From the January-April 2012 Issue
TIME FOR A CHANGE!
Michael and Ariette Robinson
or should that be ‘A Blast from the Past?’
Some articles inform; others confuse; others still can be quite stirring, inspiring, or any number of adjectives in a good or bad sense. With this article, you might be wondering what the title is supposed to mean! Let me explain. ‘Time for a change’ refers to the fact that our circumstances have changed. Lord willing, by the time you read this article, we will have moved house and started a new ministry. The expression ‘a blast from the past’ was apparently first used by US DJs in the 1960s to introduce old records, but in our context we are using it to point out that we are moving to De Panne Evangelical Church, the church where Michael began his ministry with EMF back in 1995. We can’t yet tell you very much about our new ministry (for the simple reason that at the time of writing it hasn’t even started!), but we hope that this article will give you a tiny glimpse of the situation which awaits us in De Panne. First of all, however, let’s take a brief look back to our time in Eeklo.
14 YEARS IN EEKLO Michael spent 14 years in Eeklo working as pastor/evangelist at Eeklo Evangelical Church. Those were long years of struggle to try to restore and build up a church whose best days were long gone back in the 1980s. In the summer of 2010, we decided for various reasons that it was time to call it a day in Eeklo. Despite occasional visible blessings (we believe at least three people were converted and baptised during our time in Eeklo), the work simply never got off the ground. Our best efforts in prayer, fasting, and outreach had not resulted in the desired success and the Lord appeared to lead us to the conclusion that He might make better use of us elsewhere. And so, one chapter of our lives closed, although we still hope and pray for fruit in Eeklo from our labours long after we are gone.
NEWS TRAVELS FAST! Within just a few days of terminating our ministry in Eeklo, we were contacted by evangelical churches making enquiries about our availability. News certainly travels fast! One of those churches was De Panne Evangelical Church, a fellowship which had been looking for a pastor for at least a couple of years. Initially, we told them it would be better for them to look for someone else because, although we had terminated our ministry in Eeklo, we could not yet move house for another twelve months due to family reasons. However, nine months later, De Panne Evangelical Church was still without a pastor, further approaches were made, and discussions ensued. To cut a long story short, the church voted on 12 July 2011 to accept Michael as their new pastor.
DE PANNE EVANGELICAL CHURCH De Panne Evangelical Church is an independent evangelical church with about fifty members and belongs to the Federation of Independent Evangelical Churches in Belgium. The fellowship can trace its roots back to the 1930s when Bible studies were held in homes in the nearby village of Adinkerke. Two important milestones in the life of the fellowship were the appointment of its first pastor in 1959 and the erection of its own building one year later. More recently, the church has passed through some difficult periods and would value a period of some stability. Pastoral work will be an immediate priority, but obviously we must never neglect evangelistic outreach. Pray that the Lord would equip us for the challenges ahead. How we need His special presence!