Hello California!

After 28 hours of traveling with only 1 hour of combined sleep...Team Amsterdam is finally home in the horribly hot yet beautiful Redding, Ca!

It is great to be home and be surrounded by loved ones but we definitely miss our home for a month, Amsterdam. We landed in San Francisco at SFO at 3pm Thursday afternoon, and with traffic, 7 hours later to Redding. We were all greeted by some of our favorite people in the world! Mom's, fiances, boyfriends, and best friends! And we said goodbye to each other in the arrival lobby and went our separate ways for the first time in 34 days...it was bittersweet!

Some have had jet lag, but we've all experienced some reverse culture shock! Even the little things, like everyone around you speaking English and not Dutch! Please continue to pray for us, that we may adjust back into normal society as smoothly as possible!

We were most excited to return to our churches and participate in corporate worship! It was there that we felt the most home! Being at the Stirring was definitely surreal for most of us, being there and not serving! I (Hannah) had to force myself not to go to church early, it was just too weird to be in Redding on a Sunday and not be at church all day! Once I arrived at church, it was so wonderful to see all my church family but also all the newcomers! As worship began, and I listened/read the words to the new songs that I had never heard, it was amazing because of Amsterdam, I had a true experience for every word that I was singing. We saw God do amazing things in Amsterdam, not only in the city but in each of us individually...I know with everything in me that "my God is not dead, he's surely alive, living inside, roaring like a lion!" [Like a Lion - David Crowder]

Thanks you from the bottom of our hearts for all who supported, encouraged, and prayed for us! We wouldn't have seen the miraculous that we did without your love!

For our readers and supporters in the Redding area, we will be having a sharing night hosted by the Stirring! We would love for everyone to come! More details to come!

THANKS and LOVE from TEAM AMSTERDAM!

a blog dedicated to Hannah

If you read the previous blog you would have no idea that Hannah was actually a member of Team Amsterdam. WE apologize for this and therefore we are dedicating this blog to Hannah and all the funny things she does. She is awesome and the coolest person on this team.

#1: Hannah locked all the other girls in Elisa's room from the outside...stood outside and laughed for a while and then went to the bathroom. A couple minutes later she unlocked the door.

#2: Hannah laid hands on Chelsea and prayed for her unborn children.

#3: Hannah wrote this blog while all the girls we're sleeping.

To be continued...

Flock of Seagulls: Favorite Moments of Amsterdam Thus Far

Chelsea and Elisa dress up night in gross clothes

Chelsea poured sugar on her sandwich thinking it was salt

Chelsea the amazing triple chinned woman

Sock time!

Do you see the tiny kitty picture? This is what is in the prayer tower

Chelsea the cupcake fairy Korean

"I'm going to line Elisa's coffin with dolphins!"
-Chelsea Engstrom

"Look at my tiny spoon!" (literally a tiny spoon and a huge cup of ice cream)
-Elisa McKeown

Natalie got hit by a bike.

Heather fell on her face.

Nat and Chels got lost for 2 hours on our 3rd day in the city yogging.

Our host's 2 year old son dressed up as Captain Featherspoon from the Wiggles jumping on the the trampoline yelling "catin Feathersoon, catin feathersoooooon, catin feathersooooooon!!!!"

Chelsea got pooped on by a pigeon in the Red Light District while on a prayer walk.

"Everyone, please close your heads and bow your eyes..."
-Chelsea beginning the dinner prayer in front of the whole base.

The staff of the base ate and didn't pay for our muffins that we made for a fundraiser so the base could by new furniture.

Chelsea and Elisa's song to the beat of the "Pants on the Ground" song...
"Poop in yo pants, Poop in yo pants, whatcha goin do when u poop in yo pants? Poop runnin down, poop runnin down, whatcha goin do when the poops runnin down.
You ganna wipe it? NOO!
You ganna throw it? YAA!!!

(Another line)

Poop on yo face poop on yo face. Whatcha gonna do when ya got poop on yo face?

The End P.S. there is a one leg shake dance move one must do to the song

Natalie growls at people in the morning

Because of chelsea's lost voice her new name is now "cackles"

Natalie- " All little kids carry around balloons as pets." Chelsea- "What?" Natalie - "Or.... maybe that was just me?" Chelsea, "Weren't you the one with imaginary friends?" Natalie- "Yes" Chelsea- "That makes a lot of sense."

"Giddy McGees....too much laughter." -Chelsea

"Why would you do that??" -Elisa as Natalie put a chocolate roll in front of her

"When you are done with that can you please milk me?" -Chelsea

We rock, paper, scissors to see who will pray for the night.

Streaking of Men.

"Hey...you wanna go to a coffee shop?" (man on a bike)
"No...cafes only."-Chelsea

Night crawlers down the hall. During quiet hours. Actually happened.

"I will smash your face into a jelly!!" (after Chelsea accidentally spit in Elisa's face during prayer time)

"MMMMMMMMM......Naaa Naaa Na Naaaaaa" (what happens during serious prayer time)

Chelsea looks like a cupcake fairy korean woman. with a unibrow.

You look like a woman...and yet a man!

Probably none of this will make sense to the real world but these have been some our funniest moments and inside jokes.

Natalie's power kick and Chelsea's night crawler videos

WE'VE GOT JOY JOY JOY DOWN IN OUR HEARTS.

HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR LAST WEEK!!
#1. Monday - We painted our hearts out in the dining hall for the base. The goal was to paint many things to decorate for and bless the people who live here constantly! While we were painting many people from the community came down and soon we were having a community paint night... it was pretty cool. We also went around the city and chalked some more, and Heather had an incredible encounter with a woman in one of the parks in Amsterdam.
#2. Tuesday- We woke up at 3:30 in the morning, interceded for the red light, and then went with Jacob, our host, to the red light district with buckets of chalk and card board signs of purity and the Lord's beauty. What did we do with these? Duct taped them to walls around the red light and chalked truth about the women and men who passed through the red light on the side walk and the walls. We also may or may not have spray painted some of the ply wood boards with God's truths as well. It was amazing. We also slept for a while after that, and then painted more around the base.#3. Wednesday - We went for an outreach with our host Jacob to the Southeast part of Amsterdam. When we got back we had a fire burning in us so we marched down to the red light and we sang worship songs on the corner of one of the entrances. The Lord moved powerfully, and we were fully and completely covered in His protection. From that moment on, we have fully dived into the journey that God has put on our hearts - to bring the walls down in the Red Light District.

#4. Thursday - We wrote Melissa Gomez encouraging cards and then went to the Tabernacle to praise and worship, and afterwards we began on our Jericho walk around the Red Light. We call it this for a reason.... not just because we think it sounds cool!! The Lord was speaking the story of Jericho to us months before we came here; that we were coming to Amsterdam to bring the walls down around the red light district and shake it's foundations so that the wall could be rebuilt in the Lord's glory. The previous night when we worshipped on the corner of the Red Light the Lord spoke to us all individually about marching around the Red Light and praying to bring the walls down around the perimeter of the district, and to do so like the story of Jericho. We also realized that we had exactly 14 days left in our trip for this.... 7 days to bring the wall down, and 7 days to "rebuild" it, so every day since then we have prayer walked around the district.

#5. Friday - We went with the Staff to Zaanse Schans and got to spend a lot of time with them, exploring the Dutch culture! Wind mills, cheese... we even got to be in a picture for a dutch news paper. Jesus loves us :) And after we went for our prayer walk and then we shopped for the womens night we were having on Saturday. We got to have a real Venezuelen dinner that was amazing!! And then we stayed up all night and interceded for the city until 5 in the morning - praying through the darkness.#6. Saturday - We slept from 5 in the morning until 1 or 2 and then proceeded to bake (from scratch....without recipes...) for our womens night! We made muffins and chocolate chip cookies and had fruit and coffee and our womens night was an incredible success. 15 women came and got to bless everyone with time to relax and have community with each other, and it was truly one of the best nights that we've had.

Now we are entering into our last week and the time has gone by so fast! We can't believe that we only have days left to be here, so please pray that we finish strong in everything we do and that the Lord gets all the glory! We will be home in a little over a week... and see all of your lovely faces. We miss you all, very much, and will be reunited soon. Until then, goodbye!
Zaanse Schans (the old windmills)

Chalking the City

Another hello to everyone at home - the time has come for another update about the adventures we have been having in Amsterdam. We are already half way done with our trip and the Lord still continues to work in the lives of those around us as well as in our own... we are all growing and learning so much!

Since the Monday night bible study where we got to minister (and be ministered to) by some of the ladies in the Red Light, some pretty significant things have happened to us as a team. As we moved on in the week we continued some of our renovations and painted in the streets, having the opportunity to talk with some really interesting people who find Amsterdam to be their home. After that day we really began to have fires stirred inside of us to branch out more - mostly we had been ministering through lending helping hands and forming relationships with people on the base - but we were beginning to itch to flood the streets with the Gospel and step outside the box. A lot of our heart had been for the people on the base, but we also had the desire to be able to impact the people of Amsterdam and speak truth into otherwise truth-less lives.

So, the natural conclusion was to buy a box of chalk and chalk the streets of Amsterdam!

We took our chalk to the library and as we walked back to the base we stopped by one of the more walked on bridges in Amsterdam. We prayed for the Lord to inspire us and give us words for the city and that part of town, and then we dispersed! The Kona team, a YWAM team who is also staying at the base with us, tagged along, and together we covered the area with crazy truths about the Lord- we even wrote the story of Jesus on one of the walls. We hadn't even thought about the incredible opportunity it would be to talk to people on the streets, but as we chalked everyone passing through slowed down to read our words and talk to us about what we were doing. We even found out later that days after we had left the chalk was still there and people pause as they pass through and read through everything we wrote, taking pictures and lingering in the spot we prayed over.

Needless to say, we are definitely doing this more.

On the downside, we also had to say goodbye to Niki this morning as she boarded the plane to go back to the States. Today has been a hard day because we feel that part of our family is gone, because Niki was a huge part of our team. We know that the Lord has completely equipped us to see and do amazing things in the streets in the coming two weeks, but Niki is and will be so missed. Remember that Niki!!!!! Amazing things are waiting for you at home!

Next week we will dive more deeply into street ministry and prayer - we will be doing some outreaches outside of the city and in the far sides of town, some prayer walks through the red light, and a lot more chalking and street painting. These next 2 weeks are going to be intense and wonderful, and they are going to fly by so fast! Thank you so much for praying for us and please continue to pray for our safety and for the Lord to really work in the last 2 weeks that we are here.

We miss you all very, very much! See you soon! And... p.s. ..... keep texting us words of encouragement please! thanks! bye!

Los Lunes - The Mondays.

Hello again to everyone who faithfully reads our blogs! Or not... but that's ok! Thank you for all your support and prayer thus far... it is definitely needed since we have officially dived into our ministry and things seem to get more and more intense - God is doing great works here in Amsterdam.

The past weekend was one of rest for our team, but not after we made dinner for the entire base 2 nights in a row... from scratch! Saturday night we experimented with Chili-mac (with a special shout out to Hannah's dad for passing on this recipe to her.. you would be proud!) and the base loved it! Sunday night we made grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup (also from scratch) and got on an 8 out of 10 from the chefs in the kitchen. We are slipping into routine with the people in the community and finding ourselves in the beginnings of incredible relationships. Mostly we are trying to help out here on the base as much as possible, where at the moment we are needed most.

However, we had an amazing opportunity at the Lighthouse ministry in the red light district - God blessed us and we were able to cook dinner for a bible study hosted by Melissa and Edna, two of the main leaders. We had dinner with some of the women from the red light and then painted for them during the worship session, and we even got to explain prophetic painting and the meanings of our pictures before we gave them away as gifts. We shared an amazing evening praying for and getting prayed for by some of the most honorable and beautiful women we have ever been blessed to meet.

As we go into the next few days we are going to be doing a lot of renovating and working with the people directly on the base and at the Lighthouse. Please pray for health because Chelsea lost her voice and also pray for our host family and their daughter Vera's health. We would appreciate it very much!! We love and miss you all and will update this soon, and hope all is well at home.... This month is going to be a crazy adventure - and please keep sending us texts of encouragement! Ok.... bye!

Amsterdam those 80 stairs!

We are on our 6th day in the beautiful city of Amsterdam. Since our last blog we have settled in to our new home and gotten to know our wonderful hosts Jacob and Rachel Kollar as well as the YWAM base staff. We have walked around much of the city and gotten to know more about the city itself and the Dutch culture. The buildings here are amazing and the city is beautiful with the canals and waterways, the old buildings, and the people. We all really love it here and are beginning to feel very at home.

During our first few days here we have been able to join in with the various ministries of YWAM, the Tabernacle and the Lighthouse. Almost every day we join the Tabernacle, which is located in the Red Light District and is a house of prayer and worship, in their 2-hour worship sets. In these times we are able to intercede for the city and the people as well as the YWAM base staff and the ministries.

Along with the Tabernacle worship and prayer times we have devoted 1-2 hours a day of prayer with our own team. It is a time when we are able to pray on behalf of the base and really focus ourselves on the Father's heart and to be ready for our day, allowing the Lord to guide us. These times have been amazing and the Lord is really speaking to us.

We also have plans to do evangelistic ministries through art and worship within the city. We began to paint last night and have plans to place art throughout the city to display God's beauty to the people, specifically in the Red Light District.

Tonight we have planned a community night in which we will show a movie and invite the entire base to join, serving them food and drinks. We have seen in our time here, and after talking with many of the staff, that one of the biggest needs on the base is encouragement and community. YWAM Amsterdam is going through some very difficult transitions and there has been a lot of discouragement within the staff. Therefore, we plan to host community nights every Friday where we can foster more community on the base and get people to come together, giving us a chance to encourage.

Next week we will begin to help out with the Lighthouse ministry which focuses on the Red Light District and the prostitutes and their children. They have womens bible studies with some of the women that work in the windows that they have poured time and energy into building relationships with and we are able to cook dinner for the women on Monday night. We are also going to do a prayer walk throughout the Red Light with one of the leaders of the Ligthhouse where we can become more informed on specific brothels and women in order to better pray as we walk.

We are really excited to see what the Lord is going to do with us here and every day feels like a new adventure. The Lord is working here at the base as well as in each one of us individually. We are all changed and have been moved by the Lord and are grateful that we are able to be here at this specific time.

We do have some prayer requests as we have really begun to intercede here and begin ministry, and we feel the opposition of the enemy. We ask that you would continually pray protection for our team in our relationships with each other, in our personal walks, and in our unity. Also that our families and people we love back home would also be protected as we are here, and that we would trust the Lord in his protection. We also would ask that you really lift the YWAM base and ministries up in your prayers because they are having a really difficult time here with their recent transitions, and therefore need a lot of prayer in this time. Pray for physical health because we all feel extremely exhausted and Chelsea is beginning to feel a little sick.

The biggest prayer request that we need is JOY and PEACE in every situation and every circumstance. Thank you all for your prayers while we are here because we do feel them and they have brought us so much comfort.

SHOUT OUTS
_____________________________________________________

Chelsea- someone please text me encouragement, texts are free to receive but I can't send you one back! (i.e. Josh and everyone else) Also Josh please check your email. I love you all!!

Niki- no phone. Email me please...encouragement.

Natalie- Dear everyone, I love you and I miss you. Please send me lots of messages on facebook that will make me smile. PS MOM: I'm really glad I got to talk to you last night. Austin Ashley and Dad: I miss you a lot. PSS Ashley: good luck in track today.

Heather- Tiff and Rob: I hope the living room is treating you well, stay out of my room. Amy Metz and Sarah Bram: thank you for the encouragement, you light up my life! Everyone else I love: please keep up the encouragement I need it on a daily basis. Thanks in advance because I can't text you back!

Elisa- Mom and Dad: miss you guys. Danielle, Jaymee, James: I love you all and I miss you. Jared: I love you, thank you for your daily encouragement!

Hannah- Jacob: It was so good talking to you the other day! I love you so much! You make my heart so happy, I miss you so much! Mom and Dad: I want to talk to you soon! My day for internet is Wednesday so please be available to around 2pm your time. Can't wait to talk to you and see you! Everyone else: I love you and miss you!