Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone
who asks you to give the reason for the hope that
you have. But do this with gentleness and respect...
(1 Peter 3:15)

Greetings from Amsterdam!  We’ve had a busy month of ministry.  We hosted our first short-term missions team of the year; we sponsored a series of apologetics seminars called “The God Hypothesis” (www.thegodhypothesis.com); and we coordinated an extended weekend of service projects called “Serve the City” with 30 different projects involving almost 300 volunteers from May 17-20 (see www.stcamsterdam.nl for more details on this exciting initiative that Zolder50 was privileged to lead).  And of course, all of this was in addition to the regular slate of ministry activities that we have from month to month.  To say the least, it’s been a full—though fruitful—month of ministry.

Even so, in the midst of all the ministry activity, I always find that it’s the little things that seem to make the biggest impact.  For me personally, my heart has been freshly stirred in the last month or two toward simple prayer and evangelism.  On a regular basis, I’ve been deliberately starting my days by asking God to help me to be on the look-out today for people with whom I can talk about Him… to find people who are asking the big questions in life… to scatter seeds that God can grow…  And as I’ve been praying, God has been bringing opportunities.  Of course, I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that the more I pray, the more my heart becomes prepared.  Since I’m consciously asking to see God’s hand at work, I’m more perceptive to the opportunities that God brings along.  But even so, as I’ve been asking for God to intervene in my life, I’ve been really seeing how sometimes God will just drop something right into my lap!

There was one day in particular last month, when I was praying early in the morning—before heading out to lead one of the aforementioned Serve the City projects.  That morning I prayed for God’s will in the service project and specifically that He would bring me into conversation with non-believers—but that I wouldn’t have to push my way into it.  However, when the project actually got going that morning, I basically forgot my morning prayer.  I ended up with a strange mix of volunteers on my team:  three giggling American high school girls, one very reticent Bulgarian young man, three older Dutch women who had found out about the project through an article in the local newspaper, and then me and one other guy from Zolder50.  Each volunteer seemed to have very different goals for why he or she was there.  And though we had planned some projects ahead of time; instead, we wasted a lot of time going around on a tour and drinking coffee when we got there —basically killing time because the people at the community center were not ready for us.  Suffice to say, I was pretty frustrated by the way the day was going…

Nevertheless, we started trying to pull things together and salvage something from the day.  The majority of our team went to work in the garden, doing jobs that weren’t 100 percent necessary but which were at least something positive for us to do.  Then as we started to work, God remembered my prayer from earlier that morning (even though I had practically forgotten it)…

While we were sitting on the ground and weeding, a couple of the high school girls started joking about the one girl’s borderline obsessive-compulsive tendencies… And after a bit of listening and casual participation in the conversation, I suddenly felt God’s prompting and before I could even think about it, I blurted out a question:  “So who is really in control of your life?”  It was a very direct question, not at all premeditated, and yet it seemed that the question came from God and subsequently opened the door to some amazing conversation.  While we kept weeding, more and more kept coming out about this girl’s past… her parents’ divorce… her strained relationship with her step-mom… her frustration with her Dad’s move to the Netherlands and subsequent breaking of promises about when they would go “back home”… It was pretty deep stuff!  And then without thinking about it, I was sharing the gospel—talking about giving God control of our lives and our future.   Even as we talked, this girl seemed to be torn between the beauty of the gospel and reminding herself of the fact that she didn’t believe in God.  But I was trusting that God would do His work in her life through our conversation.

And then, just as our great spiritual conversation was dying out, this old woman sitting nearby started cursing at us and telling us to shut up with our stupid conversation in English and death to George Bush and other such ranting and raving.  So I started to talk with her in Dutch and ask why she seemed so agitated.  When I initially walked over to talk with her, she refused to allow me to sit down with her (she said that her religion prohibited it).  But as I responded gently and asked a few more questions, she eased up a little bit and eventually invited me to pull up a chair—and over the next hour her whole manner changed while we talked.  She became very soft-spoken and polite.  She told me about how she had never felt like she fit in anywhere, throughout her whole life, and about her decision (as a Dutch woman) to convert to Islam.  I told her some about what we were doing with Serve the City and why I personally had chosen to participate (my faith in Jesus).  I wouldn't exactly say that I got to share the gospel with this cranky old woman—but I was definitely able to identify myself as someone who had found meaning and hope and belonging in Jesus.  I was able to turn a very negative point of introduction around into something pleasant and warm... And who knows how God might use that someday?

I wish I could say that one or both of these women accepted Christ that day… but they didn’t.  Both conversations died out eventually.  Even so, I definitely felt God at work through those conversations, and as usual I must be content to let Him do what He wants with those seeds (or maybe just fertilizer pellets) that were scattered that day.

What encourages me the most is that I’ve had several other similar experiences over the last month—getting into serious conversations about God with other people as well:  family members at a birthday party for a guy from my home group… A single mom from Elliot’s school… A university student on the steps of the Vrije Universiteit… neighbors at a neighborhood meeting to talk about threats to renters in the area… The opportunities seem nearly endless!  This is what ministry is all about—and this is why I’m incredibly thankful for your role in supporting our involvement with God’s work in Amsterdam.  Thanks so much for everything.  We’ll be in touch…

Eric