Final Thoughts

I have been back in the States coming up on 72 hours and life seems to be slowly returning to a new "normal". I've been working through a de-breifing packet for people going through "re-entry stress", or reverse culture shock as it's known to some. I don't think I realized how much I loved Belgium, and Leuven specifically, until I came back. I was thinking and I came up with a few things that I will definitely miss:

• The food, especially the waffles, ice cream, and chocolates. It's a good thing we walked and rode our bikes a lot. I would have been in biiiiig trouble if we didn't.
• The weather, but let's be honest, there isn't a lot of weather that is as gross to live in as 100* and humid. When we were there, it was apparently unseasonably warm (hanging out just around 90*) and sunny. I think total there were only a few days where we experienced true Belgian weather of mid-70's and rain. I thought it was pretty close to perfect in terms of summertime weather.
• The people that I met, especially my dysfunctional track & field team family. We had some pretty amazing adventures and saw the Lord move in some pretty amazing ways. 
• Lion Bars. They get a bullet all of their own. They are that important.
• The city of Leuven. I can't tell you why I feel so drawn to it; maybe it's the speed of life, maybe because things seem to be done in a way that makes more sense to me, maybe it's the Holy Spirit, maybe I'm just a dreamer, but I would love to go back there and continue the work that was started. Long-term, short-term, I don't care. 

There were some things that really made me realize that I was not, in fact, in Texas anymore. Everything shuts down on Sunday. EVERYTHING. We didn't know this and walked over to the grocery store to buy supplies for dinner and we come to find that it is closed. I also won't miss the lack of paper towels, napkins, or garbage disposals. Cobble stone streets are fine, but not when you are dragging 65 pounds of luggage uphill. 

It was really a blessing to go to Belgium and serve Him. He taught me so much about myself, about another culture, about what we are fighting against. There is so much darkness and hurt in Europe because of what the "church" was like, what it did, and what it allowed. It breaks my heart to hear stories of the abuse, corruption, and everything else that isn't a relationship with our Father in Heaven; it hurts even more to now know people who have lived the stories for themselves. 

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.- Ephesians 6:12 (ESV)

I pray that should AIA do this trip again, I have the opportunity to join them. I don't know why I have such a heart for this specific ministry, but it is what the Lord has put on my heart. I have no idea what this means or what the future could look like. I do know that I will continue to work at Northwood, being a light in that environment until the Lord tells me to do something else.

The Beginning of the End

Things are beginning to slow down here. I think we are all starting to think about returning to life in the States, so the thought of having to say good-bye is starting to sink in. A couple of updates:


City Talk went in a totally different direction than what we had planned for. We had expected people to show up at 7:30, listen to our little presentation, and have a Q&A session. We had six people show up total, but they all trickled in after 8pm or so. They were believers and all non-Belgians. It was really cool to have an opportunity to really talk to people here who have lived in this culture and gain some insight into how to really effectively establish a relationship with people here. I hope that AIA can establish a connection with a local church here and not have this be a one-time thing.


Tomorrow we will be traveling to Amsterdam to see Corrie Ten Boom's house and see her life. She was a Christian living in Amsterdam during WWII and helped Jews travel safely house to house, avoiding the Nazis and getting them to safety. She was betrayed by a neighbor and was sent, along with her entire family, to a concentration camp. She survived the ordeal but the rest of her family did not. While there, she shared the Gospel with other women and saw many come to know Christ. 


I need to shower and go to bed. We have a very early morning and long day ahead.

Rach

City Talk

I always forget that y'all reading this back home are at least six hours behind me. Seven, for my central time friends. I hope that some of yáll read this before tomorrow (Tuesday) around lunch.

God has presented us with an amazing opportunity to publically share who we are tomorrow night at a city-sponsored coffee shop talk. When we were first presented with opportunity, we wanted to make sure that they knew exactly who we are and what we would be talking about. They were fine with it, so now we have thirty minutes tomorrow to get up on stage and share. How amazing!!

Prayer requests:

• That those presenting the skit would be able to communicate clearly and effectively across the language barrier that we will almost certainly come across.
• That the people listening to us would have open ears, open hearts, and open minds.
• That we would have the wisdom to answer any questions that come up during the Q&A session that will happen after the skit and any conversations that happen after it is over.
• That we remain confident and continue to rest in God, trusting Him that this will be used for His glory and for the advancement of His name in the nations.

We will be presenting from 730-800pm Leuven time. Prayers during this time specifically are desperately needed.

Rach

Having To Do My Job

Sadly, I have an injury to report. While now there is something for me to do that directly relates to the technical, on-paper reason as to why I was brought on as a member of this team, I don't like the fact that I have to use my skills. I can't give too many details (pesky HIPPA laws), but I ask your prayers for a left hamstring that is bothering one of the athletes. 

The good news is there is no drastic change in the way the soft tissue is feeling, no bruising, but the root of the issue is in the hamstring tendon, not so much the muscle belly. Tendons take longer to heal to begin with due to a decreased blood supply, and the only modalities we have access to here are massage, stretching, reusable ice packs, and hot/cold showers. No electric stim, no ultrasound, no whirlpools. 

European Sloppy Joes and Christianity

I'm sure that it won't come as a surprise that I have been put in charge of team meals for the rest of our time here in Leuven. Cooking for me on my budget is no problem, but when you factor in 15 trackletes (three of them being throwers and half of our team being guys), things get a little tricky. If I had lower standards, we would be eating pasta and meat sauce every night. Fortunately for my team, I answer to a higher power.

Meals have been pretty standard so far - spaghetti and meat sauce with salad and bread, pasta salad with chicken, but I was really wanting to feed the kids something of substance and a lot of protein. After three track meets in four days, glycogen levels are pretty low and protein is needed to start rebuilding damaged muscles. After much thinking and asking others for help, an idea was reached: Sloppy Joes.

For those of y'all reading who aren't familiar with the concept of Sloppy Joes, It's pretty straight forward: ground meat, sauce (bbq or a combo of various spices), diced veggies, and let simmer for 20-30 mins. But this is Belgium and they don't have the usual packets, sauces, or way of measuring ground beef. So, I got creative. With the help of Brad (the AIA staff member serving in Germany), we guesstimated the amount (in pounds) of ground beef that we had and then proceeded to stand in the sauce section, trying to decipher Flemmish ingredient lists and wondering how in the world we could make this work. Here is the recipe for Sloppy Joes - European Style:

• 3ish kg of ground beef. Don't ask me for a fat percentage because I have no idea.
• 2 red peppers, diced
• 3 onions, diced
• 1/2 bottle each of random Belgian "BBQ" and "Tomato" sauces
• 3 small boxes of tomato puree
• 3 packets "tomato spice seasoning"
• Brown meat and veggies in a pan
• Dump meat and veggies into a large pot. Add sauces and seasoning
• Simmer on low for 30ish minutes, partially covered
• Serve on hamburger buns

They turned out really, really well. I was pretty surprised, to be honest. But then again, you can't really screw up tomato sauce, ground beef, and veggies. So, with a stomach full of Sloppy Joes, we headed out to find our nightly ice cream/waffles. We were all a bit slap happy by the time we got back and bed was sounding pretty good when God had other plans for our night. 

Our hostel owner came up to a small group of us and said he had a question that he had been wanting to ask since we first arrived - what exactly is Athletes in Action and why in the world are we in Leuven? We explained who we were (a Christian sports ministry made up of fairly elite athletes who have come over here to compete on the European track circuit and build relationships with others that we meet) and that Leuven is pretty central to most of the meets that we had scheduled to compete in. He then admitted that he had googled us before we came and then he said he had another question - what is a ministry? That launched us into a two hour discussion about Christianity and about the religious culture here in Belgium, specifically in Leuven. We gained a lot of insight into the history of Christianity, specifically the Roman Catholic church. We heard some stories that make me incredibly sad for the people here. Stories of abuse and power struggles. That is how they see God. But that is not God - He is love, He is safe, and He wants us to come home to Him. The conversation also spread to the two leaders of the group of international engineers. It was a really healthy discussion and we left it with the ball in their court and they all said it is something that they would like to revisit at some point. 

Some other updates since the last time I blogged; we had a track meet for about half of the team on Tuesday that went alright. We weren't looking to set records since we are entered in Belgian National Championships this Sunday. Also, three members of our team have left to compete in other meets around Europe: Katie is in Rome, Matt is in Sweden, and Kaarel is in Estonia. Our team will be back to full strength on Sunday evening! 

Dinner last night was, according to my athletes, my finest work yet. The menu was chicken and veggie stir-fry with brown rice. Again, complete dumb luck when it came to the flavoring but it scored a level 4 out of a possible 3 levels. We were also treated to a tour of the older part of Leuven by Roel in which he introduced us to a new ice cream and waffle stand. 

Prayer requests:

• Safe travels for our three team members coming back to us this weekend
• Safe travels for the trip to and from Brussels this Sunday
• That our conversations we have had really take root and what we said did not fall on empty ears

Thank you again for your prayers and support!

Three Meets, Two Days, and One World Cup Final

Things are now officially a little hectic. In the past 48 hours, there have been three track meets that the team has gone to - one yesterday and two today. We also have another one coming up on Tuesday, but that one will be used more as warm-up to the Belgian National Championships that we are (most likely) competing in this coming weekend. 

Saturday's meet proved a little bit interesting to get to. We split the group in two so that the trackletes competing in the early part of the meet would have enough time to get there and check in while the rest of the team didn't have to sit at the track for three unnecessary hours. I went with the second (and also the majority of the) group. We had a 25 minute delay at the train station, but it ended up working out well for a couple of reasons; we were able to meet a guy named Morton from Denmark (who looks like Draco Malfoy); as well as meet a guy named Jeff who came up to us, introduced himself, said he goes to an Evangelical church in Ghent, and that he and his church are praying for Athletes in Action. That was one of the coolest things that I have ever experienced; completely out of nowhere and totally unexpected. The competition was definitely a lot tougher at this meet, and the 90+ degrees and high humidity didn't help. Notable finishes include one of our 400 meter guys running on the 4x400m USA relay team, our top female shot putter finishing 4th, and then a guy (not on our team) who ran the 800 meters in the second-fastest time ever. I think it was 1:41:52 and the fastest time is 1:41:11. I could be completely off on that, so don't quote me on it.

Sunday's meet proved to be a bit more tricky. We didn't realize that Europe shuts down on Sundays (rookie mistake, I know), so we weren't able to get real lunch foods for the athletes to have with them during the meet. Thankfully, we still have some peanut butter and Nutella to get us through the day. I went out to the early starting meet with our shot putter from Jamaica and one of our 400 meter runners while the other part of the team went to the later meet. Speaking of that group, as of now, they haven't made it back yet. That's one long day at the track. I will be completely honest - part of the appeal of going to the early meet was that the chances of getting back in time to watch the World Cup final were higher. And that's just what happened.

We made it back to Leuven about 645pm. We would have made it back sooner, but one of our new-found train friends (Ryan from Boston) was running and we wanted to give him a ride back to the train station and show him how to navigate Belgium's rail system. After throwing our gear in our rooms and changing clothes, we set off to try and score some tables at the part of town known as "Europe's longest pub" - 54 bars in a square. The place was packed. PACKED. We were finally able to find some seats at a restaurant that actually served food and not just beer. The game itself was kind of a let down, but I ended up being one for two in my game predictions (Spain beat The Netherlands 1-0. I said it would be Spain 2- 1 The Netherlands). I have gotten all three of the past games correct. If athletic training doesn't work out, I guess I can always go into the world of professional game predictions. 

Prayer requests!

• Prayers for safe travel and opportunities to talk to people at the meet this Tuesday.
• Prayers for all of those people whom we have come into contact with over the past few days.
• Prayers for the team - that we continue to grow and come together.

In Christ,

Rach

The Eagle Has Finally Landed

Praise the Lord! We have made it to our hostel in Leuven, which will be our home for the next 19 nights. I have about six days to talk about, so I will do my best to keep from rambling.

Our first meet went very well. We had three first-place finishes, a second-place, two third-place finishes, and no injuries. Our first place finishers all won orchids and Belgian chocolates. Needless to say, we are all getting our fill of Belgian chocolate. The meet went pretty quickly and we were able to make it to the train station to catch the last train from Oordgem to Brussels without a snag. When we arrived in Brussels, our group split into guys and girls because hostel rooms are so scarce. 

Getting to our hostel in Brussels was an experience. Now, I've never done the Special at Ultimate Training Camp, but I'm pretty sure that between our four days spent as track gypsies and the trip to the hostel itself, I have lived the european version of the Special. We arrived at about midnight to our hostel - after a 30 minute train ride and a 25 minute walk uphill, pulling rolling suitcases over cobblestones, and not having a decent meal in our stomachs since lunch before the meet began. After I pulled my luggage up four flights of narrow, twisty stairs, I crashed for the night. The breakfast at the hostel was one of the best I've had (second to the Moroccan BandB), so that made everything worth it. We had Sunday as a day to take and unwind. Some people went out to the "suburbs" of Brussels to watch the Tour de France, but since I don't think I will be back in Brussels any time soon, I spent the day with Jodi (our fearless leader) and roamed the streets of Brussels, taking in all of the tourist sites and having a grand time eating chocolate, ice cream, and watching The Tour on a big screen TV in the middle of The Grand Place. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.

Monday we met up with the guys again and traveled to Leuven, our home until July 24th. The town of Leuven is beautiful. It is a european college town - home to 40,000 students during the school year and then emptying out over the summer, save for some international students and the locals. Words cannot express how much I love it here. There are parks and bike lanes and I just love it. I can't even form actual sentences to describe it, I just do. The weather has been unseasonably warm (according to locals), but I think it's just about perfect - 85 to 90 degrees, breeze, no humidity, and some light cloud cover. Next week it is dropping to more "normal" weather of mid seventies and rain.

Our days are starting to settle into a routine - breakfast at 8, prayer time at 830, team meeting from 9-11, lunch around noon, practice from 3-530ish, and dinner around 630. This weekend we will have two meets so that means we may or may not be able to watch the Netherlands/Spain final. However, track meets seem to have bars here for the spectators so I am hoping that I will be able to catch at least some of the game when we don't have people out competing on the track.

Prayer requests:

• Our new friend Philip - We met him in Ghent and he is asking a lot of questions about what being a Christian looks like and what it means if his friends and family are not. Please pray that his heart continue to turn towards the Lord and that we have wisdom to answer the questions he brings us.
• Our new friend Kyrsten - She is a server at one of the restaurants here in Leuven where we like the frequent. She is a believer and is just passionate about life. We were able to watch the football/soccer match last night with her. Please pray that we continue to be able to hang out around her and be encouraged by her attitude and that maybe we can teach her some things about Christ in the process.
• For our team - That we can continue to grow as a team in unity, continuing to humble ourselves and serve one another. Please pray that we continue to have good attitudes when travels and situations are not what we are used to (i.e. - slower, less rushed, not American).

That's all for now. I will try to update more but I make no promises.

Rach

Update From Ghent

I have been in the country of Belgium for just over 24 hours and what a 24 hours it has been. We landed, found our stuff, and began the hour, via train and bus rides, journey to the outdoor track where we got in a light practice before heading to the hostel.The track is really nice; the ride to get to and from the hostel and track is not. It takes just over an hour and a half to catch a tram and bus. Add a 45 pound rolling duffle bag and a 15 pound kit with 85 degrees and no circulating air and you get one heck of a time. Everyone was able to maintain a pretty good attitude throughout the entire process and we did make it to the hostel as one team and no missing luggage.

Tomorrow we have our first meet. There will be over 900 athletes there from all over the globe. Today at the track we met an Irish team and a Japan team. Sadly, we were in a hurry to catch our bus so we could not stay to chat. Oh well; you know what they say: tomorrow, tomorrow, you are only a day away!!


Prayer requests:
:: Safe travels to our meet tomorrow and from the meet to our hostel in Brussels.
:: All the athletes stay healthy and injury free.
:: We make the most out of every opportunity to share the Gospel with those we meet.

Must run; my internet runs out in a few minutes. Once I get to Leuven on Monday, I will have some stories to share as well as better internet access;