Let’s start off with a big blessing, on September 30th we got to welcome Samuel James into our family! Rianne and Samuel are both doing well. His sisters and brother are very fond of him and give Samuel lots of cuddles. Slowly we are getting back into our routine and a new rhythm as a family of 6.
Thanks to Callum’s parents help and some others in the church we have managed to get a lot done in the house. We put a backdoor in, installed a new boiler(perfectly in time for winter), bathroom and bedroom made and as good as finished. We are now working on the downstairs living/hangout/meeting space.
After that we still need the roof redone and the terrace fixed as it has a leak but we are going step by step. The 1st floor space alone is the same size as our old apartment so we have now 3x the amount of space and really beginning to use and fill it nicely. The house has really begun to be the space for people to come to and the extra space has been a joy to enjoy. We regularly have our Afghan neighbours teenage girls over, they don’t have a house key and sometimes have to wait a while outside in the cold, so they’ll come over to our place and play with our kids. Another boy from the Somali neighbours next door comes over to do his homework. The Moroccan older lady from next door regularly brings us some food. This is exactly what we were praying for to be connected to our neighbour and be the light in this dark neighbourhood.
We also have some exciting things going on in the church. We have been seeing an influx of new people, it’s been a great challenge and adjustment as each week we see at least one new face. It’s proving difficult to keep up with all the names and faces (what a great problem to have). The coolest thing is that most of these people are Belgians, who have only just met Jesus(or haven’t met him just yet), and most of them have zero bible knowledge. So we really are seeing this unreached people group come to faith. On the 29th September we got to baptise 6 people and each one got an accountability partner / mentor to help walk them into faith for the next season. Since then we have had another 5 people come to faith and are asking to be baptised plus plenty of other new people attend.
With this happening we really see the need to expand the church pastoral and deacons / care team but also to go back to basics and teach the new believers everything about the bible and the whole story. Even the smallest details like who were Adam and Eve, who was Jesus, the fact that Jesus was a Jew. How do you pray? What do you say to the person if you go up for prayer ministry? At the same time we have the challenge to also give input to those who are further along in their journey and create a church where everyone can grow and be guided and discipled. Please pray for wisdom for us as we learn to balance this new dynamic.
We had a church table (dinner) together in October. The table is something we encourage people to do every (Friday) evening. A meal to start our sabbath. It’s a great way of having fellowship around a table and really get to know others within the church. A place to take communion together, pray for each other and start a day of rest. In our family this practise has brought a rhythm of rest and trust in God. It’s not mandatory or legalistic. If you are interested to learn about it have a look at this guide or just sent us a message, we’re happy to explain more about it. Or read more here.
We had over 90 people from the church who could make it. It was a lovely evening together. Because we have been very intentional in creating good relationships with the other pastors in the city we got to use one of the other churches venues for this evening. We can see how the pastor brunches Frank and Callum organise is really a place where good connections between pastors and churches start to build.
In October we kicked off Alpha in our church café. We had 7 Belgians join us all new to faith. It’s going well but a good trial of fire for Callum’s apologetic’s and conversation management in Dutch! Thankfully a pastor from a different flemish church joined Callum this season to learn on how to lead alpha. One Monday a lady saw the video going in the cafe and begun to watch outside and then we invited her in and she joined for the rest of the session!
We are still waiting on an answer on the church building.. Right now there’s still no news. We just inquired and were told we would be informed if anything changes so more patience is required! So please pray that this door would open (if it’s gods will), since we are quite rapidly running out of space with all the new believers in church!
The church table – Alpha
We hope this has giving you a bit of an insight into what we have been busy with these last few months.
We are so thankful for your continual support both spiritually and financially and we give glory to God for all the incredible ways he has been moving in our lives.
How can you help?
If you want to know more specifics about anything mentioned feel free to contact us directly via social media or email. We know for all the things upcoming we need his provision. So if you have the leading to support us you can do so in one of 2 ways. For the past years, God has always brought provision in one way shape or form whenever it was needed.
Financial
For a church building (and the bishop to make a decision in our favour)
Monthly or one-off.
Prayer
Lots of thanks and blessings from Belgium, The Adams Family