Kyle Goen Blog

Thank you to all who were part of the Spirit Night at Chick-fil-a in Murfreesboro last night. The boys, Evan and Peyton, were so encouraged by your support and friendship. There was a great sense of community in the store as we laughed and had a good time with friends.

Many thanks go to Chick-fil-a Murfreesboro, Cortney Bartemus, LifePoint Church and Providence Christian Academy for making the evening a success and a fun time.

Evan and Peyton will make sure that you get to see pictures and hear about their experiences in Belgium when they return following Spring Break.

Tonight my sons are hosting a fundraiser for their mission trip to Brussels, Belgium at Chick-fi-la in Murfreesboro, TN. Everything begins at 5 pm this evening and wraps up at 8 pm. If you are able to come out and take part we would love it. You will see lots of your friends and have some great food.

Chick-fil-a allows non-profit organizations and individuals who are attempting to raise money for mission trips have a fundraiser in their stores. These events are called Spirit Nights and I am so thankful for the vision of Mr. Cathy for allowing these to take place.

We hope to see you tonight at Belgium Mission Spirit Night 5pm – 8 pm @ Chick-fil-a in Murfreesboro. 15% of the total ticket goes toward their project.

Please pray for the families affected by the commuter train crash in Brussels this week.

Team Belgium has started group French lessons each week. We are having a great time attempting to learn a new language since French is a vital part of our church planting process. I have to laugh sometimes thinking about a transplanted Texan living in Middle Tennessee trying to learn a European language. One of my ministry partners once said that I could “butcher the King’s English.”  He was probably right as evidenced by my blog post. But, it is so important that our team learn to speak the language of the people we are trying to reach and influence. Pray for us as we gather each week, laugh at each other and ourselves, as we learn to speak French with a southern accent and grow closer as a team for His glory.

Over the past several weeks as we have prepared for the impending sale of our house and the move to an apartment we have given, sold, and thrown many things away.  It has been amazingly freeing to get rid of “stuff.”  The “stuff” we have moved out of the house hasn’t been bad, worn out or broken….just extra.  Why do we have four pots and three pans when we always use the same one?  That example doesn’t take into account the other cooking implements we have in the cabinets.  The “stuff” we have had in closets  and the attic for years that we never used and really had forgotten about had to be dealt with before we moved to an apartment.  I was amazed at the amount of clothes that I had in my closet that I didn’t wear and really didn’t like.  Someone else could utilize these and probably needs clothes that I am hoarding or holding onto “just in case” I decide I need them.  Well, purging started and continued for several weeks and honestly it felt good.  Freeing is the only word I can really use to describe how it feels to “lighten” the load.  Amy has called this “taking off another layer.”  I think that phrase adequately describes the process we have been walking through in preparation for our move to Belgium.

I am so thankful that God has given us time to walk through this process over a period of time.  I cannot imagine what it would be like to “take off the layers” all at once as some have had to do before.  This past week we took off “another layer.”  Our house sold and we moved into the apartment finally.  God has given us a wonderful place to live.  We are very thankful God answered our family’s prayer to sell our house quickly so we could transition to an apartment and learn that lifestyle again before moving to Belgium.  It has been around thirteen years since we last lived in an apartment and we wanted to make that transition while we were still in a familiar culture, not while going through culture shock in another land.  We said goodbye to our house of seven and one-half years and around 2000 sq. ft. and began life in a multi-family housing development and a 1300 sq. ft. apartment.

All the “layers” that we had shed over the past several months had been well worth it. I am so thankful that God has given us this opportunity. But, we have learned we still need to take off several more “layers.”  We didn’t fully realize the size of our refrigerator in our  former house, the size of our food pantry, the amount of cabinets we had or the lack of closets, drawers and storage in an apartment.  I think our “stuff” multiplied during those years of attic and closet living in our old house.

God help us to not hold onto “stuff” and show us the “layers” that have built up over the years.

This past week our family had an opportunity to visit with some dear friends in Florida.  Amy and I moved to Dade City, Florida in July of 1993. We had been married around two years and First Baptist Church of Dade City called me to be the Student Pastor of the church. We did not know anyone in the church or the area when we moved to Florida. It was a new experience in faith for us as a young married couple. That was sixteen (16) years ago and three children have been born since then into our family. We had four wonderful years there.

It is amazing how there are some relationships you just step back into after many years of being out of contact and feel like nothing has ever changed. We have been blessed with those types of relationships and friends through out our ministry. On this particular trip we spent time with Bill and Beverley Hild, the former pastor I served with in Dade City, for a few days. He is now the Sr. Pastor of FBC Sarasota, FL.

I had the privilege of meeting and talking with the staff team at FBC Sarasota about how God is moving at LifePoint Church and about our exciting journey as a family. I am thankful for the opportunity to give a word of testimony about the glory of God and the power of His call.

Thanks Bill and Beverly for investing into Amy and me all those years ago and for all you are doing today to minister to our family today.

More Florida stuff later.

My daughter took these on a recent journey to Belgium. These were taken at the Grand Place (Fr) or Grote Markt (Fl).

People were gathering in the square in front of the above build to watch the light show reflecting on the building.

More new pictures are uploaded to my Flickr site.

Sometimes pictures say more than words could express.

The Church of St. Nicolas sit on the corner of a plaza in Brussels. The back side of the building where this picture was taken is now filled with shops, pubs and sidewalk cafes attached to the church building. Upon entering the building we found it empty except for the few people who were looking at the extravagant art that was displayed.

St. Micheal’s Cathedral is a huge structure built in the 13th century. Today it is mostly a tourist attraction with art displays. It does hold prominent funerals and a small mass.

The congregation is mostly non-existent, similar to this picture.

An elaborate pulpit area that has no life or authority in the lives of people.

We had the opportunist to visit one of the very first evangelical churches in Belgium built in traditional western American style design. A small contingent of people were practicing music for the 50 or so people who will so up on Sunday. The auditorium holds probably 400-500 with the balcony.

Pray that we will be able to help people move past a building to a community of believers. We will seek to disciple young believers in Biblical community and relational evangelism. We desire to model a faith that is alive and vibrant and walks with God and other believers in a way that is inviting to a lost world.

Alos, pray for the beleivers who are in Belgium today seeking to be the salt and light of God. May we be a breath of fresh air to their spirit and may we learn from them how to persevere in the face what is a seemingly dry and parched land.They, the M’s, are in need of co-laborers who will plow, pick rocks, weed, water and live faithfully.

Remember there are no God forsaken lands, just church forsaken lands. Therefore we must go.

Jordan praying over the city from a lookout spot. Prayer will be the energy to move us and sustain our team.

Dan and Elizabeth as we traveled by train to scout out our “Judea and Samaria.” We are planting a church that will have in it’s DNA sending, multiplying and reproducing from the beginning just as our sending church has in it’s core.

Students and young adults gathering to find friendship and community. We will spend a lot of time in open spaces like this meeting and engaging people.

We heard from several people how lonely they were and how they are looking for relationships were they felt they could open up and share.

Gathering as a team to pray, encourage, and plan strategic outreach with other M’s.

I will try and post a few other pictures in the coming days.

We have had another incredible day of learning and letting the Lord refine the vision for what He wants us to do and be in Belgium, with Bruxelles (French spelling) as the beginning point.

We had breakfast with a new Bruxelles buddy, Nolan. He works with an organization named Master’s Commission. It is a discipling ministry in Europe that is affiliated with the Assembly of God. Nolan gave a good picture of what he is seeing in Bruxelles. He gave us a pretty good description of the areas of town and the lowdown on the “Frite Nazi.”  We later meet him and he snapped at me just like the “Soup Nazi” did on Seinfeld.

We surveyed a few other parts of Bruxelles for potential places to live and minister. We were able to find some different types of ministries that our team members are feeling called toward for ministry opportunities once we are planted. One of those ministries works with women who have been exploited or trafficked for sexual pleasure. The other ministry we discovered works in orphan care. We believe these ministries will give our team an opportunity to be Jesus with skin on for the people of Belgium.

Later on we spent time on two university campuses in Bruxelles and talked with college students about faith and culture. We learned that students are not religious and do not think about God. Everyone will be christened and take communion but leave the church following these events. One college student told me these events are culturally driven and only done for family reasons. What an opportunity to reach college students. This young man told me that students do not attend church because it isn’t attractive to them. I asked, “What do you me?” He responded church was boring and the Bible doesn’t fit into my life today. He knew the Bible had good things but no one had taught the Bible in a relative way.

We ended our day by having dinner with a church planter who has experience in successfully planting a French speaking Belgian church. He had lots of valuable information and encouragement for our team. He is definitely someone we will continue a relationship with in the future. I am so glad the Lord has caused our paths to cross.

Thanks for all your prayers…please do not stop. Tomorrow we will begin the wrap up here with debriefing and preparation for coming home on Saturday morning. We miss our families a lot and we miss our church. God is so good to allow us the opportunity to represent you here.