(HQ-General Director) HQ Mission Journey Team's Visit to Belgium and Ireland
- by ubf hq
- Nov 07, 2025
- 571 reads
<Photo: Ministry in Belgium>
By Pastor Ron Ward
Our headquarters mission journey team (Ron and Dervilla, David and Joy) continued on from Paris to Brussels, Belgium. We found that though the nation appears small in size and population, it is the heart of Europe. Both the European Union and NATO headquarters are there. It is also an important city in history as it is very near the place where Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated at Waterloo. When many European cities were destroyed by bombing during World War II, Brussels was spared. It remains a city of historic buildings with a rich history. However, the spiritual lives of many people seem to be stagnant. In the ritualistic and habitual practice of Catholicism, there is a form of godliness, but people do not experience the power of Jesus’ cross and his glorious resurrection. We believe God’s heart aches for the people of this land to come back to him and practice vibrant Christian faith once again.
Into this city, the Lord sent Joshua and Sarah’s family more than 30 years ago. The Lord has upheld them as his faithful servants, overcoming many kinds of challenges and hardships. He has blessed their family with three wonderful sons: Joshua, Timothy and Paul. Joshua married Rebekah from Yonhee center in Korea, and they have a beautiful house church. This second generation family serves the Lord positively with the first generation. Timothy is a bright and insightful young man who follows Jesus as a creative artist. Paul has a learning disability, but he has a very tender heart and is a shepherd for his friend Arthur, who is growing with him and has led his parents to join the ministry.
While this precious house church welcomed and served our journey team with all their hearts, we prayerfully did our best to encourage them. David and Joy led a study of Isaiah 40 with Joshua and Sarah. It was a joyful time of fellowship and finding new strength in the Lord. Finally, they felt that they were soaring on wings like eagles. Dervilla and I served the next generation leaders with a study of Galatians that was focused on strengthening gospel faith and walking by the Spirit. I also shared my life testimony with them and they asked some deep and engaging questions that led to a robust discussion of how to grow in faith and bear much fruit.
While making our initial plans for the Western European journey, we intended to finish with the trip in Belgium. However, when missionary John of Ireland heard about our visit, he asked us to visit Ireland too. So we rearranged our itinerary and included a stop in Dublin, Ireland. John and Anna have been serving there faithfully for decades. They have become a stable senior missionary family. God has blessed them with a daughter, Joanne, who is in her third year at a university. A few years ago, they were joined by a younger missionary family, Matthew and Esther. As John and Anna overcame hardships to remain in the mission field, so also Matthew and Esther have overcome job problems and language problems to become self-supporting and rooted in Irish society. God blessed them recently with a beautiful baby boy Eden. These two families are learning to work together as a holy vessel, united in the love of Christ. They pray for the universities in Dublin: Trinity–a Protestant university, and U. College of Dublin–a Catholic university. They pray mostly for UCD, because students’ responses to Bible study are more genuine and promising. We could see that God has been faithfully raising this house church ministry with a great vision to bless many students to grow as Jesus’ disciples.
When we consider the nations and cities we visited in Western Europe, they have a reputation for being rather stagnant spiritually. There is a tendency to speak of the past spiritual glory of these nations. But our faithful God has been working steadily to preserve for himself a remnant. There is a basic foundation of Christian thought and values. As the Holy Spirit begins to blow again in this part of the world, we see a glorious vision of our Lord using Western Europe once again as a source of blessing. May He work mightily in these lands to save many souls, raise Jesus’ disciples, and send them out to all nations before our Lord Jesus comes again. Thank you for your prayers for our journey team and partnership in the gospel and in the great world mission purpose of our Lord Jesus.
