"There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God:  those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it; yet I do not advise you to do it from that motive; it is not pleasure which we ought to seek in this exercise; but let us do it from a principle of love, and because God would have us."

-Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection ("Fifth Letter")

Saturday morning bright and early we headed back to the central station.  Along the way we got to see many different streets in Amsterdam.  We walked through this really artsy street with gallery after gallery.  We came across this store which was filled with different stuffed animals put together in weird combinations.  In the very back was a stuffed grizzly bear posed like Jesus on the cross.  We also witnessed a two streakers getting caught by the police.  The police had stopped for a bike crash and were just about to pull away when two obviously drunk and or high guys ran around the corner, talk about bad timing.  We continued to the train station where we tried to get some rest. We stayed there until the big public library opened at 10:00.  There we found a room with comfy chairs, so we decided to take four chairs next to each other and placed them facing out the window.  We grabbed a book opened it to a page and closed our eyes.  Every now and then I would wake up, move back and forth in my chair, and turn the page in my book, just in case.

We ended up getting our Chinese food for lunch again.  This time while we were sitting there one of the workers looked at us and asked "What are you doing here?".  I don't blame him as we had all our backpacks and didn't look like your regular diners for lunch.  We explained the situation saying that we were there to meet the older lady who was going to give us food.  He didn't seemed to amused but after he saw our interaction with the older lady when she came to give us lunch, he put a bottle of Pepsi on the counter and said "I don't know if you have room but take it if you want it".  It was so incredible to see his switch of attitude towards us after he saw the compassion and generosity the Chinese woman showed us.  We gladly excepted it and thanked him over and over again.

Long story short we spent that day playing music on the streets and giving out 1 Euro hugs.  We went around trying to find a place to stay with the money we had earned from playing but were unable to find anywhere we could afford.  During that day though we met the sweetest couple who gave us what little coins they had, offered us cigarettes (which we politely declined), and bought us 5 little chocolate bars.  We got to have really amazing conversations with them about the refugee crisis and having a heart of compassion towards those who live on the streets.  It was one of my favorite moments just to see their pure hearts, they both had such a sweetness and generosity about them.  At the end of our conversation we got to pray for them and that was such an encouragement.  I think the girl even had tears in her eyes at the end.  We also met a man in the coffee shop who was a famous balloon artist!   All four of us were sitting in a row at this coffee shop sharing one cup of coffee, and one cookie that we had split in four.  He was looking at us with some skepticism at first but then we got to talk to him about our journey and what we were doing.  He had so much compassion for us, thinking of his own son and daughter, he offered us his card with his phone number along with 20 Euros, insisting that we would call him if we got into any trouble.  I think by far my favorite part about this whole project was the fact that we met just so many incredible people.

We headed to the airport for the night. Exhausted and cold we were just thankful to have a place inside to sleep that night.  We found the warmest corner in the airport pulled out our sleeping bags and fell into a slumber.  In the middle of the night we were woken up by a security guard asking for our flight tickets.  We had flight tickets but they were for a flight in two days!  We had just seen a guy get kicked out into the cold because of his lack of plane tickets, so it seemed like we would experience a similar fate. My heart started to beat and I silently cried out to God as I started to pull the tickets from my purse.  I hadn't even taken them completely out when the guard said "I see them, it's okay!".  I was still half asleep so I asked him what he said and again he repeated "I see the tickets, it's okay! Go back to sleep."  and he walked away.  It is by God's grace we got to stay inside the airport.  We woke up after five solid hours of warm sleep.  Another day was about to begin.,,,