Archive - Mission RSS Feed

Quick Pics from Belgium

September 14, 2009 in Belgium, Mission, Sending Church with 0 Comments

Zi6_0266

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

Zi6_0164

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.

2009 Apr 05 001

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.

2008 08 31 019

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.

IMG00248-20090901-0533

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.

Thursday in Bruxelles

September 3, 2009 in Belgium, Mission, Sending Church with 0 Comments

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.

Wednesday in Namur

September 2, 2009 in Belgium, LifePoint Church, Mission, Sending Church with 0 Comments

Our day began with a 7 a.m. Metro (subway) ride to the train station for an 8 a.m. train to Namur in the French region of Belgium. After a one-hour train ride our partners and friends in Namur met us to transport us to their new home. We spent the morning talking and praying together about what is happening in their lives and how life has changed since moving to Namur. The major differences are being away from team members who speak English and living in an all French-speaking region. Major adjustments to say the least are happening in their home.

After a time of talking about what we could possibly expect to go through in our transition to Belgian life the ladies on our team walked with E to the local school their children attend. Wednesdays are half days for school age kids in Belgium. We had a great meal together and then prepared to go into town to walk, pray and meet new friends.

Namur is what I would call a quintessential European town. The buildings are close together with narrow alleyways that open into courtyards with cafes and sideway tables filled with people gathering to meet and discuss. People where moving everywhere. As we walked along the streets we did attract onlookers as we spoke an entirely different language that isn’t often heard on these streets.
Zi6_0260
Jordan and Cassi had the assignment to try and engage people for directions to a local attraction, the Citadelle. Each one of them took off and walked up to people and began trying in their best English to communicate with locals who spoke French. People were very friendly and helpful even though there was an obvious communication gap. They both overcame the gap and found out how to get to where we needed to be as a team.

After along walk (which we have had each day) we reached the overlook of the city from the Citadelle and we took time to pray a blessing over the city and ask God to move powerfully.

Zi6_0258

Zi6_0253

On another note, our team was able to reconnect with a friend we made on our last journey to Namur in March. Some of our team members have been communicating with her back and forth through Facebook. They were able to meet and spend a few hours together meeting face to face and then I had an opportunity to see her also. What a great time of being able to develop our friendships through technology and also seeing each other again in person. I am praying we get to see her again soon.

Great day. Continue to pray for us.

Zi6_0266

Zi6_0267

Tuesday – Brussels

September 1, 2009 in Belgium, Mission, Sending Church with 0 Comments

Today as we are heading out I want to ask you to pray for our team. We are leaving to go prayer-walk, survey, and engage people in a specific area of Brussels that we could possibly live in the future.  We will look for places people are gathering, for opportunities to engage in spiritual conversations and learn about the area of the city we are surveying.

There are 7 people with me on this scout team.  There are people with varying levels of mission experience on our team of 3 women and 4 mean. We have an experienced M, 3 people who have been on several international mission teams, 2 people who are on their first mission experience, 1 student and 1 of the team members is traveling outside of the U.S. A. for the very first time.

So, as you pray today ask God to give us strength, vision to see with the eyes of Christ, and for courage to engage with the Spirit moves.

Monday in Brussels

August 31, 2009 in Belgium, LifePoint Church, Mission with 0 Comments

Sorry about not updating on Sunday.We were so tired from flying all night and then staying up all day that we went to bed as soon as we could. We attended church on Sunday morning at Vineyard Brussels. There was a wonderful time of worship and then we were off to try and stay awake for the rest of the day so we would not fall asleep in the middle of the afternoon.

One really cool thing happened last evening (noontime for Middle Tennessee) was to have small group experience online from Belgium back to Smyrna, TN. Our small group meet yesterday afternoon and the other half of the small group is with me in Brussels. We talked about Sunday’s message, talked about our day here in Brussels and then those of us in Belgium prayed for our small group folks back in TN and the folks in Smyrna prayed for us in Belgium to have a productive trip. Incredible to see each other through Skype and then talk, pray, and encourage on another. Thank you Lord for technology.

Today, we have had team meetings (nothing new for Monday’s), meet with other M’s and prayer walked a neighborhood that could be a possible spot for our team to live. We purchased cell phones for our team to communicate with as we divide up and cover more territory. We went to a local gathering place for people (a mall) and divided into 3 teams and engaged locals in conversation about spiritual things so we could  begin to learn about their worldview and their ideas about spiritual topics. We ended our day with a tour of a huge cathedral that is basically a tourist spot.

Please pray for us as we IPOC, I pray, I observe, I connect. We are asking God to grow our vision, grow our passion, and break our hearts for the people of Brussels. He is at work in this country and we want to be used by Him for His glory.

(You can see pictures on www.facebook.com/kylegoen)

Can You Believe This?

August 27, 2009 in Belgium, LifePoint Church, Mission, Sending Church with 0 Comments

The picture below shows both of the church planing teams from LifePoint Church together on the platform with Pat. This past Sunday, Pat, introduced both the Bangkok team and the Belgium team to the church so they could see who they will send out and so they could begin to pray for each family.

There are 30 people LifePoint is going to commission in the next year to go the nations to plant reproducing sending churches so others might know and respond to the Gospel of Christ.

Please pray for these teams.

Church planters

The Sending Church – March 2, 2010

August 27, 2009 in Mission, Sending Church with 0 Comments

Check the website and mark the date…more coming soon.

The Next Step

August 19, 2009 in Belgium, Family, Mission, Sending Church with 0 Comments

We have put our home on the market. We actually signed papers to list our house for sale in preparation for the move to Belgium. Even though we will not move until Jan. 2011 we are forging ahead so we can prepare for living in a smaller apartment setting like we will in western Europe. We ask you to pray for a quick sale and a smooth transition for our family into an apartment in Smyrna, TN. It has been 12 or 13 years since we last lived in an apartment so I anticipate an adjustment period.

DSC07717

Let’s Get Involved

August 18, 2009 in LifePoint Church, Mission with 0 Comments

Lord willing, I will one day be in Belgium working to spread the Name of Christ to those who do not know Him as Lord. Even though I will not live in a 10/40 window country I think we need to have Ms there spreading the Fame of His Name . I never want to be so narrow focused to think that “real missions” happens in “hard places”. I hope people will have a wider view of mission than just what happens in the 10/40 window. In fact, God is sending people from the “hard places” to live in other parts of the world so they can hear His story. I hope this video encourages and inspires you to be involved in His mission.

Car Dieu est si Grand

August 10, 2009 in Belgium, Mission, Sending Church with 0 Comments

We have been singing this song in our small group preparing for our time when God plants our team in Belgium. This is a beautiful song in English and French. How Great is our God by Chris Tomlin. Not sure who the group is that is leading but worth the listen.


Vois la splendeur du roi,
Vêtu de majesté ;
La terre éclate de joie. (bis).
En lui est la lumière,
L’obscurité se cache,
Elle frémit à sa voix. (bis)

Car Dieu est si grand!
Chantons tous: “Car Dieu est si grand!”
Et tous sauront que Dieu, oui Dieu, est si grand.

Car d’âge en âge, il règne.
Les temps sont dans sa main,
Commencement et fin. (bis)
Il est le lion, l’agneau
Les temps sont dans sa main,
Le Fils, le Saint-Esprit (bis)
Page 5 of14« First...«34567»10...Last »