Whew!
Got back from Prague on Saturday evening, directed the worship service at our church on Sunday, had some guests over for lunch on Sunday and spent Monday & Tuesday catching up on work that backed up with the week in Prague.
Early on Wednesday morning (Nov 7th), Linda & I jetted out to Holland to spend the night with Denise Detweiler and their kids (Jonathan, Denise’s husband, was away for the week). We had breakfast with Denise, met some of the women from their International Women’s Bible Study and headed out to Amsterdam for the GEM-YM Retreat.
The retreat was refreshing. Those present were Adam & Bethel Gascho (serving in Cologne, Germany), Tagg Wolverton (serving with his family in Hailoo, Holland), Jon Covell (serving with his family in Dublin, Ireland), Matt Kingsley (serving with his family in Dublin, Ireland), Holly Davis (also in Dublin, Ireland), Cam Daughty (serving with his family in Malta), Amy Williams (serving in Italy) and Linda & Kelly Shattuck (serving with 2 of their 4 kids in Slovakia).
We revisited the core values of GEM-YM and discussed more how to live them out practically. As well, we came up with some criteria to identify the GEM-YMers so that we can better strategize in the areas of training, mobilization, multiplication, etc.
We did take an afternoon and evening to go to downtown Amsterdam. Part of that tour was also spent in the infamous “Red Light District.” I don’t know what you know about or have heard about that district, but whatever fantasies a person can conjure up in his mind can seemingly come true there. However, as we walked through the district, we were given the suggestion not to make eye contact with the prostitutes standing in the windows and were forbidden to take pictures.
I broke rule number one - on purpose. Scripture tells us, “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness.” So I purposefully looked some of these ladies in the eye to see what would be found there.
It was a sad experience. I had to ask myself what happened to these girls/women in their past that brought them to a place to use the physical expression of the most intimate relationship as a means of earning money. My stomach turned. My heart sagged and my mind wondered, “What are their stories? Who hurt them? Who bewitched them to believe that this had to be the way to provide for themselves? How much pain is buried in those hearts under layers of lies, deception and confusion?”
More later...
Got back from Prague on Saturday evening, directed the worship service at our church on Sunday, had some guests over for lunch on Sunday and spent Monday & Tuesday catching up on work that backed up with the week in Prague.
Early on Wednesday morning (Nov 7th), Linda & I jetted out to Holland to spend the night with Denise Detweiler and their kids (Jonathan, Denise’s husband, was away for the week). We had breakfast with Denise, met some of the women from their International Women’s Bible Study and headed out to Amsterdam for the GEM-YM Retreat.
The retreat was refreshing. Those present were Adam & Bethel Gascho (serving in Cologne, Germany), Tagg Wolverton (serving with his family in Hailoo, Holland), Jon Covell (serving with his family in Dublin, Ireland), Matt Kingsley (serving with his family in Dublin, Ireland), Holly Davis (also in Dublin, Ireland), Cam Daughty (serving with his family in Malta), Amy Williams (serving in Italy) and Linda & Kelly Shattuck (serving with 2 of their 4 kids in Slovakia).
We revisited the core values of GEM-YM and discussed more how to live them out practically. As well, we came up with some criteria to identify the GEM-YMers so that we can better strategize in the areas of training, mobilization, multiplication, etc.
We did take an afternoon and evening to go to downtown Amsterdam. Part of that tour was also spent in the infamous “Red Light District.” I don’t know what you know about or have heard about that district, but whatever fantasies a person can conjure up in his mind can seemingly come true there. However, as we walked through the district, we were given the suggestion not to make eye contact with the prostitutes standing in the windows and were forbidden to take pictures.
I broke rule number one - on purpose. Scripture tells us, “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness.” So I purposefully looked some of these ladies in the eye to see what would be found there.
It was a sad experience. I had to ask myself what happened to these girls/women in their past that brought them to a place to use the physical expression of the most intimate relationship as a means of earning money. My stomach turned. My heart sagged and my mind wondered, “What are their stories? Who hurt them? Who bewitched them to believe that this had to be the way to provide for themselves? How much pain is buried in those hearts under layers of lies, deception and confusion?”
More later...
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