From one extreme to the other

Statue to the Unionization of Prostitutes in Netherlands, originally uploaded by cutjas.

As I woke this morning life began to feel more routine. It has been only a week and a half, but I seem to have arrived at a routine, which for me is a good thing. This past week I was able to sort out my main responsibilities and help out around the office as best I could. I am still getting settled, there is, however, no question that and if you asked me how to say “Schewingen” or tell you where this town is? I would have no idea. None-the-less, life is beginning to take shape here in Den Haag.

My main responsibility will be to help with the small groups ministry at Crossroads Church. I will be focusing on 25-35 year olds, helping them to get plugged into small groups, service projects, and helping to organize social events. I personally am very excited about this task and look forward to working in this area. Kevin, the lead pastor, has told me that this makes up about 40% of the church’s attendees and this group is motivated to get out and start serving the community.

I have lots of ideas of where to go with this ministry and what to do, but before anything can happen, I have to start meeting people. That is the focus of the next month for myself. I want to start meeting with people who are in and interested in that demographic. I do believe this is a perfect fit for my talents and passion.

Outside of work, I am going to be volunteering with the International Justice Mission Project (IJM) here in Den Haag. Crossroads and another church are working with IJM to help set up a Den Haag office. This is in its very early stages and is exciting to be apart of. IJM seeks to liberate slaves around the world through sustainable rescue and prosecution of criminals, specifically as a movement supported by churches. IJM seeks to be the justice arm of the church in the fight against slavery. If this interests you at all you can check out there website here: www.ijm.org or I have a link on the left hand side of my blog.

Personally, I was able to go be a tourist for a little bit on Saturday in Amsterdam, it was a lot of fun, but also a reminder of the tensions that exist within this culture. Not that every culture doesn’t have tensions or challenges, but I am here, so this is what I see. We took a short tour of Amsterdam, only about 3 hours or so. We saw a couple museums, got a brief history of Christendom from our own Andrew Perriman PhD (just so you know, he would prefer that I leave off the last three letters of his name, but I put them in for effect), and were exposed to all sorts of public extreme’s that characterize Amsterdam as a city.

The part of the tour that struck me the most was when we came to the oldest church in Amsterdam. Here you had a scene where the church was literally surrounded by prostitutes in windows. Outside the church was a statue commemorating the Unionization of Prostitution in Netherlands (pictured above). There was so many thoughts and emotions that this scene brought up for myself. I don’t know quiet how to express them here and now. What I saw was the physical church, enormous, powerful in architecture, daunting in size; it had a sense of untouchable ness by any human. This may have been the goal of the architect, if so this person did a fantastic job with creating a building that captured God’s overwhelming ness.

As you turn around you see windows, well doors, doors with windows in them. Dozens of them lined up right next to each other as storefronts; the street was curved so it filled your entire scope of vision. In the windows were prostitutes. In contrast to the church these prostitutes were extremely accessible. Regardless of any moral, ethical, or cultural judgment, what you have here is on one side a representation of a God who is seemingly untouchable and overwhelming, faced to face with prostitutes inviting and enticing.

This is our mission field. This is what we are called to serve and I am very challenged by this. I don’t believe this is a challenge for Amsterdam or even the Netherlands alone. Every city in the west has prostitutes, whether sexual or other, and more than not, every city has a representation of God somewhere in its town. For myself this was the rawest depiction of the gulf that the church has between itself and the world, which it is called to love and serve.

I have had little time to reflect on that event, but I will and I will keep in mind the gulf of reality that exists in our world between the church and people. I am excited to start my work here, to grow new friendships, charge deeper in my relationship with God and to serve the world around me.

I have had a week that has taken me from getting adjusted physically to getting unadjusted spiritually. As always I welcome your prayers, questions, and comments. Thank you all, again, for your support in all its forms and yes mom I have been eating my vegetables…vegetables made of chocolate that is!!! Haha.