Skip to main content

Walking through December: the first of many lasts.

Another time of transition. After almost 2 years here in Amsterdam I a starting to prepare to move on. After I get back from running Shine in Brazil I will be moving on. To what and where, I don’t know, but I know it’ll be something good because God leads well.

It’s  another time of so many changes. And yet while looking to the future there is a need to be in the now and present. I am better at the latter at the moment. The ahead seems so far away, and the present has more than enough things to resolve. Kind of like it says in the Bible that each day has enough worries of it’s on.

Last night I did my first of many lasts. My last shift with HOME soup- the soup project Not For Sale runs here in the Red Light District. The past year and a half I’ve been heading out every Tuesday night; rain or shine or snow, selling soup and salads to the women behind the windows. It’s been such a privilege and so amazing to see soup open doors to hearts. I will miss it.

I will miss the joy of making eye contact with each girl, and even if we never speak, communicate that “yes, you are seen” in a good way. I will miss wearing the orange jacket which identifies me as the “soup lady”. I will miss numerous conversations through mimicking through a closed window “d-o y-o-u w-a-n-t s-o-u-p t-o-d-a-y”. I will miss conversations about life, in a place where the reality is so surreal if you stop to think about it. And I will miss the lovely volunteers I’ve had the joy to get to know.

As I was pouring the left over soup into plastic containers at the end of the shift last night, in between making ready some last minutes orders of chicken soup, I was thinking that the soup means more than just food. It means dignity. And every shift I was always reminded of the fact that at the end of the day, the soup project never was about the soup, it is about the people. The women we get to connect with and know and the stories we get to share. And it’s been such a privilege to be welcomed into their world, if only for a little while.

So there you go. I know there will be other lasts, but for now this is the first one and I am not quite sure how I feel about it. I am so thankful that I got to be a part of it, and sad that it is over for me, yet at the same time I have this sense of closure; that I did what I was meant to do, and that now other people will continue with it.

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday children's prayer | Handing out shoes and feeding toddlers.

No day is the same here. After getting up early (which seems to be what I do here), and eating breakfast which was bread with butter (accompanied by an amazing cup of coffee given me by an American friend), I headed to the prayer room for children's prayer. This is a prayer time where the children come voluntarily to pray before school on Tuesdays and Fridays. Entering the room I was so impressed by how it was full of children eager to pray. There were probably 60 or 70 children there, and it was amazing to see one after the other choose to pray for their families and people who are sick, and other subjects on their little hearts. It was so great and an experience that I will carry with me for a long time. After prayer it was "Shoprite" time, which meant piling into a bus with other visitors and missionaries for the weekly shopping trip. I didn't quite know what to expect, but I had a few items to buy and hoped it would be a stress-free experience. As we drove along ...
Read more

It’s been one week.

A week ago we were sitting at work talking about how quickly the Corona situation was escalating. News of closed gyms and limited gatherings were there, and we were wondering what now. Only the day before we’d been open, and while taking the hygiene precautions and reminding each other to not hug or shake hands, there was a sense of support in each other, and normality was still there. Then suddenly it all changed. From being a crisis in China and Asia, then Italy, it had well and truly arrived in Norway. Friday morning we sat in our staff meeting. News of the closing of all schools and kindergartens for two weeks had come the evening before. We sat there with so many questions and few answers. The one thing we knew for sure was that this was a time to be available and present. A time to be proactive, and to make sure our people knew that we were there even if we weren’t open. That day we made many phone calls and sent messages and emails. Some were worried and needed reassurance,...
Read more

At a crossroads yet again.

This evening feelings of weariness flood my soul. Weary of not knowing. Weary of choosing to trust. Weary of waiting. Weary of walking yet not knowing what I am walking in or towards. Weary of figuring out life on my own. This past month the reality of crossroads in life has hit me yet again. I knew it was coming, but suddenly it was there and I just had to go with it. There’s not much more I can do...except waiting and trusting and choosing. Choosing to let God be the One who guides and fights and prepares the path before me. My crossroads is “do I stay or do I go”? From Kansas City and IHOP-KC. In October I’ll have been here two years, which feels like 5 years and at the same time 6 months. In December I go home for Christmas. It’ll have been a year since last time and I’ll be seeing my niece who’ll be 3 instead of 2 years old, and my little nephew who will be 1 year already, and I’ll get to meet little Julie who is only three weeks old as I write this. She’ll be 4 months when I meet...
Read more