Time in Europe

While most of my work is based in Dallas, Texas, I still travel fairly often to extend the work we are doing through planning and partnership with other organizations and churches. This past week I returned from a trip to a rather beautiful part of the world. A conference took place in the Netherlands that brought together a multitude of missions, primarily from Asia and Europe, with a focus on Scripture Engagement. This recognizes that the translation of the Bible is only the first part of a group of activities that include partnership with local churches, literacy and education, activities to promote the use of mother-tongue Scripture in churches and homes, and very often production of media products such as the Jesus Film, streaming audio of Scripture, phone apps, and more. While Bible translation provides a foundation, there are many other activities needed to allow the translated Word to excite the hearts of believers, to be heard through regular use in churches and homes, and to penetrate sometimes stubborn hearts or cultures. My purpose was to explore how our work on progress.Bible could be a part of this process and offer a collaborative foundation that encourages these different groups to plan together and form strategies that engage and impact the world with God’s Word and love.

This trip was not all work. I was able to arrange my travel so that on the way home I visited our daughter Michelle in Leuven, Belgium. She is in a graduate program in intercultural mediation, with a focus on the immigrant and refugee issues that are evident all around our world. Her first semester was hosted in Lille, France. This semester her studies are at the highly respected University of Leuven (Belgium) and  her next semester will be hosted in Mexico City. So while she is very busy in her studies and research, this trip allowed me to visit her for a long weekend. This was the beginning of Michelle’s spring break and offered perfect weather for us to explore Leuven and visit the medieval city of Ghent. On my flight home, my plane was landing at London Heathrow airport as our son Bryan was boarding his plane to Belgium. He was on his way to visit Michelle and together they traveled to Switzerland to visit the village of Nunningen, where half the population has the last name “Hanggi.”  It is fun when adult brothers and sisters still like to spend their vacations together.