Pioneers could be portrayed as sheep from the front and shepherd from the back. They follow Jesus and take others in tow. The biggest challenge is finding the right people to whom you can pass on what you yourself have received. But God can provide in unexpected ways.
Ever since we moved to Rotterdam in 2017, we had been bothered by our neighbours. It wasn't so much the cannabis plantation to the left of our house - it was neatly cleared and then no one lived there for three years. It was the noise from the house on the other side. The champagne had not yet been uncorked on our first day in the backyard or this neighbour's music went on so loudly that we fled inside. And that went from bad to worse.
We learnt a lot, especially about ourselves. When you ring the doorbell at 3.30am and are told to just swallow the noise, there are feelings you didn't know about before. But we also discovered how God's Spirit can change you. He used Edwin Markham's poem:
He drew a circle that shut me out -
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle and took him in!
Still, we were glad he left with his family. In the middle of the night, we saw his bed lowered on a rope. 'Where are you going neighbour,' we asked. His answer sounded like music, beautiful music, to our ears: 'We are moving.'
A day after, we called the owner of the property. 'A Turkish proverb goes,' he told us, 'it's better to buy a neighbour than a house.' And so it happened that we posted a Facebook message, got the key to the property and showed the first prospective buyer around.
How extraordinary things can run! This young man turned out to be a theology student with a desire to found a congregation, possibly combined with working in an espresso bar. Exactly what we plan to do with the BLEND Bloemhof foundation.
So another piece of the dream God gave us is coming true. Earlier, we were at the forefront of pioneering ourselves; that's how ICF Veenendaal came into being. Now we can set to work again, but to pass on what we learned earlier. From the front a sheep, from the back a shepherd. Who will follow?
Carolien and Hans Euser
network leaders Intercultural Church Plants (ICP)
