prison break

This is an amazing story!:

Once upon a time, in a prison far, far away, God was on the move...

I don't know how many of you I told but this last December I went with the DTS I was staffing to minister in the prison in Singapore. They already had an established ministry with the boys (ages 15-25 roughly) that meets on a weekly basis, so we had the unique opportunity to share and pray with those who attended this weekly meeting.
During my time, I was able to talk one-on-one with a few boys and while I prayed, I really asked for a connection with the Holy Spirit and to speak out what they needed to hear.

The same night we visited, there was a special Christmas Eve service. The pastor invited those who wanted to pray for salvation to come to the front of the room. Normally, none of them would have responded because several were still involved in secret society gangs and a response would mean trouble for them. However, so many were so affected by speaking and praying with our group earlier that day that over 20 of them went forward to renounce their gang involvement and to pray for salvation!
Not only that, but the prison wardens said they could see a glow about many of the boys and they had received a stack (literally 1 inch thick) of good reports from the boys of their experience with our group.

Fast forward a few months to April. You would think the excitement may wear off or at least diminish quite a bit, right? Not so! The boys continued to grow in their hunger for God through prayer and Bible reading, and still spoke of when the YWAM Amsterdam team came to visit.
The prison officials contacted the base leader of YWAM Singapore to discuss this phenomena. They had a meeting with the YWAM base leader to request future involvement in the prison. When they learned what exactly a DTS was, they became convinced that this was just what the boys needed.

Now the door is swung wide open for YWAM Singapore to bring a team in to disciple those interested for a 3 month lecture phase during their last three months in the prison (most have a 1 to 2-year sentence in that prison) then they will have the opportunity to do their 3 month outreach phase in another country!(they will be allowed a passport as a special privilege for the DTS)

What an opportunity! Who would have thought that a little team from Amsterdam would be so honored as to help pave the way for the prisons in Singapore to be discipled and their convicts turned into missionaries! God absolutely astounds me.

I was able to return to the same prison and was there exactly one week ago today. I witnessed that, indeed, the boys who were there in December do remember us and were permanently affected by the meeting. I sat with one such boy a week ago. He is doing very well and growing so much during this time. Prison is a blessing for him because it gives him the opportunity to spend long amounts of quality time with God and grow deep in his faith.

I must say that when a convict prays FOR YOU while you are sitting on the floor of their bare little prison room and the Spirit of God descends in power, it is an experience that forces you to recognize that of our own we can do nothing.
Isn't it just like God to bring Himself to the most unassuming of places and break it open at the seams?

I hope to see Him doing it again, and again, and again...

Singin' to the Pore

Here I am back in my beloved city of Amsterdam...it is gray and raining outside while I sit here on my bed with a lovely cup of tea. ahhh, I can't get much more content at this moment.


Some of you may wonder whatever happened to my candid promise to keep updating you since I disappeared for several weeks...
Well, let me assure you that my promise was genuine though my circumstances were unforesee-able.

I was in Singapore.

To be very quick in answering why: I had to run after Bas. To be honest in answering why: I had to run after Bas because he has a position as a bridge between Amsterdam and Singapore which will continue for an undetermined amount of time. This means a few months of each year he may be in Singapore. This also means that, as our relationship progresses, there is some connection for me there as well.

I spent three weeks in the busy, bustling, hot, and sticky city/state asking God what He had for me there. While there I helped in selling books for Landa Cope (speaker on living Old Testament principles in today's life=wise speaker, much respect for her!), preparing for a visiting DTS team from Australia, helping to host the DTS team, and ministering in the Singapore prison (same one I visited in December while there for our DTS).
Amidst all this I became frustrated by not hearing a clear reason as to any future involvement I could have at the base or in Singapore itself.
Fortunately, there are wise counselors and email in my life, so I was able to receive the message that maybe for this time what I am supposed to focus on (and enjoy) was my relationship with Bas. I knew God had told me to go to Singapore. I know there must be something there for my future, but, for those three weeks, what God needed me to do was to not stress about feeling future leadings. I do believe He will reveal all that when the time is right.

And it truly was a good time and place for us (Bas and I) to have a lot of time to talk and be together without the distractions of separate work and relationships that take up time and energy in Amsterdam.

So that, my friends is a quick explanation of my absence these past weeks. Hope you can understand.

As for now, I will go back to helping with renovations and a mosaic at the Tabernacle of the Nations.
I also plan to look into taking some Dutch classes provided they are not too costly. Otherwise I will try to teach myself by way of the Rosetta Stone CD-roms which I purchased while in the States.


I bid you each adeiu. Please let me know how you are as well.

much love,
Michelle