The Dam DAM!

“Excuse me, do you guys speak English?” The two sat on the bench look somewhat different to anyone I’ve seen in a church for a long time. Two tuff faced soul’s draped in the style of the city. “Yeah mate we do, what’s up” “Errr well, I was wondering if we could give you a flyer for this...thing...?” “There’s a dance party goin on in the church across the way at the top of the Red light, though you might wanna go, if you take this you can have a free drink or something to eat” such was the brief we received an hour or so ago on arriving in the dam. Then it struck, I know this place and the reputation that too readily precedes it, but never have I stood in this street and heard it put so blatantly “this is a Christian party right, if it’s in a church?” “Yeah, that’s right” “You know where you are right?, this is Amsterdam, over there just a few meters away and still in eye sight is the red light district. This is the city of sin!” “What are Christians doing here?”
Have you ever hear something that’s packed so full of truth, so loaded with pain yet in the same breath is ready to explode with possibilities. BANG, this is it “that’s exactly why we’re here” we reply, with an air of confidence in this small band of soldiers that have assembled in this city, this weekend, for exactly this reason.
We got to Amsterdam late Friday afternoon, after pitching our tent in the most Getto (with a capital Gett) of camp sites. We stick our faces into the YWAM base in to see what is happening. By this point in our travels, I’m getting less and less convinced that coincidences happen, and more and more sure that God, took the time out and just dropped us into situations already prepared for us to be in (thanks Dad). Mission Amsterdam is happening, now, it’s started an hour ago, do you fancy joining in? Yeah baby. We have come to learn the lesson of getting involved and worrying about any consequences that may follow later. Christians from around the Netherlands, Germany, America and Steve lee with his ‘miracle street’ team from England have gathered for this. It’s like when Mike skinner and the streets paint a picture of the ultimate hedonistic night of club culture and drug taking,

‘they’ve all come together for this party, many faces, from places you never heard of, wots ya name, where ya from and wot you on?’

But this time its heating up in the city, the names may be the same and the places you never heard of, you still never heard of but ‘what you on’ is a different story entirely.
So the weekend flows, outreach evangelism and mission. Now it’s easy for me to step back as an outsider and say why I didn’t like some of the ways it was done and some of the methods were a bit ‘oldskool’ for my liking etc etc. But what I can say is this; we met some people that have a heart for this city. A real heart for the people here. As we stroll through the red light and here the knocks on the glass and our noses fill with the ‘aroma’ of the city and as often we have heard. You start to see things, just a little, from the God perspective. As we spend the weekend with a Italian/American Dutch guy, a crazy Germany evangelist, and English escape artist, a Latvian funk band and various others we start to see the makings of an army. An army of young people that would march out, on the streets of despair and simply just care! It’s wonderful and heart breaking at the same time, but I’m coming to see that sometimes that’s how we need to see things!
After the festivities of the weekend we walk the now bright streets of the red light and tuck into the first English breakfast I’ve experienced in 4 and a half months. The streets seem so different in the day light. The live porn show signs are still present but lack the backing of the neon lights and somehow, in the cold light of day, just seem sad. But as we visit some places we continue to see God at work. A prayer house in the main strip called the tabernacle, a Christian community house right in the deepest part of the district, a youth hostel run on Christian values with prayer and bible studies available to any of the 180 guests that may be staying at any one time. As the battle cry of broken hearts advances the army does too!
But then, as if you needed reminding, the harsh reality hits home, after a weekend where we’ve heard of guys going into the hang outs of prostitutes and leading them to God himself, stories of healing and testimonies shared on the streets. We walk down a small ally at 10.30 am we hear the all to familiar tap tap on the glass and turn to see a girl, at 10.30 in the morning, touting for business. The €250 she has to pay for her place in the window has to be paid somehow, and if that means starting work early, here in the city of sin, at least for now, life goes on?