Monkeys

Been a few days since I've had time to write again.... I will do my best to keep my thoughts a bit more concise than the last round.

Wednesday we hit up Vondel Park again, this time with the sole intention of just praying. Three groups walked around, prayed, walked, and prayed some more. Maarten, Manker, Vanayah and I had barely finished our first prayer when a man came over and asked us if we spoke English, told us he was running home and his dog was just going to be chained to a nearby fence, but not to worry because he would be back soon. He didn't really ask us to watch the dog, but it was a really cute dog, so I went over and started to pet her. She immediately loved the attention, and soon enough, her master returned. While I continued to give some love to the dog, Manker and Maarten struck up conversation with this guy, and turns out he and his wife are trying to get to South Africa because she's been ill for 20 years and the weather here is not helping her. He was super nice and when we asked if we could pray for them, he was really open to it. Dumb thing-we never got his name. So we just prayed for "Dog-Man". It was a really cool experience, just knowing that even while sitting on a park bench God can bring opportunities.

I really wish I could post pictures, because after we had lunch we all ended up climbing this long tree and Maarten has this really rad picture of our whole team, 13 people, up in a tree. The boys of course were swinging around and attempting every dangerous move possible, and on my camera some of the video I took looks like it's just a bunch of monkeys if you speed it up. Makes me laugh :)

We did our study in the park, leaving our evening after dinner clean-up free for one of the most amazing experiences of life-the Chocolate Bar. Oh wow. The chocolate fondue was incredible, and I don't think there was a single person who could find anything wrong in life after that. The food here is unbelievable-I don't know how I'll come home to American food!

Thursday was a pretty relaxed schedule; we had our Bible study in the morning at a park real close to De Poort, with Maarten and Shey leading this one. At 2:30, we met a guy named Charles who runs a "soccer"ministry, and all of us took the bus to a field about 15 minutes away and played soccer with Morrocan and Turkish kids, all of whom were younger and WAY better than us. Surprisingly, I scored the first and only goal of my team's first game, and we ended up winning the whole tournament! I had a blast-the kids loved having people there that were just willing to give up an afternoon and play soccer with them. We completely looked like Americans, and it was the hottest day this week so we felt sticky and gross, but I had such a good time. We had to run to catch the bus back to De Poort cuz we can't be late for dinner (or the Babe, as some people call her, will shake her finger at us). After dinner, the craziness started.

We were hoping to have a fun night hanging out with our Dutchies before they left in the morning, but no one, and I mean no one, could decide on anything to do. Still feeling disgusting after playing soccer in the scorching heat, a few went to take showers, others wandered to the library, and it was kind of a silent chaos rounding everyone up. Some wanted gelato, others wanted just plain ice cream, others had no opinion, so we just walked to Dam Square. Once there, we ended up all splitting up in different directions getting what we wanted. Sad thing was, most people never made it there because everything was closing. We finally ended up just meeting back at De Poort around 10:30 (ok, a few of us got back a little later than that...) and just hanging out until people decided to go to bed. Vanayah was making a new game (those of you that know Fluxx, we now have the game Bluxx, which is a Bible version, and we actually played it today), Ryan, Maarten and I were outside just talking and enjoying the great weather (especially considering it was 1am or so), foosball was going on, but not really much sleep. I crawled into bed sometime around 3am. Pretty tired when I woke up today.

Last Friday we went to the Tabernacle for worship and prayer, but as with all things here, that changed because we weren't allowed to bring our whole team. So instead, we went into a room and had our own worship and prayer, talked for a bit about the week, and eventually walked the Dutchies back to the train station to say goodbye. A few of them will be stopping by again before we leave, but I can already tell that the dynamic of the group has changed again. The 13 of us made a great group, one that functioned normally (including awkwardness and awesomeness), and walking back from the train station without them felt real weird.

At this point, I'm glad that we made it through the week without any real hazards, although there were some seriously weird things happening that I only became aware of last night, but I'm also looking forward to a slower pace. Physically I'm still dealing with some pretty uncomfortable and painful stuff, and just trying to do my best at counting it all joy. Last night I was emotionally drained, but today I feel a sense of relief knowing that we have a whole week left to recharge and pursue ministry as a team without the Dutchies. I miss them already, and they definitely added an element to our group that will be sorely missed, but now is the time for the Americans to find their ground here and press further into the needs of the city.

Today marks the Gay Pride weekend in Amsterdam, an event we've only seen with flags on the bridges so far. Tomorrow however should be quite the day, as I believe there will be a parade of some sort. We're hoping to find a place to reprise our "Servant Salon" and (with gloves of course) offer foot washing or massages to people wandering through the parade (just Luiza and I, and probably Shey will come too) but the details are still sketchy. We figure that if the straight guys on our team loved it, every guy will. The rest of the guys will spend time walking around the city bathing it in prayer. Tonight there is a DTS group (Discipleship Training School, they stay here a few months at a time) from Korea putting on a "Korean Love Feast" in place of normal dinner, and after that we will head to the Cleft again in the Red Light District, and this time attempt to actually talk with people.

Prayer-
-Tonight's Cleft ministry won't be any easier even though we went last week, so pray for strength for the guys and compassion for me. We've got the "talking to strangers"thing down ever since the parks, but the environment will be pretty outrageous
-Pray for us as we wander the streets of Amsterdam during the Gay Pride festival, that we would see the people through God's eyes and do our best to love every person we meet the way Christ would.
-Pray that the Dutchies will be able to take what we did this week to their homes and redefine ministry in their church, and find the strength to continue walking with Christ the way they did this week
-We still need to find some ministry for Tuesday, and although we can head out to the parks again, we'd still rather partner with a local ministry and work alongside those already here.

I think that's about enough for now... I'm gonna take a little snooze before the Love Feast.