This is definitely a bitter sweet day! I would have liked to have stayed in Amsterdam a little bit longer, I feel like we just got here and much more could have been gotten from this trip if we had been here a ways longer. But God is so good! and I'm sure I'll be back here and he and a lot of you blessed me so much by making it possible for me to come!!! Thank you all! I love all of you so much and it will be good to go home it has been 33 days since I have been home!! To everyone who hosted me on my trip in various locations, you were all an enormous blessing to me, and I will never forget you! May God bless you beyond our understanding for your willingness to serve him! feel free to email me if you have any questions or anything you would like to hear more on from my trip and about Amsterdam! I would love to share more!
Last night we got to go to the bible study that we went to last week, the one where there are women who have gotten out and are trying to get out of the trade of working behind the windows here in Amsterdam!! THOSE WOMEN ARE PRECIOUS!! One of them prayed her first public prayer while praying for us to have a safe trip home! It was amazing, i don't deserve that precious gift!! but, i feel like Good really fulfilled part of the inspiration for the trip last night... I wrote in my support letters that I wanted to be able to love on women and people here without a price tag... and last night we got to do that, God gave me a couple of words of encouragement for 2 of the ladies and I got to pray for them... and god showed me how much he loves them!!! Those women are Jesus' favorite!!!!!!!!!!! I wish I could take you guys for a little trip through my heart so you could understand how I feel right now! I definitely see how I would love to do something long term here to really be able to love those women enough to make a dent/difference in the amazing souls here in this beautiful city!!
I have to go catch a train to catch a plane to catch another plane to catch a car to catch my bed! we'll be home 12:00am california time 6am Amsterdam time!! pray for us and that the flights are fast... and I will blog more when I return and can process more of what god has done and is doing!!
I LOVE ALL OF YOU!
happy blogging
--kim
Monday, June 29, 2009
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Amsterdam has been amazing!
okay so Wednesday... we went to a cafe for coffee and pastry for breakfast. Dutch coffee is really strong!!!! Then we went walking down the big shopping street down to the famed Flower Market that is entirely on water! Tulips aren't in season right now, but they sell bulbs by the trillion! and they even have ones that are certified to be able to grow in the us if they are brought over!! I might have to bring some!
Then we went to a prayer and worship session at the YWAM Tabernacle... it is a prayer house modeled after the 24 hour Kansas City IHOP (International House Of Prayer) . They pray for the City of Amsterdam and for the Pastors and for the YWAM base and for God to powerfully move in the lives of the people here. So we went to a session where they worshiped Jesus, and worshiped from what we sensed from the holy spirit and sang scriptures and prayed that God would teach us to have respect for the authorities God has put over us and also to respect our fellow brothers and sisters in the lord:
Romans 14
1 Accept other believers who are weak in faith, and don’t argue with them about what they think is right or wrong...7 For we don’t live for ourselves or die for ourselves. 8 If we live, it’s to honor the Lord. And if we die, it’s to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 Christ died and rose again for this very purpose—to be Lord both of the living and of the dead.
10 So why do you condemn another believer[a]? Why do you look down on another believer? Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. 11 For the Scriptures say,
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bend to me,
and every tongue will confess and give praise to God.[b]’”
12 Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God. 13 So let’s stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall.
Then we went to a BBQ for all the people that work at the Cleft house.... Venezualen BBQ prepared by our blessed sister Edna, cooked by Desi our host who is a professional chef and is Canadian, in the apartment below ours of Wilfred and Carolina who are from India... and we are in the Netherlands and we are from America... so there alone 5 countries are represented... not to mention the people from Germany, Poland, and Ghana that were there!! :)
Thursday I was able to meet the Pastor and his wife from the Vineyard here in Amsterdam, got to go outside of the Center... the Center is what they call the oldest part of Amsterdam where most of all the people and stuff are and where we are staying in the Red Light District. I had tea with them and talked about our different Vineyard Churches! They were amazing and very hospitable, I'm glad I got to meet them!
Then we went to the Thursday Soup Kitchen day at the Cleft, prepared sandwiches and soup and coffee and tea and they open the house up for 3 hours for anyone to come in and have as much as they like as long as everyone gets some! We got to hang out with all homeless people in the district and be their friends and love them the way the Jesus does! I had the best time... I met people from all over Europe! Lots of interesting people, a few of them High... tried to offer me a few things and I gave them soup! met someone from Louisiana who is here trying to escape Obama.... he was hilarious, very blunt! But we had an amazing time serving Jesus
Friday we went to another session at the Tabernacle and we prayed for the City Pastors and that God would continue to work in their lives and guide them in his light! There is the best and most amazing peace in the Prayer room! I love being there, I definitely want to have one at my church!
and then we painted with Will in the Cleft House. Will is one of the guys on saff, he is from Minnesota, and boy is he from Minnesota... lots of minnesotan phrases!! Hilarious! and Kim and Will and I Painted for 6 hours in the Cleft house, they have needed to do some more stuff for a while so we got to make a significant dent in the work needed to be done as well as put our fingerprints there! Will took us to the best ice cream place, the ice cream is like iced whipped cream ice cream for 90 euro cents and then to the best patat place in town... patats are big french fries in a paper cone with Mayonaise on top! dutch specialty and really good!
Then we went to the Tuschinski Theater and saw a movie.... it is a really old and beautiful theater here, the building is as well older then our country! we went home afterwards and Edna who lives in our apartment also brought some missionaries home that are from Brazil and work with YWAM there, they invited us to visit their extensive ministries anytime!
Kim and I went to the Corrie Ten Boom Museum in Haarlem today which is a 20 minute train ride away! and our new Brazilian friends came with us! We got to spend the day there... Haarlem is kind of like a smaller version of Amsterdam and we got to see the place where the Ten Boom family hid Jewish people during WW2! We had the best time and Adrianna and Deniss from Brazil were amazing! We are still praying about it, but Kim and I definitely think we were supposed to meet them, after knowing them for less then 24 hours we feel like we have known them forever! Man! The family of the LOrd is so amazing!!
Well if I didn;t type your ear off enough, maybe I can remember some more to tell you tomorrow! I love all of you! I'm kind of sad that I only have 3 days left here! Amsterdam is definitely one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen!!!
happy blogging
may the lord bless you and love you and hold you in his arms for the rest of your life!
--kim
Then we went to a prayer and worship session at the YWAM Tabernacle... it is a prayer house modeled after the 24 hour Kansas City IHOP (International House Of Prayer) . They pray for the City of Amsterdam and for the Pastors and for the YWAM base and for God to powerfully move in the lives of the people here. So we went to a session where they worshiped Jesus, and worshiped from what we sensed from the holy spirit and sang scriptures and prayed that God would teach us to have respect for the authorities God has put over us and also to respect our fellow brothers and sisters in the lord:
Romans 14
1 Accept other believers who are weak in faith, and don’t argue with them about what they think is right or wrong...7 For we don’t live for ourselves or die for ourselves. 8 If we live, it’s to honor the Lord. And if we die, it’s to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 Christ died and rose again for this very purpose—to be Lord both of the living and of the dead.
10 So why do you condemn another believer[a]? Why do you look down on another believer? Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. 11 For the Scriptures say,
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bend to me,
and every tongue will confess and give praise to God.[b]’”
12 Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God. 13 So let’s stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall.
Then we went to a BBQ for all the people that work at the Cleft house.... Venezualen BBQ prepared by our blessed sister Edna, cooked by Desi our host who is a professional chef and is Canadian, in the apartment below ours of Wilfred and Carolina who are from India... and we are in the Netherlands and we are from America... so there alone 5 countries are represented... not to mention the people from Germany, Poland, and Ghana that were there!! :)
Thursday I was able to meet the Pastor and his wife from the Vineyard here in Amsterdam, got to go outside of the Center... the Center is what they call the oldest part of Amsterdam where most of all the people and stuff are and where we are staying in the Red Light District. I had tea with them and talked about our different Vineyard Churches! They were amazing and very hospitable, I'm glad I got to meet them!
Then we went to the Thursday Soup Kitchen day at the Cleft, prepared sandwiches and soup and coffee and tea and they open the house up for 3 hours for anyone to come in and have as much as they like as long as everyone gets some! We got to hang out with all homeless people in the district and be their friends and love them the way the Jesus does! I had the best time... I met people from all over Europe! Lots of interesting people, a few of them High... tried to offer me a few things and I gave them soup! met someone from Louisiana who is here trying to escape Obama.... he was hilarious, very blunt! But we had an amazing time serving Jesus
Friday we went to another session at the Tabernacle and we prayed for the City Pastors and that God would continue to work in their lives and guide them in his light! There is the best and most amazing peace in the Prayer room! I love being there, I definitely want to have one at my church!
and then we painted with Will in the Cleft House. Will is one of the guys on saff, he is from Minnesota, and boy is he from Minnesota... lots of minnesotan phrases!! Hilarious! and Kim and Will and I Painted for 6 hours in the Cleft house, they have needed to do some more stuff for a while so we got to make a significant dent in the work needed to be done as well as put our fingerprints there! Will took us to the best ice cream place, the ice cream is like iced whipped cream ice cream for 90 euro cents and then to the best patat place in town... patats are big french fries in a paper cone with Mayonaise on top! dutch specialty and really good!
Then we went to the Tuschinski Theater and saw a movie.... it is a really old and beautiful theater here, the building is as well older then our country! we went home afterwards and Edna who lives in our apartment also brought some missionaries home that are from Brazil and work with YWAM there, they invited us to visit their extensive ministries anytime!
Kim and I went to the Corrie Ten Boom Museum in Haarlem today which is a 20 minute train ride away! and our new Brazilian friends came with us! We got to spend the day there... Haarlem is kind of like a smaller version of Amsterdam and we got to see the place where the Ten Boom family hid Jewish people during WW2! We had the best time and Adrianna and Deniss from Brazil were amazing! We are still praying about it, but Kim and I definitely think we were supposed to meet them, after knowing them for less then 24 hours we feel like we have known them forever! Man! The family of the LOrd is so amazing!!
Well if I didn;t type your ear off enough, maybe I can remember some more to tell you tomorrow! I love all of you! I'm kind of sad that I only have 3 days left here! Amsterdam is definitely one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen!!!
happy blogging
may the lord bless you and love you and hold you in his arms for the rest of your life!
--kim
Friday, June 26, 2009
Sorry I haven't posted in three days!!!
wow!! I can't believe time can fly by so fast but be so slow at the same time!!!!!
I want to share all that has happen! but it is 12:30 in the at night and we are leaving to visit Haarlem, the Netherlands to visit Corrie ten Booms house tomorrow at 9am... so I promis tomorrow when we get home I eill in depth share all that has happened since Tuesday!!!
I love everyone!!
happy blogging--kim
still have no desire to try hash while I'm here... has nothing to do with religious reasons, just being here has made it absolutely not appealing!!!
I want to share all that has happen! but it is 12:30 in the at night and we are leaving to visit Haarlem, the Netherlands to visit Corrie ten Booms house tomorrow at 9am... so I promis tomorrow when we get home I eill in depth share all that has happened since Tuesday!!!
I love everyone!!
happy blogging--kim
still have no desire to try hash while I'm here... has nothing to do with religious reasons, just being here has made it absolutely not appealing!!!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Red Light District
So today we were able to go a YWAM chapel service. It was really great being able to worship with them and share in our faith in Jesus and continue to be family with christians all over the world. There are so many different Nationalities here! There are people from everywhere!!
Then we got to babysitt our host's kids again we took them for walks around the city and feed them lunch and get sandwiches at a local deli... and tried real dutch licorice today! It was disgusting!!!
The we went Prayer walking i the Red Light District with a group from the Cleft, the YWAM ministry we are working and staying with. We got to learn about all the different areas and nationalities and sex areas of the district... there is actually a lot of cultural stuff and influences going on and lots of clashing and a lot more to the area then most people visitng would ever notice! and we got to minister to people in the area, mainly homeless people.... and pretty much just talking with them like friends and asking if they are interested in hearing anything about Jesus or coming to a church service any time... if they don't we don't make anything of it we bid them a good day... met this guy named Johaam from Portugal and I think he might start coming to a service now and again!! He was really nice and seemed to enjoy hearing about Jesus!
Then tonight we got to serve coffee at one of the services! They have the doors open for 2 hours to any homeless people or anoyne to come in help themselves to coffee, tea,sweetness and creamed or not and cookies and then participate in worship and a sermon and hang out and chill with us for however long they want. This is an opportunity for them to continue to build relationship and hopefully have fruit from loving these people as much like Jesus as we can!
Now I have to crash and sleep... it is 2pm Cali. time but 11pm here!
I love you guys a lot!!]happy blogging
--kim
Then we got to babysitt our host's kids again we took them for walks around the city and feed them lunch and get sandwiches at a local deli... and tried real dutch licorice today! It was disgusting!!!
The we went Prayer walking i the Red Light District with a group from the Cleft, the YWAM ministry we are working and staying with. We got to learn about all the different areas and nationalities and sex areas of the district... there is actually a lot of cultural stuff and influences going on and lots of clashing and a lot more to the area then most people visitng would ever notice! and we got to minister to people in the area, mainly homeless people.... and pretty much just talking with them like friends and asking if they are interested in hearing anything about Jesus or coming to a church service any time... if they don't we don't make anything of it we bid them a good day... met this guy named Johaam from Portugal and I think he might start coming to a service now and again!! He was really nice and seemed to enjoy hearing about Jesus!
Then tonight we got to serve coffee at one of the services! They have the doors open for 2 hours to any homeless people or anoyne to come in help themselves to coffee, tea,sweetness and creamed or not and cookies and then participate in worship and a sermon and hang out and chill with us for however long they want. This is an opportunity for them to continue to build relationship and hopefully have fruit from loving these people as much like Jesus as we can!
Now I have to crash and sleep... it is 2pm Cali. time but 11pm here!
I love you guys a lot!!]happy blogging
--kim
Monday, June 22, 2009
Last night!
i have to leave in 1 minute, but I have to tell you about last night!
we were able to help make dinner for and sit in a bible study wth a bunch of ohenonenal women who have gotten out or are trying to get out of prostitution! They were so amzing! They are all just so hungry for Jesus! If that isn't encouraging or convecting to see... then I don't know what is!! Praise Jesus! I'll tell you more about it when I get back!
happy blogging
--kim
we were able to help make dinner for and sit in a bible study wth a bunch of ohenonenal women who have gotten out or are trying to get out of prostitution! They were so amzing! They are all just so hungry for Jesus! If that isn't encouraging or convecting to see... then I don't know what is!! Praise Jesus! I'll tell you more about it when I get back!
happy blogging
--kim
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Waking up in Amsterdam!
So you wake up and you look out of the window and there is a church outside that is called the "Oude Kerk" which translates "Old Church" and it's older then your country and it dates back to the 1600s.... way awesome... you walk down the street and every building is at least older then your great grandmother!
I went to a Dutch church today! It was called Celebration, it was really cool. They had Dutch songs and English songs and they had the sermon in Dutch and English and it a pretty conservative church for the Netherlands apparently. It was held at one of the main buildings for YWAM Amsterdam and from what I have heard most churches in the Netherlands.. called The Traditional Church... are pretty conservative. It was similar to the Vineyard with a splash of Bethel ( that means a little extra charismatic) It was really great! Everyone was so welcoming and I got a free tote bag!
Then I went to the Van Gogh Museum!!!!!!! It was absolutely Phenomenal!!!!!!! It was so crazy, hearing and reading and studying about van gogh and his paintings and then seeing them your self 2 feet away!!!!!! Oh MY Gosh!! I will never forget that! We saw 1 of his sunflower oieces and some of his most famous self portraits and 200 of his other works from his entire career as well as pieces from Renoir, Millet, Barnard and Redon... AMAZING! I never know Van Gogh's pieces were so Beautiful!!!
Tomorrow we start work with the Cleft!... oh and did I mention that we are staying in the middle of the Red Light District!
Note to readers:
The proper way to pronounce Amsterdam it Omsterdom
The proper way to pronounce van Gogh is van couffff and the "c" is really flemmy and cough-like try to pretend like you are hauking to a loogie
and you really don't need to try your own Hash while you are here! You can just walk down the street and you really can get your own experience....
I went to a Dutch church today! It was called Celebration, it was really cool. They had Dutch songs and English songs and they had the sermon in Dutch and English and it a pretty conservative church for the Netherlands apparently. It was held at one of the main buildings for YWAM Amsterdam and from what I have heard most churches in the Netherlands.. called The Traditional Church... are pretty conservative. It was similar to the Vineyard with a splash of Bethel ( that means a little extra charismatic) It was really great! Everyone was so welcoming and I got a free tote bag!
Then I went to the Van Gogh Museum!!!!!!! It was absolutely Phenomenal!!!!!!! It was so crazy, hearing and reading and studying about van gogh and his paintings and then seeing them your self 2 feet away!!!!!! Oh MY Gosh!! I will never forget that! We saw 1 of his sunflower oieces and some of his most famous self portraits and 200 of his other works from his entire career as well as pieces from Renoir, Millet, Barnard and Redon... AMAZING! I never know Van Gogh's pieces were so Beautiful!!!
Tomorrow we start work with the Cleft!... oh and did I mention that we are staying in the middle of the Red Light District!
Note to readers:
The proper way to pronounce Amsterdam it Omsterdom
The proper way to pronounce van Gogh is van couffff and the "c" is really flemmy and cough-like try to pretend like you are hauking to a loogie
and you really don't need to try your own Hash while you are here! You can just walk down the street and you really can get your own experience....
Saturday, June 20, 2009
In Amsterdam and Yesterday was my 21st Birthday!
So we are here!! I have to make this quick, because We have spent 2 days traveling to get to Amsterdam one of them was my birthday! Yay! andI haveonly had 3 hours of sleep!
But I have had my first legal drinks! in airports :) it was fun and I got a lot of phone calls while we were in the US and now we are in Amsterdam! This is one of the most beautiful places I have every been to! we are staying right in the middle of the red light district, I can see women for sale from our window and men peeing outside... and to all those wondering about my views on Hash... Who needs to try it when you get your own personal experience just from walking down the street with the many locals and fun characters around!
I am having an amazing time it is 5pm here 8am in CA and we have been here 8 hours so far and we visited the Anne Franks Museum! It was amazing!
I am about to keil over from exhaustion so I will post more when I revive from my acoma!
I love all of you, and I am perfectly safe, don't worry! :)
happy blogging
--kim
But I have had my first legal drinks! in airports :) it was fun and I got a lot of phone calls while we were in the US and now we are in Amsterdam! This is one of the most beautiful places I have every been to! we are staying right in the middle of the red light district, I can see women for sale from our window and men peeing outside... and to all those wondering about my views on Hash... Who needs to try it when you get your own personal experience just from walking down the street with the many locals and fun characters around!
I am having an amazing time it is 5pm here 8am in CA and we have been here 8 hours so far and we visited the Anne Franks Museum! It was amazing!
I am about to keil over from exhaustion so I will post more when I revive from my acoma!
I love all of you, and I am perfectly safe, don't worry! :)
happy blogging
--kim
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