the effects of our decisions, women’s day, and other thoughts…

A couple of weeks ago, I had a conversation with a friend about how my return flight to Amsterdam on the 15th of February had had an impact on possibly a hundred women…

The story goes that she was wanting to meet me at the airport to welcome me home, but had already made a previous commitment during the time that I was arriving: her weekly visit to women who work behind the windows in Amsterdam’s notorious Red Light District. As a result she came up with a brilliant idea to give Valentine’s cards to the women as an excuse to work a day earlier ; ) This excuse, resulted in a full-fledged project to make one hundred handmade Valentine’s cards showing dignity and value and worth to women who are daily, hourly even, mistreated and misused.

The handmade cards made a huge impact on the women. To receive something so special on a day like Valentine’s day, when every woman longs to be shown love, really touched the women and brought such a positive response that the volunteers who passed out the cards were inspired and motivated to come up with more holiday gift ideas for the future.

This is where today comes in. The 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. Something I had never heard of prior to moving to Europe. Friends in the Ukraine told me how popular it was in their in Eastern Europe. Every year men give special attention to the women in their lives: mothers, sisters, grandmothers, wives, daughters, etc., etc. Particularly by giving flowers to the special women in their lives. So again, the volunteers of the Scarlet Cord decided to give cards to the women in the RLD. Many of the women who work as prostitutes in this area are also from Eastern Europe and would have a particularly strong connection to this holiday.

So my friend and I made 100 more cards, to be passed out today for Internationals Women’s Day; The following, as well as the first photo above are a couple of photos that I took at the Keukenhof flowershow  last year which we used for the front of the cards. During an Sex Trafficking Awareness Open-Mic Night on Sunday we had women and men sign the cards and write special messages to the women. It was beautiful to see people writing in so many different languages: Spanish, Romanian, English, Bulgarian…messages of hope, worth, value, and beauty to these women. One card was even signed by an ex-prostitute whose life turned completely upside-down after encountering Jesus 4 years ago.

I have no idea how this impacted the women today. Perhaps I will never know…

But I have been impressed by the thought of the effects of our choices… How extending my trip in the States, leaving 6 weeks later then originally planned had no small consequence… It’s an entirely different story how I even came to my decision to leave on the day I did and how I felt particularly led and drawn to leave on that day… but ultimately, I’m thinking about our choices and their power for multiplied good in our own and other’s lives or the reverse, affecting ourselves and others for the worse. One choice for good has the power to affect hundreds if not thousands of lives, also for good. One choice made selfishly, or dare I say, choosing sin, has the power to affect hundreds if not thousands of lives adversely. Hmm…something to ponder some more. How will I choose today?

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