Amsterdam 2000 volunteers find it a 'life-changing' event

By RICHARD KOE

BEAVERTON -- As the Year 2000 winds down, two Beaverton women who served as volunteers at Amsterdam 2000 last summer are still overwhelmed at their experience with some 10,732 evangelists, pastors, and church leaders from 209 countries and territories.

“It was exciting and life-changing,” said Dorina Puha, a junior at Mult-nomah Bible College and member of Sunset Presbyterian Church.

Puha, who came to the U.S. from Romania only six years ago, served as a translator, usher and steward, and handled chores from babysitting to putting toge-ther conference materials. She met evangelists and Christian leaders from her own Romania as well as Ukraine and Russia. After the once-in-a-lifetime experience at Amsterdam, Puha was back home in August to help with the Luis Palau Portland Festival 2000 at Waterfront Park.

Puha got wind of Amsterdam 2000 early this year when her father found the Webpage on the Internet for the event, sponsored by the Billy Graham Evan-gelistic Association. She applied in March and got word in May that she was accepted as one of 675 stewards from 43 nations. Excitement and anticipation followed as she informed her classmates at Multnomah.

A major in women’s ministries at MBC, Puha also plays off-guard for the women’s basketball team this season following a year with the volleyball team in 1999. But she still remembers Amsterdam as though it happened yesterday, and says it will influence the rest of her life.

“Awesome” is hadly a sufficient description of Amsterdam 2000 for Donna Larson, office manager at Sunset Presbyterian. “May-be extraordinary,” she told members and supporters at her church who helped pay her way to the evangelism conference.

Larson probably shook hands with 3,000 or more people at Amsterdam 2000 and found that participants and workers were “connected”-- they prayed for each other as they made the long trip to Amsterdam. She was an usher and greeter during all nine days of the conference.

“I came back with the hope in my heart that the world’s people will hear God1s Word and will know His love because of the conference,” Larson continued. She requests prayer for the conference participants who have returned home to share their faith as a witness for Christ.

At Amsterdam, Larson worked 14 to 15 days with about four hours sleep each night. Everything was well organized, but it was still like a camping trip. She heard all the plenary speakers including Portland’s own Luis Palau.

Larson’s luggage didn’t arrive for five days and it was like Christmas morning when she opened her suitcases.

Both Puha and Larson were part of the 7,000 temporary residents at the Jaarbeurs Expo Center in Utrecht, some 40 miles from the RAI Center in Amsterdam. That meant traveling to and from the conference by bus and train. Finding the right train track from the RAI was sometimes hilarious as groups of people followed each other, hoping to find the correct way back to the dormitory center.

At the big hall-turned -dormitory, both ladies slept in bunk beds and used portable toliet and shower facilities. Larson still remembers the 100-plus alarm clocks chirping each morning at 6:30 a.m., sounding like a new species of bird. The Jaarbeurs Hall was truly a global village.

Although Amsterdam 2000 happened some six months ago, both Puha and Larson are still moved at what God did in the RAI Center, from the plenary sessions and seminars to the workshops and strategy sessions devoted to preaching, evangelism, chaplaincy, church planting and youth outreach.

They believe it was a historic event that will reap a wonderful harvest of souls for Christ. And the two Oregonians feel privileged to have been among those in Amsterdam to witness it all.