Amsterdam

Not long after we got back from Denmark, they decided to move Procla-Media to Amsterdam. We packed up all our stuff in trucks and began to caravan to the Netherlands. Once again, our route took us through Germany. There was a rest stop at the German border so we stopped for some refreshments. It was a large place with an elevated crosswalk above the road where you could watch the traffic pass beneath. I did that for a while before meandering back to our vehicles. When I got there, they were gone! As there were several vehicles, each one thought I was in the other and I was left…by myself…in the middle of Europe.

There were no cell phones in those days so I had no way to contact anyone. All I could do was wait and pray that someone would notice I was missing. Thankfully, after a while Russ came back for me. The journey continued without further incident.

Several of the families and couples moved into an apartment complex on the outer edges of Amsterdam and the video equipment was set up in one of the apartments. I moved into an apartment much closer to the city center with some other single guys from YWAM Amsterdam. I would commute to the production apartment on trams and trains each day. 

YWAM Amsterdam had several buildings in the city. The main offices were in a five-story building called Samaritan’s Inn with a coffee shop on the ground level and a lighted sign on the top that read “God Loves You” in Dutch and English. It was across the canal from the main train station in the middle of town. It was also close to the Red Light District where they sought to help people. Their training center was housed in a larger building called De Poort further down the waterfront. They also had a houseboat called the Ark docked behind the main train station. This was where YWAM Amsterdam first began. 

My friend, Steven Wallett had moved to the Netherlands and was working at a YWAM base in a town east of Amsterdam. Undercover, the California “punk” band we had seen at Sea World in San Diego the year before was playing in Amsterdam. We decided to go see them together again.

Undercover were punk in style. They had the hair, the clothes, the sound and were trying to reach out to an audience who were outside the mainstream. In Amsterdam, they ran into real punks who were nihilistic, aggressive, violent, anarchistic. Trying to look the part, the lead singer had his wallet connected to a chain which ran into his pocket. In Amsterdam he had it stolen - twice.

As we walked up to the venue, I was nervous. There was a crowd of scary-looking, scary-acting punks milling about out front. When we got inside there was a merchandise table set up and we went over to talk to the manager. I had one of their albums but didn’t have much money to buy more. We were telling the manager that we saw them in San Diego so he said to me, 

“Tell me you don’t have any money”. 

I wasn’t sure what he was talking about but he told me to say it again. I did and he gave me the two Undercover albums that I didn’t have.

The concert was rough. We sat up in the balcony to avoid the chaos and chaos it was. The punks were moshing and spitting and throwing bottles. This was no crowd of California Christians. The lead singer was getting increasingly frustrated and they ended up shutting the concert down early. 

The parents of my friend Heather (from King’s Kids in Los Angeles) had moved to Amsterdam and she came to visit. I took her out on the first official date I had ever been on. We went to a little restaurant and out to a movie that became another one of my all time favorites – Amadeus.

It wasn’t the most comfortable evening I’ve ever had. As I’m not the greatest conversationalist it was a little awkward. That’s one of the reasons (besides my theology on relationships) that I had never been on a date. I can and like to get into great, intense conversations but I also enjoy friendships that are comfortable enough to not have to talk at all. That evening included neither of those. Although I was at the age now where marriage could have been a possibility, I knew that if things weren’t completely comfortable with Heather then things weren’t going to head that way. Still, it was nice to see my friend again.


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