Tour de Holland/Servanthood 101

Sorry it's been a few days-our schedule is so tightly packed that it's after midnight here and I'm just getting my first bit of down time. Sheesh...not sure if I knew what I was signing up for! :) In light of this, the post now will be REALLY long...you have been warned.

Yesterday.....yesterday coincides with the first portion of my blog title. Ryan and I felt that we wanted a chance to get to know the five Dutchies that were spending their time with us before jumping into ministry, so we did the most Dutch thing we could think of-renting bikes! 14 people (Smitty came with us too, our last chance to see her) walked to Yellow Bike near the train station, and thanks to Maarten's credit card (for the deposit only, so he thinks) we rented 14 bright yellow bikes for a tour of the city. The bikes here are much different than home, well at least much different than mine. Instead of having my 10 speed with brakes on both handles and the ability to pedal backward while gliding along, I have one front brake and the only way to effectively stop the bike is to push backward. My short little legs couldn't handle it at first, and I always seemed to have to hop off the bike any time we stopped, and in the city that was a LOT. Skirt was kind enough to fix the seat so it was lower, which turned me into a riding MACHINE. Usually when we walk, I'm the last person because I walk slow. But on the bike, you were hard pressed to find me anywhere but towards the front, if not leading the way. We all felt like kids again, riding circles around people, laughing at the funny tricks Cam would try to do, and having the first day without exhausting heat was amazing. I haven't had so much fun in a long time. Plus it provided a way for us to just hang out and laugh and see how the dynamics worked with two groups becoming one. We took a tour of some of the parks, and yes I took pictures while riding, and eventually stopped at a pretty large park called Vondel Park, named after some guy named Joost (pronounced Yost, like toast) and ate lunch. Maarten, in all his wisdom, asked if anyone wanted to ride to the beach, which was only supposed to be an hour and a half away. Having so much fun, about 7 of us decided we'd try it, while Shey led a group around more of the city. I don't think Maarten communicated enough the speed at which we would need to bike in order to get to the beach within the time specified.... after an hour of biking and 4 of the people getting slower and slower (no, not me), we stopped at a gas station that had air-co and regrouped. Maarten, Skirt and I knew we could make it to the beach still, but weren't sure about time since we have to be back for dinner on time (or they chop off your head), but the others didn't think they could make it so they turned around and went back. We sat for a moment seriously considering just continuing to the beach, until we realized that the bike rentals were under Maarten's name and I had the money, so if we were late, no one would be able to pay for anything! We made the reluctant decision, about 5 minutes after the others, to turn around and go back home. Funny thing is, we took a different route back and actually passed the others from a distance. That was, until Skirt's bike decided it hated him and the chain came off. It took Maarten, Skirt, and some wandering American on a bike 15 minutes or so to fix it, and by that time we had rested so long that getting back on the bikes felt like more of a chore. Maarten got us a little lost on the way back, and once we finally turned the bikes in, the three of us had a very difficult time walking and communicating. We saw more of the country and the city than we ever expected! It was all beautiful, even if we didn't make it to the beach, and after the heat of all the biking wore off, I actually felt incredible. When bedtime came, I literally passed out. Best I've slept all week!

Skirt and I had our Bible study last night, and instead of just sitting and preaching on prayer, we gave some simple "suggested instructions", and just prayed! We walked a little, stopped and prayed, talked together, and just prayed a whole lot, with the intent that if you aren't comfortable with prayer, the best way to get used to it is just to start somewhere and make it a habit. We didn't even tell them exactly what to pray for, but everyone found things that inspired them, and then we closed in praying for the city and our ministry work.

I'm sure I can speak for Ryan when I say that leading a trip like this is so much different than anything we've ever done. We've definitely had some conflicts we weren't expecting, even in the context of usual trip/camp issues. We are used to being around people that are a bit more honest with us, but I think because we are so close in age to everyone, there may be some "weirdness" in seeing us as the leaders. We've been really trying to make sure that we engage everyone, and we told Maarten and Shey that we view them as leaders just as much as we are since they know the other Dutch students and have been on this camp before. Their input this morning was really helpful, and caused us to change, yet again, how we did ministry and changed some of our plans, but for the better. Each time we change things, which happens literally every few hours, we see God's hand more clearly than before. Shey is so compassionate, which we really don't have a lot of, and Maarten is so honest, which we are too, and the four of us working together has made things much easier. I started to get really discouraged this morning because in one little meeting it seemed like the team was going to fall apart, but when I went back upstairs to work out plan details for the day I prayed that God would just take control and asked Him to fix everything. My words were a little more eloquent than that, but it is almost 1am for me right now :) When we met again to pray and go over the details today, we all prayed for the same thing, unity and excitement for the team, and asking God to do His will in the midst of our plans. We know without a shadow of a doubt that we need Him to do all the work here. We suck on our own, and we know it. But we also know that He's way bigger and way more together than we are, and that's a comforting feeling.

Around 11am, we took our team through a series of rooms (because every time we went somewhere to meet, we got pushed out) and eventually landed in a tower above the boys' room, and there we talked over having a heart for people, some simple evangelistic ideas, and then prayed some more before walking to Vondel Park. Once there, we prayed again (can't pray enough really), and sent everyone off in pairs to walk through the park and have conversations with people. Each pair had a boy and girl (except one, girls are a little outnumbered here), 4 groups had one American and one Dutchie, and each group had one person that was a little bit opposite of the other, to compliment their strengths and weaknesses. Maarten and I were the last pair to start walking through the park (didn't want to cause a stampede) and took our time and prayed as we saw a few of the other pairs already in conversation with people. Then I saw him- a guy sitting on a bench in a red shirt, looking out over a lake with a huge fountain nearby. When I first saw him, there was no emotional tug or leap in my heart. All I honestly saw was a guy, alone, sitting on a bench, a bench we could sit on too. The very instant my mind was running this scenario in my head, Maarten asked if we should talk to him. 20 seconds later, we met Martin from Mexico. We thought it ironic that they had the same name, and that we were three people sitting on a bench in Amsterdam, all with a different native tongue. Martin knew English pretty good, but there were definitely times when the three of us would have to repeat things to be understood. Maarten and I just asked him some simple questions, like where he was from, why he was in Europe etc, just the typical ge to know you questions. Then Martin asked the question I always wait for in situations like these- "So are you on vacation here too?" Once he asked that, Maarten and I were able to share why we were in Amsterdam, and more specifically in Vondel Park. Martin was just there passing time before his next train left, and even though he is an ex-Catholic who doesn't want to have religion in his life, I think we had a really good talk with him. He listened to us tell him how knowing God and being a part of His kingdom has changed our lives, and Martin always seemed to have more questions. I could tell that the ceremonial aspects of his childhood church experience had a lot to do with why he thought religion was only about rules, and when we explained that with Christ we have a choice, he seemed interested. He eventually went off about some movie where they have different dimensions (Deja Vu?) and said that's what he believes, and over an hour later he realized he needed to get going or he'd miss his train. We thanked him for talking to us, and then immediately prayed for him. It wasn't a miraculous experience, nothing to write a book about, but we planted a seed with Martin. Couldn't ask for more.

By the time we got done, it was almost time to meet up with everyone again. I saw a kid playing in some puddles, and I said outloud that I like splashing in puddles, but didn't mention the part about when I'm already wet and in clothes I don't care about. After this, Maarten decided to try and push me in every puddle we walked by, and even though I escaped most times, there was one where my sandal grazed the top of the puddle. This grazing became quite hazardous-my sandal was extremely wet, and the first soft rock I walked over just cruised on underneath my sandal until I was knee first into the ground. Maarten took this opportunity to point out that since we decided not to get tattoo's here (it's 100 times more expensive than home), that now I have something permament from Amsterdam-scars all over the front of my left leg. Gee, thanks buddy. :)

After dinner we cleaned up the kitchens (there's three here) and then met for our third Bible study. Before we started, each pair shared their stories from the day, and it seemed everyone had really great experiences and were eager to try it again. And, just a side note, in all the cases except the all boy group (and mine since we both saw the same guy), the girls were the ones in the group pushing the guys to finally sit down with people. I'm so proud :) Now onto the study-I don't know why I didn't see it before, but Cam seriously needs to get into teaching. He and Manker led our discussion about servanthood, and the whole thing was almost beautiful. The guy really knows his stuff, and he was so comfortable in what he was doing. He created a clear picture of Christ as our example of a servant, and after that we had our small groups again. Tonight, the girls came alive, even sweet Kirsten who is easily the quietest and knows the least amount of English. Along with having really good and thoughtful conversation, our night took a twist which is my second title for the post. No one really knows how it got there, but at some point Shey mentioned toes, which led us all to one conclusion-there was a guy in our group that we all said at once who had some serious maintenance needs on his feet. He admitted it to us earlier, but when all of us knew exactly who were talking about, we just started laughing and laughing, so loud that the guys could hear us outside. We made a plan, and with giggles the whole time, prepared our application of servanthood, aptly named "Servant Salon". We grabbed clippers, lotion, soap, a nail file, buckets of water, chairs, towels, and even vases of flowers and invited the guys for pedicures. Our original guy was too reluctant, so Manker readily stepped up to the plate. Bert ended up playing some guitar music in the background, a few of us took pictures, and the team was instantly unified. We laughed and laughed and had such a good time, and it was so neat to see the girls eager to clip toenails and put lotion on boys' feets when, let's be honest, not all of them are kept in top notch condition. A couple of guys went out for food while we finished up the pedicures, and by the end of the evening we had a seriously happy team. The girls had so much fun and honestly felt great about what they did, and the guys, well....they had five girls waiting on them so I'm pretty sure I don't need to tell you how they felt :)

I'm sure that even with tonight's fun, there will still be issues and we will still have tensions and problems will arise, but I have the greatest pictures in the world to look at of some beautiful servants and an improvisational salon. I walked out of the room for a minute to grab a towel, and the biggest smile crept onto my face, hearing the giggles from the girls inside, and the guys laughing in awe that we'd actually do this, and couldn't help but just say "Thank You" to the most creative God on the planet. He knew we needed an activity to give us all a common ground, and there's nothing like a good pedicure to bring people together.

Things to pray for:
-Continue to pray for unity. I doubt that in one evening all feelings of irritation will disappear, and as more time goes on the harder it will be. Pray that Ryan and I will have the eyes to see through to the truth and have the wisdom to deal with things in the best way possible.
-We are heading out to the parks again tomorrow, hoping to do a reprise of today with a prayer walk twist. Pray that the excitement everyone felt today would not get lost in their sleep tonight.
-Pray for physical strength. Since this is like camp, we aren't getting much sleep and walking everywhere, so we need to maintain our strength to be excited about our work here.
-Please pray for more opportunities for us. Thursday we are playing soccer with some Muslim kids, but we are at a slight loss still on a few other days. We can make stuff up, but we'd still rather partner with people here.

I think that this is plenty for tonight-I will try and get on again tomorrow so the post won't be so long. Thanks for sticking with me. This is a journey I'll never forget and I'm glad you're on it with me.

Oh, and Ryan and I are already talking about plans for our trip next year. UK anyone? :)