Everyone's so Tan!!!

So yesterday was our first day back to class. Walking around campus everyone is super tan and all relaxed. I really stuck out because I am still pale and super jet lagged. I felt like a zombie all day yesterday, I guess 4 hours of sleep in 48 hours will do that to a person. However, my sleepiness didn’t hinder my continued processing. I realized I don’t just stick out because I didn’t spend a week on the beach in the sun but because I didn’t spend a week on the beach in the sun. I spent my spring break on an intense spiritual journey. I came back with a deeper understanding of my own faith, a stronger relationship with Jesus and better equipped to share the gospel to believers and non-believers. 

                The biggest thing I learned about Dutch culture was how spiritually thirsty people are. Conversation after conversation of “I don’t believe in God”, “I don’t know what happens after I die”, “I don’t know what my purpose in life is” and “I don’t really care” had me convinced students were spiritually dead. I was struggling with this term “spiritually dead.”  The thought of being able to lose your spirit or the possibility of becoming “spiritually dead” is a scary thought. But as the week continued, I started to recap and analyze my encounters.  The students’ curiosity and interest started to surface. Even though they were saying “I don’t care,” they often asked about my thoughts and my beliefs. They mentioned how much the enjoyed the survey or soularium and made comments like “this made my lunch break so much more interesting.”  I started to realize they didn’t know how to care.

In one conversation Erin and I had the two girls, at the Hogeschool Tuesday afternoon, mentioned how much they were learning about each other through our questions.  Although they were close friends, they’d never discussed simple spiritual questions like “Is there a God?”, “Does He exist?”, and “What do you believe?”  I changed my mind, the Dutch students weren’t spiritually dead, and they were spiritually dormant.  (Disclaimer: Here starts my scientific thinking, try to stay with me) It’s not like the Dutch don’t have a spirit, it’s just that their spirit isn’t active. If something sparked it their spirit could become alive or active again. They’ve developed spiritual atrophy. Just like with muscle or brain – the use it or lose it idea. Because of the Dutch culture the spirit is not stimulated. There is no workout-so to speak- no stretching, activity, challenging or development taking place. Without regular stimulation from society, friends, family, school etc., like we experience, it is hard to create regular spiritual activity on your own. This is where so many students start to drop of the “Believer” wagon.

                Throughout the week my focus of sharing the Gospel shifted to spiritually stimulating the people I talked with. I had this idea that sharing the Gospel took place in one conversation because in the US sharing the Gospel is usually with people who have some religious background, some kind of spiritual activity. But I learned sharing the Gospel, in some cases, might need to be a process. Approaching students in love and genuine interest in their lives helped create a smooth transition into a starting a spiritual discussion. Of course I shared the gospel through bits and pieces of my testimony during our conversation but just getting students thinking about general questions or trying to pin point what they really believe became the starting point. I pray that God would use our conversations over the past week as a way to continue to tug on the hearts of the students. I pray that students start to think about what they believe and start searching for the truth, Jesus!

To the friends and family back home reading our thoughts and feelings as we reflect on our experience you might get the impression that there is no hope.  But for those of us who were out talking and sharing we can see that the harvest is plenty. Students in Rotterdam, Leiden, Utrecht and all over just need someone to start the conversation. It is so comforting and encouraging to know that our mission doesn’t end with us leaving. To know that there is a strong, focused team dedicated to reaching students and following up with the ones we spoke to makes our hard work all the more worthwhile. They will be in my prayers and I hope yours.

Thank you for all your support both financially and prayerfully. With such a strong community at home supporting us, we were able to experience, learn and grow in ways unexpected. God showed up big on this trip!!

~Jessica