Compared to the churches in the Dutch ‘Bible Belt’, most evangelical churches in the South of The Netherlands are quite small. A missionary from the US came to the South of The Netherlands and after many years established two small congregations in two separate towns. He and his wife handed over the churches to local Dutch leadership and returned to the States. Cornerstone has had links with these churches and last Sunday we were invited to join the service and the meal afterwards.
Ten of us went along and it was great to see how students from the US, The Netherlands and an Australian student family were welcomed into a warm church community. The church enjoyed being taught how to sing ‘Bubbling Over’ by the Aussie kids and we all enjoyed worshiping together. Afterwards, we were spoiled with a lovely buffet meal, that will need weeks of typing away at my desk to compensate for the calories gained.
It may have been just been one Sunday out of many. But it was great how something so ‘ordinary’ can be such an encouragement to a small church and to international students who have just arrived in another country.
And having become a ‘Southerner’ ten years ago, I couldn’t help myself wondering how many of the large churches ‘up North’ would have managed if they heard two days beforehand that the people that need cooking for has just increased by 30%. Small can be beautiful too.
M.