ANTIA – All Nations Together In Antwerp is a new international church plant effort in the port city of Antwerp, Belgium. In April 2007, our annual Students for Christ missions trip that we organize each spring was a home missions excursion to our own host nation – Belgium. But it was about as different culturally and linguistically as travelling to another country. Why? Antwerp is in the northern, Flemish-speaking area of the country where the folks not only speak a different language but have a different mentality from the french-speaking Walloons in the south.
Our experience was super! We had 27 of our SFC students participate in this outreach at some point in the week-long adventure. And we were able to really give a boost of encouragement and extra hands on the ground to the ANTIA church-planting team. We met lots of students on campus and had meaningful conversations with many of them. Additionally, we were able to network with another university organization concerned with spirituality among students.
In all, we came away from our home missions endeavor with a sense that God had opened a door of witness to us, used us as we walked through that door, and provided us with contacts for a possible future SFC group in Antwerp, the city where William Tyndale was finally arrested before his martyrdom for his work of translating the Bible into Early Modern English.
Lots of history, new opportunities! We are enthousiastic about the possibilities!