Gatekeepers and Red Lights

So much has happened, this day could have easily been a couple of days crammed into one. It was our "fun day," and we took the train into Haarlem and then into the big city, Amsterdam.

We had a lovely walk from our B&B to the train station in the snow and enjoyed our ride from Barneveld to Haarlem (I could definitely get used to this). We went into Haarlem to visit Corrie ten Boom's house. What an amazing experience! We had the sweetest little old lady tour guide and she told us the ten Boom story in a cute Dutch accent. I'm really familiar with their story of hiding Jews during WWII and their eventual imprisonment in concentration camps, but it was incredible to get to hear it sitting in the living room where so many events took place.

One of the best parts about the tour was listening to our guide clearly present the ten Boom's (and her own!) faith and the message of Christ throughout her presentation. You could really see her passion and love for Jesus! 

We all bought a few things from the bookstore after the tour, and the bags we were given had "Jesus is Victor" written in English on one side and Dutch on another. So cool! An older lady working in a souvenir shop we stopped at in town after the tour was over noticed my bag and told me that she was a Christian too. Her name was Louise, and she told us how she tries to tell everyone who comes into her shop to go visit the ten Boom house because she knows they will hear the gospel there. She was so excited about Jesus and so happy to get to meet us. Such an encouragement!

Gage and I were talking about these two dear ladies as we walked to lunch. He made a comment about how they were like watchmen for Jesus, gatekeepers placed just outside a city that's know for its indulgence in sin. And it's so true. They're using the opportunities the Lord's given them to make His name known right where they are. It seems we only hear the bad things about Europe, but there are definitely Jesus followers here, and He is using them in exciting ways! I'm so blessed to have gotten to meet several of them on this trip. Join me in praying for them!

As soon as we got into Amsterdam, you could just tell it was unlike any of the cities we'd been to before. It was much larger and more crowded, but it wasn't really noisy, probably due at least in part to the fact that there weren't a whole lot of cars driving around, especially for a city that size. 

It's so hard to try to describe it. We walked around it for hours and saw a little bit of everything, both the picturesque and the depraved. The architecture was so mixed, with buildings from the 1500s right next to very modern structures. Beautiful churches and boats on the canals, ugly reminders of sin just about anywhere you looked. 

We didn't have much of a plan going into the city. We had a map with some of the points of interest highlighted, so for the most part we just roamed around, shopping here, photos there, it was a lot of fun just to get to explore. 

One place we did intentionally look for was the Red Light District. It was harder to find than we counted on. The "you can't miss it" aspect people had told us about didn't seem to apply for us until the sun started to go down. Then, just like that, it appeared.

We weren't there for long, but we didn't need to be. It wasn't like what I expected it would be. I was thinking of a long strip of nothing but brothels and clubs, but they were mixed in with other normal buildings, like they were just another place to stop and buy whatever your wanted. 

What you hear about the women in the windows, it's true. I can't fully express yet what it meant to see that; I'm still trying to process through those few brief moments. But I don't think I can be the same. So many emotions attached to this experience: sorrow, shame, disgust, anger... but as I sort through these feelings, I'm reminded of the women we met in the beginning of the day, and the message of hope they were so excited to share. It's the lack of this hope that breaks my heart, both for the men and the women, the spiritual slaves and the physical slaves. I'm reminded that apart from the grace of Jesus, I'd be in the same boat they are in. And I'm reminded that if He can rescue my heart, He can rescue theirs. 

So tonight, right now, I ask you to pray for the hopeless in Amsterdam. Because really I am Amsterdam. And so are you. 

Adventures in Amersfoort

Today has been the busiest day in the Netherlands so far! We started the day getting some more b-roll at the castle, and as part of that we got to see a pastor recording one of the Bible programs TWR distributes in Dutch, which was pretty sweet. 

After we left the castle, Harry and Eileen took us to a windmill (how awesome is that sentence?). Then we visited a cheese farm and got to sample some, well, cheese. I tried some pretty fantastic 5 week and then 5 month old cheese. These people know how to do food. 

Harry and Eileen then drove us to the town they live in, Amersfoort. Our first stop was Van Gogh Frites, a fries place that just won an award for the best fries in the Netherlands. They served them to you in a cone and you had a choice of several different sauces, including mayo, ketchup, and peanut sauce. My kind of place. Then we got to explore the city, which dates back to medieval times. History nerd wannabe that I am, I loved seeing all the old houses, churches, and walls dating back hundreds of years and hearing some of the stories behind them (and getting some b-roll, of course!).

The most interesting story took place in the 1500s, when a group of guys decided to pull a prank on the town. They had a huge party, got 400 men drunk, and got them to drag a bolder into the middle of town. After about 16 years of it just sitting there, the town decided just to burry the thing. Then, in 1903, they unearthed it again, displayed it in town, and had a bolder festival every year. Amersfoort became known as Boulder City, and countries from all over the world have sent boulders from their countries for the people of Amersfoort to add to their boulder collection. England even sent them a piece of the London Bridge! How random, but entirely fantastic, is that?

When we finished touring Amersfoort, we headed to Harry and Eileen's house for their interview. I'm super thankful that Tyler was around that day since he was able to help us with a couple of lighting issues we ran into. Even so, we definitely prayed our way through several difficulties. Just batteries, memory cards, audio, the sun... minor difficulties. But Jesus worked everything out in the end! 

After filming, we headed to supper at a dutch pancake, or pannekoek, place. The pannekoeks were a cross between crepes and pizza, and you picked whatever toppings you wanted. I got bacon, cheese, and tomatoes on mine and dipped it in the syrup stuff. Tasty! Joel, a pretty young staff member we met from TWR Netherlands came to eat with us, and it was great to get to hear more about the Dutch language and culture from him and a little about his life as well. I'm loving getting to meet and spend time with all these awesome Dutch people!

We drove to another Dutch couple's home once we finished eating to get back to work. This interview went off without a hitch, plus I got to try a Dutch gingersnap, two very encouraging things. Dirk, the guy we interviewed, is a TWR listener and now volunteers with them even though he works full time. He and his wife me serving with the youth group at their church, so it was great to hear some of the ways God is using His people in this area. 

I am now going to reward myself for this entry with a Dutch pastry and some photo editing,  (of course it's not 1 am...) so be looking out for photos on Facebook! Tomorrow's our day of touring Amsterdam, so we're all looking forward to that. Pray that this little break is good for our team and energizes us to finish out this first step of our video projects well on Friday! 

Shooting, Curry, and Laughter

Well, friends, another day is winding down in the Netherlands. I am pooped from staying up too late editing last night and a full day of work today, but I'm once again so thankful for this opportunity and the amazing experiences I've had so far... and we still have three full days to go!

We spent most of the day at the castle working in the TWR offices. Tons of b-roll (or c-roll, or f-roll) both of the missionaries and the area they work in. Eileen made us all lunch at the office, so we got to eat with the TWR staff and get to know them better. We heard a lot more about the Dutch culture in comparison with the American culture, as well fun stories like the wild high school Harry hitchhiking with a friend 600 miles in Germany to the nearest McDonalds over a long weekend. I love being able to joke around with people, and it's been so much fun to get to do that with my team and with the TWR staff. Such a unique bunch, and I've enjoyed spending time with them!

After lunch, we continued with the b-roll shooting. We tried to venture outside to get some shots of the castle and of the town, but most of the day was below freezing and windy, so we didn't last too long out in the cold. Fortunately, we just "happened" to stumble into a bakery to warm up. The shopkeeper baker guy was friendly and spoke decent English. After we oohed and ahhed at all the various breads and pastries, he let us try a sample of some cherry pie-ish thing. "The Professor" then sweetly offered to buy us each something small, which everyone but Bugs Bunny (aka Taylor) gladly accepted. We promised baker guy we'd be back when we had more euros. Looking forward to that day.

After we wrapped up shooting at the office and in town, we headed over to another TWR couple's house for dinner. I don't want to write their names since part of their ministry involves the North Africa region, but we had a fantastic time with them and an older couple from their church who knew Ashley's family from Florida. After eating a very yummy and culturally diverse meal (Indian, Italian, French, and Dutch), we sat around talking and sharing stories and learning more about Dutch and european culture.

I'm planning on getting a few more hours of sleep tonight since we're going to be jumping a couple of towns over tomorrow to film Harry and Eileen in Amersfoort, as well as to do some sightseeing while we're there. Thanks again for your continued prayers! We're all holding up nicely, but some of our team members in other parts of Europe are suffering from some health issues, so please keep them in your prayers also! And keep praying for God-given creativity. We want to serve these missionaries and tell their stories well.

Bullets, because it's 2am

First day in Barneveld was a full one:

• We headed to the castle for work this morning. Never thought I'd say that one. But TWR Europe's offices are on the 3rd floor of a castle, so that statement will be true all week. We met the staff at devotions and then got our schedule for the week. I love schedules. We also got to learn a lot about the Dutch culture from Eileen, one of our hosts here.
• After Tyler and his wife Laura arrived in town from Cary, we took a quick tour of TWR Europe's offices and then went to town for lunch at a place called Barnies. We determined it was the Dutch Chick-fil-a. I ate a tasty Indonesian inspired dish: chickens in peanut sauce with fries and fruit. Yummy!
• When we got back to the castle after lunch, we finished our tour of the castle by visiting TWR Netherland's offices on the 2nd floor, then exploring the basement and castle turret. Such a beautiful place! The climb to the turret was treacherous due to the rail-less staircases and three ladders (not to mention countless spiders and fly carcasses), but the view was well worth it. I lugged by camera and tripod up with me, so I was able to get some good shots as well.
• We took some b-roll of the offices and a fake Dutch lesson for the rest of the afternoon, then we headed to dinner at Gerben (?) and HyunJung's home. HyunJung is Korean and married Gerben, a Dutchman; they have a cute little baby, Thomas, and are in the process of raising support for HyunJung to work at TWR. We ate homemade Korean food (yums, of course) and had great conversation with them about the spiritual climate of the area. 
• Then it was interview time. Set up took a while, and I managed to flip their breaker in the process, but everything came together in the end, and hopefully we got some solid stuff. The interesting thing was we had to film HyunJung's interview 3 different times: one in Korean, one in Dutch, and one in English. Now we just have to figure out the translations...
• Now it's approximately 2:20am, and we need to be down for breakfast at 8:30 for a full day at the office tomorrow. Keep praying for our energy and equipment and problem solving and the ability to use each of our talents to serve well!

From Here to There

(Jumping right into business because, well, I'm tired)

Our flight left the Raleigh/Durham airport at around 6 Saturday evening. My traveling buddies were Dr. Hagin and Ashley. Sleep was evasive. I believe I got a grand total of 20 minutes of sleep on the nearly 7 hour flight, so as an alternative I watched a couple of movies and, well, tried to sleep. 

Shortly after we landed in London, our company parted ways, with the Vienna and Bratislava groups heading to one terminal and "The Amsterdam Vijf" heading to another. We explored our terminal and enjoyed the British accents (minus the security lady who got upset with Ashley and I for trying to save our film from the death ray aka x-ray). I found the airport to be infinitely improved from my last visit there in 2005, when they were in the middle of remodeling and there was absolutely nothing to do. 

We found this super cool restaurant in the airport called the Giraffe where we ate what we all were thinking was lunch because we were messed up from traveling but was actually breakfast. Tasty, but quite expensive, which I'm finding is the theme around these parts. 

My team agreed that our flight to Amsterdam was far too short. We all crashed as soon as we got on the plan, but the 50 minute flight just didn't cut it for nap time. We all were pretty exhausted by the time we landed.

I can honestly say, though, the Netherlands is absolutely the easiest country to get into that I've ever experience. There was one person in front of me in the immigration line, so I had to wait hardly at all. I stepped up to the counter, they asked my what I was doing in the country and where I was going (I may or may not have forgotten exactly the name of our little town "a city right outside of Amsterdam... it starts with a 'b...'"), and let me right in. All our luggage arrived safely, and we headed to customs. I was a little concerned that they didn't give us customs forms on the plane, but we literally went through the doorway that said "nothing to declare," walked through some kind of machine on our way out, and were home-free. Didn't speak to a soul. I was in love with the Netherlands already. 

Then we stepped outside to the train platform. It was quite chilly, but fortunately we didn't have to wait but 15 minutes or so until our first train arrived. It had wifi (or, as our bed and breakfast hostess pronounced it later, wee fee). I love the Netherlands. I spent the 40 minute train ride catching up on social media (London didn't want us to have free wifi), staring out the window, and falling asleep. I so wish I could have stayed awake for the whole ride because what I saw of the countryside was precious. I kept exclaiming to my sleeping team members how cute and adorable everything was. There was a light dusting of snow atop the surprisingly green grass, sweet little gingerbread-looking cottages, canals, horses, and sheep. I love the Netherlands.

We switched trains and rode the last 15 minutes to Barneveld. We had gotten directions to our bed and breakfast, so we drug our luggage for about 10 minutes across the city (which, thankfully, was completely flat), and arrived at our b&b without a hitch. Our hosts are Esther and Melvin, a sweet Dutch couple. We asked the people at TWR about them and found out that they are not believers, so be praying with us for them and for us to be intentional with them this week as much as we can. 

The b&b (which of course is called by an unpronounceable Dutch name), or as Tyler fondly calls it, "The Chicken House," is cute and nice. Nothing too fancy, but the TWR office building has that category covered. More on that later. After we settled in, we went out in search of some Dutch food, which Gage and I had been dreaming of for weeks after looking it up in graphics class (sorry, Ms. Karyn!). And oh, did we find it.

We dined at a restaurant a less than 10 minute walk from our b&b called De Hubberd. Phenomenal. Chicken, seafood, apple strudel, cheesecake... all amazing. The traditional french fries and mayo, though... not so much. We tried to save money by ordering water, but when they brought it out in glass bottles, we realized that plane had failed. Regardless, we have been forever spoiled and plan to eat there one more time before we leave. With full bellies and contented hearts, we crashed hard once we got back to the b&b.

Inspired

So yesterday was Saturday, but since I haven't really slept since Friday morning, yesterday really just feels like a very, very far removed this morning. Sorry, it's the jet lag talking. Regardless, we woke up Saturday morning at the TWR lodge after having made the journey from school to Cary, NC the afternoon before. 

We spent the morning talking with Tyler (TWR's sole video guy at the moment and the coordinator of our project) about the specifics of our assignments and other such details that I, of course, drank in. 

Then Tyler took us on a little tour of the TWR offices in Cary and shared with us about the ministry TWR has had in the past and how it's still growing today. It was so good to hear more about the heart of the organization we're going to be serving. Their focus on the gospel and partnering with the local church were really encouraging to hear more about, and I love how they strive to, whenever possible, reach people of other cultures through people of the same culture.

Towards the end of our tour, Tyler showed us the global TWR "promo," if you will, that he had just finished. It's not been officially released or approved yet, but it was stunning. I will be sharing it on Facebook the moment it becomes available. It was so creative and well shot and the story was so beautifully told. You could just feel everyone's reaction to it in the room. After watching it, all I wanted to do was go out and tell God's story through video. It was such a refreshing moment with everything from NRB and stressing over equipment and details of the trip still kind of dampening my enthusiasm, it was wonderful to be able to refocus on why I'm going to make videos this week and the passion that brought me to this trip in the first place. 

Speaking of refreshing, I'm literally struggling not to fall asleep on my laptop right now, so I'll have to save the rest of my update for later! Thank you for your prayers, and keep praying for us as we meet up with the TWR missionaries in the morning and do some location scouting and shoot planning! 

So this is the door

Freshman year: I was riding to NRB (National Religious Broadcasters' Convention) with a bus full of strangers, overhearing excited conversations about an upcoming trip to Thailand from all the cool video people in the back. That was my first introduction to NGU's biennial media missions trip. I knew that once my junior year rolled around and the trip came up again, I wanted to be a part of it.

Junior year: I am riding back from NRB with a bus full of friends, trying to get my thoughts sorted in preparation for my upcoming trip to Amsterdam in less than 48 hours. It's crazy to think that a dream that began two years ago is about to come true. 

It's not been easy to get to this point. At the beginning of last semester I had almost talked myself out of even considering going on this trip for financial reasons. Even after witnessing time and again (for one example, see my post below) the Lord providing money to accomplish His calling, I still wasn't willing to trust His provision. But during the last service of global missions week, God confirmed He was going to send me somewhere over spring break, and I was pretty sure it was going to be this trip. 

That night, I wrote in my journal, "Thank You that You will show me how to best spend my spring break, even by closing doors. So I ask that You'd help me not to get attached to any particular door, but that I'd be more and more passionate about serving and proclaiming You no matter where You put me. And You will provide. And You will answer..."

And answer He has. My parents were able to support this trip financially, which was a completely unexpected blessing. I also was able to save up and purchase a new camera and lens which will be extremely beneficial for this trip. 

But what exactly is this trip, you might ask? In short, three groups of students will be going from March 8-17th to different locations in Europe: Vienna, Bratislava, and Amsterdam, to work with TWR (Trans World Radio) to produce short videos for their missionaries on the ground in those cities. Our goal will be to connect these missionary's work to one of TWR's main goals, equipping the church. The missionaries we'll be serving aren't your typical pastors or church planters. They work behind the scenes at radio stations that broadcast the gospel to closed nations and fill administrative roles that enable the church planters to remain on the field. It's so important to show to these missionary's supporters how what they are doing is directly related to the spread of the gospel.

This trip is so special for me because it will give me an opportunity to gain practical experience in something that I want to do long-term after I graduate. I'm so excited to get the chance to partner my love and talents in media with the Great Commission. It's like I was made for this or something.

So how can you pray for us?

• Strength will be a big one, since over half the people on my team have been at NRB all week and are already worn out from this trip. The others have been working through midterms, so we're going to need a lot more energy than we currently have to serve the missionaries well.
• Film is hard. I've only been really learning and practicing with it for about a year or so, and I'm the person on my team with the most experience with it. So, there will be a lot of learning as we go. Pray that we'd be good learners/teachers and will be able to produce some great videos for the missionaries.
• Pray for unity among the teams. None of us on my team have really worked together or been around each other for an extended period of time. Add into that the fact that we'll be tired and pushing to get work done, and you have prime conditions for arguments and ridiculous drama. Pray that we'd represent the body of Christ well and would intentionally seek to serve each other in addition to the missionaries. 
• Amsterdam is a city far from Christ. The first few words that came up in Google the other day when I typed in "Amsterdam" were "pot" and "red light district." Basically, anything goes. It is a very post-Christian city. My team and I are praying for opportunities to love and serve and share the gospel with the people there, so pray with us that we'd recognize those opportunities and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading. 

I'm required for class to keep a blog of this trip, but this is something I wanted to do anyways. I'll probably post an entry just about every day, in addition to random things on Facebook (Elizabeth Pirkle) and Twitter (pirkey_pirk). I'd love to have you guys join me in my adventures!