June - August 2020
trimonthly magazine - Issue 78 P206948
R LPH Road journal
EDITORIAL - Peculiar times | p.2 Return to normal life | p.6 HGB / LBL becomes VIANOVA Store
| p.8
LOCKED DOWN, BUT NOT INACTIVE
| p.9
| EDITORIAL
Peculiar times Kurt Maeyens Director of Human resources Who could ever have imagined such a thing? That you can only go outside for the most urgent necessities, such as going to the doctor or food shopping. That brothers and sisters can no longer get together physically, and that all our contact with friends and family takes place via WhatsApp, Messenger, Zoom and other digital platforms. These are strange times. However, amidst all these changes, there is one constant. God is faithful. He does not change 1. He builds His kingdom! Even though we are confined to our homes, God’s testimony continues. God has given us wonderful opportunities to spread His light. For example, as a family, we were able to let our neighbours know that we stand ready to go shopping for them or listen to their story over the phone. We were able to build solidarity by clapping together for the healthcare providers. We were able to put a comic book about Jesus through the letterbox for a neighbour boy on his birthday. Our children also could see that God’s testimony is not tied to a place or time 2. Our daughter recorded
a dance for Easter and shared the video with her dance teacher, who enjoyed the clip. Our son, who plays the guitar during our digital church services, shared the service with his guitar teacher. A nice conversation started with an unbelieving friend via WhatsApp. Wonderful initiatives are also emerging within VIANOVA. As missionaries, we meet every Friday at 4:00 pm for a cup of coffee or tea and chat via Zoom. During this time, we encourage each other around a particular theme and prayer topics are shared. On Monday there is a Zoom prayer time. And these things are happening in our church communities too. Some start the day together with digital prayer. In other communities the bond becomes stronger in the 3D (discipleship) groups. Different live services are set up involving many people, each one serving the community 3. These are strange times. Everyone has to stay indoors. But God continues with His plan for the world 4. He builds His kingdom and wants to use us! What an amazing God we are privileged to know and serve!
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Editor Jan Wisse Pictures & illustrations
James 1:17 - 2 Matt. 5:13-16 - 31 Cor. 14:26 - 41 Chron. 29:11
Contact Romboutsstraat 7 1932 Zaventem BELGIUM
Pixabay, Unsplash, Pexels, Freepik Subscription Trimonthly magazine - free Subscribe/unsubscribe: info@vianova.be Production Quality Dots B.V.
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Tel: +32(0)2/241.30.15. E-mail: info@vianova.be • ralph@vianova.be www.vianova.be • facebook.com/vianova.be • vianova.be/youtube Privacy We protect our subscribers’ privacy: www.vianova.be/fr/declarationvieprivee (FR)
? Question ? & Answer ? A Q F ? A Q ? A ?F Q ? A ? F ? Q? A? F?
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HOW DO YOU INTEGRATE IN TIMES OF CORONA?
INTEGRATION? DOESN’T THE BIBLE WARN AGAINST THE DANGERS OF THE WORLD?
All four of our core values are strongly linked to interaction and contact with others. We integrate with others, we form community with others, we participate with others and we journey with others.
One of our core values is integration. At VIANOVA, we consciously choose to integrate into the world around us and reflect Jesus there. Our focus is not on “luring” people to church but we want to bring the gospel to people where they are in a way that reflects their own culture and world. In that place we want to shape disciples and connect them in new communities.
Despite the limitations to coming together physically, there are many great initiatives within VIANOVA that link directly with our core values. We may be able to use many of the things we are learning now. God turns everything for the better! In the last article of this RALPH, “Locked down but not inactive, P10”, we let some VIANOVA workers have their say. They give a brief story about their own corona initiatives.
Kurt Maeyens, HR director: “For years I had been led by a lie. I was frightened of the sinful world and its desires and I believed that I should stay as far away from this as possible. One day it became clear that I don’t need to be afraid of the world because there is someone in me who is much stronger than this world. The Bible says in 1 John 4:4, ‘He that is in you is greater than he that is in the world.’ I confessed then that I missed many opportunities by isolating myself from the world. I rejected the lie. The attraction of the world is no greater than the attraction of God who lives in me! “God wants to use us to reflect Jesus on the spot, in the neighbourhood, on the street where we live. This is God’s purpose for our lives: to reflect Jesus in a world that is lost! We must dare to ask ourselves whether our fear of the world is sometimes greater than our love for Christ and for our fellow man. We are not of this world, but like Jesus, we live in this world and are called to be salt and light.”
Do you have questions for us, or comments? We write this section with you! So your input is very important!
Integration ???
ralph@vianova.be
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| NEWS IN BRIEF
Samuël M.
Manasse D.
INTERNSHIP AND CORONA Samuel (20) & Manasse (22) are two ETF students who have been doing internships with VIANOVA for several weeks. Samuel’s duties largely consist of supporting Hannut’s community and integrating into society. Manasse supports the new VIANOVA project in Sint-Truiden and assists in the general operation of VIANOVA as an organization. Because of the corona measures, their internship took a strange turn and our interns are now unable to perform many tasks. “It is a pity that our internship is progressing in this way, but the corona time also offers many opportunities. Everything is a lot quieter, we have extra
The monthly children’s clubs have been cancelled until the end of June, but the work in La Courte Echelle (‘Boost’) continues. During the lockdown, the team took the time to review all of the files and even update one to a more contemporary style. Since there is a good
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time to reflect, and we are encouraged to start new initiatives. Together with Samuel and another friend, we started a virtual prayer group. We come together every working day to pray,” said Manasse. Samuel took the initiative to integrate into his own environment. He wrote letters and cards to the neighbors and asked them if he could help with anything. “I really enjoy thinking about how I can be useful today and what new initiatives could be an added value to others,” said Samuel. Samuel created the virtual VIANOVA coffee moment. Together with all VIANOVA workers, we now meet weekly and have a nice chat.
chance that we will not be able to get started this summer in July, we hope that we can offer our beautiful adventures to the children in the month of August; we will find a way. Pray that the cancellations will not affect relationships with the children and their families.
xpr ss
Due to the COVID19 pandemic, Expressé was closed but will finally reopen on 10 June. We’ve been praying for all relationships that we had established. We’ve kept in touch with some customers and have made new contacts in other ways during the lockdown, but we especially want to find all our customers, because they
are very precious to us. Please pray that God will give us an extra full-time worker and a few more volunteers. And please do not hesitate to support Expressé financially, because with your donations, we can pay off the mortgage.
PIETERJAN & FEBE Pieterjan & Febe B. have longed to start a Christian community for several years. “When VIANOVA came out with its new vision, we noticed that this vision was very similar to ours. Because we think it is important to be part of a team, we then contacted VIANOVA. After a few exchanges, we decided to work together,” say Pieterjan & Febe. Pieterjan & Febe have been new VIANOVA workers officially since the beginning of May.
that everything will be over soon so that we can get to know our city and its people better,” say Pieterjan & Febe.
The young couple moved from Brussels to Tielt last summer for a special reason: “After studying the ecclesiastical map of Flanders, we noticed that there are ‘empty spots’ in certain regions. Because Tielt is in the middle of one of these ‘empty spots’, it seemed the ideal place to live and start a Christian community.” Febe works in the personnel department of the city of Tielt, and Pieterjan is a PEGO teacher in secondary education. “There are some Christians living in Tielt, but because of the COVID-19 situation we had to cancel our first meeting. Since we do not yet know these people, it is very difficult to build our relationship online. We hope
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Return to normal life When can we return to normal life? That’s the million-dollar question of this progressive deconfinement. Some even argue that there will never be a normal life like there was before. In any case, there will be a before and an after of this first confinement of our modern history. This pandemic has caused such stress, suffering and death. Never has a virus impacted so much of the population, not in our memory. The confinement imposed by our governments has assured that we all feel we are directly concerned. All of our lives have been shaken up in a parallel world, less noisy, less cluttered, less movement, less polluted, less monopolised by our consumerist obsessions, where you must eat what you cook yourself, where time seems to have lengthened and space shrunk, where the agenda got lighter and the calendar for the coming weeks is still pending. And then, the solitude... harder for those isolated, weighing on those who must endure a social life restricted to their own family cluster. And the frenzy for those who must juggle between their overexcited children, household duties and telecommuting. All of a sudden, normal life came to a halt for a microscopic virus. The Bible tells us the story of a confined man, more so than we. He had thrown himself into the pursuit of his desires, focused on himself, his right to take care of himself, for himself, and not others, above all those that didn’t merit it. Suddenly, God turned the world around him upside down, and he found himself confined to an extremely tight space, in the belly of a “big fish”. The agenda clearly reduced and any scheduling on the calendar pending. How to react? Grumbling because the government (or God) could have foreseen it, letting his mind (for lack of space for his legs) run wild and make hypothetical plans for a return to normal, keeping his head busy and noisy… or being quiet and thinking? And then returning to the essential, taking time with God, taking stock and humbling oneself, getting priorities
right. “I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you...But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay.” 1 Yet another one, confined with pigs after rushing through life in his selfish passions. For him also, the same choice: cling to one’s rights to take care of oneself or seize the divine opportunity to be humble before God, to repent and to review priorities? “But when he came to himself, he said to himself, ... I will go to my father and say, ‘Father, I have sinned.’ And he arose and came to his father.” 2 What are we going to make of this confinement? Welcome it as a divine opportunity or reject it? Are we going to rebel against the authorities and their illogical rules that don’t respect our rights, and continue to feed our hunger for consuming, for streaming, for online purchasing, for drive-through, or for rushing to the first stores that open their doors? Or are we going to seize the opportunity to make a point of humbling ourselves and reviewing our priorities? Can we envision another normality of life, building on the momentum of this wonderful outpouring of solidarity that has developed, towards others, for others, even those that don’t merit it? Are we going to relearn to cherish each personal relationship by caring for them and devoting more time and love to them? Am I going to leave place for God in my new normal, to hear His voice? Am I going to humbly review my priorities, for Him and for others? And at church, are we going to rush back into our programmes and activities, or search for a new normal? God wants to speak to us, to reorient our lives towards Him and towards others, in the family of God and towards the weakest among us. Let’s remember Him who allowed Himself to be confined for us in death in order to liberate us from slavery to our passions and our selfishness. He who ‘deconfines’ us with Himself outside of the tomb, allowing us to live a new normal with Him, for Him and for others. So, ready for a return to normal life?
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Eric Zander
Jonah 2:7,9- 2 Luke 15:17-20
EDITH
Lockdown and Motherhood Amplified
Eunice Parodi PR-worker VIANOVA
I have not joined a group of volunteers in my town, I have not run errands for my elderly neighbours, I have not sewn masks in succession. I have not watched online worship services, I have not read any Christian spiritual growth books, I have not taken a theology course by distance learning. In one sense, I have prayed a lot… for my character flaws and for God’s guidance in this new normal. I have taken over the schooling of three children from ages 3 to 7 years, all the while keeping one eye on our 18-month old in full discovery mode of his growing mobility. I have been a music teacher, a physical education coach, an organiser of treasure hunts. My husband and I have taken turns in order to differ our approaches to things. The kids have made so many crafts that I don’t know where to put them anymore. We have written to our family members, to some of the mothers at school, to the team of teachers; we’ve sent texts, emails and even regular letters through the post! There are good days and bad. Those where together we have planted flowers and built playhouses, and those where I wish we had a larger yard for all our children, or at least a lawn that wasn’t so beat up. Those where I get a load of work done, and those, more often, where I don’t succeed at being productive during my afternoons of telecommuting, and where I blame myself, and those around me. The times where the simple fact of playing or listening to music gives me the impression of having risen above everything, and the days where my emotions go up and down like a yo-yo. I have cried, I have laughed, I have screamed, I have shared a complicit glance, I have punished, I have cuddled, I have shut myself in a deep silence. My Bible was always close at hand, the virtual meetings with our community almost daily. During this time of sharing and praying, my mind was sometimes elsewhere or just blank. But this also is community, being surrounded by brothers and sisters that want our good, even when we stay quiet. With the girls of my 3D group we have grown spiritually, even when, for my part, I have the impression that I never find emotional stability. At this moment, nobody can predict the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on our society. What I do know, however, is that it has precipitated in me a process of character transformation that I had been putting off for several months. I want to believe in the promises of God the Creator, the one who knows our condition. Not only will he give me what I need in this long process of change, but he will add even more in order that I would become a person who can do good around me (2 Corinthians 9:8).
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| VIANOVA STORE
Het Goede Boek / Le Bon Livre becomes
VIANOVA Store About a year ago, the Belgian Evangelical Mission (BEM) came out with a new name and a new vision. VIANOVA was launched on May 11, 2019. It was an eventful year in which the BEM / VIANOVA celebrated its 100th anniversary and also moved its headquarters from Schaerbeek to Zaventem. We also considered whether our literature ministry still fit within the new vision, and what adjustments should be made so that our stores could continue to operate as part of VIANOVA. One of the changes is a merger between Het Goede Boek & Le Bon Livre; together they’ve become VIANOVA Store! The VIANOVA Store has a new vision that dovetails with the vision of VIANOVA. VIANOVA Store wants to create places in the country where Christians from all over the country can meet and encourage one another and can develop as disciples of Jesus. Of course there will still be books and other materials for sale. VIANOVA store will also go to places where Christians gather in order to offer materials, and to strengthen relationships with existing churches and organizations. VIANOVA Store wants to serve all churches and believers with the main goal of promoting unity among Christians. If you are organizing an event, do not hesitate to invite us! What will happen to the current stores? A lot will change in the short term for the physical stores. For example, we are looking for a building in the Brussels region, in which Le Bon Livre Brussels and Het Goede Boek Leuven will be merged into a multilingual VIANOVA Store. This VIANOVA Store will become the central store where live music, workshops and other events will sometimes take place. The central store should become a place where families like to be. A new webshop and distribution centre will be run from here. For
this we are looking for a property that is easily accessible by public transport as well as by car. In addition to our central store, we also want regional expressions that share the same vision. We currently have regional stores in Liège, Kortrijk and Genk. Since May 18, these are temporarily open two to three days a week so that we can focus on the move and the start-up of the new central store and webshop. Every current worker of the literature ministry is part of the new central team. We could use many extra co-workers to achieve this vision. If you are interested, please contact us! A number of things are not yet completely clear, but we’ll keep you updated. On what days are the VIANOVA Stores currently open? Genk & Liège: Tuesday, Wednesday & Saturday Kortrijk & Brussels: Thursday, Friday and Saturday For the time being, you can still contact the stores via the old email addresses to place an order. Of course you can also still order via www.hetgoedeboek.be. How can you help? • Pray for God to open doors to turn our vision into reality. • Pray that we can find suitable premises for our central store. • Pray for volunteers and team members. • Help us find a suitable property! • Become a volunteer or team member of the VIANOVA Store!
Do you have any questions? contact@vianova.store
INTERVIEW | >
Annette
Henk
Renate
Geneviève
LOCKED DOWN, BUT NOT INACTIVE Since May 4, 2020, Belgium has entered a slow phase of deconfinement after seven weeks of being constrained at home. On the internet, we have seen all sorts of initiatives, but what of the VIANOVA workers? The stories vary according to the ages and the circumstance of each family. In and of themselves, a perfect reflection of what the COVID-19 crisis could have looked like from the outside. Active Reading: As you are reading these stories, can you see to what degree they reflect the four key values of VIANOVA?
ANNETTE Stuck in the house, we set apart two rooms specifically for work: an office for Peter, and a sewing room for me. I’m sewing masks one after the other, at first for a home health business, and then for our friends and colleagues. As I am registered as a reserve nurse, I was called at the beginning of May to serve as an auxiliary volunteer at a local rest home. I have good contact with new colleagues and the residents, and I pray that each day they would see the work of God in my efforts to serve.
HENK Everyone is confined to their homes, but the life of the church goes on by telephone, email and video conferences. During a spiritual retreat at distance, I took to heart an instruction to walk my neighbourhood between 3 o’clock and 4 o’clock in the morning and pray for the residents. What a memorable experience! It’s remarkable how this COVID-19 crisis has brought us closer to our neighbours: exchanging a friendly word; taking time to listen; offering a bouquet of flowers; sharing and understanding better what is behind a sad look. Pray that God will use us to carry his blessing to the lives of those around us. RENATE These last weeks, keeping a sense of community with other Christians has been no small effort. I take time each day to call somebody on the telephone. Especially now, these phone calls are appreciated. In fact, it’s even the perfect chance to engage in a long conversation, which is not always the case after normal activities. What a great discovery! GENEVIÈVE I was thinking that I would have time to rest, but it’s exactly the opposite! I’m running all the errands for my mother and two regular customers of the café. I’m sewing masks and protective gowns for a local rest home. Overnight, my personalised masks made a big splash, so much so
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< | INTERVIEW
Hilde
Jochem & Febe
that old acquaintances found me on social media. Upon hearing about our café Expressé, they promised to come and visit once we are able to reopen. I’m also participating in a Facebook group for Bible journaling. These creative moments are very encouraging to me, and it seems that the illustrations I post are helping several others. HILDE Can you believe it! Just when I moved to the other side of the country and was just starting to figure out how to integrate into my new socio-cultural context, the coronavirus stops me in my tracks. During the confinement, however, I use my daily walks and bike rides to pray for my new city. I offer help to my neighbours, and I registered on a volunteer site. This is how I ended up putting on my old teacher’s hat by taking responsibility via Skype for the school follow-up of the five children of a Syrian family. Little by little, they take an increasingly important place in my heart. God always works in his own way. JOCHEM & FEBE During the confinement, the bookstore is closed. We are enjoying the sun, getting extra family time and launching those tasks that are impossible to take care of when the bookstore is open. We’re carrying on a huge Spring cleaning (retail space, garage and attic) and organising the stock. Jochem continues taking care of the paperwork, fulfilling orders and staying in constant communication with his fellow booksellers.
Eunice Parodi
Jona & Sara
Teo & Elly
JONA & SARA At the beginning of the confinement, in order to keep engaged with our neighbours, we put a postcard with our contact information on it in everyone’s mailbox, and we offered any help we could give on our neighborhood Facebook group. We have the chance to help some people in need, and by going out to clap for the front line personnel at 8 o’clock every evening, we get to see and exchange a kind word with those around us. This period also gives us more time with our children, helping them keep up with school, having family time and journeying together in our walk with Christ. TEO & ELLY Funny story! We sold our house in order to live closer to the members of our community when the confinement started one week later. But the life of the church continues. Someone proposed filming the preaching and the Sunday school teachers have prepared some things for the children, so it’s the beginning of a video series of encouragement for all and that deepens our fellowship ties. We make short visits by bike, respecting social distancing—we stay on this side of the fence while our friends stay in their doorway or garden. We are journeying together, linked together by the Word, carrying each other’s burdens in prayer and living out the image of Jesus. SYLVAIN & DÉBORAH During the confinement, we are participating in services and in times of praying and sharing that our community has set up on a videoconferencing platform. We are able to support one another in our spiritual growth, and to serve one another, like
Luc
Sylvain & Déborah
Anne
helping our oldest members to stay connected. As a couple, we are moving ahead in our personal journey: reading; listening to conferences; reviewing our Scripture memory; praying for the world, for our neighbours, for our friends. We offer help where we can in our village and Déborah has started sewing masks, first for our friends and then on a larger scale in response to a call from the town hall for volunteers. ANNE Confinement, or the chance to slow down, to rest, to take care of things around the house, to take more time with God. I’ve brought out my sewing machine to make masks for family and friends and for the city of Gembloux. With Déborah’s help and that of Crac (our bird puppet), we set up a time every Wednesday afternoon with children of the church for 30 minutes of discussion, Bible stories and songs. To our regular group of children for Sunday school are added two girls from our kid’s club. What a great encouragement to be able to continue journeying with these children even though everyone must stay home! WILLIAM & LYSSA Our community meets two times a week on a live, interactive video platform and we translate the teaching into Dutch and make it available for everyone on the Internet. Also via video, we are enlarging our networks of contacts with French-speaking pastors, a bonus for us as we had only lived in Flanders until now and just recently started our ministry as booksellers reaching into Wallonia. Lyssa participated in the distribution of masks in our city, which allowed her discussions
Willian & Lyssa
Sarah
with the organisers of the project, with two apartment managers and with several neighbours. LUC Our community is getting together twice a week online for meetings, which we make as participative as possible, and we have created a WhatsApp group to help with exchanging prayer topics and encouragement. Our 3D groups continue to meet using various internet platforms. Our work with migrants continues; we help in part with purchasing basic needs for them. Every evening at 8 o’clock, we gather with three other families to applaud the personnel of the rest home just across from our home. At times, the residents are given permission to get out on their doorstep, and they thank us for the encouragement. SARAH Overnight, I found myself surrounded by the constant presence of my four children, and I had to manage their schooling. Suddenly, all my other ministries stopped, and I was left with a feeling of being less important. Questions spun around in my head: what will give me the feeling of having “accomplished” something? God chose this time to remind me of two truths. On the one hand, he considers me as his beloved daughter, whom he has chosen. He is not looking at my performance. And on the other hand, he calls me to obey him. Even if this obedience keeps me from “estimating” my value, even if nobody else realises what I am doing. If I practise the fruit of the Spirit in front of my children today, won’t that give him glory?
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A resource center for missions in our own country If you want to sell a product, you must have a good one; a poor product won’t sell. But you can also have a great product that doesn’t sell. This can be for several reasons: people don’t know your product, the way you try to sell your product doesn’t catch on, your product is known but it is considered old-fashioned, or maybe the instructions for use are so old that people can’t follow them. To sell your product, research needs to be done. What is the best way to tell your story today? What keeps people occupied today? What can the past teach us? What can I do with new ideas? What would happen if we had more time to share our ideas? Although we as VIANOVA set out on a clear path, we realise that we must constantly learn, research, experiment and innovate. We came to realise that we need a place where people come to learn, to research, to try new ideas, brainstorm, or just to quiet down and pray. That’s why we created a place in the VIANOVA Center where people can meet or where we can get quiet. In addition, we provide a conference room, with a capacity of approximately 75 people, where stories and lessons learned can be presented. We will build an exten-
sive library and provide a place for people to study. We hope to provide training that encourages people to step out effectively to be like Christ to those around them. We hope to creatively develop resources that people can purchase and use as a means to integrate better with people. Our main motivation? The best news all across the ages: Jesus who came to the world to open the way to the Father, who taught us how to live. We want to share this with the people around us, because it is just as relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago. What is your approach to sharing this news? When the COVID-19 measures allow, we will plan a date to officially open the resource center. More information will follow.
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