Beginnings

When we arrived in Bruxelles, it was exciting to find that there was a small group of 5 to 10 students already gathering to fellowship and seek God! We launched our school year in September with a party called “TDélivré”! A great bunch of students came over to eat, dance and play games. I wish you could have seen Birger the Norwegian attempting the Cupid Shuffle. :-) One student told me afterwards, “Thank you for having this party. This is the most fun I have had in 5 years.”




Since September, we have seen 15- 20 students, most of them new believers, coming on Thursday nights to hear the word of God, pray, and have fun. These students have come from all over the world--literally from the Caribbean to China--since Brussels is an incredibly diverse city. God is building a community of believers who will honor him among the campuses in this city.

In October, we felt that it would strengthen our group to have a retreat, so we went away for a weekend to a nearby city. There was no guest speaker, we simply studied the Scriptures about the Holy Spirit, discussed them in small groups, and prayed. Oh, and we played a little basketball too. On one of the nights, we stayed in prayer for 2 1/2 hours just seeking Jesus. Afterwards, one member told of having a vision of Christ, and several others had also received a deeper experience of Jesus by the Holy Spirit. It was truly one of the best retreats I have ever attended.



“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer...They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” This is our goal--to see these verses come to pass among us. Although everything is so new and we are still learning our way, we are excited about what God is beginning already!

24h Velo
The 24h Velo is the largest student festival in Belgium. Over 20,000 students come to party all night. SFC was there with a tent to give away free crêpes, waffles, and soup, and share the Gospel.

Students could not believe that we would give things away for free. Crowds quickly gathered to get something to eat, but many stayed to converse about their lives and beliefs.






Et donc voila...
Armand is an SFC student who attends the Catholic University of Louvain medical school. At the start of the year, God put it on his heart to start a small group on his campus. He invited all of his friends, and our group “Et Donc Voila!” was born. Armand and I are the only Christians, the other students “don’t really believe” as one of them put it. Each week we discuss a topic such as “What is faith?”, “Is there a spiritual world?”, or “Is the Bible trustworthy?” Please pray for God to lead these students to him through these conversations.

Living and Learning
Since September, I (Amanda) have been attending French class twelve hours a week. It is a very humbling experience, but I’m starting to see little signs that one day (soon, hopefully) I’ll be able to really relate to students in French. Little milestones like understanding and answering a question from a fellow tram-rider are cause for celebration.




We have celebrated many of Aidan’s milestones in the past few months. Now almost 11 months old, he is crawling everywhere, babbling away and eating his fair share of food at the table. He is such a happy little boy, and he brings us so much joy.