A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich...I mean, Beth Barthle

So, what's a typical day like for Team Amsterdam? Well, there is no typical day...we have a weekly schedule, but every day is different. So, I've picked Friday, because its nearest and dearest to my heart (ok, because it happened yesterday) to give you a glimpse of life on outreach in Amsterdam. Enjoy!

6:00 am - My alarm goes off. It takes me a few seconds to realize what it is, and to remember, with my sleep-fogged brain, how to turn it off. No worries, though, my roommate (shown, awake and with me on the train, to the right :)) could sleep through an earthquake (she tells us regularly that she hopes Jesus will come back during the daytime...otherwise, she might miss the whole 'last trumpet' thing), so she doesn't notice. I head for the shower room (the toilet and shower are separate here...a blessing when sharing an apartment with 6 people) to get ready for my day.

7:00 am - I grab my bible and notebook and head to the living room for quiet time. Most days I spend this time reviewing the songs in the worship set, praying for the worship time and reading a few verses in Isaiah before breakfast. Today, because we'll be heading to the Tabernacle after breakfast for community prayer time instead of having our own team worship and devotional time, I have the luxury of spending the entire time reading, a good thing because Isaiah is waxing especially deep and prophetic today (and I thought it would be a nice, poetic feel-good choice for my outreach reading :)).

8:00 am - Breakfast. The whole team gathers, with varying degrees of alertness, to share a quick bite (a mug of granola & yogurt along with a piece of bread covered in nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread) and peanutbutter for me...hmmm, like a reese's peanut butter cup for breakfast)

8:30 am - We leave for the prayer time at the Tabernacle. The meeting starts at 9:00, but Raphael, Tamika and I are helping with worship, so we need to be a bit early to run through things and pray before everyone arrives.

9:00 am - Community Prayer at the Tabernacle. This week we are praying for the church in Amsterdam. Several of the base leadership as well as this week's speaker, as we hear this morning, have heard from God that revival is coming to the Netherlands, so we pray that the churches and pastors will be unified and ready to see God move and to be part of what He is doing.

We pray using the 'harp and bowl' model, (which I won't pretend to be an expert on, so google 'Harp and Bowl'or 'Kansas City International House of Prayer'if you want the real scoop) which mixes worship with prayer, so we have 8 songs ready for the morning which will be interspersed with times of praying from the Bible and singing 'sentences' together. Praying the Bible, besides being an awesome and powerful way to pray (speaking God's own words back to Him), helps us to stay together, since not everyone speaks English. One reads the scripture reference in English, then reads the verse and prays through it in his own language. The sentences are simple phrases, most often started by the worship team, that the group picks up and sings together for a few moments, usually relating to what was just prayed. For instance, if someone prays from John 17, that we may be one as Jesus and the Father are one, we might all sing 'Lord, make us one' together for a minute or so. That way, among other things, we all participate verbally in most of the prayers that are prayed. The prayer time today is very good, and the presence of God felt as we worship and seek Him together.

11:00 am - Coffee Break (reason number 3,775 why I love the Dutch culture). After the prayer meeting, we adjourn next door to the Cleft (YWAM's ministry in the Red Light District) for coffee and cookies. Several outreach teams have arrived this week from the US, so we spend some time meeting and chatting with them before heading back through the district and up the endless stairs (we live on the fifth floor of Samaritan's Inn, the YWAM building which houses our hosting team, Ethnos) to our apartment. Christiane and I stop off on the second floor to check on our team's laundry. The machines are different than we're used to and my blue and yellow socks are now just blue, but hey, they're clean. :)

12:30 pm - After we haul the laundry upstairs and take a few minutes to relax, it's time for lunch. Generally we have sandwiches, supplemented by whatever might be left over from dinner the night before. Today, I have a fabulous butter and cheese sandwich and leftover mashed potatoes.

1:20 pm - Three of us-me, Christiane and Tamika, leave for ladies' ministry at the Cleft. The Cleft sends out workers with tea, coffee and cookies on Thursday nights to the ladies in the windows and on the street in the Red Light District, to build relationships and share the love of Jesus. While we're here, we're helping them start the same ministry in another part of Amsterdam. There are 34 windows on one side street in our location-a fraction of the number in the RLD, but their occupants need God's love, too, so we board the train after praying and packing our hand cart and basket with everything we'll need. Last week, our first week, no one opened their doors to us, but we pray that as they come to recognize us, things will be different.

3:00 pm - After a 10 minute train ride and short walk, we arrive at our spot. It's my day to walk with Edna, our staff leader, so we leave Tamika and Christiane under some trees on the other side of the street to watch, pray and wait. The first few ladies smile and wave us on, but finally one girl, Andrea* (not her real name...I've changed all the ladies' names to protect their privacy), accepts our offer of free coffee. She asks what kind of coffee it is, and I begin to feel a connection with this fellow coffee lover. We tell her, and she is impressed - apparently whoever does the buying for the Cleft has good taste in Dutch coffee. I try to make a mental note of the name, but decide that other matters are more pressing and join in the short, chatty conversation she and Edna are having. After a few moments, we tell Andrea we'll see her next week and return to the sidewalk.

After a few more refusals, Tia invites us in. She and Maria, the lady in the window next to hers, speak Spanish, so I try to look as loving, caring and understanding as the One who sent me and pray silently--that Edna will have the right words to encourage these women and that God will touch their hearts. Tia invites us behind her window and tells Edna, through tears, about her son who is in jail for drug possession. She is working to pay his legal fees. Edna listens, comforts, encourages and prays. When they are done praying, Edna talks to Tia some more and ends up leading her in giving her life to Jesus. We leave Tia with Edna's number and the promise of our prayers and a return visit next week. We step out onto the sidewalk praising God who not only opened up the windows to us this week, but opened a woman's heart to Him.

We continue down the street, and one more lady, Toni, accepts some lemonade and seems open to talking to us again next week. After retracing our steps, looking for women who may be working the second story windows (we see no one today), we share the exciting news with Tamika and Christiane and board the train for home.

5:30 pm - Raphael and Kyunghee have cooked dinner for us while we were out, so we arrive just in time to pray and eat together. Once we've eaten, we go our seperate ways to recharge and prepare for the evening's activities. I spend some time journaling about the awesome time we spent in the ladies' ministry and then grab a quick 30 minute nap before it's time to hit the road again.

8:00 pm - We begin our walk to De Poort for the homeless ministry. Usually, we would have another half hour to rest, but the Salvation Army contacted Rebecca, who heads the homeless ministry, today to tell her their truck won't be coming to serve dinner tonight. Since then, Rebecca has gone to the store to buy bread and cheese and called to ask us to come early to make sandwiches to supplement the tea, coffee, cake and bananas we usually hand out. We could use the extra sleep, but are grateful that we will get an extra hour with the guys...usually, we wait until the Salvation Army van leaves, around 9:30, before we can go outside. The crowd is a bit lighter than usual today, as word has gotten around that the van is not coming, and hasn't quite gotten around that we will be making up the lack.

It takes Christiane and I a few minutes to recognize Jay* (not his real name), the man we prayed with the week before--he had told us he was suffering from depression, and as we prayed, he started weeping and fell over on his side on the park bench. He reached out for our hands, which we gave, and Christiane first prayed for him then led him in praying himself, asking God to heal his heart and be a part of his life. When Christiane's English failed her (Her native language is Portugese, and she usually does quite well with English, but it was late, we were tired and the situation was pretty intense) I took over for a while. When we were done praying, Jay seemed lighter and more at peace.

Today, a week later, he seems even better, smiling and joking with another man who shares his bench. We go over to talk to him and he assures us that he hasn't forgotten us or our prayers the week before, and we tell him that we haven't forgotten him either and have been praying for him all week. He thanks us and says our prayers have been effective. Christiane steps away for a minute (we are required to work in pairs), but I feel comfortable with Jay and his friend and don't worry too much about her absence until a new man, who is drunk and very friendly, joins our conversation. His idea of personal space and mine are a bit different, and he steps forward and I back until I am several steps away from the bench and outside of my comfort zone. As we chat, I try to keep the conversation centered on God as I sneak glances around him, trying to make eye contact with any of my teammates. They are all engaged in conversation, until I finally lock eyes with Tamika and have to outwardly repress my relief when she starts walking my way. We continue to chat for a few minutes until Rebecca calls us over to help pack up and head inside.

11:00 pm - As our twenty or so minutes of debrief comes to a close, Rebecca reminds us again that we are to stay in pairs, so that we don't find ourselves in the uncomfortable spot I did earlier in the evening. We pray, gather our things and head back to Samaritan's Inn for the night.

12:00 am - Friday is officially over. I turn out the overhead light, settle myself on my mattress on the floor, and then set my alarm by the light of Christiane's bedside lamp. I'll need some extra time in the morning to pick out the worship set, since I didn't find any time during the day today. I think back over the day and say a quick prayer of thanks--it's been a full day, but an amazing one. I have been blessed in our worship and prayer at the Tabernacle, had the privilege of being used by God in the lives of 4 ladies behind the windows, seen His continued work in the life of my homeless friend, and been protected from a possible bad situation with another. God is good, and I can't wait to see what He'll do tomorrow.


Please pray with me:

+That God will bless Tia, encourage her in her new faith in Him, and miraculously provide funding for her son's legal fees so that she can leave the windows and go back to her country and family.

+That Andrea, Maria and Tori will be open to speak with us again when we go back to the windows next Friday, and that God will give Edna and whoever goes with her His love, compassion and words to share with them.

+That more ladies will open their windows to us and their hearts to God as we visit them every week.

+That God will bless Jay and continue to heal his heart and strengthen his faith in Him, and that He will provide Jay with a way to leave the streets.

+That God will equip us as we minister to the homeless each week, giving us the strength, love and compassion as well as the boldness, understanding and words we need to encourage them and share God's love with them.

+That God will give us favor and boldness as we share His love through relationship evangelism on the bridges in the Red Light District. Specifically, pray for favor with the Police in the area--we were asked to leave last week because our leader was playing guitar and singing worship songs. The Cleft (through whom this ministry is run) has already researched to be sure that what we do is, in fact, legal, but we chose to submit to authority rather than cause a scene.


Praise God with Me

++For what He has done in Tia and Jay's lives, pursuing them through us and drawing them into His kingdom (Yea God!)

++For the increasing success of our ministry to the ladies behind the windows

++For His continuing provision for the needs of my teammates--someone anonymously gave Christiane a coat this week (it's colder here than we thought it would be, and Christiane did not bring a warm coat).