"You're not just weird, you're adorable!"

Hoi!

I can't believe our time in Rotterdam is pretty much over! The past three days have been challenging but awesome, exhausting yet energizing, and long - yet they are flying by. Basically, I don't even know what to feel about the past few days. There are a million thoughts flying through my head at any given moment on this trip. Our time spent at Erasmus and Hogeschool this week has been good. It has been challenging to hear such a lack of belief in the gospel, but it makes our trip all the more worthwhile. People here are lost, and it is simply our job to try to bring them the message. Where God takes it from there, we may never know, but I'm encouraged by the fact that He has a plan through it all. Today was probably my most encouraging day on campus. Peter and I had a conversation with a girl who believed in God and Jesus, and has a mother who is a Christian. She said "My mom always tells me she is praying for me, and that is good, because I am searching for answers." This was the first student I have encountered this week, through conversations on campus, that even believed Jesus was divine, and the fact that she was questioning more about faith was super encouraging.

Outside of our time on campus, we have been busy! We had a prayer and worship night at a home of some of the staff, went to dinner at a Turkish restaurant (and got lost on the way), went to a Dutch sorority (think co-ed campus organization - not your typical American sorority) and hung out with some students we met earlier in the week, and (since our group was split in 1/2 today) some of us had an "Open Huis" at Maarten and Miranda's where we hung out, ate dinner and played a game. I haven't laughed so hard in SUCH a long time. We were all a little slap-happy since we aren't sleeping well, and the tiniest things were making Jess, Kelsey and I laugh hysterically. The game we played involved picture cards from a Cru tool called Soularium, and afterwards we asked Maarten to pick out pictures that represented what he thought about us 3 girls. He was so genuinely nice to us all, but during his explanation of Kelsey he made the comment, "You're not just weird, you're adorable!" We found this to be beyond hilarious and a great night ended in laughter.

Continue to pray for us as we have our last day on campus tomorrow - half the group at Erasmus and the other half in Leiden. Pray for people willing to not only talk, but listen. Pray for joy rather than sadness as we say goodbye to the Dutch staff on Friday morning and safety as we travel to Amsterdam.

Goodnight!
-Erin