The Great Escape

It was a dark night on the streets of Amsterdam. Eight unsuspecting DTS staff were merrily riding their bicycles back to De Poort (name of the building I live in) from a lovely dinner together at Carolyn's house in the city center when something happened....

As they rode down one main street just minutes from De Poort, a policeman stepped out from the shadows to pull Bas aside--he was riding without a back light! (to ride a bike at night without a front AND/or back light is a big no-no in The Netherlands punishable by up to 50euros). Next in line was Kimberly. She, too, was w/o a back light and was quickly stopped by another police officer. I was next in line (I have a working front light but it was not working last night for some reason and I had not taken a back light-you can get clip on lights-with me), but seeing that the two police were busy w/ them I continued down the street. I only got a few meters when I saw

another set of police officers crossing over to my side of the street. yikes.

I quickly took the nearest side street then stopped to see what would happen to Bas and Kimberly. But stop I could not for the police were hot on my trail and were making their way towards me. I took off down the side street with lightning speed, not looking back.

As I rode on towards the base (De Poort), I heard a deep voice call out my name from the shadows. It startled me, and I was not sure where to look to find the owner of the voice. Soon Richard was cycling next to me. He had been first in line and had seen the police waiting so took the side street, too (his front light was on, but the back light is almost burnt out so he had turned it off).
Once back at the base, we waited outside for the others. After about 10 minutes they sheepishly came in. Kimberly, Bas, and Gwen each received a 20euro fine. Martine, Rianne, and Reinier also got stopped, but they had lights so were ok.
whoa.
Rianne and Reinier were laughing at me. Apparently, the police officer that I had seen coming my way, actually started to run after me (he did not yell at me to stop, and I did not see him running). I barely escaped the fine. It's all ok. I have learned my lesson to always keep a clip-on front and back light w/ me whenever I am out riding. The reason so many of us did not have our lights with us is because we had planned to walk. Time got away from us, so we decided last minute that riding would be the best option. Also, it was daylight when we left...that's our excuse.



Ok, now for another great story which is actually a testimony. Yesterday we got together as staff to pray for the students-specifically those who are struggling w/ visa difficulties. We really cried out to God on their behalf and I felt a lot of peace about everything working out as it should when we had finished.
After Richard and I got back from our escape last night, Tanya (personnel staff) informed Richard that two girls from Ghana had just gotten their visas! We were so excited to share this news w/ the others when they got back. It helped ease the pain of getting a fine a bit, too. She stayed outside talking for awhile-all excited about what other students we will soon hear from with similar information. Please keep in prayer the visa situations. So far, 22 of our 38 accepted students have everything they need and will be coming. The others are question marks. I want each student to come. The whole reason they applied for the DTS is because they have a hunger for God. This is a great place for them to learn and grow...especially if their life at home is not conducive for their spiritual growth as they desire (which is the case for some of them).

Thank you all for your love and support. tot ziens

the REAL Netherlands

Zaanse Schans, Edam, Zandijk, Spaarndam, Sanpoort, Ijmuiden.

Yes, indeed, I have seen them all now dear friends.
As a part of staff orientation, we had a day (last Thursday to be exact) where we hopped into cars and discovered life outside the Amsterdam world=VERY different from average
Dutch life.
I will give you a short overview of the highlights from the trip:

Edam--easy, the cheese comes from here. Not much else to say about this town other than that it is quaint, beautiful, and peaceful. Shocker=I tried the cheese and did not despise it!

Zandijk/Zaanse Schans--modern area next to traditional area (Zaanse Schans is the traditional area). Saw how the wooden clogs are manufactured. They are still worn by the Dutch today-whoa. Went to a pewter jewelry making shop and bought some really lovely earrrings. Visited a cheese farm that looked more like a small pond and duck farm.

Ijmuiden--visited a castle which was really a mansion and had overpriced tea (3,50 euros!)

Sanpoort--visited the ruins of a castle. It was closed for the day for visitors so we just admired it from afar. Went inside a real, working windmill (grain grinder) and saw how they are run. Quite interesting-I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Spaarndam--the proposed town where Hans Brinker is from-the boy who stuck his finger into the dike to save the town from flooding. Amazingly, the Dutch do not know this story-it is American! ha!
But they accommodate us well by having a statue erected in town of Hans with his hand in the dike...that's very nice of them. thank you, Spaarndam.

Youth With A Meeting

yeah, so that's what I feel like we should be called (see subject line) after these past week and a half.

I have been so busy-but not overly busy. It has been just enough actually.

Last week was staff orientation for all new staff, and this week is "at home" days which is pretty much a week for all staff from each of the buildings to come together to worship, pray, fellowship, and review YWAM values together. It's all got a nice family type feel so far.

Emas (from my dts, Lithuanian) made a surprise visit to the base, and is staying for the week.
He is just as crazy-fun as ever, and it is great to see him again.

Bas' (this dts school's school leader, Dutch) birthday is on Friday. Birthdays are a big deal for the Dutchies, and he is planning a party on the base, inviting several people. It should be interesing.

Our base leader's (Armando-Venezuelen Jew) birthday was last Saturday. His family lives at the top of Samaritan's Inn which means that we all got to huff and puff our way up 900 flights of stairs to a reward of a beautiful banquet table of cheese, french breads, grapes, and wine. Entertainment was provided heavily by the Hispanics with lively salsa-type music and dancing.
Unfortunately, Armando ended his night with a fall off the ladder leading to the roof of Sam's Inn (many houses in Amsterdam have roof decks and gardens). He went up on the roof with some other men who prayed for him. He was making his way back into the house when the ladder fell sideways and he also fell partway down one of the 900 flights of stairs and also partially out of a window (could have potentially fallen all the way out of the window and splattered onto the ground below). He is fine. So, as sad as it is to end a birthday celebration in this way, it could have been much more detritmental. Blessings come in mysterious packaging at times.

I will leave you all on that happy note. : )

"Pimp My Praam"

Well, I now know what a praam is.
It is a flat, shallow boat w/ a motor on the back. Nothing fancy but quite nice.

I started my day w/ a bike ride (the first on my lovely new bike) with Richard (Dutch). We were trying to find the forest of Amsterdam. Yes, indeed, there is an honest to goodness real live forest just on the outskirts of the city--who knew? Neither of us had been there, but Richard knew around where it was. We set out with high hopes. We were happily riding along when we suddenly discovered that we had somehow ridden in a circle (actually not hard to do here since the canals are all half-moon shaped). We were laughing at ourselves since neither of us realized what we had done until it was time for us to head back to De Poort....I guess I will see the forest another day.

We (all September dts staff...see an earlier blog for description of the 8 of us) got to Richard's parent's house and Richard gave us a tour. They live in a quaint house (as are ALL the houses in Holland) in the midst of a beautiful flower garden. Behind the house are greenhouses where Richard's father has been growing flowers for somewhere around 30 years now (and his father grew them before him). Most of the flowers they grow are sold to the United States (I do not know the English word for what type they are). The town of Alsmeer is where a world flower auction is held, so the town is just bursting with flowers of every kind.
After a nice ride around in the praam then relaxing on a little island (man-made...no beach...looks like a nice, garden backyard area) we went into Alsmeer to view the flower parade.
All the floats were decorated with tons and tons of flowers...very beautiful.

Tomorrow night, the town will have a "pimp my praam" competition where people will decorate their praam w/ a theme then drive them in a parade to be judged. Richard and his friends are decorating his boat w/a disco theme. Interesting.