Posts have been few and far between ever since I started this blog. It's not from lack of effort to put together a post; it's from indecision. I simply have too many stories and thoughts and things to share with y'all! Every day I meet new people from all around the world and everyone has a story.
There's the Muslim man who could not believe the peace he found staying at a Christian hostel. The girls from Hawaii who didn't even intend to come to Amsterdam, but after a delayed flight ended up staying two days and attending church with me. The Mexican architect who struggled with speaking English, but still attended our evening prayer. The Texan who was incredibly fussy about all his food, but enjoyed speaking with us about the differences in churches in America and churches here in Holland.
Two nights ago, a physicist from Israel taught us line dancing at open mic night. When we closed the evening with prayer, he was shocked to learn that we didn't have to go to church to pray, that he could pray with us right there in the cafe. It was his first time experiencing Christian prayer.
A Korean man came planning on spending a week with us, but has kept extending his booking so that he has nearly been with us a month now. He eats most of his meals with us and attends every Bible discussion, always eager to learn and to share his knowledge of the Word. When I asked him why he choose to spend his vacation in Amsterdam rather than moving on, he replied that God had sent him here.
Then, there's the Albanian man who initially came to Amsterdam to reconnect with his son, but had difficulty with his ex-wife and was unable to meet with his son after all. When he first showed up at the hostel, he was contemplating suicide, wondering if there was a way to donate all his organs so that his death would benefit society. After talking to staff members, he became less attracted to suicide and more attracted to God. He also has continually extended his booking and, in fact, become good friends with the Korean man. The longer he stays with us, the more he opens up to the hope of Jesus Christ.
The problem with most of these stories is that they don't have a complete ending. I don't know what conclusion the Muslim man came to about finding peace at a Christian hostel. I don't know if the physicist thought any deeper about our evening prayer. I don't know if the Albanian has accepted Christ into his life. All I have is hope that somehow we have helped them on their path to God. I know God has a plan for all of the people who come through our hostel and while we might have an impact on their lives, we may never know. All we can do is trust that God knows what it is they need and to do our best to serve God by serving them.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Pics Now, Post Toast
I have no idea when I'm going to finish writing an actual post, so here are some pictures of places I've been instead!
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This is the Norde Kerk or North Church, located about 2 minutes from where I live. There is a food market here every Saturday and a market with clothes and thrift store stuff every Monday. Also I think this is where my parents got married! I am not positive though, parents please confirm. (edit: confirmed!)
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Me and my new bestie. Taken at Waterlooplein Market, guest starring Mary's bright blue jeans.
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I love the houseboats everywhere! I would like San Antonio a lot more if there were houseboats on the River Walk.
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The view from the seventh floor of the library is one of the most amazing in Amsterdam. Plus the building itself is absolutely gorgeous. The interior feels like an Apple Store mixed with a warm, cozy cabin. It's modern, but so comfortable.
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It rains a lot, but I have only seen one rainbow. It was a gorgeous one though
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This is the street where I live! I'm lucky.
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More houseboat goodness. I just love the little entranceway on this one!
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I just thought this building was pretty. And look how blue the sky is here!
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Amsterdam at night! Plus another houseboat, this one featuring sparkling lights, ohhhhhhhh
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Saturday, September 15, 2012
Training and Training and Training and...
I cannot believe I have already been here three weeks. I don't feel like I have learned enough for it to have been three weeks already! It seems like just yesterday I was arriving here early in the morning, so early that no one was awake to answer the door. So early, that I just kept on ringing the bell until someone let me in. So early that once I finally made it into the building, my sleep deprived brain told me I had to force myself to stay awake for the entire day, prompting me to attend a small group breakfast and Bible study despite my fatigue. I made it through the breakfast, but fell asleep about ten seconds into the Bible study. Not a great first impression probably! I managed to make it through the rest of a day that felt very long indeed and started work the very next evening.
My first training shift was evening cafe, normally a shift that requires very little cooking. However, this night happened to be a hostel night meaning we were supposed to provide food for everyone who attended: about 30 people. Plus the guy they assigned to train me, Ryan, is actually a senior receptionist, who has only worked in the kitchen maybe five times. It was close, but we managed to get the food out in time. Trainers without a lot of experience is kind of a recurring theme here at the hostel. Lukas, who trained me on morning cafe had apparently not done morning cafe for five years. Not weeks or months, years. Thankfully there is a checklist of things you need to finish each cafe shift, so we were able to follow that.
For cafe, you only get three training shifts, and then you are on your own. Then, after being on your own for two days, you are apparently ready to train other people. I arrived at the hostel about a week before a major transition of staff. In the span of about three days, most of the old staff left and a whole ton of new people arrived. This meant people who hadn't been here very long and didn't have a lot of experience in the kitchen were expected to know things well enough to explain it to other people. I trained Molly on the afternoon cafe shift, which meant making dinner, despite the fact that I had only been on that shift once before. We had many questions about the chicory casserole we were expected to make, including "How do we turn on the oven?" and "Where are the potatoes?" and "What is a chicory?". Fortunately, there was someone being trained on reception that day as well, so whenever it was slow, one of the receptionist would come and help us out.
Now I am again finishing up a series of trainings. This week, I was trained on reception as I mentioned in my last post. My first shift on my own is Monday, so please keep that in your prayers! My training has gone well, though. Reception is a neat job, because you get the chance to introduce people to the idea of a Christian hostel when they check-in and you get to see how it's effected them when they check-out. It's really amazing to hear so many people tell me they can feel something different about this hostel, that they can sense a calm here they don't feel in other parts of the city. It's a great opening to talk to them about the presence of God and often people are actually willing to talk about it. One morning I met a woman\named Julia who seemed very reserved and reluctant to talk. That evening, I sat down with her and another staff member, Thirza, to eat dinner and to my surprise Julia completely opened up. She explained that she wanted to know more about God, but had always found church to be uninviting and hard to understand. Being in the atmosphere of our hostel, however, she felt welcomed and able to talk about God and ask questions that she normally would feel uncomfortable sharing. I don't know if she is a Christian now, but I do know we made an impression on her life that God can use. And ultimately that's what this is about: talking to people to the best of our ability and leaving it up to God to change their hearts. No matter how much training we have or how prepared we feel, God can always use us in some way.
My first training shift was evening cafe, normally a shift that requires very little cooking. However, this night happened to be a hostel night meaning we were supposed to provide food for everyone who attended: about 30 people. Plus the guy they assigned to train me, Ryan, is actually a senior receptionist, who has only worked in the kitchen maybe five times. It was close, but we managed to get the food out in time. Trainers without a lot of experience is kind of a recurring theme here at the hostel. Lukas, who trained me on morning cafe had apparently not done morning cafe for five years. Not weeks or months, years. Thankfully there is a checklist of things you need to finish each cafe shift, so we were able to follow that.
For cafe, you only get three training shifts, and then you are on your own. Then, after being on your own for two days, you are apparently ready to train other people. I arrived at the hostel about a week before a major transition of staff. In the span of about three days, most of the old staff left and a whole ton of new people arrived. This meant people who hadn't been here very long and didn't have a lot of experience in the kitchen were expected to know things well enough to explain it to other people. I trained Molly on the afternoon cafe shift, which meant making dinner, despite the fact that I had only been on that shift once before. We had many questions about the chicory casserole we were expected to make, including "How do we turn on the oven?" and "Where are the potatoes?" and "What is a chicory?". Fortunately, there was someone being trained on reception that day as well, so whenever it was slow, one of the receptionist would come and help us out.
Now I am again finishing up a series of trainings. This week, I was trained on reception as I mentioned in my last post. My first shift on my own is Monday, so please keep that in your prayers! My training has gone well, though. Reception is a neat job, because you get the chance to introduce people to the idea of a Christian hostel when they check-in and you get to see how it's effected them when they check-out. It's really amazing to hear so many people tell me they can feel something different about this hostel, that they can sense a calm here they don't feel in other parts of the city. It's a great opening to talk to them about the presence of God and often people are actually willing to talk about it. One morning I met a woman\named Julia who seemed very reserved and reluctant to talk. That evening, I sat down with her and another staff member, Thirza, to eat dinner and to my surprise Julia completely opened up. She explained that she wanted to know more about God, but had always found church to be uninviting and hard to understand. Being in the atmosphere of our hostel, however, she felt welcomed and able to talk about God and ask questions that she normally would feel uncomfortable sharing. I don't know if she is a Christian now, but I do know we made an impression on her life that God can use. And ultimately that's what this is about: talking to people to the best of our ability and leaving it up to God to change their hearts. No matter how much training we have or how prepared we feel, God can always use us in some way.
Pics Now, Post Later
I'm not sure when I'll get the next post up (hopefully later today) so here are some pictures of the view out my window to make y'all super jealous.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
A Video I Did Not Make
What This Ministry Is
Most of y'all probably have never heard of The Shelter Youth Hostel Ministry and have no idea what I am even doing here. I only know about it because it's a part of my family history: my parents met working here way back when, despite the rule against dating (yes, there is a rule against dating here haha to everyone convinced I'm coming back married. I'm not a rule breaker, unlike some people). Since I've basically grown up hearing about this place, it's actually kinda strange to me that not everyone immediately understands what I mean when I say I'm volunteering at a Christian Youth Hostel.
First of all a hostel is not a brothel. A surprising amount of people make that mistake, including one of my friends' boyfriend, who was under the impression that I was moving to Amsterdam to be a Christian prostitute. A hostel is a basically a cheap hotel, where you share a dorm and bathroom with several different people. Our largest dorm has 18 beds in it and our smallest has 4.
The Shelter Ministry consists of two different hostels: Shelter City and Shelter Jordan. The City is a large hostel located right on the edge of the red light district. The Jordan, where I work, is located in the Jordaan district (hence the name) and is small for a hostel, with less than 100 beds. It's much more calm than the City, where they frequently deal with people coming in high or drunk.
What we try to do is provide an atmosphere where travelers feel relaxed and to create opportunities in which we can talk to our guests about the gospel. We do this through several different methods, most of which just involve getting to know our guest. Every night we have a Bible discussion, at which we provide free drinks and cookies and Bibles. On Saturdays, we do city walks which are short tours of the city. On Friday's we have different events, such as Hostel Night where we provide free food in addition to some sort of entertainment (last week was an improv comedy night) or we do Open Mic Nights. We also try to eat meals with our guests and just spend time with them.
Almost everyone who works at the hostel is a volunteer, apart from the managers and the cleaners. The cleaners work for us for around a month, cleaning the bedrooms and bathrooms in exchange for room and board. Some are Christians, but many are not so we also try to minister to them.
Day to day work means working in the cafe, working reception, or working as a cleaning supervisor. I have been doing cafe work up till now, cooking and cleaning, etc, but will start training on Monday to work reception! I'm quite nervous about it because reception is more responsibility, so prayer would be nice! I think that explains the work pretty well. Next post will be about living here in the community, stay tuned!
First of all a hostel is not a brothel. A surprising amount of people make that mistake, including one of my friends' boyfriend, who was under the impression that I was moving to Amsterdam to be a Christian prostitute. A hostel is a basically a cheap hotel, where you share a dorm and bathroom with several different people. Our largest dorm has 18 beds in it and our smallest has 4.
The Shelter Ministry consists of two different hostels: Shelter City and Shelter Jordan. The City is a large hostel located right on the edge of the red light district. The Jordan, where I work, is located in the Jordaan district (hence the name) and is small for a hostel, with less than 100 beds. It's much more calm than the City, where they frequently deal with people coming in high or drunk.
What we try to do is provide an atmosphere where travelers feel relaxed and to create opportunities in which we can talk to our guests about the gospel. We do this through several different methods, most of which just involve getting to know our guest. Every night we have a Bible discussion, at which we provide free drinks and cookies and Bibles. On Saturdays, we do city walks which are short tours of the city. On Friday's we have different events, such as Hostel Night where we provide free food in addition to some sort of entertainment (last week was an improv comedy night) or we do Open Mic Nights. We also try to eat meals with our guests and just spend time with them.
Almost everyone who works at the hostel is a volunteer, apart from the managers and the cleaners. The cleaners work for us for around a month, cleaning the bedrooms and bathrooms in exchange for room and board. Some are Christians, but many are not so we also try to minister to them.
Day to day work means working in the cafe, working reception, or working as a cleaning supervisor. I have been doing cafe work up till now, cooking and cleaning, etc, but will start training on Monday to work reception! I'm quite nervous about it because reception is more responsibility, so prayer would be nice! I think that explains the work pretty well. Next post will be about living here in the community, stay tuned!
What This Blog Is
Hello and welcome to my blog! This is where I will keep y'all updated on my work here in Amsterdam. I plan on writing about both things strictly related to the ministry and things just about living here, so be prepared for both. If you aren't interested in hearing about just day to day things, then don't read those posts. I will probably also ask for prayer about specific things from time to time; I really would appreciate all the prayer possible! Ministry work runs on prayer from people physically working in it and from people supporting from the outside. Thank you for taking the time to look up my blog and I hope you enjoy what you read!
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