Amsterdam, Neitherlands

We were in Amsterdam for 3 weeks really learning about the history of Europe, government/economy, and stuff about the Middle East. It was really interesting looking at how Europe and specifically how everything in Amsterdam got started. When you look at everything that is going on within the City, it is amazing to see that the Netherlands were founded on Christianity more then any other place, yet they couldn’t seem more away from Christianity then any country. It just really shows that when God’s hand is on a place so much that is where Satan is going to try to tare it down as much as he can. I was challenged in the area of government and economic. I think as Christians we pull away from that area in our society because it is so “worldly” when that is one of the places that we should be getting involved in more then ever. 

While I was in Amsterdam I started working on night photography, which is something that I have never really explored before in a serious way. I know God wants to take me to a deeper place in my photography, so this was one of the ways that I have started doing it. There was a carnival in the center of town that I went to shoot a lot of photos at. It was something fun to explore doing and seeing what all I could do with my photos! 

In the YWAM base that we were staying at there was a prayer tower that overlooked the whole city and got to see God beauty in the meantime. As we prayed over the city, our team, and more God really started showing us more and more of His presence and heart for our team. The heart God gave us for the injustice in this world and the fight that we are trying to make for it, He continued to renew us and constantly fill us back up!

As I walk down the streets of the Red Light Districted my heart is literally torn out and trying to understand where is God, is impossible! There are no quick answers to explain what happened here and how things have gotten so bad. Walking the streets with red lights along all the buildings and women standing in the windows in bad enough to see but then you have to watch the way these women are treated. Its like people are looking for the newest fashion window shopping. Groups of men and tourists walk past a window, start pointing, and talking about what they see. They walk up close to the window to examine the "thing" thats there. Its just not something that makes sense! How did our world come to this place of being so broken that we have women standing in window to be sold for sex and men that come from all around the world to satisfy a need within them! My heart is so broken for the world I live in and that all I want to do is fight for it anyway I can! Standing up against a world of injustices with God, prayer, the Word on my side, and my camera!

The second we all get to Amsterdam and within the community, God poured into our hearts the desire to be in the community and making an impact some way! The YWAM base that we lived at while we were there started a Prayer Tabernacle in the middle of the Red Light District, so our team spent as much time over there as we could. 

As we went in groups to pray over the city, God started putting a lot on our hearts individually to do something within the District for the prostitutes. A group of about 12 of us that really felt like God was calling us to buy a ton of rose, pull messages on them and then splitting up into couples to go to the door of the prostitutes giving them a flower. It was hard at first to get the courage to go up to each window but as we did God started working. These women whole faces changed as they got handed a flower. There were women that just stood there staring at it like an 8 years little girl again, others asked why we would do something like that. We would tell them different things that God laid on our hearts like you are not forgotten, you are loved without a price and many more. One of the groups even got a chance to sit down with one of the women and really just hear her story and minister to her by just wanting to listen. The response was amazing and it felt like we just didn’t have enough roses to give away!