So I am in amsterdam... I arrived here two weeks ago. My team and I have been on the ground moving every day. We are staying with the ywam base and I continue to fall in love more and more with europe and its culture! It is spring time here and man is it cold. By the locals standards we are having beautiful weather. The sun shines most days and the air is crisp and cool. Such a change from the weather that I have been in for almost the past two years, which is hot, dry, hot, and hottier! =)
The city is BIg and full of people. So many different people. We aren't just dealing with the dutch here but people from all over the world.
One of the ways that we plan our schedule is as a team, were able to sit down and ask God what He wants us to do for this city. My co leader and I had 5 areas that we were able to pick out in the city and the team spent an afternoon listening to what God said about the areas and what ways we could break into communities or serve. We got things from chalk drawing on side walks, playing chess with people, to cleaning up trash in areas, and then all sorts of ways to proclaim truth in places and to people. We have also been able to really get involved with a local church that my co leader has been apart of for many years. It is her home church and since we are in her home city it has been a huge encouragement and blessing to be involved with them on sundays and also during the week!
Today we went to a place called museum square. It is a big square that has all sorts of different museums around a flat, grassed off open space. When we prayed for this area we really felt like God was telling us to publicly proclaim the gospel, so today that is what we did. Before this, last night, we did a little bit of evandalizing (bahaha) (evangelism mixed with vandalism) we took our side walk chalk and prayer walked the area writing down scriptures and words that God gave us for the people and area. (don't worry, it wasn't illegal) Then this morning we went back and performed what we at ywam call an open air. A series of different things like songs, dramas, sharing testimonies, and gospel messages. Usually you do something ridiculously silly at the beginning to draw a crowd and then you can go into different things to show/tell people about Jesus. The great part is that people that are interested stop and watch and the people that aren't keep walking. So after everything is finished you have people around that have stopped and are generally interested in what you were talking about.
After we did our open air we have four highschool boys that had watched the whole thing. Some of the guys and myself included went over to talk to them. They were all around the age of 16, and had never heard the gospel message that we shared with them that day. When we asked them if they believed in anything they all said no. No. They didn't believe in anything and that was okay...
I was blown away at this. maybe at first because in america, i feel like most kids that age would at least profess to believe in Jesus or christianity or something. That we have this understanding that you have to believe in something. So living it out or not, people will answer, and not want to say nothing. These guys, had nothing and that was okay.
I found myself so consumed with desperation for these guys. I kept asking them things like well what is life about then? What do you want to do? What do you look forward to? If you don't believe in anything where does that leave you? After listening and sharing more with these guys we were able to find out what they wanted to be when they finished school, heard about some medical problems one of them had, and really encourage them to ask God about their life. Ask Him for help, ask Him to show them He is real. Tell them more about His character, who He is, Who Jesus is and share life experiences with them. They even let us pray for them at the end of our conversation. It was a great time and I know God is working in their lives.
This is a little taste of what it is like here. Lots of people who are very knowledgeable, but that have no understanding. We have over a week left here... I have more stories but will wait a few days! God is so good!
You are blessed to be a blessing.
The city is BIg and full of people. So many different people. We aren't just dealing with the dutch here but people from all over the world.
One of the ways that we plan our schedule is as a team, were able to sit down and ask God what He wants us to do for this city. My co leader and I had 5 areas that we were able to pick out in the city and the team spent an afternoon listening to what God said about the areas and what ways we could break into communities or serve. We got things from chalk drawing on side walks, playing chess with people, to cleaning up trash in areas, and then all sorts of ways to proclaim truth in places and to people. We have also been able to really get involved with a local church that my co leader has been apart of for many years. It is her home church and since we are in her home city it has been a huge encouragement and blessing to be involved with them on sundays and also during the week!
Today we went to a place called museum square. It is a big square that has all sorts of different museums around a flat, grassed off open space. When we prayed for this area we really felt like God was telling us to publicly proclaim the gospel, so today that is what we did. Before this, last night, we did a little bit of evandalizing (bahaha) (evangelism mixed with vandalism) we took our side walk chalk and prayer walked the area writing down scriptures and words that God gave us for the people and area. (don't worry, it wasn't illegal) Then this morning we went back and performed what we at ywam call an open air. A series of different things like songs, dramas, sharing testimonies, and gospel messages. Usually you do something ridiculously silly at the beginning to draw a crowd and then you can go into different things to show/tell people about Jesus. The great part is that people that are interested stop and watch and the people that aren't keep walking. So after everything is finished you have people around that have stopped and are generally interested in what you were talking about.
After we did our open air we have four highschool boys that had watched the whole thing. Some of the guys and myself included went over to talk to them. They were all around the age of 16, and had never heard the gospel message that we shared with them that day. When we asked them if they believed in anything they all said no. No. They didn't believe in anything and that was okay...
I was blown away at this. maybe at first because in america, i feel like most kids that age would at least profess to believe in Jesus or christianity or something. That we have this understanding that you have to believe in something. So living it out or not, people will answer, and not want to say nothing. These guys, had nothing and that was okay.
I found myself so consumed with desperation for these guys. I kept asking them things like well what is life about then? What do you want to do? What do you look forward to? If you don't believe in anything where does that leave you? After listening and sharing more with these guys we were able to find out what they wanted to be when they finished school, heard about some medical problems one of them had, and really encourage them to ask God about their life. Ask Him for help, ask Him to show them He is real. Tell them more about His character, who He is, Who Jesus is and share life experiences with them. They even let us pray for them at the end of our conversation. It was a great time and I know God is working in their lives.
This is a little taste of what it is like here. Lots of people who are very knowledgeable, but that have no understanding. We have over a week left here... I have more stories but will wait a few days! God is so good!
You are blessed to be a blessing.
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