A Long Awaited Update
Apr 30, 2006 Print This Post
//MOOD: Grateful
//ITUNES: The Perfect Kiss from the album “Low-Life” by New Order
The song playing in iTunes is perfect for Amsterdam, because it seems like most of the music played here is American music from the 80′s. Apparently that was the pinnacle of music.
Anyhoo, I have been incredibly remiss in posting to the blog (which I have been hearing from a lot of people via email). Therefore, I am going to post a super huge update. If you don’t care about the words, just pretend like this is a children’s book and just look at the pretty pictures. I have also only taken one or two pictures with my camera, so all of these photos are from my phone. So, here goes. A daily update from the last day in Amsterdam.
SATURDAY
We flew out from Detroit. Most of the team was in the middle of the plane together. However, Dan and Jeff got stuck toward the back and poor Kelly was ALL THE WAY in the back. I sat next to a woman from the states who works for Cummins doing Human Resources. She has a Catholic upbringing, but had bailed on her faith years ago. This last Christmas, she and her hubby checked out a church in their town that sounds pretty cool. Since then they have been going regularly. Very cool stuff. Sounds like she is really piecing her own faith together for the first time. Pray for them.
On this flight, I actually slept a lot (ear plugs do the trick) so by the time we were in Amsterdam, I was awake and ready to go.
SUNDAY
We landed, met Naomi and Patricia, and headed into the city. After settling into our little apartment, we toured the city. Very fun. I am learning my way around this place after 4 trips, so it all feels familiar. That is a welcome change, for sure.
Then, Sunday night, we checked out the services at Zolder50. Very cool. Todd did a great job teaching a chapter in Mark and his heart came out big time. I am very impressed with the caliber of people in this church. Brandon and Laura opened the service with some bluegrass, which apparently is a novelty in Amsterdam (go figure).
I also tried to get my phone to work for about a half hour, but gave up.
MONDAY
Monday, I jetted to Germany for the day. I already posted about that, so I will leave it be.
TUESDAY
We got up early to pray with some people from the church. I jetted out early to try calling T-Mobile for the second time (my phone still wasn’t working).
The highlight of this day was working with de Kleft, which is a YWAM outreaching to the Red Light District. We hung out on the bridges talking with people about whatever. Often it turned into talking about the whole RLD thing. One particularly telling conversation was with a few Brazilian men who were here for business. We had a long conversation with them about prostitution in Brazil. Here is a transcript of the end of the conversation:
DUDE: There is so much prostitution in Brazil because the women there love sex so much.
ME: So what does the average housewife or mom in Brazil think of the prostitution?
DUDE: They think it’s fine because they love sex too and understand.
ME: So what does the average wife think about her husband going to have sex with a prostitute?
DUDE: We’re going to go and walk around now. It was nice talking with you. Goodbye.
WEDNESDAY
This was our day off in the city. We shopped, ate good food, etc. But the highlight of this day was I got to hang out with my friend Roel. We met two years ago and finally got to catch up. Dan and I hooked up with him and his friend Nilo around 7:00. Later on some friends joined us and we ended up staying out until 1:00 or 2:00, I can’t remember when we got back. It was awesome to catch up with him. He has some great theology, as well. Here’s his most profound nugget of truth:
“God is like a dad. If you are a dad, you love your kids so much and want your kids to have fun even if they hurt themselves. You want your kids to skateboard if they want to, even though you know they will fall and hurt themselves. That is God and freewill. He let’s us do things that will hurt us, because he loves us and has granted us freewill.”
Of course Roel stole that from Dan Brown (admittedly), and he thinks God is nuts for giving us freewill and may not even exist because that makes him nuts, but it’s decent theology nevertheless. Here are some pics from that night. This is Roel:
This is Nilo:
This is Roel and his future wife. Although she doesn’t know it. I’m going to do their wedding for them:
THURSDAY
We were up in the wee hours the next morning to watch Olivia Asp. Brett and I chilled with her in the morning, walked to a park, and took her to a coffee shop (she ate a banana and crossaint). Here’s her cuteness:
Here’s her and Brett chillin’:
This is her brother. His name is Elliot and he has his own blog:
THURSDAY
Again, we spent the day at de Kleft, in the Red Light District. Then, we went out at night to meet some people. Brett, Melissa, Kelly, Rick, Sander and I went to a place called Bitter Sweet (in English). We didn’t get into too many good conversations, except the one Sander and I had. So, instead we stayed and danced until 3:00am. Of course, Rick and Brett don’t love us so they wouldn’t dance and left early. Oh, and Kelly and I protected each other from creepy people of the opposite sex.
FRIDAY
A final day to meet people and talk. Brett, Rick and I headed first to the World Press Photo to try to talk with people, but it was way to somber. There were three photos that made me cry. This is my favorite:
Please don’t copy it because it is copyrighted. Please link only to their site which is here: World Press Photo. I think you have to be a dad to have this really affect you the way if affected me.
That night was Queen’s Night, so we stayed out late and it was pretty fun. I did something else that, but I can’t remember what it was. That’s Amsterdam for you.
SATURDAY
Queen’s Day. That’s all I can say. The city was packed. Here’s a picture that does not do it justice:
The city dresses in orange and celebrates the queen’s birthday with music, food, flea markets, and drink. It is a blast.
I wandered the city with Roel and his friends. That was quite the event. In the City Center, people were packed like sardines. Insane.
And considering that some in our crew were pretty doped up, that made for an interesting time. Roel said we should all pray for Daniel, and I think that is probably true. He had a gram of hash in a brownie, some magic mushrooms, some Ritalin, some pot, and lots of alcohol. I was praying last night that he would live through the night. Seriously.
Then, last night we had a bluegrass night at the Zolder. Some Americans we met at the crazy slingshot came. It was very cool. One of them (Erica…who is Korean, by the way) is from Michigan. Small world. Anyhoo, they came and hung out til midnight or so. By the way, this video of the slingshot was already posted on the Riv blog, but I thought I would toss it up here again. It’s freakin’ awesome. This is Dan and I in the thing. You’ll hear me yell out props to Michigan from up there.
Also, I found out that T-Mobile finally unlocked my cell phone. Great. I can use it for one day.
Anyhoo, that’s about it. It has been a long week. Very different from the first time we took a team here, but worth it, nonetheless.
I gotta go now.
Love you all.
Really, man, I do.
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