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
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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!

Airplanes, Arrivals, and Amsterdam

First we want to thank everyone who helped get us to this point. Without you, we wouldn't be sitting where we are today!
Sooo, where are we today, and how we got here... We left Friday, arrived at SFO thanks to Fran Smith and Liz McKeown, along with the awesome luggage carrier Jacob Wise. All went smoothly until.... we realized that the wrong gate had been printed on our tickets. Hearing the LAST call for boarding we sprinted to our plane.
Fastforward a movie filled ten hour flight, we arrived in London deliriously tired and starving. Let's just say Converting 40 dollars to 20 pounds for one hungry but satisified team = Priceless..
We arrived by train into central Amsterdam, but not before Chelsea almost waived goodbye to the team as the doors closed on the rest of us. Luckily the train conductor kept hollering "Push the button!" in dutch (good thing a few of us are hand talkers and finally caught on to the non-verbals).
Once we arrived we waited paitently for our contact only to realize that we had been temporarily forgotten. A two dollar phone call (Thanks Liz! (and Elisa says sorry mom!) we were met at the station and walked just ten minutes and arrived at the YWAM base.
We spent the today getting to know the city and spending time with our contacts Jacob and Rachel Kollor. So much is still undecided as we head into the next few weeks, but we will continue to remain faithful and trusting that the Lord has a plan for our time here and we need to simply be flexible, open, and obey.
The team is fading fast tonight, it's 2:51p back home with you, but it's almost midnight here.
we will continue to keep you up todate on where we're at and how things are going.
Once again we can't express enough how blessed we feel for all your support and encouragement as we chase after whatever the Lord has planned.
love you all,
Elisa, Chelsea, Heather, Hannah, Natalie and Niki

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SHOUT OUTS from The Team:

Chelsea: Thank you mucho to Aunt Amy and Josh my lovely fiance, for your notes, my heart was aching but now it is comforted. Miss you, Love you K,T,A,A,D,A and J.

Elisa: Thank you mom and dad for paying the $2 phone call that saved our lives, I owe you!! Love you!! Thank you so much Aunt Amy and Megan McCarty,for your notes, they encouraged me so much! Jared, I love you so much! Miss you all!

Hannah: Hello everyone! I'm here and I'm alive. The city is beautiful and I wish you all were here. Mom, Dad, Jacob, Simpson friends and Stirring Peeps miss you all! Much love.

Heather: Dear Family, I'm still having sweet dreams about stuffed french toast... can we please incorporate it into my welcome home party as well? Love you guys!!! Dear Friends, I'm getting your texts but can't send them out. I will do my best to reply via internet. And dear Alia, CONGRATULATIONS!!!! YOU ARE AN OLD GRADUATE!!!!!!!!!

Natalie: TO EVERYONE I SAID I WOULD TEXT AND DIDN'T.... MY PHONE DOES NOT WORK. I wasn't being flakey I promise. Those days are over. I love you all,and miss you! See you in a month.

Niki: Emily and Mack CONGRATULATIONS you're officially Grads!! So sad I missed it. D&D I love you and thanks for all your pre-trip encouragement! She, thanks again for the hidden note BFF 4-EVA (yep just went Jr High.) Still looking into "what going dutch means" ;)

We are on our way!!!

Hello everyone!

We are officially on our way to Amsterdam. We raised over and above what we needed and are able to do more outreaches in country. We are currently sitting in the San Francisco airport waiting to board our flight. We made it through check in and baggage check in record time and with amazing ease. Also, our flight is somewhat empty because of the recent mess ups with the flights for British airways, and so we all have empty seats in our rows and room to spread out! We feel so blessed up to this point with the way everythinghas worked out and we want to thank you all for your amazing support!

We will continue to update our blog as often as possible throughout our trip and let everyone know what we are doing!

Second Times the Charm!!

We want to first give a HUGE shout out to all our friends and family that came out to support us at our second car-wash this last weekend!! Wether it was to wash cars with us, get your car washed or just to drop by to say hey, we could not have done it without you!!!
With the help of Fran Smith, Shelby Schwitters, Abby Zopfi, Amy Metz, Roseleen Meade, Josh Meade, James Spencer, Crystal Backus, not to mention Zoe and Judah Fleck we were able to raise just over $700 this weekend!! Such an encouraging weekend!! We still have about $4000 to go before 5/15 (when we need to have all our funds in), but we will continue to trust the Lord that He knows what He's doing better than we do.

Soooo, Here's what's coming up:

5/12: Chevy's night!! From 4-9pm 25% of your dinner check will go to our team!! How great is that!?!? So, celebrate Cinco De Mayo a little late, or AGAIN!!!

5/15: All our money must be in or pledged by this afternoon. Please if you haven't yet and would like to, or would like to donate again to the team either online at

https://app.etapestry.com/fundraiser/SimpsonU/Amsterdam2010/individual.do?participationRef=4872.0.332222623

Or through the mail to: Simpson University C/O Student Development 2211 College View Drive Redding CA 96003 (and put AMSTERDAM in the Memo line)

You can also call, facebook or comment on our blog your pledges! Just be sure we have enough info to contact you later. (Pledges at latest need to be in by the time we come home, preferably before we leave on 5/21)

5/21: We're boarding a plane to Amsterdam!!! From San Fransisco at 655p. Pray for safe travel!

Once again, thank you to all of you who have come out to fund raisers, donated, and just in general been there for all of us. To say it means more than you know is still not quite enough....

Training week: Chelsea and Elisa are currently out on conquest, which is a grueling leadership training week in the mountains. Keep them in your prayers that they stay rested as possible and healthy.
The team heads into training week as soon as they return, keep us all in your prayers for continued bonding within the team, health (in all regards), and of course finances.

Thank you again!!!
Greatest Blessings!!
-The team .