The amazing staff at the YWAM base have taken us around the city and have shown us good places to pray and set up street worship. We got our finalized schedule in last night, which allows me to lead worship sets plenty of times throughout the week. Me being able to use a gift that the Lord has given me, here in Amsterdam, is so honoring. The Tabernacle (prayer room) is in the heart of the red light district, so getting to do worship and prayer in such a dark place in the city is such a privilege.
The Lord calls us to go to the darkest places of the earth, and the sexual addiction that is here in this city is very present and dark.
As we were preparing to come to Amsterdam, we thought we would be working along side ministries that work inside the Red Light District, but once we got here the Lord had a different plan. After connecting with our team leader here, the base had many different ministries where they needed us to step in and serve. We came here with an open heart, just wanting to serve the city and the base in anyway that we could. The YWAM base has a RLD ministry already in place and is very active in working with the prostitutes. It is called "The Lighthouse". They do walks through the district weekly and give the women coffee and meals. Serving the people and sparking up friendly conversation seems to be an amazing tool to show them the Love of christ and build friendships. The bondage that these women are in is very heart breaking. The loneliness and pain can be felt by just looking into their eyes. No amount of money is worth what they are put through everyday and night. We were told that some girls who work on the streets will sell themselves in order to buy cigarettes.
The Lighthouse also works with women who have left a life of drug addiction.
It seems like each day is packed, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I will never have any day back and the Lord has given me the chance to serve this city so I want it to be as busy as possible. I love it! The Lord keeps saying to keep going, because once I get to heaven I won't have the choice to share the gospel or "suffer" for him. Being in Amsterdam is in no way suffering for the Lord, I mean being away from family is way hard, but I have a bed and a nice little sandwich to eat everyday. I am blessed and I thank the Lord for everything I have.
For all of you who might be curious what part of my week looks like, here it is!
We have partnered with Crossroads international church working in their children's ministry every sunday! This church has been struggling with getting enough volunteers to help serve in the childrens department, so with our serves they are able to have children's church for all three of their sunday services.Some of us get to teach classes, assist, and greet people at the front door. As the weeks go on we will be giving our testimonies to the high-school age classes. The Church wants us to share how the Lord has been working in our lives, and how serving the Lord at our age is exciting and not just something we do on sundays but how it is a life style.
Me serving coffee this past weekend. gotta love some good dutch coffee! Praise him!
Once a week we go into a neighborhood which is primarily made up of muslim families. We play soccer with the kids and pour into their lives. A lot of the kids come from broken homes and do not have a father figure, so it is great being able to be a mentor to them.
"We come through this neighborhood often and walk through this park, it is never this alive and we never see this many kids out playing, something is different today".
Hearing this was so amazing and really gave us joy to know that what we are doing is truly changing things and bringing life to an area of the city. God is so faithful!
(here is a picture I took of the 2 women who talked to us. They didn't know I took it, haha) (felt creepy) (oh well)
Every day we have work duties, my work duty is cleaning 2 bathrooms and sweeping and moping a long hallway. Our heart is all about serving the base and giving some relief to the long term missionaries here. So spending a couple hours a day just laying down our free time to serve them has been such a joy and amazing privilege.
It is crazy how much my outlook on mopping floors has changed. When you approach any situation with the spirit of thanksgiving, something like mopping turns into worship and it rules!
Every monday and friday night the salvation army comes and sets up outside of our base in order to feed the homeless. This opens up doors for us to build friendships with many new people every week and re-connect with many of them on a weekly basis. We hope to hear their stories, share ours and in return able to share with them the love that we have found in Jesus to them.
Many different times out the week we get the honor to lead worship and intercession sets in the Tabernacle. This is truly stretching me as a musician and as a worship leader. The sets I am leading are 2 hours long, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Being able to lead people into the presence of God is an honor and I find so much joy in it. Later this month I will be leading a campus wide corporate worship set, I am a tad bit nervous but I am so excited to see what doors the Lord is opening up for me.
On good friday we had a chance to go the Dam square and minister to the local and tourists. We carried a cross a good mile to set up where we were leading worship. We had no idea what peoples reactions would be so we were very excited to get the cross out on the streets. As we walked many people took photos, some laughed, some thanked us. The feeling of carrying the cross in Amsterdam pass windows with prostitutes in it is a feeling I will never forget. So many times I take the cross for granted and forget all of the pain that Jesus went through. As I was carrying the cross the Lord just kept talking to me saying how much he loved me and this city. It was a remarkable feeling of pain and joy.here is a video that shares what we did on that day and has me and my friend Jeff give a testimony of what happend! please watch!!!
I am hoping you had a chance to watch the video! If you did here is some pictures of our friend philip! It was amazing to see the Lord move the way he did. Philip came to church with us on good friday, this past sunday and plans to continue on attending the church that we got him plugged into!
Here is philip in his costume and him without his mask! We were able to bless him with some money for that day. Later on he told us that it had been slow that day and without that money he wouldn't have been able to eat. 
Yesterday we went to The University of Amsterdam and did a prayer walk through parts of the campus. We are praying for some opportunities to open up where we can do some college ministry. Please keep that in your prayers!
Tonight we got together as a team and had a bible study in a coffee shop down the street. We are going to make it a routine to be there every week in hopes that we will be able to witness to the employees and regular attendees of the coffee shop. We have found so much fun in just loving people when they least expect it, and in places where they normally wouldn't get love. The Dutch culture is very unlike the American culture. When we go grocery shopping it throws off the cashiers when we ask how their day is going and sometimes even just smiling at them catches them off guard.
Thank you so much for all of your support. My life is changing so much and my love for the Lord has grown sense I joined YWAM. I am planning on being back home in the summer and hope to meet up with everyone and share with you what the Lord has done and is still doing. Please be praying for more energy, endurance and continued good health amongst my team. Also just please be praying into all of the ministries I shared about above!
If you feel lead to support me financially, I am still fundraising to help pay for day to day expenses while I am here in Amsterdam.
My pay pal is Joseph@equinoxvisual.com
OR just click this lovely link. : ) PAYPAL LINK
No comments:
Post a Comment