Holland Part 3B: It's coffee CAFE (unless you want hay!)

(I figured out how to change the time stamp on my blog posts - so whatever time it says I've posted, that's the time it is where I am!! That only took a month!! Speaking of a month, I return to Seattle a month from today!! And, this is my last Sunday in Northern Ireland...next week, I'll be in the capitol of Switzerland!)

So...you're all probably curious: I went to the drug capitol of the world, after all...
I was recommended to the YWAM cafe was just off to the right of the main city centre. It is this rather normal looking building with a beautifully painted inside, and a Christian bookstore attached to the cafe. I got there an hour before it opened, so I decided to wander around...
And I found the Red Light District. That is, I found the place that most people think of when they think of Amsterdam. It was only 11 in the morning, so the air wasn't too thick yet, but there was a lot of illegal-in-the-US activity already going on. I had been told by one of the team members of the A'Dam Vineyard church plant that, if one wanted to obtain drugs (the only ones that are legal here are the soft ones - so, pot and shrooms, basically), one would walk into a coffeSHOP, where they serve things like "happy breakfasts" and have pictures of piping hot coffee whose "steam" is in the suspicious shape of rings. (The only reason I know this is because this is how they advertize. I did not enter one of these shops; I have no interest in this, even if I COULD buy a joint...what would I do with it?) If you wanted a nice place to hang out and read, write, talk with friends and not participate in chemically altering your state of mind, you'd go to a coffee CAFE...
Anyway, I walked and prayed a lot through these broken streets. Everywhere were coffee shops and other pleasure-indulging stores. What I was told is that the drug stores (literally; because pharmacists are called 'chemists' here) that have "authorized dealer" in their windows or somewhere in their stores are "safer" than those who don't. In all honesty, I only saw one store with it: the one pictured that sells (in case it's too small to read): magic mushrooms, psychedelic herbs (people in Ireland pronounce the "H" at the beginning of that word, and people in Holland emphasize the "H" in every word...even if there isn't one...), sex stimulants, energizers, psychedelic seeds, head products and much more. I can't imagine what the "much more" is seeing as I don't know what half the stuff on this "menu" is and no, I did not go inside. I just walked around praying for an hour.
At one point, I walked down this "hallway" (the only thing I felt alright taking a picture of) of fancied-up apartment rooms with windows for the wall that faces the street...there was lots of pink, big beds and lots of pillows...and then, lots of women...with not a lot of clothes. I, unknowingly, stopped walking out of shock. Yes, I know this happens everywhere, but 1) it's 11:30 in the morning, 2) I'm from "White Suburbia", so I am sheltered from this stuff and 3) society here has confused the morals of its citizens by making this legal. I didn't know what to do. I started crying. I tried to pray...but what do you say without sounding trite or naive? "Dear God...break this bondage! Freedom! Salvation! Help!" I guess since I obviously AM naive it was ok. I didn't even want to thank God for sheltering me from this and for not allowing me to fall into this lifestyle because that's just a really self-righteous thing to say when my sin and their sin and your sin is all the same in the eyes of God (more on THAT in a couple posts).
Alright, I hope this wasn't too much for you. I want to be real; this trip isn't all glamor and "the best of the best" - heck, MOST of this trip isn't that. On second thought, maybe I DO this is too much for you - I know it was for me. As Melody Green writes, "Once you've seen the darkness, how can you pretend it's not there?"