I’m back! Haha… and I have been since March 22nd.  Life got busy once again and I have been neglecting updating you on how the trip went.  For this I am truly sorry.

For starters, it was great getting to fly with someone who had never flown before.  There are not many times when I get the opportunity to explain how airplanes work – and luckily he wanted to know or at least was willing to pretend to listen.

After we arrived we basically started work.  We had a cultural adjustment meeting and talked about what to expect and what we were going to be doing for the week.  I went there expecting, well, not a whole lot because I did not know what to expect.  The one thing I did know is that we were going to be helping Zolder50 (the church there) out in any way that they needed – and that is exactly what we did.  They kept us busy from the time we woke up till about an hour before we fell asleep, so for roughly 14-16 hours a day.

Two days during the week we walked around the University of Amsterdam campus talking to people and praying.  It isn’t really known outside of the Netherlands, but a lot of their highest points are being shutdown because so many people are committing suicide.  The reason?  People are disconnected from each other and more importantly God.  So for those two days we just tried to engage them in conversation about spirituality and purpose, which, the ones that had time, they were all willing to talk about (something very taboo to do here in the states).  What we found out, though, is that most of them had not given any real thought to what their purposes are, why they are on this world.

One day during our time in the city we performed a service project.  We installed soundproofing flooring for a guy.  It was actually an interesting project because we had to first roll up the linoleum that was installed, then lay the pre-made flooring twice (two layers), and then roll the linoleum back out such that in the end it looks like we didn’t do anything at all.

On another day we went into the heart of the red-light district to talk to whoever we could.  We positioned ourselves on several of the bridges and stayed there for several hours.  Here are two little known facts about Amsterdam and its red-light district: 1)if you stick up your thumb and pretend that this represents the size of the red-light district, the whole of Amsterdam extends 12-15 inches on each size of it – the area that, among the young, Amsterdam is most known for is that small compared to the rest of the city, and 2) 95-99% of the women who line the windows in the red-light district are real life SLAVES, they have been SOLD into that life of prostitution.  Yes, slavery and the slave trade is still alive and well in the world and I do not know how we could let it happen.

This is a long post and it is filled with some basic details of what we did.  In later posts (who knows how much later) I will write in more detail on many of the topics that I mentioned here.  By in large, for my first ever mission trip it was a grand success.  So therefore, until next time…

Ciao! Ciao!