This summer The Compass Church sent a team to serve alongside our partners in Brussels Belgium. Renee, one of the team leaders, writes her reflections on the trip in today’s post. You can read more about the work of some of our partners in Brussles here.

Summer mission trips don’t always go as planned. Our team prepared to spend two weeks in Brussels this summer, working with Serve the Church, a part of ReachGlobal. Dan and I have been a part of this mission trip for several years and we were looking forward to returning and introducing our team to a city and people we have grown to know and love. We had warned them that there would be a lot of walking and in Brussels you need to be prepared for a change in weather, so bring rain gear. The first full day of flier distribution, the project of inviting area residents to English, music, and cooking classes at a local ministry, dawned absolutely beautiful. We, along with two other teams from California and Iowa, took to the streets to stuff mailboxes. By the afternoon, the skies had darkened and it poured! And yes, those who forgot umbrellas and rain gear got soaked. But over 18,000 invitations went out and people were already calling that evening for more information. Even with inclement weather–a change from what we had planned, God used us to help meet a need for this ministry.

We planned to be involved with various projects around the city the following week: some projects required muscles (heavy bags of construction debris carried through the house, out the window, into the dumpster), some worked with kids (VBS in the park on rainy afternoons under a tent), some were cancelled or changed due to weather (rain again), some involved demolition and construction (think sledge hammers and power tools), some finished quickly and others were added (painting and landscaping). Each team member had a place to work where they could use their gifts and talents, but all projects required flexibility and a willingness to serve. Having been on the trip before, I had my idea of where I wanted to participate. Reconnecting with “C” and helping with her home for refugees was important to me.  What I didn’t plan on was having pneumonia. That really limited my involvement—especially since work at “C’s” house was demolishing the lower level to remodel it into her personal apartment. My role quickly changed and I helped with preparing and serving food for the team. My plans changed, but God still had a role for me—in fact, as my health required more rest, I was able to spend more time in prayer for all the teams and all the projects.

One of the highlights of the trip for our team was participating in worship with various congregations. Even though services were conducted in French, and Flemish with some translation into English, we were all worshiping the same God and were united by our faith in Christ. We didn’t always understand everything that was being said or sung, but we knew these people loved God and served Him faithfully.

In a culture with fewer than one percent identifying as a Bible believing Christian, it was a joy and privilege to come alongside Belgian believers to encourage them, to work with them, to help with projects that enable them to continue to minister to those who so desperately need the Lord. Maybe things didn’t always go as we planned, but it definitely went as God planned—and all for His Glory.