God at work in Amsterdam

Below is an email that I received recently from a ministry partner in Amsterdam. Christina serves with Scarlet Cord – a ministry to sex trafficked girls. I thought her story was very encouraging. Enjoy.

Hi Kendrick

Yesterday was the Easter action with the Scarlet Cord and it was amazing. Part of it for me was really impacted by the sermon on mercy from last Sunday and I have a pretty cool story to share about it.

So the volunteers hand out about 500 gifts for the actions and this year we gave out blooming daffodil bulbs and bags of chocolate eggs. There’s a group in the afternoon of about 5 pairs and a group in the evening of about the same.

It’s common for the volunteers to struggle with the anger towards the clients and the men who walk around the red light district. Some men walk there day and night around and around and some groups of guys will tease and make fun of the girls to show off for each other and there’s a general sense that, wish a bit of cash in his pocket, this is a man’s kingdom where he rules and can do as he pleases. It’s ‘the customer is always right’ to an extreme. There’s a righteous anger of course, but for me that can very quickly turn into a spiteful, hateful, revenge seeking attitude where I would want to see them humiliated and rejected. But I try to follow the example of the SC director and of Jesus who both have compassion and grace for these guys. I can too when I’m home praying for them, but when my feet are in those alleyways it’s much harder.

In the afternoon me and my friend Melana, with baskets full of flowers in our Easter best, went to this area that is this really dark and narrow web of alleys and windows and some turn into long hallways lined with windows. It was there that we had a long conversation with one Romanian girl that was so good, we hurried back to the office for a Romanian bible and brought it back to her. We talked some more and she was starting to cry but we were interrupted by a guy who just came and stood between the three of us! I said, not to him, but to the girls something about this guy being a creep. That was wrong of me, I should have said directly to him not to bother us. Right away as we walked back I told Melana it was wrong of me and I told her about your sermon and how we are to show mercy to the most undeserving people. I was just so angry because we’d attracted so much attention and comments that afternoon and I was seething and at the same time REALLY wanting to put into practice the message of mercy. We went back and prayed for a long time and gave it to God.

I went out again in the evening and this time a man, who had been hanging around behind me and my colleague as we talked to a woman, approached us when we were done and asked us what we’re doing. Usually men that approach us think we’ve got some sort of multiple girl thing going on (everything is in the context of sex) and normally I ignore them. This time I started to tell him about Jesus, thinking he’d just run off. But he didn’t and after my first sentence I felt such a compassion for him. As I spoke his eyes got wide and watery and he looked like a little kid. I started to get choked up and I told him the entire gospel and how Jesus can make him totally clean so he can approach God and that this isn’t the right place for him and on and on. The Holy Spirit just took over and at one point I thought ‘when is this going to stop?’ and he just listened. He said a genuine thanks and we parted.

It made such an impact on me. I don’t see it as a personal victory or something, but God in His grace gave me the chance to glimpse into someone and see them as He does. I’m so glad I heard the message you preached about mercy because I right away put it in this context and God helped me to be merciful. I hope this changes things and that I can see more men on those streets the way God does.

Thanks for the message and for your prayers!

Christina