Continuing our survey of the international impact of Christian music, Jan Willem Vink goes to Belgium.

Arjan is aware that a Christian band in Belgium has to plough through hard soil. "Only less than a half percent of the Belgian population is Christian. The main part of the people is not interested. So our main challenge is to bring the gospel to those places where young people have the possibility to listen to it. "We pray for open doors in Belgium," continued Arjan. "A lot of people don't even have the smallest awareness of how dark and occult things are. Last summer I was in the South on holidays. There is a strong worship of the Catholic saints there and open occultism. There is a castle there, which houses spooks, according to brochures. They write openly about the rituals that were performed there by witches. "Not so long ago we performed in a bar. During our performance a man was whistling and shouting all the time. We couldn't talk in between the songs. There was an enormous stench. Afterwards they played music that most definitely didn't come from the same Spirit. But afterwards we got to talk to a couple who were really open..." Belgium is most definitely a mission field, with the number of evangelical Christians far below that in many traditional mission fields in Africa and South America.

ADRI VAN DEN BERK
A lot of pastors in Flanders are missionaries from the Netherlands. Adri van Den Berk is one of them. He experimented with Christian radio on local radios, but is a singer as well, known for his strong voice, combined with poppy music, with jazz influences. Adri recently recorded an album named 'Verder Gaan' (Going On) which is based mainly on his pastoral counselling, covering issues such as incest, problems in marriage, loneliness and depression. "My main goal is to give hope," said Adri. "Not to give an instant solution, but believable. In this time we've got to answer the needs that exist. We've got to win hearts with wisdom and take away preconceptions."

BELGIUM
Fact File
Geographic location: Western Europe
Land use: Low lying land known as 'The Crossroads Of Europe'

Population: 9,866,000
Growth Rate: 0.1%
Density: 323 people per sq km

Capital city: Brussels, population of 1,100,000; HQ of the EC and NATO.

Urbanisation: 95%

Ethnic groups: Fleming (Dutch speaking) 57.3%, Walloon (French speaking) 33.4%, German 0.65%, Others 7%

Economy: Highly industrialized and wealthy. Faltering under weak Government and recession.

Religion: Christian 89% (85.8% Roman Catholic, 30% Practicing) Atheist 7.7% Muslim 2.9%

There is great freedom for evangelism, but Belgium is one of the least evangelised countries in the world.