Hoensbroek, The Netherlands
Stand Firm and Keep on Going…
“I am glad.” “I feel blessed.” “I can share my prayer concerns and blessings in this group.” “I learn a lot and wanting more to know God’s Word.” These are just some of the many encouraging words we hear from our weekly women’s Bible study at Emmanuel Baptist Church, Hoensbroek, The Netherlands. How good it is indeed to know that we all can find comfort, joy, and peace in God’s Word.
We are thankful and grateful that in spite of the pandemic God provides us all the means and ways to be able to continue to meet and study His Word. Social distancing and various restrictions because of pandemic did not stop us but rather helps us to keep on going.
For more than 10 years, God has and is always faithful to continue and bring women to be part of this group. Women come and go for various reasons: some need to move because of job assignments, some need to be back to their country of origin, and some for various reasons.
In September last year, we started a new session using the study “Return to Jerusalem” (From Genesis to Major Prophets and Minor Prophets), one of the many Bible studies offered by Community Bible Study (CBS-Europe). Ana Lubascher, an EBC member who also works with CBS, hosts our study group via Zoom. We have 13 women in our group who join us (from different parts of the world-Bahrain, Hawaii, Germany, Belgium, and The Netherlands), and we meet every Tuesday morning.
It is challenging to most of the young mothers in our group to be able to attend every week, knowing that they have children at home to tend to and help with their home studies. Yet with God’s help and their willingness to know more of God’s Word, they manage to be present week after week.
We are halfway through our Bible study, and we have learned that it is so important to stand firm and continue going on what God has planned for us. Pandemic or no pandemic — we need to strive to keep on going; studying His Word and applying it in our everyday lives; sharing it with our families, friends, and neighbors; and continuing to live in God’s plan, in His way, and in His truth.
Hopefully we will be finished with our study by June, and God willing, we can then start another study and continue in its present format (using Zoom) to be able to include women from other countries who want to join us.
Menchie Bolk