Sleepless in Amsterdam

Here's what I know and have seen:
-pedestrians do not have the right of way in this city. In fact, one close call with a bicyclist about to take out your knees makes you very aware of that little bell on their handlebars that as a child I thought were so innocent. Now, that bell symbolizes "move fast if you want to keep your ankles".
-I've seen 200 cars, 3 dogs, 2 cats, 2 people jogging (one of them a very tall man with very short shorts), and about 6000 people riding their bikes. Women wearing high heels, old men with briefcases, expectant mothers, people on their way to work, and even elderly women who don't look as though they could climb stairs all ride bikes around the city. Monday we will rent some, and I'm honestly looking forward to using that bell.
-The canals are a peaceful sight, even if the boats going through are full of smashed people out for a joy ride.
-Many of the root words in Dutch are similar to root words in other languages, so I'm actually having a pretty easy time figuring out what some of them mean, based on my previous Spanish lessons from high school. Who knew that learning Spanish would help me in Holland.
-I've learned that one person can walk 20 miles in a day plus multiple trips of the 67 steps up to our rooms and still have the use of their legs next day.

With our plans in motion now, I'm feeling a huge sense of pride in this trip. Not the conceited "look what Ryan and I did" kind of thing, but the kind of pride where you are excited about what's happening and what's to come. We have a team that is flexible and flat out fun to be around, and seeing the changes in their hearts early on is amazing. I'm finally figuring out how all the money is going to work out, and I actually have more money than what my books say I should, and that's a great sign to me. Beyond a few physical burdens that seem to want to plague me, I'm really happy to be on this trip. Still not sleeping, still frustrated with exhaustion, but I seem to have enough adrenalin during the times I need energy the most. God is good, and that's the biggest understatement I'll ever make.

Our team went to The Tabernacle for a worship and prayer time Friday morning. It was a really cool experience; we sang worship songs, sometimes in English and a few in Dutch, prayed for the city and for the country that a revival would happen, and read Scriptures aloud that were then turned into worshipful meditations by the worship team. I think it really set the tone for our work here.

We also started work on the Bible Studies that we will give the Dutch youth next week. Skirt and I (ok, his real name is Curtis) are going to discuss prayer, and how it can help deepen your relationship with Christ. When Ryan and I sat down to plan all this out, I had originally picked a different topic, but changed at the last minute to prayer. Turns out, Skirt is really passionate about prayer, and although he's not exactly gifted in teaching or speaking, I think this will be a really cool experience for him.

Stan, the pastor of a Calvary Chapel in a town outside the city, came with his wife to Amsterdam yesterday, and Ryan and I had a really good talk with them. They even gave us a spare cell phone in case we needed anything. He encouraged us in our work, reaffirmed all that we have planned, and at least for me, it felt like we had a resource here even though they don't live in Amsterdam. With our "main" host not exhibiting the meaning of his title, having Stan encourage us was a real blessing. I'm excited to go to their church tomorrow and fold into the fellowship there.

Now for the part I'm sure a lot of you have been waiting for, our first Red Light District experience. I have to admit, I wasn't as shocked as I thought I would be. Could be because I kind of built it up enough in my head before hand, or it could be that the media in America isn't that far off from here after all. That being said, nothing can still prepare you for the first wave of ladies in the windows, wearing way too much makeup and not enough clothes. Our host decided to just walk us around the district so we could get a feel for how things went down, and a few times we stopped to pray for things. We stopped after a long line of sex shops and prayed for the women to find value in something other than the trade they are in, for the men who visit them and are obviously addicted to something that is not satisfying them, and also for the men who employ these ladies, making their money off another human being in such a degrading way. Having the shortest legs out of the group, I tend to be one of the last people in our "line" when we walk, and at one point I saw Cam kinda pat Bert on the back, and it fully hit me the impact this place was having on the guys from our team. From that point on, I didn't really look at the windows or around at the people walking, I just prayed for the guys. I got this huge sense of motherhood all over again, and prayed for each boy specifically that their eyes would be diverted from things that would be tempting and see the truth behind it all, with compassion and grace. We were about to turn a corner onto a new part of the street when a scantily clad girl saw the group of boys and started knocking on the window, trying to get their attention and come see her. I almost cried when I looked ahead and saw each one of my guys with their heads either down or away, not giving into what was probably pretty difficult. The guys here are amazing. I saw their hearts breaking for women they've never met and probably won't, and despite the internal pressures they may have felt, I know they were broken hearted by what they saw. I don't know how anyone couldn't be, but such is the culture here. Families walked around the district, some with small children. How on earth a parent could do that is beyond anything I could understand, but part of our job here as missionaries is to discover this city and find out what their culture is, and we definitely experienced that last night. We stopped by an old vacated church in the middle of the district, one of the most strikingly beautiful churches I've seen yet. Our group stood near and prayed, mostly facing the church and praying that the area would come alive with Christians again. Some guy came up and asked me what we were all looking at (the part of the church we were standing by had no windows or doors or anything interesting to look at), and I told him we were just praying. He asked what religion we were, and I told him we just love Jesus. He got a curious smile and said he was Christian but not doing so well. He started to look a little uncomfortable, still smiling, and walked off. I'm pretty stoked for next week's visit when we will actually purposefully try and strike up conversations with people and share with them why we're here.

I tried to go to bed early last night, but still only managed about 6 hours of sleep. Can't seem to get adjusted yet, and honestly the physical ailments are borderline distracting. I could use prayer for that, don't want to be too graphic though :) Time for breakfast-among all the many surprises on this trip, YWAM's kitchen is closed on weekends to Ryan and I have to go to the grocery store and get food for everyone. Please keep praying for our team, especially now that we've really started into our ministry and will need to carefully process all that goes on. Pray that the studies we are working on today would be spirit led and filled, and that we would be ready to receive the kids as they come back with us tomorrow.

This is really long... I'm kind of long winded when I write :) More to come later!