Hamburg

I am so sorry I haven’t updated my blog sooner! Between catching trains, random lectures and getting to know the city, there has been no free time! Add in the lack of internet and bam! No blog. Anyways, Hamburg has been interesting so far. We left sunday at 9 and arrived at nine that night. There was a lot of running and missing busses and trains but we still made it! Once we got to the church we were greeted with warm bowls of chicken noodle soup, the only meal of the day. Then we settled in, girls in  one room and the guys in the sanctuary. Why the boys have the huge room I don’t know, but all is good! The girls room is smaller and more crammed, but that just means it won’t be as cold in our room! There is one shower for 50 people and one set of bathrooms, so the rule is two showers a week. Woohoo! I guess in a way that will make us more relatable to the homeless people we’ll be talking to. Yesterday we heard from the leader of YWAM Hamburg and where/what they focus on. After that they sent us out on a scavenger hunt around the city to find the nearest laundry mat, bank, internet cafe, and bakery, and this is really what opened up my eyes. As we were walking around I saw stray dogs roaming the streets, graffiti covering every inch of the buildings, and homeless people running frantically around. There was an area we passed with long sets of stairs and it was covered with mattress’s, shoes, clothes, trash and people laying around. I literally had to stop and wipe my eyes, I was crying so much that I couldn’t see. I am not sure why it hit me that hard, I see this sort of thing in San Antonio all the time, but I think it’s because I asked God to show me His heart for the city, so I felt the same pain He feels constantly. He loves the least of them! After the scavenger hunt we  had a worship/prayer session and covered topics such as, the university’s here, the red light district, the homeless population, church plant, and the church in Hamburg. These are all areas that YWAM Hamburg focus’s on and it is what we will be doing while we are here. This prayer time was so powerful, for everyone! We went on for a over an hour and lifted each area up. Lately God has really been putting human trafficking and child prostitution on my heart, it is something I’ve sadly ignored before, so I spent my time in prayer for this area in Hamburg and soon I became so overwhelmed! It was almost like I could feel their pain and the emptiness they are feeling, and I just began to quietly weep, I didn’t exactly know what else to do. I felt like words couldn’t really express what was going in, it was such a special experience for me, to really feel God’s heart for those lives. Each one of them are so precious to the heart of God, but they only know a life of pain, shame and chains. I am so excited to go down to those areas, I’m ready to see it for real, not just in movies. I want to see the reality so I know how to pray! Today another leader from the base, the one in charge of the human trafficking ministry, came and talked to us about what we can do. So wednesday and friday nights we will be going down to the red light district and praying/worshiping and if God leads us, talking to  some of the girls. Briefly though, otherwise we can get them into deep trouble. So please be in prayer as we go out and do this! It is going to be an intense time of spiritual warfare. Tonight we are going in to the city to do some sort of homeless ministry and I am excited to see what happens and who we meet, I love meeting people! My friend Jonah (a young, super tall, hilarious german) said something that stuck with me, “I hate how I can’t see people in the city-their eyes are so empty. There is nothing there.” And that is why we are here, to fill that emptiness! I’ll update later on what happens tonight!