Elisa's Journey

I wanted to share my story of how I came to be a part of this trip to Amsterdam and the process that God took me through to get here. It has been an amazing journey and I am so thankful for what He has done in my life.

My story begins with my trip to Kenya in the summer of 2009.

When we were flying to Kenya we had an 11 hour layover in Amsterdam. Although we were exhausted we wanted to spend those hours exploring what we could of the city. We took the train to central Amsterdam and began to explore. We saw the amazing architecture, the home of Anne Frank, an old cathedral, the canals, and the coffee shops. As we were walking down a main street we encountered one window with a half clothed woman displaying herself to the world. As we continued to walk we came across more windows with more women, and so we turned down an alley to get out of the area. What we didn't know is that we walked right into an entire alley filled with red lights and one of the biggest windows we had seen. There were 5 girls with barely any clothes advertising their bodies to the passerbys. At that moment I felt my heart completely break for those women. I was overcome with despair and sadness for the city.

I remember telling my team, "You guys I have to come back here some day," although in saying that I did not expect it to ever become a reality.

After I came home from Kenya I started thinking about where I would do my internship for the next summer and God very loudly and plainly told me Amsterdam. I began to burn with passion for the city and I began to pray for direction and guidance in this dream the Lord had given me. (Just for some background, I am a big picture thinker; I can dream big and have big vision, but I never know how to get that dream accomplished and what steps to take.) I had never planned a missions trip or anything of the sort. I was so terrified of this dream that the Lord placed on my heart. It was big. I'm little. But I knew my God was faithful. So I spent hours and hours researching the city and it's issues, ministries, government, sex trafficking. I researched as much as I possibly could.

As I continued praying for the trip the Lord very clearly spoke two things to me that should be the focus of our trip: Prayer and Service. God gave me the passage about the wall of Jericho as I was praying one day and that we would be a part of the community that conquers the city of Amsterdam in the name of the Lord and tears down those walls. And just as Joshua and his people walked around the city and declared the praises of the Lord, so should we in Amsterdam.

He also showed me that we are going to be there to serve alongside of the missionaries there. We are there to encourage them, serve them, and bring them relief.

With these two dreams in my mind I began searching for ministries to serve with: that is when I came across YWAM's ministries in the Red Light District, one that focuses on prayer and one that focuses on service. So I emailed them (I had no idea if they would even take notice of my email). And they responded and eventually said we could be a part of what they are doing. God was so faithful! When you think something is impossible, it never is when you're working for the Lord.

So my dream was a reality. I started talking to people about it and the Lord began to stir up the dream in others' hearts as well. Chelsea had the same passion as I did and so asked her to co-lead the team with me. Then as we began to build our team God was still so faithful and made it clear who was supposed to be a part of the team: Natalie, Niki, Hannah, and Heather. God could not have put together a more amazing group of women. I am so blessed to be able to share this dream and passion with them and to see them catch the vision.

Since we have been a team the Lord has been confirming this trip in a hundred different ways and it is so apparent that this trip is supposed to happen and that God is paving the way and pouring His favor out on us. He has been growing me so much as I prepare for this and He has been so faithful in guiding me as I lead alongside of Chelsea. I am so thankful that He has called me to be a part of what He is doing in Amsterdam and so honored that He gave me the dream. I cannot wait to see what He is going to do with us!!

That is my story of how Amsterdam came about and how God has been so faithful the entire way.

--Elisa--