Greetings from Amsterdam!  As you may remember from last month’s prayer letter, there have been some significant changes taking place within our ministry recently.  As of this week, in fact, our church is officially homeless!

On the positive side, this means that we’ve successfully managed to pack up all our church’s belongings and move out of the attic space on the Leidsekade that had been our home for the first four years of ministering in the city—which, let’s face it, was no small undertaking.  As a matter of fact, moving out of the Zolder went much more smoothly than expected. We managed to finish ahead of schedule, no one was seriously injured, and the whole experience seemed to be a beautiful exercise in dependence on God and each other.  We’ve already started (or perhaps I should say that we never stopped with) ministry in the post-Zolder era.  Frankly, I was impressed with the way that our community managed to completely alter its weekly routine, move out of the Zolder, and still pull together the necessary personnel and paraphernelia to put on a worship gathering in a completely different setting—all within the space of a single week!  Over 150 people found their way to our new (temporary) location for the first Sunday worship gathering after moving out (which, in my opinion, should be considered a very promising start—given the pretty drastic changes in location and meeting schedule)!  The message that day was a call to embrace the inherently nomadic nature of the people of God (following in the footsteps of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus).  And embrace it we have!  Truly, we are thankful for the way things have gone so far—and it seems we have every reason to be encouraged through this season of transition.

On the other hand, we still don’t have our new “long-term” home location solidified.  Yes, we’ve done our research.  Yes, we have a specific plan for moving into a specific location.  And yes, we’ve been diligent in moving forward with plans, and contingency plans, and contingency plans for the contingency plans!  But as of this week, we’re still caught up in the red tape of fire marshals, construction advisors, and city officials who are following their procedures for enacting approval of our occupation of this prospective location.  We’re now hoping for a chance to sign a lease and “finish” our relocation by the first of November (please pray with us for this!).  In the meantime, we’ve enacted a plan for temporary relocation—including putting our stuff in storage and borrowing meeting space from another ministry in town… God is definitely taking care of us, even through the changes.  But it’s kind of crazy how long it takes to get anything finalized around here!

What’s crazier—we’re still dealing with some hassles to get ourselves fully untangled from our old home on the Leidsekade.  Yes, the moving logistics were well-considered and smoothly executed.  Yes, we prepared for the transition for months and months—from many different angles.  But still, the building’s owner has been making the process difficult (which we rather anticipated—and, actually, which underlies the original decision to get out of that lease from that owner in the first place!).  At any rate, we anticipate an ongoing process of negotiation that may well take weeks to resolve.

Consequently, we’ve found ourselves in a very awkward position that simply could not have been avoided.  We feel comfortable and confident that we’ve done everything that we could have and should have done at the proper times, with the information and resources that were available to us… Even so, we need deliverance.  The owners of the buildings will not deliver us.  The Dutch government will not deliver us.  Our own business savvy and creative problem-solving will not deliver us.  Basically, we’ve come to the place where we can only pray for divine intervention.

However, I don’t consider this to be such a bad place for our church to be!  I’ve been drawing much strength and courage from the old stories of the nation of Israel.  The early chapters of Exodus and Joshua have been very encouraging.  Yet even more so, I’ve been particularly struck by a story from 2 Chronicles 20 (it’s not a very widely known story, but I’d encourage you to look it up sometime).  Like the people of Judah in the time of Jehosaphat, our church can only be overwhelmed by the “armies” coming against us until we get to the point where we must cry out to the Lord:  'O our God… We have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us.  We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you' (v. 12).  Indeed, only God can save us!  And as such, the words put into the mouth of Jehaziel—originally spoken to the Kingdom of Judah 2500 years ago—seem to speak directly to us in Amsterdam, as well:  'Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army.  For the battle is not yours, but God’s' (v. 15).  Even in the midst of awkward circumstances, we can trust God to come to our rescue!

If you read the whole story in 2 Chronicles, you’ll see that the way that God brings about this miracle of deliverance for the Israelites is astonishing… Yet I can’t help but wonder if God is going to enact a similar miracle in our situation today.  We’ll have to just wait and see… In the meantime, we’re embracing our life as nomads.  And we’re praying a lot.  As you have opportunity, please pray with us as well.  You keep on praying, and we’ll keep in touch…

Eric