Visit a Missionary

One of the goals of our trip to Germany was to visit missionaries that we knew or knew of associated with the assemblies in North America.

Brother and sister H. have served the Lord faithfully for many years in various areas of Belgium. Travel from one country to another in the EU is quite easy and Gent , Belgium is only about four hours from Duesseldorf, Germany.

On Tues. May 29Th. we packed up early and headed for their place. they were expecting us by noon/dinner time. Our route took us through a corner of The Netherlands. At Venlo, Netherlands we planned to change to a different highway but some how missed our turn or took the wrong one so ended up having a tour of a residential area of the town. It was just the time of the morning when the students were going to school. There were many cyclists on the streets. We also discovered that the streets are not layed out on the grid method so continuing to make right turns does not bring you back to point of origin. Finally we found our way to the appropriate highway to take us on our journey to Belgium.

At a rest stop on the autobahn Helmut was studying a large map on the wall tyring to see how we should go through the city of Antwerpen, Belgium when a kind man told us (in German) to watch for certain signs and use the middle lane through the tunnel. We did what we were told and got through this large city without delays.

Mr. & Mrs. H. live in a village outside of Gent so with the map and their directions we tried to find their street. necessity required that we stop at a gas station so Helmut tried to call Mr. H. on the "Handy" (cell phone) - Helmut had enough time to tell Mr. H. the kind of gas station that we were at before the phone died. The attendant told us the street that we were looking for should be around the next corner. So we went that way. I was looking at street signs and discovered we just passed the one we wanted so Helmut stopped a backed up as we got to the corner a car was pulling out and it was Mr. H. who had come to look for us - he led us to the right house.

Our visit with them was very nice and informative as well a a great time of fellowship. We went out to eat at a buffet. We had a nice chance to visit with Mrs. H. and got better acquainted with her and she told us about some of the things she is involved in. (When the man always gives the report you don't always get to hear the woman's point of view of the Lord's work).

We headed back to Duesseldorf by about 3 in the afternoon. Somehow we got hopelessly lost in Antwerpen The rush hour traffic was in full swing - what a mess. We parked near a harbor and just watched a ship being loaded for a while. Finally we took a road going out of the city in the same general direction as the autobahn and made our way slowly from one small town to the next until we could finally get back on the autobahn. It was bedtime when we arrived back at Ursula's.