earthsedge

Wow, this week was a busy one.

We’ve been preparing for an Intercultural Trainers Workshop that will happen in a few weeks. Leaders from various organizations will be coming to receive training on issues of culture and mission. Our team at YWAM Amsterdam is hosting the training, and Becka and I are helping with the logistics. It’s been interesting because the resource team is scattered all over the planet, and we are the only ones actually in Amsterdam! So there have been emails flying all over and I’ve been learning the ropes of how everything works on the base here. I’ve been a little nervous about it since we are still new and all these leaders will be showing up in just a few weeks! But this week the “head honcho” came for a few days and we put together as much as we could, and thankfully things seem to be coming together nicely. I’m really excited about it; the speakers/organizers are all amazing people with A LOT of experience in issues of culture. I mean “written books on it” experience. So it should be good.

I think our year in Africa opened my eyes to the importance of this kind of training. We met so many western missionaries who were on the verge of calling it quits because of some basic cultural issues, and we also met many Africans who would be very happy if they did! It’s a big issue and with the rise of Christianity in the global south, it’s only going to get bigger. Most organizations, denominations, and agencies are finding that multicultural teams are becoming the norm, not the exception. This is certainly true in YWAM; 60% of our staff is non-western-including leadership. I’ve never been on a team that wasn’t multicultural. And let me tell you, without some basic understanding of how different cultures approach leadership, decision-making, authority, respect, power, food, relationship, clothing, family, etc; conflict is inevitable. Some very simple principles and training can go a long way in keeping teams on the field. Training like this. Ok just kidding-I don’t think Michael Scott will be making an appearance at the workshop!

In other news,”toot” as we’ve been calling him, turned five months. He’s been in fine form all week; we had to get our pictures take for immigration and this is the face he made:

In his jammers:

Diversity. Last night we attended a program at Noorderkerk, one of the historic churches in the city. The program was to kickoff a week of Pinksterfeest (Pentecost) activities throughout the city-concerts, lectures, etc. The mayor of Amsterdam was there, and he spoke briefly about Pentecost being a “coming together”of the nations. This is an important theme in Amsterdam, as it is the most diverse city on the planet (in terms of nations represented). One in three people in Amsterdam is from a non-western background, and over 50% of the kids are non-western. It’s one extremely diverse city. In many ways Amsterdam is a picture of the future. With globalization and urbanization, most cities of the world are quickly moving toward becoming multi-cultural centers; extremely diverse, highly populated places of influence. And that’s Amsterdam in a nutshell. It’s far from being a perfect city, but from what I understand Amsterdam is leading the world in learning how to be a functioning, multi-cultural city.

Of course, with diversity comes the possibility (some might say inevitability) of conflict. How can all these cultures interact in a meaningful way? What happens when the values of one culture intrude on the values of another? What happens when one culture refuses to tolerate another culture? In short, HOW DO WE ALL GET ALONG, inter-culturally speaking? For example, today in Dam Square there was a pro-china rally:

At other times there has been free-Tibet gatherings. As far as I know there hasn’t been any violence in Amsterdam over this issue, but in other urban capitals there has. Of course, this is a global political issue, but there is a local cultural dynamic to it as well: here are two different cultural groups that both want a voice and have to live side by side in the same city. And yet it’s just one issue out of millions that different cultures who call the same city “home” have to address. These are tough questions!

And things get even more interesting when you bring Christianity into the mix. How does God view the nations of the earth? How does the gospel shed light on intercultural relationships (after all, every tongue and tribe will one day call the same city “home”)? How does the person of Christ mediate between cultures and bring reconciliation? How can the body of Christ demonstrate God’s intentions for unity in diversity? What does it mean to be a Christian in a culturally plural society?

I love thinking about this stuff because it’s extremely relevant for mission. The missionary (or Christian for that matter) of this century will have to be able grasp God’s purposes in a multi-cultural society. And that’s essentially what our team, ICRC (intercultural resource center) does. We train people to be effective intercultural workers, and communicate the potential of the gospel to bring together the nations of the earth. Of course, Becka and I are still very much learning about all this ourselves! (I’ve definitely had some of my mission paradigms shaken since coming here) But Amsterdam is quite possibly the best place to be exploring this stuff. More on this in the coming months.

Back to the Pinkerfest program: YWAM was asked to lead a part of the program and demonstrate what unity in diversity can look like, as we are probably the most diverse organization in the city. It was quite an interesting night; to be honest it was kind of boring until YWAM took over, at which point, in true YWAM fashion, everything dissolved into beautiful chaos.

But my favorite part of the night was when Benny Prasad, an Indian guitarist, performed. This is the song he played; now just imagine that echoing through the open spaces of a 17th century church! Beautiful.

So here’s a bit about YWAM Amsterdam. (There is a website with limited information that you can check out; they are in the process of designing a new site.)

YWAM has four buildings in the city center, and each building houses different ministry teams.

Samaritan’s Inn: This is a large building directly across from Central Station. The first floor houses a bookshop and an international art cafe, both run by YWAM. The cafe is open all week but is often used on the weekend for various art and music exhibitions as a way to build relationships in the community. The rest of the building is a mix of staff housing, offices, and I guess what you could call creative art rooms. The latter are there because a team called Ethnos is based out of Samaritan’s Inn. Ethnos is an international, urban ministry team that focuses on building relationships with the youth in the city through performing and fine art. They have a dance and drama team, a university ministry, club and cafe ministries, bands, DJs, and the like; they are all more or less focused on building relationships and mobilizing local churches to get involved in the city.

The Cleft: This building is in the heart of the Red Light District. The Cleft personnel focus on the surrounding community by building relationships with prostitutes, the homeless, the tourists who flock to this part of the city, and all the diverse people that wander through the Red Light District. If you’ve ever visited this part of Amsterdam, you know that diverse is an understatement! This page has a decent explanation of what people at The Cleft do.

Tabernacle of the Nations: This building, right next door to the Cleft, serves as a prayer center for churches throughout Amsterdam. I think the idea is to eventually have churches throughout Amsterdam coming together for 24/7 prayer for the city and the world. YWAM is initiating this.

De Poort: This building is on the eastern edge of the city center. Dutch for The Gateway, De Poort houses all the training and support structure of YWAM Amsterdam. The vision here is to be a place for people from all over the world to come, be trained, and sent out into the nations. YWAM Amsterdam has sent hundreds of short term and long term teams into Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. The training programs vary in focus, length, etc, and a few hundred students pass through each year. Many of them are DTS (Discipleship Training School) students, which is YWAM’s short-term introduction to mission. There are also various specialized training programs, church-planting teams, an NGO that works with children with disabilities in the Middle East, and administrative personnel, etc. It’s one busy place!

Becka and I work out of this building with a team called ICRC (Intercultural Resource Center). In terms of training, our team runs a two-year intercultural training program that is part classroom/part internship/part mentoring/part field work. The idea is to help staff transition into long term, specialized work in intercultural settings. (Actually, right now our team is reviewing the curriculum and the objectives of the program because we are looking at multiplying it in Asia. I’ve been sitting in on these discussions because Becka and I may be involved with running the program in Amsterdam next year. So more on this later.) I’ll save a more detailed explanation of what else ICRC does for upcoming posts! But Becka and I are really excited to be with this team-it definitely fits our interests and giftings.

So that’s a very general overview of YWAM Amsterdam. There’s a lot going on here, and to be honest, Becka and I are still learning about how everything works and what everyone does.

We’ll be posting more about our daily schedule/ministry, life in Amsterdam, and Dutch culture over the coming months.