...for those waiting to hear and see about Amsterdam.
The trip was wonderful! I can say that we walked away changed.
We left Friday the 27th amid a concerned flurry trying to track down our 6th team member...who was on the flight the whole time :) We arrived early Saturday morning in Amsterdam. Trey and Rob, the "overseas workers" met us at the airport and kept us awake by walking/sightseeing all over Amsterdam.
Michael and I have traveled pretty extensively in Europe but this city is unique. Amsterdam feels like a comfortable fit for an American and is very pretty...also a city that one does not particularly go to sightsee but rather live and enjoy the pace of life here.
Michael and I sit in the airport waiting for the flightand amuse ourselves by taking the obligatory self-portrait
A glimpse of the uninviting but rather grand Greenland mountains
First view of the Netherlands' coast
Important People :-)
Matt, pastor of a church in Slotermeer, and Femke, his wifeHannah and Judah
Rob, Katie, and Josiah Darnell(family in Osdorp)
Trey and Madeline being goofy(Trey and Whitney Sapp live in Slotermeer)
Whitney was sick most of our visit which explains why we do not have a family photo for them
Whitney pre-sickness
Sean (Trey and Whitney's son)
our team
relishing our last dinner at Hard Rock Cafe
The hooks on the top of the buildings are used with a pulley and ropeto move furniture or appliances in and out of the upper stories of the house or apartment
Bicycles everywhere--more on that later...
The Anne Frank House
A wedding on the canal
Sand soccer at the "Dam" plaza
The Rijksmuseum magnificent facade and grounds (within view of our hotel room)--
Speaking of our hotel room...We had perhaps the best room in the whole hotel! The Museum hotel was under construction (which is why we as a group were able to afford it), and I had read some rather poor reviews. It turned out that the lobby was nearing completion and the other construction was minimal and not discernable within our room. We were in room 210. (actually the 3rd floor) We were right next to the elevator so I was again prepared for noise all the time, but actually we never heard it. The only noise we got was from the outside street. (If you are a light sleeper, this was not the room for you) But that kind of noise just fascinated me all the more. We had a corner room that had 4 sets of huge French door/windows. (where we could walk out the door to a mini balcony that was not meant to be stood on :) ) The views overlooked the street, a canal, and the Rijksmuseum. The second floor had already been remodeled (I think there were still some last minute touch-ups, but...) and we had a very modern (albeit a bit small) and romantic (partly because a bit small) nook to spend our week. (These pictures, as usual, do not do it justice)
the first floor with a balcony
We had the windows on either side
of this middle one in our unusual shaped room(and an extra one for good measure in our bathroom)
The view from our room (the beautiful Rijksmuseum)As for our ministry...I appreciated it so much because we were not doing anything much out of the ordinary schedule of the families we were working alongside. It gave Michael and I a glimpse of life living and working on the mission field. One family lived in Osdorp and the other in Slotermeer. These are both suburbs of Amsterdam (about a 20 minute tram ride--mainly because there were about 10 stops in between Central Amsterdam and our stops)
We visited a middle east market on the second day. Not such a culture shock for Michael and I after our visit to my parents over Christmas. We spent the afternoon training and discussing what we would do the rest of the week. We also went to an Asylum center. (no, not an insane asylum...rather a huge dormitory style building where the immigrants who are asking for asylum stay until the government decides whether to grant them resident status. Individual bedrooms with a shared bathroom and kitchen. Many of the people had been living like this for years. WOW! We walked the halls and knocked on doors and offered some sweets while striking up conversations. The girls discovered how to drink coffee in every room we went (and I cannot even stand coffee!) and had some wonderful conversations with some very sweet people. They were so eager to talk to someone since they are somewhat isolated in Holland while waiting for a response--they cannot work or leave for any extended period of time. There were many Iraqis there...(which we quickly discovered as we watched the last few seconds of the Iraqi championship in the Asian Cup--soccer-- via satellite t.v.) This was one of the highlights of the trip for our entire group! and then early to bed.
The third day we split into teams of two and each had a zone of the two neighborhoods in which to prayer walk and strike up conversations with those around us. We walked the perimeter of our zone the third day. (many of the gorgeous landscape/flower/canal pictures are from that day in Osdorp-what an incredible walk!!!) While we were aiming to learn more about the immigrant community in the area, we found ourselves often striking up conversations with the Dutch too...
The fourth and fifth days were spent walking around inside our zones--we spent time primarily in the commercial areas where all the folks were. We struck up conversations in Turkish bakeries, in film stores, in pet stores, etc... The families we were working with were hoping to get more information in order to develop future relationships either with people we met or in order to better meet the immigrants' needs. We went to the park in the evening and the boys on our team played pick-up soccer and basketball. Dena and I sat, ate the offered sunflower seeds (yuk! not like American sunflower seeds) and smiled and held a somewhat limited conversation with 3 Moroccan ladies who spoke almost no English.
The fifth day we had a picnic in the park and invited children from the neighborhood.
We were walking probably about 10 miles a day (and I was loving every moment of it--thanks for those who prayed for beautiful weather--it changed from 50s and rainy to 70-80s and sunny. Wonderful!) There are so many more lives we briefly met (and hopefully planted seeds)... Ministry there is all about building the relationships (going back to the same bakery, restaurant, grocers etc... day after day) I was so aware of making the most of every opportunity (something I hope that I continue to focus on here in the States)
Here are some photos of Osdorp and Slotermeer.
a reminder of our time in Saudi
(she is even wearing gloves)
a windmill in Slotermeer
one of our common pitstops for
Turkish pizza or donners
and some conversation with the
Turkish owners or clerks
I discovered I like the Turkish and Moroccan food
much better than the Dutch food!
we discovered that not only do satellite dishes
imply a larger population of immigrants, but
which direction they are pointed can also lend a clue
as to which country individuals are from
These painted dishes were cuter than the average
a pet store where Michael and I struck up conversation
with 2 Dutch girls and one of the employees, also a Dutch girl
she was actually feeding the bronze lamb some of her ice cream
a bite for her, a bite for the lamb
(unfortunately, my camera did not catch the spoonfeeding)
a Moroccan dish lovingly made by a Moroccan lady
for whom David and Chad painted a living room
a building converted into a Mosque
Market day
a fascinating building with a hole in the center
the trees are in "flower" pots about 10 feet tall
and the trees themselves, maybe 30 feet tall
The flora and fauna we saw...
I had read that herons are nationally protectedWe sure did see a lot of them--everywhere!
Including in the middle of the street
and in front of houses (almost thought this one was a statue)
and of course, the painted cows
Guess which animal is living?!?Answer (the duck!)
There were a lot of seagulls around too
idyllic comes to mind
a few unpainted cows :-)
flowers everywhere in Amsterdam!people carrying fresh bouquets, a common sight
ducks, another common sight
this time, can you guess which ones are alive? :-)
Other interesting sights--
Transportation 101
The BICYCLE
the most common means of transportation in Amsterdam. Where cars yield to pedestrians, bikes do not. It takes a while to get used to crossing from one sidewalk over a bike path to a mini-median across 2 lanes of traffic to another mini-median across another bike path until you are finally safe on the other sidewalk across the street.
People in Amsterdam ride bikes in every possible situation
while pregnant
while walking a dog
sidesaddle
with babies
in suits
in skirts
double-decker bike parking decks at the train station
Other interesting sights--
Transportation 102
The Mini Car
...and I am not particularly tall
Red is our silver(I only saw one or two in any color but red)
Even the mini tractor was red!
Our sixth and final day in Amsterdam, we spent the morning going back to Slotermeer and making final visits. The afternoon we spent in sightseeing again. We decided to take the 20 minute train ride to Haarlem, home of the Corrie Ten Boom house. For me, this was another highlight of our trip! (especially since I wasn't expecting it to be)
I knew of Corrie Ten Boom's story, had read her book The Hiding Place. However, I was not prepared to see it in a whole new light. As Trey told us, where the Anne Frank house is full of history, the Ten Boom house is full of hope (and history). The English tour was not supposed to be more than 15 people (which even still would have been packed) but the tour guide, not wanting to turn anyone away, packed more than 30 of us in the small rooms. We saw the family room above the watch shop, the dining room, Corrie and Betsey's bedrooms (how ever did they even fit a bed, much less be able to stretch your legs into a full reclined position?), and even more anticipated, the room with and including the "hiding place." This hiding place was maybe a five foot by 1 1/2 foot room hidden behind a brick facade in the room and accessed by crawling through a hidden trap door in the linen cupboard. It became a safe place for Jews during the WWII Holocaust. In fact, six Jews were hidden there for 2+ days before being able to escape.
The Ten Boom family were rounded up merely for suspision of helping these Jews and everyone but Corrie died in a concentration camp.
What I found the most fantastic was the the Dutch lady who led the tour. She lived in Amsterdam during that time period and has a personal experience of going through the Holocaust. She just radiated Jesus' love!!! She shared the whole story of the family and their fate as well as the message of hope they had in their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. She plainly spelled out the gospel message several times. I was sitting in a room with 40 other people (and this was just one tour of many that one day). Many of the people come to this house as history tourists. Many non-Christians come through the door every day/month/year.
How the Ten Boom legacy has impacted so many more than just the Jews they helped in WWII! What an incredible message to be able to preach everyday!!! a watchshop to this day
(run by a different family)
to tell the Jews whether it was safe to enter the house or not Day 7, we boarded our plane and headed back to Houston (not too bad thanks to a direct flight).
So in summary, the trip was wonderful! Inspiring and hopefully life changing!
The Ten Boom family were watchmakers
the ground floor is still the cupboard with the secret panel
Michael emerging from the secret panel
Can you tell how claustrophobic this would have been?
This is the actual signal they used in WWIIHaarlem town square
St. Bavo Cathedral in Haarlem
these next few are around Haarlem
Michael on the train ride back to Amsterdam
