say it has been all joy but life isn’t like that. We can count it joy, which we are trying to do but some days are much more thrilling than others. We were not promised continuous happiness but peace, knowing that life is going to happen according to God’s plans not ours. I have been scanning all of our old pictures into the computers. We will take an I Mac and Toshiba 17” laptop with us. No more desktops. It is a very long process to scan 1000 pictures and then I have to scan documents next. We will move with just six suitcases.

We are enjoying spending time with our family and friends. I have been going hunting and fishing more than I have in years with Joe, Elijah and my friend Buster from church and Nissan. Lots of great conversations!

We will send another update as soon as we know something about Elizabeth’s process, please pray hard and if you know anyone who would like to help us by praying or giving please let us know!

Dan and Elizabeth

Missionaries to Belgium

CLICK HERE TO GIVE

2010-10-10T13:49:00.001-05:00

CLICK HERE TO GIVE

If you would like to contribute financially by EFT, click on the link above. Please put our name in the "Memo" section. Otherwise, send us an e-mail at dan.christensen58@gmail.com and we will send you the information.

30 Years later

2010-10-06T16:47:00.002-05:00

In the fall of 1976 I went to Bible College in Toronto, Ontario Canada. The name of the school is Toronto Baptist Seminary. They had basically the same classes for everybody but if you already had a Bachelor's Degree and wrote a Thesis that was accepted you received a Masters Degree. I have recognized that I did not finish because I am not very good at Languages. You see I failed Greek twice and didn't even try Hebrew. That convinced me to be interested in History. I was pretty good in History but then I have to admit my classmates were those that had failed at languages also. By the end of the second year I had fallen madly in love with Elizabeth. We decided that she would graduate and then we would get married and go to school somewhere else for me to finish my degree. By the way, even though she wasn't good at Hebrew, we are both good at relationships - we have been happily married ever since that spring. But then I have to get back to the main story. If things had gone as we thought they would, I would have been ordained the fall of 1980. It never happened. We heard about making "shipwreck" from our Principal Dr. G.A. Adams several times a month. It was something that really laid heavy on his heart for the students who did not see the course through.

We have not made any wrecks out of any ships, so far. Everything hasn't been perfect, but it has been a blessing. We were allowed to be part of a multitude of life-changing experiences doing our part in the Great Commission. We have seen people follow Jesus on several continents; we have grown in grace and in the Word; we have studied many courses and read many books and read through the Bible many times.

September 15th, 2010 I was ordained in Smyrna, TN at LifePoint Church by wonderful friends and with three other men my sons' age. It was a moving experience. The following Sunday we were commissioned along with the Goen family, to go to Brussels, Belgium as missionaries, something we have been preparing for all of our lives.

I guess that we are slow learners, but we have learned patience along the way, knowing how to wait upon the Lord. Please pray and support us along the rest of the Journey with Him!

No Fingerprints!

2010-09-11T22:03:00.000-05:00

On Friday the 3rd. of September our long awaited FBI results arrived in the mail just as we were getting ready to Fly to Seattle for a real vacation. My results were clear, no criminal record. Elizabeth was rejected because they said she didn't have good enough fingerprints. The problem is she started out life as a vegetable farmer in Canada and now she works for the Gideons International and she has worked her fingers to the bone. The explanation sheet said that you could do lots of things to make them grow back. It also told how to take them better. After checking with others who have had similar problems during the Foreign adoption process, the best solution was Corn Huskers Lotion. So after waking up in Tukwila, Washington we sent out for Corn Huskers Lotion. In Metropolitan Seattle they must not have much of a need to shuck corn, after several stores we found a bottle at a Walmart in Renton. Elizabeth applied it constantly during the Vacation.

We visited the Pifers on Saturday Evening they had moved to Renton from Smyrna in the last year. We had a great time catching up about old times and their new life in Seattle. Sunday morning we went to Lynnwood and worshipped at the new campus of our church. We had a great time hearing the Radical series and later we were able to have lunch with several members at their favorite Restaurant.

Monday morning we went to Edmonds to ride the ferry to Kingston and went to Port Angeles and the Olympic Peninsula National Park. We drove up and down mountains while it was raining in the Rainforest. It was still an amazing adventure and the trees and mountains were beautiful. For lunch we ate at the Lake Crescent Lodge. It was delicious and after lunch we went kayaking on the Lake very nice, but very cold and wet. The following day we drove out to Sol Doc Hot Springs and enjoyed the pools with tourists from Japan and Germany very international feeling. We missed reservations on the ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria where you can see across the straight of San Juan de Fuca, so we had to drive back to Kingston and take the Ferry back to Edmonds and drive to Vancouver and take another ferry to Victoria. That made a 90 minute trip take about five hours. The Vancouver ferries are very impressive, they travel at 20 knots and do not leave a wake.

We did all the Vancouver Island things including Whale Watching, tons of fun and well worth the price to go with Prince of Whales fleet. We also drove out to the west to see the Tidal Pools everything was just like we read in magazines and saw on travel TV. A great blessing!

Now we are ready to go to Brussels, which is very similar except for the mountains. The people and the culture are remarkably similar. We do have the problem of Elizabeth's fingerprints though. When those prayers are answered, we are ready to apply to the Belgian Embassy which can take one to four months. Then we buy the tickets and take off. So if you have been waiting to be part of our financial support team the time is here. Contact us at dan.christensen58@gmail.com for details. We are at a very blessed time of our lives right now. God has been good all of the time!

Sandy the Wonder Horse

2010-07-05T16:41:00.000-05:00

When I was in the fifth grade at Sandusky Middle School in Sandusky, Michigan, I was in love with horses. This is because my family, being from middle class, middle America, watched Bonanza and Gunsmoke every week on TV along with whatever western movies came on TV. We never went to the movies in town; we watched them on TV when they were a few years old.

So one fall my Dad found a deal on a big pony and a beagle named Cindy about fifteen miles away from our farm. So we drove up there to see the pony and the dog. We really liked the two of them and Cindy the dog came home with us and Sandy the pony arrived later in a trailer. The only problem was that my younger sister's name was Cindy also and she was not the least bit happy sharing her name with a beagle! We told her that beagles weren't smart enough to survive a name change and she would just have to learn to like it.

The reason my Dad got my brother and I a big pony was that one of my school friends had a old work horse that he inherited form his older brothers. He would ride it a mile down the road to our place and I would ride the horse while he rode our minibikes that our dad built for us. The horse was huge, old and gentle. He never gave his rider any trouble and he made the rider look good.

After we got the pony, I mostly rode Sandy when we had the time, and my brother and my Dad would ride motorcycles in the woodlot across the road. I had a minibike called the Bumblebee that was homemade. It looked great but rode like a hay wagon - no suspension other than the airplane tires which didn't have any tread. So you could not keep up with motorcycles that had at least three inches of suspension and knobby tires. So Dad and Glen would be riding motorcycles on the trails and Sandy and I would catch up with them. Sandy had a few problems; he wasn't very well trained. Every time I rode him he tried to buck me off and he wasn't very good at doing what he was told. When he would get over in the woods he wouldn't walk through the trails like the horses did on Bonanza; he would run as fast as he could to catch up to the motorcycles. Now I have always had a need for speed but Sandy and I were much taller than a motorcycle or a deer and that was how high most of the brush canopy was. Sandy was just a little bit taller than a big buck. So when he took off at a gallop the thornapple bushes didn't smack him, just me. My pain and shouting just encouraged Sandy the wonder horse; he just went faster and faster as the brush got thicker and thicker.

His favorite trick though, was to gallop as fast as he could, start bucking and if he didn't manage to throw me off, he would stop dead in his tracks and just skid his hooves until I flew over his head with a loud thump and landed in a heap. When I recovered I had to chase him down and put him back in the pasture. Eventually God blessed me I continued to grow until I could wrap my legas around his belly and he hardly ever bucked me off anymore. But then most of the fun was gone too.

You see there is great fun in working through adversity and mastering it and getting ready for the next challenge God blesses you with. Sandy the Wonder Horse taught me the power of "failing forward" literally!

The Post Retirement Journey

2010-06-23T19:50:00.002-05:00

May 28, 2010 arrived. The countdown clock went down to zero. My work group at Nissan had two parties for me. Willie Prazak sponsored one at Toot's restaurant in Smyrna and the official party was on Thursday at lunch at our break area. Calvin my supervisor cooked pork shoulder, country ribs and chicken. It was delicious. People said nice things and gave me a beautiful engraved multi-tool to replace all of the tools that I will have to leave behind when I fly to Belgium. On Friday morning I came to the morning start-up meeting where I received a Certificate of completion prepared by Troy Kirby. I had everyone sign it so it looked like a college diploma. Then I went up to the HR office and received my really big check and went to the security office to turn in my ID card and they made a retiree card that won't let you in the gate.

Next I went to the bank and deposited the check. I went back home and waited to have the long awaited lunch with one of my mentors, Jim Ferrell. I waited and waited; the time dragged on. Finally Jim arrived and he said that he was waiting on UPS for his business. He said that he really liked Hickory Falls. I told him that I did too. We went in and I was scanning the restaurant for people I might know and walked into my surprise retirement birthday party. My brother and sisters were there along with my kids and grandkids. It was pretty overwhelming! My family from Michigan had chartered a friend's plane to fly Sherry, Cindy, Glen and his wife Sue to Smyrna.

That evening we were supposed to go to Tony and Brandi's house for a get-together. It turned out to be the second surprise party of the day! My old small group was there along with Kyle and Amy. It was quite a day!

12days299hrs.

2010-05-15T21:13:00.001-05:00

In twelve days (299 hours) I will be finished at Nissan, Smyrna, TN. I started there the first Monday of October 1984. I had attended state-sponsored training at their training facility for several months. I learned about hydraulics, pneumatics and welding before I was hired for the Sentra project. We would attend school for several hours each Saturday. That cost me and most of my co-trainees a lot of money, and the companies we worked for knew all about where we were when we were not working for them. But finally I was interviewed by several supervisors from the Trim and Chassis department. They asked me all sorts of questions an electrician shouldn't have known the answers to. They asked me trick questions and tried to upset me; they really ran us through the ringer. If my Dad had not made me work on farm equipment, motorcycles and snowmobiles, my mother instilled in me a love of reading and Ms. Mary Jo Wilson made me love learning in the fifth grade, I never would have done so well.

I started out in the tire room and we completed lots of training. It felt like we were back in High School. I went to several computer schools. About one hundred days into the employment I found out that I had cancer and missed the next ninety days. I had great disability and insurance and was receiving a bigger check than my previous job. Elizabeth and I found a great church that took care of us and the boys - First Baptist Smyrna. The Trim and Chassis plant manager came to our apartment and prayed for us. As well as most of the members of our previous church, the Gospel Tabernacle, Tullahoma, TN. I recovered and went back to work in June of 1985 with a head that was as bald as a watermelon and except for the stripes it looked like one too!

In 1989 I moved to the Stamping Plant which is the beginning of the process of building a car. I have been there ever since. I was able to go to Japan twice while in Stamping. It was an amazing experience for a farm boy from Michigan. When I was picking up rocks in a wheat field, I never imagined I would eat horse meat and Tuna Sushi served by a Geisha.

More than a year ago I was offered a buyout to leave. I always thought that if someone offered you a lot of money to leave a job you should take it, so I did. That opened up the opportunity for my next career - being a missionary to Belgium. In addition to the cash, I have my health insurance, and in three years I will be able to draw some pension. It seems that God planned it for us.

So thank you, Nissan, for the opportunities to meet great people, the salary to travel around the world experiencing Missions in Brazil, Canada, Africa and India. It has been a great ride!

Joe Dale Lemonds

2010-03-31T16:04:00.000-05:00

Another one of my friends retired this week from Nissan, JD Lemonds.
When JD first came to work in Stamping in 1990 I had no idea how close we would eventually become. He arrived from the Whirlpool Corporation up the road in LaVergne. Originally he was from Michigan the same as me. So we knew about a lot of the same things and of course we were both Yankees.

JD eventually had friends from Whirlpool join him, Ed and John, Bobby came from Mississippi, Tim from North Dakota we were a tight group within our Department. We would play Solitaire and swap stories at break and lunch or whenever we had the time. Always laughing and cutting up. JD and some of the others liked to hoist a few mostly more now than then. Me being a Deacon, I never joined in that part of the fun, although I probably should have. The ones that liked beer always made it to work the next night. I was the first to make it to day shift. We always kept up with each other. My boys were close to the same age as his girls. He went on juvenile hunts with us in the fall we had a great time, never shot any deer but lots of good eating and great stories.

Eventually his wonderful wife Alma became ill, very ill. That shook up his life, it made him take stock, he decided he needed to be a Christ follower. That is what his life revolves around now, Jesus and others. JD can talk to a wall and get a reaction out of it. I always told him that if I ever started a church he would be in charge of evangelism. He knows everybody. I went to his ordination as a deacon. It was a very moving service. Now he goes out on visitation and keeps the building maintained at his church. It is very obvious he turned a way toward Jesus. A radical change. So now it is twenty years since I first met him and he is retiring from Nissan. He is the last of that group of those new hires from 1990. Life will be different now in my remaining two months before I leave also. I am praying for the best for him and his family. They were the first members of my Belgium support team. JD and Alma God has great things in store for you! Blessings!

Another Saint goes Home

2010-02-13T19:28:00.000-06:00

On Sunday February 7, 2010 a great Saint passed on to be with Jesus. Dr. Ken Hubbard died on Super Bowl Sunday, the Day the New Orleans Saints played the Indianapolis Colts led by the former University of Tennessee Quarterback Peyton Manning.

Dr. Hubbard had been suffering from the ravages of Alzheimer's disease for the last several years. This was very hard on all of those who loved him and his wonderful wife, Faye. If you are a Tennessee Baptist you probably already know how influential he was in Baptist circles. For my family he was our pastor from 1988 to 2005. Our son Jeremiah was the first person Baptized when he first came to First Baptist Smyrna. It was a cold morning with cold water in the Baptistry. The heater had quit again. Dr. Hubbard said that it was a bit cold but Jeremiah would do fine because he was a brave boy. So the time came in the service for Jeremiah to be baptized he went into the water and it hit him this is cold!! His teeth started chattering and he started walking on the water. Dr. Hubbard quickly dunked him. Jeremiah said that he was a believer and that he was following Jesus and wanted to for the rest of his life. He was in Kindergarten so it was a big decision for a young boy; it ended up being more memorable than he could ever have imagined.

Jeremiah grew up in stature and the wisdom of the Lord at FBC Smyrna, receiving a good foundation from the Children and Youth Workers. He has helped in a Church Plant and taught children in several churches. He married a wonderful Christian girl.

Dr. Hubbard started the transition from a midsized church to a very large Church where lives are changed and people sincerely care about being a Christ follower and realize what it costs. He made several courageous decisions that were not always popular. He mentored several people who are strong leaders today.

Towards the end of his pastorate at fifty some years in the ministry I was in charge of the benevolence ministry. I would work from 6:00 to 2:30 at Nissan as a maintenance technician, then I would drive over to the Church and help people in need. Sometimes it was food and electric, other times it was a place to stay because they were homeless. I worked in the Stamping Plant where it is very noisy so we hardly ever received phone calls. Dr. Hubbard would call and after I made it to the phone he would say in his deepest Holiest voice: "Dan this is your Pastor calling". This was very disconcerting because I felt for sure that something had happened to my family. It was always about whether we should help someone in need.

Last week Ken Hubbard hear the call from his Shepherd calling, "Ken come home, we have your place ready, many are waiting to greet you!

Dr. Hubbard thank you for influencing our family, you truly made Jesus proud.

Some Statistics on Giving

2009-11-27T11:46:00.000-06:00

Here are some statistics our pastor, Pat Hood, recently posted on his blog.

"80% of the world's evangelical wealth is in North America and that total represents way more than enough to fund the Great Commission... We must give generously in order to be a Sending Church...

In 2007, 1.9 billion worldwide (28% of population) had yet to hear the gospel...we MUST be a Sending Church...

In 2004, church members gave 2.5% of their income to the church. If they had tithed obediently, there would've been an additional $164 BILLION to fund the Great Commission.

Annual giving $19 billion between now & 2015 could eliminate global starvation. An additional $15 billion could provide universal access to clean water.

Conservative estimates indicate that $1 billion a year could be all that's needed to complete the Great Commission.

In 2000, American evangelicals collectively made $2.66 TRILLION in income.

Only one third to one half of all American church members support their church financially...

In 2007, it was estimated that Americans spent $40 billion on their pets... by 2010, Americans will spend $60 billion on weight loss... How much on the gospel?

America has 40% of the world's wealth & only 2.5% of the population. We are blessed to be a blessing.

Income has increased 10 times in the last 20 years while giving has decreased by about 50%...

These stats are shocking to say the least. They reveal that Americans have major spiritual heart disease when it comes to giving. If every Christ follower would obediently tithe, the church could eliminate poverty, provide clean water for the world, provide loving care to all the world's orphans & send missionaries to preach the gospel to all peoples..."

November 15, 1989/2009

2009-11-22T20:32:00.003-06:00

My father, Bill Christensen, died on the first day of gun deer season a half mile from his house in Peck, Michigan, 100 miles north of Detroit. After Christmas and Easter, Nov. 15 is the next major holiday in that region. Some schools close for the day, people get off work for the day and there are those who don't just go. My brother and my Dad were hunting together and had walkie-talkies. My dad shot a large buck first thing in the morning and called my brother to tell him that he was going to wait for a while before he did anything else so that he would not interfere with anyone else's hunting chances. After that last communication, my brother didn't hear anything for a really long time so he went to check Dad. He was dead from a massive heart attack. It was very shocking, of course, because he was only 54.

We had to drive up to Michigan as quickly as we could. We drove through a tornado in Kentucky, just missing it by half an hour. We drove through a terrible thunderstorm; the wind was strong and stuff was blowing everywhere. When we finally arrived in Michigan, the weather there seemed to match our mood as well. The graveside service was very cold and wet, really miserable. But lots of people came to the funeral and told us that Dad was a wonderful man and that he made a big difference in their lives.

My mother Carol contracted breast cancer the following year. She had a mastectomy, went through chemotherapy surprisingly well and seemed to settle in to her radically different life. She was more active in her church; she traveled with her sister and friends. In 2006 the cancer came back and she went through everything again, bouncing back well and continuing her life as before. In the fall of 2008 she had back pain, leg pain and double vision. Again she went to all of her doctors and they sent her for test after test, but they couldn't find anything. Then, in the spring of 2009, my brother went with her to the doctor to find out what was going on and they finally figured out that the cancer had come back and that it probably had spread throughout her body. There was nothing that could be done except hospice care, and one of the hospice nurses said Mom had two or three months left.

She doubled the time they thought she had left and she lived it to the fullest way possible while using a walker, then being confined to a chair with electric lift. My aunt and niece, with help from my brother and sisters, did a wonderful job helping her. I went through 150,000 airline miles to visit her once a month.

Even toward the end, she was always positive. Lots and lots of people from her church visited her and brought her food over and over again. When I saw them they reported to me that they always came away very blessed after visiting Mom. Eventually the disease progressed and she became bedridden, but she continued to be a blessing. This was a lady who served her church and community well. She just kept on the best she could, accepting whatever came her way, still blessing everyone around her. When she made it past September, I predicted to Elizabeth that she would die on Nov. 15, 20 years to the day after my Dad passed away.

Thanks to Skype, I was able to talk with her very often. We would tell her that we loved her and she would tell us that she loved us. We told her that we were going to Belgium, and for a second she was shocked, but then realized it would be OK because she would be in heaven. I told her that the reason Christians suffer is so they can glorify God by testifying to how wonderful He is in the midst of their suffering and that she was finishing the race well. That made her happy.

As predicted, my sister called at 5 a.m. Nov. 15 with the news that Mom had gone to heaven. We were ready. We left soon after we finished the laundry and called our sons to keep an eye on the house. The weather was beautiful, too. It was a happy funeral because a saint had gone home. Mom was running now, not confined to her bed.

I have been blessed by wonderful parents. Their love for God and each other has molded me into who I am today, giving me a legacy to give to my children and grandchildren.

I love you Mom and Dad!

Our Story Part II (LifePoint's Story)

2009-11-01T14:10:00.004-06:00

Several years ago God gave our church the vision of a mission partnership on every continent. Our church had always been involved in missions through giving money, praying for missionaries, and sending teams for a week at a time. In January 2004 our church began to feel that God wanted us to be involved at a deeper level. We began to pursue some long-term partnerships with missionaries on different continents. This led to three families from our church going as missionaries to South America, South Asia and Africa.

Then in the summer of 2007 our executive pastor, Kyle Goen, began noticing the country of Belgium. He began to feel that this might be a country where God wanted our church to become involved. In Belgium only 1/2 to 2 % of the population are Christ-followers. 80% of people say they are Catholic, but of these only 4 - 8 % attend church on any given weekend. Many people in Belgium do not have any idea what it means to have a relationship with Jesus. We feel God wants us to be a part of making that happen. We will be part of a team of five families who are committing to live in Belgium for at least three years.

We have a three-fold vision. We hope to start an English-speaking international church in Brussels. Brussels is the home of the European Union. It is a very cosmopolitan city. Out of that church we would train internationals, who are living temporarily in Brussels, to start churches in their home countries when they return. Also out of that church we would train native French-speakers to start French-speaking churches in nearby French-speaking cities.

Grandma Christensen

2009-10-23T14:53:00.001-05:00

I Corinthians 1:4-6 The Message: Every time I think of you — and I think of you often! — I thank God for your lives of free and open access to God, given by Jesus. There's no end to what has happened in you — it's beyond speech, beyond knowledge. The evidence of Christ has been clearly verified in your lives.

7-9 Just think — you don't need a thing, you've got it all! All God's gifts are right in front of you as you wait expectantly for our Master Jesus to arrive on the scene for the Finale. And not only that, but God himself is right alongside to keep you steady and on track until things are all wrapped up by Jesus. God, who got you started in this spiritual adventure, shares with us the life of his Son and our Master Jesus. He will never give up on you. Never forget that.

When I was a teenager, my brother and I mowed my Grandma Christensen's lawn every week from the time the snow stopped in the spring until it started in the fall. Our father wanted to teach us, love, charity and the value of hard work, so he wouldn't let her pay us anything. This tore her up, and she would even cry sometimes. It was pretty sad.

When I was a senior in High School and I was starting to feel called to ministry, I asked her if she would give me a Living Bible. That was a gift that was OK with all concerned. At the end of summer or my birthday (this was 30-plus years ago so I don't remember exactly when), I received it and decided to read the Bible through every year.

I have been truly blessed by that 20-dollar Bible. I didn't read it every time, actually only once. But I have enjoyed reading or listening through the Bible each year since. I have been blessed every time. What I've learned by doing this hasn't been Earth shattering, becuse everyday life is like that. But I find new blessings regularly.

This is a passage that spoke to me recently. I am reading through the Bible in the order that it was written. So the epistles, the letters to the various churches, show up before the Gospels.

Think about what it says: You have everything you need when you become a Christ follower. It doesn't matter where you live, how much money you have or your level of education. He will never give up on you! He gives you all of the gifts you need! Maybe that is why Christ followers I have met in India, Africa and South America are so much more content than people from North America. They have a simpler faith that is not as influenced by an excess of training resources, music, videos and books that tell us how to live a life of following Jesus. They just have His word and very few teachers. It also costs more to be a follower when you are not part of the majority religion.

Thanks, Grandma Christensen. You influenced more lives than you ever knew.

Our Story

2009-10-17T12:23:00.001-05:00

Throughout our marriage, we have always felt that God wanted us to be involved in church ministry of some sort. For four years Elizabeth was the youth and children's director in another local church. When she left that position we felt that God wanted us to be involved in a church ministry where we could work together. We were not sure how that could happen. After some time we began to make preparations to go to Canada to start churches. (Elizabeth is a Canadian native.) This plan did not work out and we were disappointed, but we continued studying and learning about starting churches. We now are finding that this was great preparation for what we are about to do. Also, we think our experiences played some role in our church catching the vision for getting more involved in missions to other countries.

Dan's Story

2009-10-17T12:08:00.000-05:00

I also became a follower of Jesus as a young child. One night there was a bad thunderstorm. I wondered what would happen to me if I died. (It must have been quite the thunderstorm!) I remembered what my Sunday School teacher said about Jesus dying for me so that I could go to heaven. That was when I decided that I wanted to follow Jesus. When I was a senior in high school, I felt that God wanted me to be involved in church ministry. I ended up at the same Bible College as Elizabeth. We've been married now for over 31 years.

Elizabeth's Story

2009-10-13T18:31:00.001-05:00

The story of how God brought us to where we are today begins a long time ago. This is Elizabeth's story:

I became a follower of Jesus at a very early age. Even though I was so young, I think I understood that I had done things that were wrong. I learned that Jesus was punished in my place. When I was about five and a half years old I was at an evening church service one Sunday. I don't remember the sermon but I will never forget the song we sang at the end of the service. We sang about the untold millions still untold about Jesus. It broke my heart. When we shook the pastor's hand as we left, he wanted to know why I was crying. My mother said she thought I must be tired. I knew the real reason, but I didn't have the words to explain.

As I was growing up missionaries were my heroes. The missionaries that I knew of were also doctors. So I thought that to be a missionary, I had to be a doctor. I wanted to be a missionary doctor when I grew up. As I grew older I did not see how that would work out. When I realized I would probably never be a doctor, I also forgot about being a missionary.

When I was seventeen, I felt that God wanted me to go to Bible College, although at that time I did not have a specific career in mind. I only knew that I wanted to learn more about the Bible. In Bible College I met Dan.

September trip to Belgium

2009-09-18T15:51:00.006-05:00

Hi all. Here are a few photos from Dan and Elizabeth's trip to Belgium on an exploratory trip as they prepare to enter the missions field in Brussels.

Back from Belgium

2009-09-17T19:32:00.000-05:00

We had a great time in Brussels! We walked and walked, rode the subway more than we have in any other city,

plus we rode trains, trams and buses and a European van owned by a missionary friend. Most of the cars are so small. Not very many people actually drive cars though, the public transportation system is so good.

We met with missionaries from several groups not just our own. They all said that the work is very difficult in Belgium. We knew that and that is a large part of why we want to go. We want to have conversations with people who would only be interested in us because the Holy Spirit is drawing them. No cultural attraction. The 6'3" man with the red headed wife did not look the least bit unusual. Traffic did not stop and people didn't even wave.

The food was good but we were looking for hungry hearts and they were everywhere!

More later

2009-08-28T17:20:00.000-05:00

We are going to Brussels tomorrow August 29! More news and pictures to follow!

How to help

2009-08-08T11:37:00.003-05:00

Ways to Partner Financially

1. Monthly Support
* Electronic Funds Transfer (http://www.lifepoint church.org/give)
* Electronic Bank Check (your personal bank website)
* Mail Check to:
LifePoint Church
attn. Belgium Church Planting
506 Legacy Dr.
Smyrna, TN 37167
(Please place a note in the envelope that is for the Christensen's not on the check itself)

2. Yearly Support (http://www.lifepoint church.org/give)

3. Special Needs Offering (http://www.lifepoint church.org/give)
* Towards special projects or needs that may arise (i.e.) children's educational supplies and fees.
*Initial housing setup. (email for amounts)
*Language Tutors (email for amounts)

4. Airline Reward Miles
* Once a year return trip to U.S. for Partner Meetings

(All financial gifts given through LifePoint Church are tax-deductible. You will recieve a statement of giving following the year end closing)

Belgium Links

2009-08-08T10:55:00.001-05:00

Links O’Belgium

kylegoen » 26 July 2009 » In Belgium, Mission » 0 Comments

Here are a few links to help you know a little more about Belgium to help you know a little more about where God has called LifePoint.

The Country of Festivals

Have fun readin

News you can use!

2009-07-29T16:21:00.003-05:00

Elizabeth and I are getting ready to move to Belgium with our Executive Pastor at LifePoint Smyrna, Kyle Goen, his wife Amy and their family. There will be other families also. We have been working diligently to see this happen for the last few months. Elizabeth has been studying French and I have just ordered the Rosetta Stone. We have been writing our testimonies filling out questionaires etc. All has been going well, we feel very blessed!

The reason we are choosing Belgium is that it is a strategic country in the European Union and NATO. People live there from everywhere around the world. They need to know about Jesus!
The problem is that there aren't very many Christ followers - less than 2% nationwide. We want to be a small part of changing that!

2006-02-11T14:54:00.000-06:00

India