by Roy Davison
FLANDERS, BELGIUM (WGN)- We work regularly with the congregation that meets at Burcht, Belgium, which is across the river from Antwerp. There is also a congregation at Deurne, which is a suburb on the other side of Antwerp.
The Antwerp metropolitan area has a population of 1.2 million.
The Burcht congregation has a regular attendance of about 14. We have non-Christian visitors most Sundays. Since the congregation consists of people from other countries, we conduct our services in English. The other congregation in the city worships in Dutch.
Gorgina Yankee, a daughter of one of the families in the congregation, was baptized the first part of the year.
From January to March we placed want-ads 12 times in 250,000 copies of an advertising paper in the area offering a Bible correspondence course. There were about 80 registrations. Ads were also placed on certain Internet sites. The cost of all these ads was about $600, which I paid personally so as not to burden the small congregation. The congregation pays the rent of its meeting place and all regular expenses.
In the Spring we invited brother Roel DeGruyter to start helping our congregation. He is a Dutch brother who attended the two-year course at the British Bible School in Corby, England. After his study there he did an internship of a few years with a congregation in Scotland. Roel is a capable young brother who speaks Dutch, English and German fluently. He is an effective preacher and Bible teacher.
The Burcht congregation contributes about $150 per month toward his support. He is also helping the Deurne congregation (the other congregation in the Antwerp area) this year while the missionary who usually works there is away to the States for a year.
The Burcht congregation meets on Sunday afternoons. Our Bible study is at 3 p.m. and worship is at 4 p.m. This enables me to preach at other places as a guest speaker on Sunday mornings.
Eindhoven, Holland
I teach the Bible class and preach at Eindhoven the second Sunday of each month. This is a congregation of about 50 that meets in a building they have purchased themselves. They do not have a full-time worker. Various men in the congregation help with teaching and preaching. I baptized the first couple in that area more than 25 years ago.
Eindhoven is a city in southern Holland, about an hour and a quarter drive north from where we live. The Eindhoven metropolitan area has a population of 750,000.
Brussels, Belgium
I preach for the English-language congregation in Brussels the forth Sunday of each month. This is a congregation of about 50 members made up mostly of people who are originally from other countries and who use English as their language of communication. (As is true with most large cities in the world, a significant percentage of the population originally came from some other country.) The Brussels metropolitan area has a population of 2.3 million.
Den Dolder, Holland
About once every two months I preach for the congregation at Den Dolder, Holland. This is about a two-and-a-half hour drive from where we live. This is a small congregation of about 10 members. It is in the Utrecht metropolitan area which has a population of 560,000.
Internet Evangelism
I publish about 20 web sites in various languages (English, Dutch, French, German and Russian). The one that gets the most traffic is The Old Paths Archive.
During the last year there has been an average of 958 visitors to the Archive each day. There has been a total of 349,670 visits to the site during the last year and 629,625 web pages were consulted. Many of those who consult the Archive are non-Christians and they are from many different countries throughout the world.
Thank you for your prayers and support.
Our work is only possible because of the faithful support of various brethren and congregations in the US, Canada and Europe. The Lord will bless you for your dedication to proclaiming the good news to all nations.
Your brother in Christ,
Roy Davison
2007-11-22 at 9:31 pm
Dear Bro Roy
Thanks so much for your update. I recall when Dale McAnulty was at Lil (sp), France. We visited him when my father in the gospel was stationed at Brussels and I was in Germany in the late 70s. We made our visit in the spring of 1979.
Dale told me that as the people became more prosperous after WWII, they became more agnostic and certainly less interested in eternity and as that offered by Jesus.
This is the reports we now get from Russia echo this same prosperity evil.
We hold your hands high for staying the course and edifying the faithful.
Keep the faith…. Run the race
Jim Mettenbrink