 |
|||
|
E-zine for prayer, revival and church growth |
No 498 | 11 February 2005 |
||
|
|
STORY: A TAXI RIDE THROUGH UTRECHT Teus Schep is a taxi driver in Utrecht, a city in the centre of the Netherlands. One day God gave him the assignment to keep a diary for the period of several months. This diary would be a prophetic message to the Church. What he experienced in Utrecht is reality in many cities of the world today. The whole diary is around 30 pages; in this edition we publish a few excerpts. The story ends with a prayer. A TAXI RIDE THROUGH UTRECHT It's already late at night. Just after twelve o'clock. I'm waiting in my taxi in the darkness of Central Square when two boys of about 15 years old knock on my window pane. How much it costs to drive one of them to a nearby village and the other to a village further on. We agree on the price and they get into the car. One in the front seat, the other in the back. During the ride in the dark they exchange their experiences of the past night. After school they went shopping in the city and visited a few bars, before ending up in the red light district where the prostitutes are sitting behind their shopping windows. They both ended up with a different prostitute, and now - in the darkness of the car - they tell each other the perverse details. The boy in the back praises the prostitute he visited. "She was great," he says. Two school boys, just fifteen years old, going out for a night. A bit later when I drive the boy in the front seat home, and carefully strike up a conversation with him, he reveals the lack of direction of many young people today. Confidentially he admits: "I didn't really like it. It's now the third time I did this, but I don't think I'll go back another time." I share with him about my own struggles with sexuality, and how powerfully Jesus changed this area of my life. We part as friends. A camera man and a TV reporter from Japan get into the car. We just loaded their equipment in the trunk and head for Schiphol Airport. The reporter tells me that it's already the fourth time they're visiting Holland, in just a short period of time. He thinks it's quite special that such a small country does such a good job in regularly attracting the attention of the international press. He digs into his memory and sums up: "The first time we were here to report on your euthanasia debate in parliament, and the second time to do a special on the debate around gay marriage. Then we came back to record the first official gay weddings that took place in Amsterdam. And now we came over for a big weed fair. These are all things that are pretty unthinkable in our country or anywhere. You really are a great example of freedom to the world. In front of the weed fair we noticed that the police was directing the traffic of the many visitors. Inside the fair people were blowing freely and you could get all kinds of weed-related drugs. This is unthinkable in Japan." I explain that this kind of freedom will ultimately bind a nation and may even cause God to react. I pick up a well dressed young woman. She wears a long, red gown, and wants a ride to the Central Station. She tells me she's on her way to a field near Amsterdam to celebrate solistice with other witches. I ask her what that involves. "Oh, much dancing around fires, some wiccan rituals, waiting for the dawn of day and celebrate the rising of the sun." A while later at the casino a couple enters the taxi. They want to go to a town just outside Utrecht. The man is overjoyous and loud. I assume he drank a bit too much, but the opposite is true. "Are you angry at me?" he asks his wife, who sits in the back. "No, not really," she says. "Well, who cares - it's just money," he says. "Well yeah," she agrees. He tries to convince her and himself for a while that it doesn't really matter, but then suddenly says: "Those were a lot of monthly wages." A bit later, looking at me: "Never go there, driver. It will kill you. We went there every day for a whole week, but will never go there again!" In the Hooggraven neighborhood a man and a woman get in the car. Both foreigners. They need a ride to a village outside Utrecht. Arriving at his house, he goes inside to get money, and she pours out her heart to me. She is East-German. Years ago in the former GDR she had a responsible job on a collective farm as chief milk production. At age nine she was raped by Russian soldiers. After the fall of the Berlin Wall she went roaming around and got addicted on drugs. She managed to get clean, but got addicted again. She's desperate. Wants to get rid of the shit. She writes her name on a piece of paper and asks me if I would pray for her in the coming weeks. When the man returns, we drive back to Hooggraven. There I see a group of Moroccans dealing on the street corner. Provided with the stuff their body craves for, but their soul hates, I drive them back home. Four business people get in the car. Well dressed, a trendy black business suitcase on their laps, they sit in the front and the back. Their presence brings a wave of dirt and perversion into the cab. One of them, a distinguished gentleman, kicks it off, but the others don't stop him, but actively contribute. The man is obsessed by children. He makes dirty jokes about sex with children. He points to a little girl on the street and calls her 'a hot chick'. The wave of perversion continues until the gentlemen get out in front of a chique restaurant where they will have dinner. I noticed over the past months that Satan seems to be breaking the next taboo: children are no longer sacred or safe. They are prey. This is what I encounter daily when I drive through the city. But this painful reality really hits home on Sunday morning, when around 6.30 or seven the bars and clubs close and taxis bring the thousands of young people back home in the city and the surrounding villages. Then the city becomes quiet again, the streets are empty. Until 9.30 when the first churchgoers - here one, there two - make their way to the churches, spread out over the city. How sad, how terribly sad that they completely missed each other. Author of diary: Teus Schep Translation: Marc van der Woude Source: http://www.joelnews.org PRAYER God of the poor, Friend of the weak, Give us compassion we pray: Melt our cold hearts, let tears fall like rain; Come change our love from a spark to a flame. Author: Graham Kendrick Source: http://www.grahamkendrick.co.uk |
||
 C O L O P H O N Joel News is an international e-zine with news reports and articles on prayer, revival and church growth. It aims at leaders, intercessors, church planters and other Christians who carry a vision for the advance of God's Kingdom in every sphere of life. The reports are meant to encourage, challenge and inform. A keen selection of only the most relevant entries from over a hundred reliable sources in six continents, make Joel News a great help and time-saver for Christians in ministry. Joel News is published weekly on the basis of an annual donation. For more information visit our donation page: http://www.joelnews.org/donation.htm. Joel News partners with a wide range of international networks and ministries in the area of prayer, saturation church planting, revival and world missions. News reports (no regular mailing lists) can be sent to our editorial team at info@joelnews.org. Has this edition been forwarded to you? Then get yourself a free 2-month trial subscription at http://www.joelnews.org/subscribe.htm. (c) JOEL NEWS, 2005 | republication only with full creditline www.joelnews.org |
|||
|
|
|||