If you want some back story about how God led us to Amsterdam, read Part One.
The morning of the Amsterdam gay pride parade my team visited the YWAM prayer room and worshiped with some of the staff there, all of whom we’d never met. These people reflected the body of Christ so well. After worshipping, they sent us out and prayed over us before we left and continued praying throughout the duration of the parade. Our main focus during the parade was reflecting God’s unconditional love and allowing the Holy Spirit to use us to do that.
My team split into pairs, and Tanner and I fought our way through the insane crowds to try to reach out to some people and watch the parade with them. The four of us regrouped several hours later to get dinner and swap stories of the interactions we had. Throughout the day we were offered rainbow face paint, glitter body spray, and a variety of drinks, all of which we gladly received. The gay community is the friendliest, most welcoming, and accepting community I’ve ever interacted with. WAKE UP, CHURCH. We have a lot to learn from them.
After the parade my team went to a bar to meet more people, which, compared to the chaos of the parade, was a much more conducive environment for making deep connections. Ronny and I stayed out until 3am and talked to DOZENS of people. Most of them were travelers who came to Amsterdam just for the parade, and we were able to get to know them as well as share about the unconditional love of God and the never-ending grace offered to us through Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross. Amazing how the Holy Spirit can use a margarita to boost your confidence to share the gospel. Yeah I said it. ¯_(?)_/¯
At one point in the day, Jenna and I got to talking to a group of Dutch teenagers who hadn’t yet heard that we were Christians. While one was pouring us a cup of wine and one was painting a rainbow flag on my cheek, the other one said, “We were all hoping we’d run into an unassuming Christian American family who planned their trip to Amsterdam without realizing it was pride week and be in for a huge shock.”
“Haha well WE’RE Christians. We’re traveling the world to tell people about God’s love right now,” we told them.
“Well I guess we pictured a different type of Christian than you guys.”
Bingo. That’s why we’re here. The church hasn’t always done the best job at reflecting Christlike love and we want to change that.
One more quick story:
On the day of the parade I posted some of these pictures on my Instagram story and received a lot of love for posting them.
One of the messages was from a friend I made at a hostel in Jakarta back in April. During our week there, all of the girls on the squad stayed together and spent a lot of time with this guy and his boyfriend in the common area of the hostel. They never brought up that they were gay because of the judgement they’ve received from other Christians in the past. We got to talking and after sharing my stance on the issue, he sent me this message:
“You’ve got to be the most logical, rational, and objective Christian I’ve ever met. A big part of my reason for walking away from religion was the hypocrisy and double standards within. Among many other things, I witnessed people participating in other “sin” and justifying it while simultaneously tearing down the gay community. My own family did this both before and after I came out. I watched people pick and choose which verses and rules they wanted to ignore while vehemently enforcing others. . . I came from a huge Christian community that preached unconditional love and acceptance as long as people met certain conditions. I spent my entire life since infancy being taught that God and family and the church loved me unconditionally. Once I came out, these people were especially destructive and hateful and it really left me wondering exactly which God they were referring to.”
We as Christians have been given the opportunity to reflect Christlike love here on earth each day. Sadly, a portion of the body has not shown that unconditional love and have poorly represented Christ.
If there is one thing I’ve learned on this trip (there are truly thousands) it’s that God can use any given moment to point people to Him. There are no mundane interactions. There is ALWAYS an opportunity to love. He’s inviting us to be involved in glorifying Him, not because he needs us but because He knows the joy it brings when it comes to fruition and when those we interact with feel his love. The gospel is not about rules, it’s about grace! It’s simply acknowledging that we don’t have our lives together and we don’t HAVE to because Jesus does. Would you join in me in sharing THAT message of love?
If you are interested in broadening your perspective on Christians and the gay community, I would love to talk more about my stance and learn from you as well! Feel free to shoot me a message with your thoughts. Thank you for reading and supporting me on this journey!
