Week 2 [and a work of God]

Days are busy here.
But let me start off with an AMAZING story...

So every month, YWAM Amsterdam staff get together to pray for YWAM International. This month (today) they asked us, the Kona team, to lead out their hour of prayer and they wanted to focus on YWAM Kona and praying for financial needs. The reason being, is that the Kona base was suppose to be needing a large amount of money for a deadline sometime soon. Chase, our leader, thought that the deadline was for the 50+ acres next to the base and the apartments to get paid off...But we wanted more details. We knew it was one of the biggest deadlines they have ever had...we estimated around $3million.
So we sat in our Family Room last night planning the prayer time for today. We wanted to get more information on what was needed in order to explain to the base here today. So Chase called his friend who is on staff in Kona. He asked what was the deal with the financial situation and what was needed and when. His friend goes something like "You haven't heard? You won't even believe what happened."

We sit there listening intently as his friend talks over speaker phone on the laptop.
This is what happened...

In ONE DAY: (which happened to be the first day of the year of Jubilee according to the Jewish calendar...just last week)
-Wells Fargo called saying that the base's 7-year battle for the apartments and 50+acres of land was won. The contract ended and we officially got it all.
-The new housing building that was really needed for the new quarter finally passed inspection and they had been waiting for a long time
-And someone anonymously donated $4.7million in cash to completely pay off everything needed for the huge cafeteria/classrooms/media center that was planned to be built. (they have already flown out the contractors to get started)

ALSO: (either that same day or shortly after)
-the largest quarter that YWAM international has ever seen started in Kona with 600 students (it must be crazy there right now...)
-Someone also gave a donation of about $320,000 to the base

Yeah, that all happened.
What an insane testimony of GOD's FAITHFULNESS TO PROVIDE!!!!

Anyways...some stuff about this last week.
Friday and Monday we started the homeless ministry that the base does here. Basically, we prepared coffee and tea and cake to hand out to the group of 40-70 men and women that gather in the square right outside every week. The base has been doing this for a long time so the people running it know all the men and everything. It's about 10 people total that have been helping.
I was kind of nervous, not knowing what to expect...never worked with the homeless. I was one of the people handing out coffee the first night. It was interesting. Mostly men, but you wouldn't pass them on the street and think they are homeless. And it was people from all around the world. Uzbekistan, Spain, China, Estonia, Austria, Hungary, etc. So many languages. Most of the us speak only English so it was interesting communicating. A lot of them do know English and can hold a conversation. But they are really there to talk. Also, we were told that a lot of Americans are also homeless. Men that come for the fun of Amsterdam and get sucked into drugs and don't leave. We definitely met some of those. Actually a lot of people come there to have fun. But it's really sad because they say they are happy here but you can tell on their face that they are in bondage to darker things.

The first night, Mary and I ended up talking to an older guy, Orlando, and a younger guy, Sufiano,  from Spain. Orlando was so funny and light hearted. He told us about all the places he traveled. He speaks so many languages too. His English was broken but we still laughed with him. He made me talk in French to him. He kept teaching us words in other languages like Greek and Spanish. It was really fun just connecting and building a friendship.

It's a lot different than I thought it would be. Harder. They have some crazy strongholds and ideas. But we are there to mostly listen. I'm learning a lot and will write more about that later.

Let's see...what else...
-Our team led a 2-hour worship/prayer session for staff in students in the 24-hr prayer room in the RLD. That was funny because none of us are very musically talented (I played the jimbay...that gives you an example of what it was like hahaha). But it was actually really good!
-Got to more places around the city. Went to the Albert Cuypmarkt...the biggest outdoor market in Europe. Pretty cool. Was only there 10 minutes so I'll have to go back soon.

albert cuypmarkt

 -On Wednesday we had another faith journey. Four of us girls went back to one of the markets to visit a man they had met the day before. He's an old Muslim man who runs one of the stands that sells clothes. He's so funny and easy going. Knows everyone in the neighborhood. It's another one of those big markets that a lot of different kinds of people go to but the neighborhood seems mainly Muslim. What was interesting was that he immediately asked us if we read the Bible and tested Eli's knowledge of it. He then opened up a conversation about the different between Christianity and Islam. He told us he loves talking about religion so it was such an easy open door. But he mainly talked and we were only able to get some words in every so often. I was surprised that this conversation about religion even started. But yeah, it was interesting. We talked to him for at least a half hour and he wants us to come back to visit him. The next 2 months should be good. I'm excited for that contact. 

Oh yeah! And something I'm excited about...

We got connected with a Christian hostel in Amsterdam. It's kind of by the RLD and it does really well because it's one of the cheapest hostels. Anyways, we went there on Tuesday and met with one of the managers who is excited to have us join the team. They have their own cafe, courtyard, open-mic nights, Bible studies, etc. and probably only have the people that stay there are Christians. So it's a really cool mission field. All the staff are great and they just share the love of Jesus with everyone who passes through. Super easy-going atmosphere (when you got Explosions in the Sky and Owl City playing in the cafe...you know it's a good place to be :). 

Basically what we will be doing there is having 2 people hanging out there in the mornings and just talking and meeting people. Chilling in the cafe. Maybe even helping work the cafe. A lot of the staff are Americans too. 3 of our team started it yesterday and had a good time just talking to people traveling all over the world. Tomorrow night Jeanette and I are helping with a "Dutch culture" night they put on every 2-weeks. So we will be working in the cafe. I'm excited for this oppurtunity! It's a really cool place and it's good to be part of a ministry outside of YWAM. What a smart idea...opening up a hostel to reach people. So great!

So I think that's all for now...These 2 weeks have been just about setting stuff up and getting connected with people and places. Now that we have seen everything we will be really doing stuff. 

More to come! But here are some photos from the week...