Waffle-y Good News

Royal Wedding

As we write, Europe, and to some degree the whole world, is keeping its eyes on London and the royal wedding taking place there today. It's astonishing, to us at least, how excited people can get over the marriage of people they have never met and probably never will. For our part, we're just happy it's today rather than tomorrow, when we'll be driving to England and skirting around London on the way to the Europe area missionary retreat. That's one traffic jam we will cheerfully be avoiding.

But we can certainly understand the excitement of a wedding. The joining together of two lives, at an important and blessed point along the journey of their relationship. The hopes and plans for a wonderful future together, maybe even a "happily ever after." We've been there ourselves and can identify.

However, a much greater and more exciting wedding feast awaits those of us who are in Christ. Revelation 19:6-7: "Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding feast of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready."

Continuing with verse 9: "Then the angel said to me, 'Write: "Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!' And he added, 'These are the true words of God.'"

How much stronger and more joyful would our churches be if we, as the church--the bride of Christ--went about delivering our invitations with the joy and blessing God's angel describes. We look forward to the day of the wedding feast of the Lamb, marking a blessed day in the church's relationship with Christ, the beginning of our joyful eternity together. Talk about hopes and plans for a future!

I hope belonging to Christ's covenant community is as much a joy and blessing as it should be. But how often does the word "church" bring up thoughts of a longstanding habitual gathering, a past-its-best-by-date tradition. I hope that is not what you think of, but for many in Europe, it is that much or worse. One of the reasons we as the church have missions to Europe is because the sense of joy in gathering together in Christ's name is lost. Please pray that it will not be lost much longer, that Christ's joy, love and hope would shine through even in the darkest of corners.

May the Lord bless you this day and until that day.

In Christ,

Michael and Carrie (Caty) Hamley

More than an Egg Hunt

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Belgium!  We hope you had a blessed Easter!

We certainly did here, although it was mostly quiet.  As in many places in Europe, the week before Easter here is a big time for travel, so many in our congregation were out of town.

Nevertheless, we had a wonderful event on Saturday morning at our church's new ministry center.   Combining the international and Latino churches, we invited children to bring their friends and relatives to an Easter celebration.  Activities included learning about the egg and how it illustrates the Trinity, the telling of the Easter story through resurrection eggs, dyeing and decorating Easter eggs, hearing the Easter story through storyboard, making butterfly crafts that remind us of the new life we have in Jesus, playing Easter bingo, and of course, an Easter egg hunt with chocolate eggs, which did not last long in the sun!   We even offered pictures with our resident Easter Bunny--our very own Carmen.  It was so popular that many of the adults had their picture taken, too.  The children had a wonderful time, but we think the many adult volunteers had just as much fun as the kids!

 
Isabel and Luna decorate their butterflies

After the children had gone and we were cleaning up, a woman from our Latino group suprised us (and all the volunteers) with a Spanish paella.  Enjoying it and relaxing in the back yard on a warm, sunny day was just what we needed after such an eventful morning!

Thank you for praying for our work here.  Pray that the Lord would continue to provide oportunities for us to connect with and minister to the lost.  You can also pray for us as this week we both have Dutch exams at language school.  Lastly, please keep us in your prayers this weekend as we travel to the Europe area missionary retreat.  This will be Andrew's first overnight trip away from home.  We pray he won't be too stressed by the unfamiliar surroundings, and that we don't forget anything vital!

Blessings,

Michael, Carrie (Caty), Andrew and Carmen the Bunny

 
Carmen wishes you a "Hoppy Easter"

Hamleys' New Blog Name

Dear Friends,

Greetings!  We hope you are doing well.

A while back, we decided that, since we were serving in a new country, it was time for a new blog name.  Some of you offered suggestions, and since we're serving in Belgium, the one we liked best was "Waffle-y Good News."  Thank you, Rev. Dennis Henley (Michael's brother's father-in-law), who came up with the winning entry.  A few others had suggestions along similar lines.

When we changed the name a few days ago, it seems to have garbled the mechanism for sending out blog entries via email.  I think we have that corrected now, but we won't know for sure until we send out a new post (which is to say, this one).  You can catch up on previous posts at www.mikencaty.typepad.com.

We just returned from a meeting of our Latino group, which was meeting in a new place in a new town and an hour and a half earlier than usual.  Because of those factors, we were expecting a meager turnout, but were pleasantly surprised to have 13 people at the meeting, which went very well!  Please pray for our group, because this Friday we will be presenting the movie "Fireproof" in Spanish at the new ministry center.

Also, please keep Carrie in your prayers.  After finally starting to feel better from a cold/laryngitis and eye infection, today her sore throat is back and the infection has migrated to the other eye.

In more pleasant news, Andrew just turned 10 weeks old and continues growing happily.  He's been very easygoing, which has been a huge help to us both, especially with both of us in language school (albeit at different times of day).

Thank you for your prayers, and may God bless you this day.

In Christ,

Michael and Carrie (Caty) Hamley

One of Those Weeks...

  For sure, it has been one of those weeks.  We have been affected by sickness and sorrow.  It hasn’t been easy!  Over the weekend we learned that our friends’ baby (a couple from our Lanzarote church) has died after waiting all 11 months of his life for a new heart which never came.  Then on Wednesday we received word that our Spanish neighbor Natalia (the one Carrie visited with nearly every day when we lived in Spain) has died unexpectedly.  This comes as a huge shock since as far as anyone knew, she was healthy as can be!

   These deaths, coupled with the fact that Carrie has been sick for over a week now (an illness which coincided with her beginning language school 4 days a week in an intensive Dutch course) has meant that our plate has been quite full this week physically and emotionally.  Michael has had to spend many more hours a day caring for Andrew which makes sermon writing more challenging.  And Carrie has had to go to class despite her illness because the regional government (which graciously pays for the classes) requires attendance, and if you miss too many classes, not only do you fall terribly behind, but you are also fined by the government.  (A doctor’s excuse is acceptable, but that would require having a doctor, which so far, we don’t!)

   Despite these challenges, God has been faithful.  Carrie is enjoying her language studies and will so even more once she is feeling better.  On Friday, a friend came over to clean our house, care for Andrew, and prepare enough meals to last us all weekend so that Carrie could spend the day in bed resting.  We are so grateful!

   This week please keep us in your prayers so that Carrie may continue to recover and Michael and Andrew would stay healthy.  Please also keep in your prayers Natalia’s family as they continue to mourn their loss.  Although Carrie had shared Jesus with Natalia, she doesn’t know if she chose to make a commitment to him or not, making her death twice as painful.  Also remember the family in Lanzarote who lost their 11-month-old son.  They have been strong though this entire process.  Pray that they will continue to be strong in the weeks and months ahead.

Thank you again for your prayers and support.  We appreciate you!

Blessings,

Michael, Carrie (Caty) and Andrew