Since we started our trip, we’ve noticed in every town where we’ve stayed and in every town we have viewed out the window of our trains, they all have one thing in common. Large or small, they all have places to worship God.

Of course the large towns have numerous churches, chapels, cathedrals and abbeys. We have toured many of them. We have actually observed ministers in some of those we’ve been in praying or giving a devotional. At Notre Dame in Paris, which is closed for repairs, a minister was standing outside the church proclaiming the gospel. From Westminster Abbey, to the Sistine Chapel, to a chapel in the Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany just large enough to hold a few people, all have proclaimed that Jesus is the son of God.

When we have looked out our train windows as we zipped by small and big towns, we’ve seen steeples standing above the villages and cities. On most of those steeples, the cross, a symbol of where Jesus was crucified, is at the top recalling his death and resurrection.

Even in liberal Amsterdam, huge cathedrals with towering steeples and domes proclaim Christ. Of course that surprises us in a town where one of their biggest celebrations each year is gay pride week and where marijuana is allowed on the streets and where an active and well-known red light district where prostitutes legally work is a tourist attraction.

In the towns where we have stayed overnight we have heard the ringing of the church bells. Most ring on the hour but some ring on the quarter hour. And, in Boppard and in Lauterbrunnen, those bells start ringing before the hour and ring for several minutes. Perhaps those who hear those bells everyday, don’t even hear them anymore. But they are a beautiful sound to us.

Walking by the Amsterdam train station on Monday, we saw several people on the plaza in the front of the station waving huge flags that read “Jesus Loves (in the form of a red heart) You. In addition, several folks were standing with the flag wavers, singing Christian hymns in Dutch. We recognized the tunes but not their words.

It was such an unusual sight, we decided to talk with them about their public witness for Jesus—something that is about as unusual in America. I asked one of the women waving her flag if there are many Christians in Amsterdam. She said yes, she thought so. I replied that from what we’d seen, it didn’t appear to be a very Christian town.

She gave an excellent answer. She said God’s Holy Spirit was moving in the city. She said there are many people who think they can do anything they want to do and there will be no consequences for their lifestyles. For those who believe there is a heaven and a hell (and we know there are) most non-Christians, when asked if they would go to heaven or hell, would say heaven because they are good people. Hell is full of good people.

She said the only way a person can go to heaven when they die is to believe in Jesus and have a relationship with him. That is the gospel, or the good news, that Jesus taught. His death and resurrection opened the doors of heaven for those who believe the gospel.

We tried taking photos of some of the steeples in the towns we visited and through the windows of the train.

Top photo shows minister in front of Notre Dame Cathedral talking about Jesus. The second photo is the church in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, whose bells where beautiful as they played more than on the hour. And, the bottom photo is a steeple in a town we whizzed by on the train. Have no idea what town or country, only that nearly every town had a gathering place to worship God.