Day 4

Prayer:

Psalm 43:3-5

“O send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.”

Devotion:

Deuteronomy 7:17-19

“If you say to yourself, “These nations are more numerous than I; how can I dispossess them?” do not be afraid of them. Just remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.”

Journal:

Yesterday was hard and great. The morning started off with a fantastic meeting with a pioneer pastor in the Betondorp neighborhood in western Amsterdam. Rev. Margrietha is a wonderful soul with a heart for the community in which she ministers and while the project she is working on is only 6 months old (an “embryo” in her words), her team of community members has really been engaged in having conversations with their neighbors. Margrietha’s simple formula to church planting is to: 1. Don’t be ashamed of your faith and don’t hide your identity as a Christian. 2. Make a positive message of Christianity as joyful, interesting, engaging, and relating. 3. Show them what love is. By reading the Gospel and meditating on God’s words we can be the ones that bring love into the community. Also, just by being in the community she can see God making the connections between her team and the community. When our friend and member of our group Allison (who joins us from the great nation of Scotland) asked a question about sustainability of leadership, the pastor’s response was great: You have to train the elders to do the work and to build the relationships so that the ministry isn’t reliant on the pastor and eventually you need to train the next person that will take your position. After a good discussion we grabbed a quick tram ride to a member of Margrietha’s team’s house for tea. Mattanja was a great host in her home. We got to know her and some of her story and was able to hear the struggles and joys of church planting from a core team leader’s perspective.

After lunch at a pub we grabbed the tram again and headed to the Dutch Resistance Museum. This was a place that shared the politics and stories of the time before and during the Nazi control over the Netherlands. It seems to have started slowly and so unassuming but led to tragedy in the land. Many people were identified as Jews and taken to concentration camps from the community where the museum was located. It was surreal to me as we saw the pictures and heard what the Dutch people did in resistance to the acts of the Germans. Many people held refugees in their homes to help protect them from being taken. It is estimated that the Dutch helped hide 300,000 Jews during this time. Take a look at map and look at the size of this country; split it in half because not everybody helped the Resistance, and try to find where 300,000 people could be hid and have access to food and other necessities by their hosts: it was amazing. I can only imagine what the United States can do with the large space and large homes that we have. But it’s not like millions of people are trying to flee their home countries from certain death.

As we were catching a tram to our next destination, I saw a beautiful building and inquired to Dr. van Driel about it. He said that it is a theatre for the arts and it was a place that the German’s occupied during the war and processed the neighborhood Jews to be sent to concentration camps. The very doors that stood at street level were the ones that Jewish people walked into being free people and were taken through as they sealed their nearly certain fate of being exterminated or forced to work in slave labor. Actually seeing this before our eyes was shocking and undoubtedly sad.

After getting on the tram we headed to the Westerkerk (West Church) for an evening lenten prayer gathering. A beautiful time of listening to prayers and scripture in Dutch and English. The time was ended by everyone singing A Mighty Fortress in their own language. The church itself is an amazing 16th century structure that is an beautiful landmark in the neighborhood. Dinner finished off the night. We had traditional Dutch pancakes… which by the way are not French crepes. I had bacon and cheese on mine, which is not authentic, but they were great!

 (A child's comments about the museum.)

(The Jewish Weesperbuurt en Plantage neighborhood.)

(This is the Hollandsche Schouwburg where the Germans processed Jews. It is a standing testament to the power of human perseverance.)