There are more bikes than people in Amsterdam, and it’s estimated that somewhere around 50,000 of them (bikes not people) are stolen every year. Of those 50,000, only 7/8,000 thefts are reported to the Police, who normally recover around 0.7%. That’s 50 or 60 bikes out of the 50,000 stolen. So, if you have a bike stolen (and we’ve had 3 pinched in our 10 years in Amsterdam), you have a 0.1% chance of ever seeing it again.
In October 2015 our Bakfiets (Cargo bike) was stolen from outside our apartment. It was locked up with the fattest chain we could buy but sadly it was easily cut through, and we awoke one morning to find our bike gone. It had been an expensive purchase but we’d naively failed to insure it. We reported it stolen to the Police somewhat despondently, with little hope of them finding it.
At the time we didn’t own a car, so the Bakfiets was crucial for family life - getting the kids to school, doing the weekly shop etc. So we scraped together what little money we had and bought a rusty, second-hand bike.
Then we prayed. We asked God specifically for: a) money to buy a new bike OR b) the return of our old bike. I was also praying a fair amount for lightning bolts to strike down criminals.
Launching the church & unanswered prayer
October 2015 was also when we launched our first public Sunday morning services. Up to that point, we’d been gathering in our apartment and a few afternoons in the loft space of another church. For any church planter, your first public Sunday service is a big deal. A lot of prayer and organisation had gone into it and we were full of faith for a season of growth.
However, other than our faithful team, not many people showed up. There were a few ones & twos but most people didn’t return after their first visit. Some Sundays, once the children had departed to their activities, I was preaching to 7 or 8 people. It was disheartening and I began to feel bitterly disappointed.
In October, shortly after our bike was stolen, I wrote in my journal, ‘My trust in God feels incredibly frail’.
In January 2016 I wrote; ‘Struggling with unanswered prayer. Must be more grateful. Must feel less entitled. Need more grace. ‘I believe. Help my unbelief’
I felt like I was praying many prayers that weren’t being answered. Prayers for our small, fragile church plant and for our family who were still struggling to settle in a new country. The prayer for our bike to be returned become symbolic in my heart for all the other unanswered prayers.
Disappointment can do that to you. All the numerous letdowns and frustrations will accumulate in your heart and then almost merge into one big disappointment - a singular focal point of pain and bitterness.
Prayer & moaning
We decided to set aside every Wednesday evening from that January onwards to pray for breakthrough along with the rest of our church plant team.
On the 28th of February, I continued my moaning in my journal, ‘So little of my prayers seem to have been answered. Again our lost bike had become symbolic in my head for unanswered prayer.’
Seeing as I was in a moaning mood, I turned to a Habbakuk (perhaps the greatest whiner in the bible):
O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? (Habakkuk 1:2)
God replies to Habakkuk’s complaint in verse 5:
“Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.
Habakkuk continues his grumbling, and God replies again:
For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.
I wrote this all down in my journal.
Two days later the Police called. Somehow, against the odds, our bike had been found. I rushed down to the Police station and, after filling in some paperwork, was ushered into a back room to check it was our bike. I felt like I was in a movie, needing to identify the body of a deceased relative. I cycled it home completely oblivious of the two flat tires.
If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.
From here on, something happened. God miraculously answered the one big prayer, and then all the other disappointments and unanswered prayers began to fade away or find their answers.
If you’re a church planter struggling with disappointment, keep praying.