New Focus: Reaching Out to People in Amsterdam's Red Light District

In June of this year, we handed our church over to our associate pastors so that we could start a new church. We prayed for direction, but were unsure what it would look like until we met Frits Rouvoet the leader of Bright Fame.  This Christian organization helps individuals who work in the red light district find new work and come to their full potential. During most days and nights of the week, teams from Bright Fame visit the women and men behind the windows aiming at building a friendship with them. There is also an office where they can come get help from a social worker, a meal, a Bible study or just a cup of coffee and a listening ear.

Bright Fame was in need of Spanish speakers to join them because many workers come from Latin America. Years ago, Femke had prayed that if there ever was an opportunity to help people in the red light district, we would be available. Both of us speak Spanish, and we experienced this as an answer to Femke's prayer. 

                                            

In the last months we have beautiful encounters! One person from Ecuador invited Femke and her teammate to her house to eat ceviche! Femke was able to prophecy life and value over her. Another young girl from Romania shared how she had lost all her dreams. Femke prophesied that she saw a huge heart to love children in her. She shared that she used to help at kid's church in the Pentecostal church she grew up in, in Romania. These women are valuable! They are someone's daughter, sister, and mother! They are loved by our heavenly Father. It is our mission to show this to them! 

Earlier this year, Matt met Liliana in Munich, Germany. Liliana is a passionate follower of Jesus from Colombia. When he told her about our new ministry, she opened up with her personal story.  Her story is similar to the ones of many of the girls that currently work in the Red Light District. We hope and pray that God will do the same in the lives of the girls that currently work in the Red Light District, what He did in Liliana's life. Would you pray with us for that to take place?

(Matt sitting with Liliana. She is a testimony of a life changed and set free through the power of the love of Jesus Christ.)

"When I was seventeen years old, I came to Europe thinking that I was going to work as a nanny taking care of children. When I came here, I was forced into prostitution. Every night my pimp would come and demand his share of the money I had brought in that day. I became so hopeless that I became addicted to drugs to still the pain and the hopelessness. However, there were Christians who regularly visited me and showed me that God loved me. They showed me love, they showed me Jesus and I was eventually able to get out of prostitution."

We need your prayers and your financial support to do what we feel called to do!

Please pray for:

- the Red Light District: for strongholds of the enemy to be broken.

- the women: for the freedom that comes with knowing Jesus.

-for protection: for our marriage and family life.

Watch this video to see Femke explain more about our family and our new focus in ministry.