Spiritual growth

First, a quick update--one of the girls behind the windows became a Christian a couple of weeks ago! One of the other teams was sharing with her and asked if she wanted to pray to ask Jesus into her life, and she said yes! Now comes the hard part of discipleship and a desire on her part to leave the windows. There's also a girl new to the windows (I think from Romania) whom two different teams remember seeing. They both said she looks timid and scared to death; we're afraid that she's either abused or a victim of trafficking. Although I don't have her name, please keep her in your prayers.

I feel like I'm learning all over again how to make my faith my own. It's a lesson I learned after being out of college and living on my own, and am re-learning now in another country. I'm learning to incorporate as many different aspects of worship as I need to to be fed spiritually. I had a really hard time at first, because YWAM is a very charismatic group, which I didn't grow up with, and then I was also going to a charismatic church with some friends on Sundays. I felt like I was constantly on edge since the atmosphere was so different from what I'm used to. Not only at church on Sunday, but also at YWAM staff meetings and worship time.

In order to mix it up a little, I went for the second time this past Sunday to Christ Church, an Anglican church near here. I loved it! It was so nice to be in a service that was calm, reverent, and orderly. Afterward, there was a time for coffee and tea and I was able to meet some neat people from the city. I really liked this church a lot and left feeling refreshed and fed. In my previous blog, I included the lyrics of a hymn we sang that have really been a challenge to me. I've discovered that I really like a liturgical service. As a student of history, there's something in me that really responds to reciting the Apostles' Creed every Sunday, knowing that millions of my Christian forefathers have repeated the same words for centuries. It sums up the whole purpose of the gospel so succinctly. They also had a Scripture memory verse that we all worked on together as a congregation. That was really special. This church really reaches out to international students in Amsterdam, so for that reason they have more modern elements in their service, such as praise choruses.

Also, I realized that Mike Lumpkin, my pastor from UBC in Fayetteville, has his sermons on a podcast that I can download every Sunday. That has been great! He's been going through the book of John, and will be for the next year or two, and I've hated missing that. I love the in-depth study of Scripture like that. So I've also been able to keep up with that in addition to my own personal quiet time. His message this past Sunday was extremely convicting to me as he preached on being wholly satisfied with Jesus as the living water.

I didn't realize before I left how difficult it would be to integrate all of these aspects of my spiritual walk here in another country. But I've been so encouraged this week by the way God's meeting all of my spiritual needs here--exciting, vibrant worship here on the base; reverent worship in an open, friendly congregation; and solid, convicting study of God's Word. Thank you to those of you who have prayed that I would find a home church and somewhere to be spiritually fed; it's made all the difference in the world!

"Make Me a Channel of Your Peace"

These are the lyrics to a hymn we sang in church this past Sunday; it's a prayer commonly attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. The words perfectly sum up a lot of things I've been thinking and praying about regarding ministry in the Red Light District and life at de Poort:

1. Make me a channel of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me bring you love;
Where there is injury, your healing pow'r,
And where there's doubt, true faith in you.

2. Make me a channel of your peace:
Where there's despair in life let me bring hope;
Where there is darkness, - only light,
And where there's sadness, ever joy.

3. O Spirit, grant that I may never seek
So much to be consolded as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul.

4. Make me a channel of your peace.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
In giving to all that we receive,
And in dying that we're born to eternal life.

Last weekend, I went to the beach with Jolanda, Rebeca, and another lady named Lianne. I didn't realize that the beach was only about a 25-minute train ride from here, so that was a nice surprise! Here was a shocker: you're allowed to go topless on the beaches--there's not even a separate beach for that! This is one crazy place. A lot of the Dutchies thought it was weird that I thought it was weird! We spent about six hours on the beach, then came back and went to a sidewalk cafe for apple pie and coffee. I really needed a nice weekend like that!

More pictures...

I had such a great weekend! I made friends with a couple of people who had been away on outreach for the DTS (Discipleship Training School) that they were leading. One is Jolanada, a Dutch girl, and the other is Emas, a Lithuanian guy. They are both so much fun and were great to hang out with me this weekend! We went trash picking a couple nights (it's amazing what people throw away here!), went out for Dutch fries, watched movies, biked, and went to a cool little village where they have traditional windmills and cheese-making demonstrations.

After the village, we all went to have Dutch pancakes and then stopped by an exhibit of World Press Photos. Emas, needless to say, has a good time wherever he goes! He left this morning to go back to Lithuania, but he might be returning to this base later in the year. Jolanda, thank goodness, will be here for another year or two. They've been great for helping me get over home-sickness!

Ministry at the Cleft

What an eventful week! I had my interview on Monday afternoon for working in the Cleft. Edna and Kim, the leaders, told me after the interview to go home and pray about whether or not I'd be working with the ladies behind the windows or with the street ladies (ladies who sell themselves to get money for drugs), and that they would do the same. Of course, all along my heart has been with the ladies behind the windows, so I was hoping they would come to the same conclusion. On Tuesday Edna called me and asked if I'd been praying and how I was feeling led. I told her about my desire to work with the window ladies, and she said that she and Kim had come to the same conclusion without a doubt! So I was finally able to start ministry on Wednesday afternoon.

That first time, Edna took me on a prayer walk around the Red Light District to explain the different sections and to pray over it. That was a nice, slow way to get into it, because I was pretty nervous about starting! There are about six of us involved in the ministry, and each ministry time starts with Bible reading and prayer. Then we divide up into pairs, prepare baskets of hot drinks and cookies, and go out into the neighborhood. On Thursday night I was actually able to go and visit with the ladies, and it was amazing! I went with Rebeca Balderas, and at first most of the ladies whom we offered refreshments to just waved us off, saying they didn't want any. But then we met with some ladies who welcomed us, and in I went to one of the windows. It was really surreal standing there, seeing things from their perspective, watching the way people would walk by and stare--some curious, most lustful. Since I'm new to the ministry, the leader that I'm with takes the lead in conversation while I sit and pray. Rebeca was able to have some really good conversations at one window. Three ladies from the Dominican Republic all share the same window, so we were able to cover more ground there! Rebeca shared with them that satan loves to prey on women, but that God wants to restore their worth and dignity. They really seemed to be listening intently.

Through the years, Rebeca and Edna have been able to build a relationship with a man who owns Cassa Rosso (a live sex show) and most of the sex shops in the city. Most of the time he runs away from conversations with Rebeca (she's quite a powerhouse!), but she was able to share the gospel with him recently, and he ended up in tears. Anyway, I met him Thursday night, and he and Rebeca were talking about getting together for coffee sometime this week. Please pray that that will come to pass. In Perspectives, when we were talking about frontier missions, we learned about the importance of finding a gatekeeper, or person of importance, in the tribe you're going to minister to. Although this is by no means a tribe, I think that this man is definitely a gatekeeper, and it's such a blessing that Rebeca and Edna have a relationship with him. God could do amazing things through a man like that, living for Him!

One of the last windows we stopped at housed two beautiful ladies, one from Italy and one from Romania. The girl from Romania looked like she was about 18. They were both so sweet, friendly, and outgoing, and the one from Italy has really been on my mind a lot. Please pray that I'll be able to build a relationship with her; her name is Sonja. Thank you all for being such prayer warriors. I've really been able to sense your prayers, and I know I'll need them all the more as I become more involved in ministry in the District!

Greetings from Amsterdam! I wanted to start this blog by showing you some pictures of where I live; I know it's always helpful for me to be able to picture something. This is the base for YWAM Amsterdam, De Poort. It's where their administrative offices are housed and also where I live. There's a courtyard in the middle of the building, and my room is on the third floor looking down into it. Here are some photos of my room. It's one of the larger ones, which is really nice, and they all have great windows. I don't think there's a bad view anywhere in Amsterdam! I just got the new duvet cover on the bed (from Ikea, the mothership of all decorating stores), and I'm hoping to paint the walls turquoise this weekend.

This is the common room where we cook and hang out. There's 2 or 3 kitchens per floor, so there aren't too many people trying to use it at once. It's a nice place to socialize with the people who live near me.

And finally, I'm including a few photos of the neighborhood. I took these yesterday while walking to the nearest grocery store. It's beautiful!!! I really can't get over this city--I love it. These were taken later in the evening; since we're so far north, it stays light until about 10:00 p.m. in the summer! It's nice, but I find that I don't go to bed until 12 or 1, which isn't good the next day!