New Year, New Country, New Baby, New Name?

Dear Friends,

We hope that each of you and your families have experienced a blessed Christmas season and are excited about the prospect of a new year.  We certainly are!  Our Christmas here in Belgium was restful and relaxing, a bit of calm before the storm of joy and excitement of our new baby, and a good chance to recuperate a bit from our recent move.  These last few weeks of pregnancy have been a joy, albeit a tiring one for Carrie!  We are eager to meet our child in person for the first time, hopefully before too long!

The last few weeks have been a time of introduction to the people and ministry of the church here in Belgium, as well as the people and customs and culture of the country.  It’s been interesting, and we look forward to our official “inburgering” classes soon.  (That’s enculturation classes for living in Belgium, not eating a burger, as it might sound.)

Some recent highlights have been the church’s celebrations for Christmas.  We had a special service the Sunday before Christmas with the international church, followed by a Christmas party for all, with great food and fellowship.

We also had a celebration with the Latino group at a member’s new house: they had only moved in the week before.  A week later we led our first Bible study for that group, which went very well, and what followed, as the week before, was a wonderful party with terrific food and togetherness.  We are realizing this is a great group to lead: they are very organized, friendly and invitational.  We came here to bring spiritual leadership in their native language, Spanish.  Please pray that we are able to do this well, as this group represents potentially a big step forward in God’s kingdom: the first evangelical Christian church in the province of West Flanders.

It occurs to us that, seeing as we will be ministering in Belgium for the foreseeable future, it would behoove us to find a new name for our blog.  Much as we liked “the Reign in Spain,” we will have to leave it behind.  We have a few ideas for a new name, but we would like to hear yours, too!  Please respond with a comment on our blog or by sending us an email at mikencaty@hotmail.com.

Also, please pray for the ministry team's cars here.  All four of them are currently experiencing problems.  Last week our scheduled preacher, Jackie, was unable to make it to the service because his van wouldn't start.  Dick and Sheila, Lawrence and ourselves have also had our share of car trouble, which the recent cold hasn't helped one bit.

We pray you have a blessed New Year, and we thank you for your support and prayers throughout this year past, and, we pray, this year to come!  We pray God’s best for all of you!

In Christ,

Michael and Carrie (Caty) Hamley

Comments

[Devremülk]

i like to read your posts. thanks for this one.

[Mark Underwood]

OK, so for a new name, how about something Belgiumy like:

Never Waffle for Jesus

or

Hide It Under a Brussels No, I'm Gonna Let It Shine

or for a more serious suggestion:

Bringing the Bible to Belgium