BELGIAN JEHOVAH WITNESS COUPLE SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCE OF A VISIT TO KENYA

Foreign Jehovah's Witnesses share the gospel in Africa

I have known Daan and Hilde, a married Belgian couple, for about seven years, serving Jehovah and helping many foreigners in Belgium, including Africans, for better integration, learning the language, knowing Jehovah, and being useful in society. 

I have invited them many times to my residence to share their profound knowledge of the Gospel with me. One of the burning desires of the Belgian couple is to visit Africa, learn how the people live, communicate, work, and also to share the gospel with them. 

Thus, a month ago, they left Belgium to Kenya with the intention to live with the people for about a year. In Kenya, Daan and Hilde are facing challenges, confronted with different customs and traditions. They share their interesting accounts of their daily activities in tropical Africa.

After my first talk in the Mtwapa East congregation, they told me that I need to watch out not to stretch my arms high up because of the ventilators, but still, I had all my fingers.” Daan shares his experience as a tall man in Kenya.

“We start to know our way in the village. Important to find our return visits. This is where the streets have no name. Tuesday, we met at 8.45 AM, at the mango tree for service. We had a nice morning, but after 5 hours, we were soaked."

“Feels like 44gr, but the small breeze makes it bearable. Love to do the laundry together in the African way on your wedding anniversary. This is a very nice example for a married couple, but I prefer my washing machine.”

“A common action in the field service, showing videos to those who are interested. Not only Caleb and Sophia, but also about the resurrection and what happens at the Kingdom Hall." 

"In the supermarket, at the department of paper and pencils, you can find Bibles for about 10 Euros, the same as wages for three days' work. King James Version.”

“After service, we sometimes take a jump in the water. If we are not too tired, it is not too hot, only 30gr but the humidity is 85-90 percent. Lots of talking and teaching in this weather can make us feel very tired." 

"I was too chicken to drive the motorbike. We always take ‘piki piki’ to move around, with two people on one bike, plus the driver, we are three in number. Quite a spectacle to see us in town.”

"A leaf fell from the tree in our garden. It is good that it happened during the night. Nothing better than a refreshing bath. We study with his mother and a sister. Makes me remember my infant days, love it." 

"People try to earn some money in many ways. This boy sells boiled eggs. He cuts them in half, adds some tomato, salt, and masala, and sells them for about 15 cents.” 

“We are happy to follow our dreams and share our experience with Jehovah in a foreign country, Kenya, a continent far from our home.”

Belgium diplomat thrown out of golf club for wife breastfeeding a baby

The Belgian couple and the baby

A Belgian diplomat says his family was bounced from a White Plains golf club and treated like terrorists, simply because his wife was breastfeeding at a table and he was carrying a black backpack. 


Tom Neijens, 36, and his wife, Roseline Remans, 34, stopped by the Metropolis Country Club on June 8 and asked if they could
 
Have lunch even though they weren't members.

Staffers gave the Harlem family permission to dine on the terrace, where Remans said she discreetly bared her bosom to feed her daughter, Luka. A female manager swiftly intervened to nip the feeding in the bud.

She said, ‘Please leave immediately, you are disturbing the members,’ ” Neijens, first secretary of the Belgium Mission to the UN, told The Post. Neijens said it would only take a few minutes, but Remans was told to finish in the restroom.

“You don’t ask a person to have lunch in the restroom — why would you ask a baby to have lunch there?” Neijens said.

Minutes later, the Greenburgh Police Department arrived. Detective Scott Harding allegedly yelled, “Close the doors!” and two other diners were told to leave the terrace.

“He was walking as if he were acting in a Western movie,” Neijens said. “He had one hand on his gun, one hand on his Taser.”

Neijens said the officer warned the couple they were trespassing and said some people at the club thought they were terrorists because of their black backpacks.

When Remans, on the verge of tears, questioned why terrorists would breastfeed at a ritzy club, the cop allegedly replied, “In Sri Lanka, babies are used by terrorists.”

Harding changed his tone when Neijens revealed his State Department-issued ID. “You have to understand, this club has had terrorism threats in the past,” the cop said. The family was escorted out through a back door.

Days later, the diplomat sent an e-mail demanding an apology from Metropolis general manager Tracy Fraus and assistant general manager Audra Vaccari.

“I am deeply worried about your staff if they cannot distinguish between a European couple looking for a quiet place to breast-feed a baby and suicide terrorists carrying a backpack,” Neijens wrote.

Fraus declined to comment.

Neijens and his family are moving to Ethiopia in the next few weeks.

Lt. B.J. Ryan, a spokesman for the Greenburgh PD, called the incident a “cultural misunderstanding” — and said it was Neijens who fumed, “You must think the baby is a terrorist.”

Culled from The New York Post, July 7/2013