Visa Update.....

Yesterday I had a meeting at the IND office (the official government place) for my Visa and everything went well. Pretty much all I had to do was give her my passport and a letter and show my birth certificate. It was easy; which I was very thankful for. I went with another girl here at the Shelter, and to celebrate, we went and had chicken tacos. They were delicious!


After my shift today, we had class and our discussion today was about our Spiritual Gifts and using those gifts to work as a team. It was a great time and I really enjoying bringing out the best in everyone. It got me thinking about what God has been teaching me lately with my gifts. I think the biggest one is with Leadership. I’ve always stepped up and assumed the leader role in everything; but lately, I’ve been really trying hard to just be a follower. I think to be a good leader, you really need to know how to be a good follower and with that you understand how others feel. I’ve had a few situations where other people are supposed to be leading the group and they aren’t doing a very good job, and I’ve had to check myself to not step in and take over. It’s been a very good lesson for me and I also think it’s a lesson in leadership for them as well. It’s so interesting how we’re always learning things about ourselves.

On a different note….Friday is a national holiday called Queen’s Day. It was the birthday of the old Queen. But apparently it is just crazyness here in Amsterdam. It’s one big town yard sale and people are all over the streets. They told us that we won’t be able to ride our bikes to work and all public transportation here in the heart of the city will be shut down. It will take us 45 minutes to get to The Jordan (which walking takes about 15). So I’m thinking it’s like the hour after the parade has gone though for Turkey Trot, but instead of one street, it’s every street in the city. We’ll see how it goes. I have to find an orange shirt for the day, so I can blend in with the crowd. Everywhere you look with be seas of orange people.

Keukenhof

Today was my day off, and we went to the Keukenhof, which is one of the largest flower gardens in the world. 

Everyone and their brother was there today.  Here is a small sample of the amount of people around.

I took 85 pictures today of flowers.  I didn't realize at the time that I had taken so many; but everything was so pretty, I just really wanted to remember it all.  So here are a very few pictures of all the beautiful flowers that I saw today.

It was such a beautiful day!!!!!

Reception and Volcanos!

Yesterday morning was my first reception shift by myself, and I survived!  No, it's wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  I'm still not sure about how to do everything, but I know I'll pick it up as I go.  I'm also at reception for the afternoon.

So I'm sure that everyone has heard all about the Volcano and about how most flights in Europe have been stopped.  It has been very difficult for everyone here.  We've had lots of people coming to see if we have any beds available.  At Schipol airport here in Amsterdam, they have beds set up for all the people who are stuck at the airport.  It's really a big mess.  One of our staff members was supposed to be flying home to the States after serving here for 6 months, but she is stuck with us a little longer.  :)  Not that she really minds, but I can understand wanting to go home and not being able to.  What's really strange is there is nothing different with the sky.  It's bright blue and the sun is out!  We have been having very great weather these last few days.  I'm even wearing skirts (which I'm sure is a strange concept for my mom, lol).  But it's still cool, only around 60 degrees, but I don't mind.  :)

The over-all theme here lately has been Prayer.  At church, in our Bible studies, and in our small group times, we have been talking a lot about prayer and just how, when, and why we talk to God.  It's refreshing to go back over the fundamentals of our faith.

Day of Rest

Today was my day off and I spent it going to church twice. :) This morning I went to a church that was south of Amsterdam called Crossroads. I’ve never been there before and I really wanted to experience it. It took us an hour to get there by bike (which I really wasn’t sure if we would ever make it); but it was a nice experience. I’ve been going to a really small house church of about 50 people (which I went to this afternoon), so it was nice to go to a large church for a change. I’m not sure I picked the best day to attend the church for the first time because they had a Gospel Choir, that didn’t really sing gospel music, they just really got into the songs through dancing; but the preaching was really good. He talked about Jonah and about following God’s will. It’s funny cause it went alongside the message for the afternoon, which was about having a deeper prayer life. I felt it was great because with a deeper prayer life, you can better fulfill God’s will. Prayer is kind of the theme here in a lot of aspects of The Shelter. We’ve started having 12 hour prayer every day; and each of the staff signs up for 1 hour to pray for The Shelter and the guests and the staff. It’s a way for us to help decide where God is leading us.

Saturday!!!

I think that my favorite day of the week here is Saturday, not because it the weekend (cause weekends mean nothing here at the Shelter), but because it’s “Market Day”! The greatest of all days. Lol…. This morning I had my last day for training on reception. I will now be put out on my own….what a scary thought! I feel like I have mastered the basics, checking people in & out, the credit card machine, and the till (aka…the cash register), so that is fine. I know I can do it, it just takes practice. And then I came home and went to the market a street behind our house. I love the market; I really think we need one at home. But today is a beautiful day outside, so everyone in the neighborhood was there. It took me forever to get from one side of the street to the other. Usually I only buy a couple of things or maybe nothing, the best part is just going and looking at all the stuff and watching all the people. And everyone is speaking Dutch, so I have no idea what they are saying and it makes it even more fun. Tomorrow is my day off, so I think I will go to church and just hang out all day. It’s just so nice to get a break every now and then.

Internet's been down, so I'll try to get back on pace......

The internet has been down for the last couple of days, which is very frustrating. But it’s working now, so that’s great!!!


Tuesday I went on a 4 hour bike ride to a small town called Zaanse Schans. It took us 2 hours there and 2 hours back. I’m getting very good at riding my bike everywhere. I think when I get back home, I’m going to keep up with ride my bike places because I really enjoy it. I probably won’t go on the highway, but I can go on the back roads. But anyways….the place we went to was more of a tourist town, so I still need to go to a small Dutch town, but this place had a few windmills and a place for making cheese and wooden shoes. I didn’t buy anything cause I didn’t want to have to bike back to town with a bunch of stuff. It was a really good day though. Here are some pictures of the place we went to.

On a different note…today I found out that I’m approved for my visa!!!! Praise Jesus!! Hahaha….I was getting so worried about it and now it’s fine. So thanks to everyone for praying for me!!

Sitting at reception.....

Today, I am working Evening Reception and it is very slow.  I have about 1 hour and 45 minutes left.  I'm still training, but I had my very first check-in tonight.  They spoke some English but I really need to brush-up on my German.  I was bothering the German staff members to try and remember what words were, but I feel bad asking them all the time.  This experience has really made me what to get back to studying German and then hopefully learn another language.  I'm really jealous of the people that come through and can speak 3 or 4 languages.  Maybe one day I will get that good, although I do have trouble sometimes with the 1 language I already speak, so we'll just have to see.

Since I don't really have a lot to do tonight, I think I'll just ramble on for a little while.  One thing I'm still not used to is getting online and seeing all adds in Dutch or using Excel (or any other program) and it being in Dutch.  I'm so glad I've used Excel, Word, and Adobe so much, because most of the time I'm just trying to remember what it's supposed to say in English; and then it gets difficult when I try and help other people.  It's just a really weird feeling.

Tomorrow is my day off and I have no idea what I want to do.  I really want to go somewhere, but I'm not sure where.  I would like to get out of the city.  Last week on my day off, a group of us went to Utrecht; which is another city south of Amsterdam.  It was such a pretty place and the atmosphere is just so much different from Amsterdam.  It looked like such a cute European town.  So I'm hoping to do something cool like that again tomorrow; I just have to figure out where.

Well I guess that was a lot.  Hopefully time will go by quickly.  :)

We live, we love, we forgive, and never give up…….cause the days we’ve been given are gifts from above, and today we remember to live and to love…..

That’s the song in my head at the moment. :)


So this weekend has been pretty good. Yesterday I was CS and we had 75 beds to change. I did 20. This time we had 5 people working on rooms, so it made it a lot easier; and the rooms weren’t trashed like last time, so things went much faster. We have 3 cleaners right now and they are all very different. One guy, Zoran, is a new Christian and loves the Shelter and the Bible studies. I’m so glad he is here because it such a great place for him to receive discipleship. Antonio is a young guy who believes in many different ideas; but mostly he believes in being a good person and having good Karma. He has lots of questions and likes to debate the Bible, which is nice, but I hope that he isn’t asking questions just to ask, but to ask questions to really seek answers. And our third cleaner is Alex. He is new, so he hasn’t said a lot yet. He’s ran away from a job that wasn’t lawful and he doesn’t really want to talk about it. But today he and Zoran was at church today and that just filled my heart. Alex is very open to Christ and is on the verge of surrendering his life. So lets just pray for him. And well for all 3; they each are at different stages in their lives and I just pray that we can help to meet some of those needs.

Today I started training for reception. My roommate Hannah is my trainer and she isn’t very confident, but I think she did a great day today. I mostly just watched today, but tomorrow and this whole week I will start doing the check-ins and outs. So pray that I can understand and remember all this stuff, cause it’s a lot.

Tonight I made pizza and it was delicious! I just wanted to throw that in for a final thought. :) I hope everyone has a great week!!!

Better day....

Today has been a much better day.  I'm not feeling the best, but it's a million times better than yesterday.  One thing I REALLY need prayer for is I'm having trouble with getting my Visa.  I didn't think it was going to be very difficult, but you know how governments are.  So if everyone could pray for that it would be great.  Thanks!!  :)

Spiritual Warfare

It’s been a long time since I have been attached for my faith and even during those times it wasn’t really anything that really affected my emotions; but today I experienced something that I have never felt before.

We hired a new cleaner for a few days, but he has had a hard time focusing on his work and doing what is asked of him. Today I was having him clean the dumpster and he said that he wasn’t doing it, if I wanted it done then I would have to do it. Of course that didn’t go well for me, so I told him that it is the task for today and it has to be done; and again he says that I can do it, but he was not going to. So I told him that he could do it, or he could leave. I felt bad about it and my blood pressure was up, so I went to my manager and we discussed and prayed about it. I pulled the cleaner aside to discuss what had happened to try and start fresh for the day, but then he starts yelling at me, telling me I’m a liar, and I don’t have a Christian heart or attitude. He kept interrupting me to tell me these things, so finally I let him talk and told him that we would just have to disagree and got up and left.

I’ve never been yelled at like that before and never been told that I’m such a terrible person and I don’t act like a Christian. It really affected me. I can’t even remember all the words that he used and I can’t express the way that he spoke to me, but I was so upset that I just went to the office and started crying. One of the other staff members took over for me for our Bible Discussion time while I recomposed myself.

After the discussion, she and I took him aside to talk to him some more and give him another chance, but he would barely let us speak. He called me a liar and that my crying was fake and I wasn’t upset or hurt at all. He also said we were satanic and other things of that nature. The other staff member did most of the talking, but all of his negative and hurtful words were directed at me. So finally I told him that he needed to stop and he had one hour to collect his things and leave.

This job is so hard because you want to help people; you want to help meet their both physical and spiritual needs, but sometimes it’s very difficult. I just think we need to pray for him. He said that he has a degree in Theology, but he is definitely not a Christian. The scriptures are written in his head, but not in his heart.

And also please pray for me. Today has really shaken me emotionally, but I’m so happy that God is holding me in His arms. After my attack today, I really feel that I am doing something right.

Easter Hostel Night

Tonight was a special Easter Hostel night. We have two small groups within our Jordan Hostel Staff and tonight was the other groups turn to make a presentation. It was amazing. One of the girls did a monologue as Mary Magdalene, then we had dinner, there was another musical drama, testimony, and then dessert. It was so great! The place was packed!!! My job today was Afternoon Café, so it was my job to prepare all the food and it was a little over whelming, but I think everyone in my family who can cook would be really proud of me.  Our meal included rice, mixed veggies, and pork tenderloin; the veggies were already cooked so I just heated them up, but I made the rice and baked the pork. It was soooo good. I even sliced the meat! I was proud of myself for doing that part so well. I know that my Dad would be so proud of my cooking skills tonight. But the biggest thing was I made Grandma’s Chocolate Meringue Pie and everyone loved it! When I took it out of the oven it looked like it was supposed to, so I thought that was a good sign. Lol…. Tonight was just so good and so wonderful to get to celebrate such a wonderful day with everyone here and with our guests. I just pray that they took something away for this night; that it affected them and they’ll remember what was said.


Here are some pictures of my giant pie (I had to triple the recipe) and our food. It was all soooooo good! Happy Easter!!!!

Happy Easter

This weekend is Easter weekend and tomorrow is the action that is the complete basis of our faith. How amazing it is to have a God that isn’t in the ground and that we don’t have to go to a place to see Him and experience Him. I love the freedom we have with being “Followers of Christ”!


This weekend, at the hostel we are having different events to share the death and the resurrection with our guests. Last night we had what we call Hostel Night, where we offer a free dinner and have a presentation that shares a little bit about Jesus to get people thinking and to start asking questions. Last night went well with a short video clip about what Easter meant to some people our group met on the streets and then it ended with a kind of a modern day video of what it would have been like to Barabbas to be released and Jesus crucified. It was a very good video. And tonight we had a movie that we watched and tomorrow is another Hostel Night with a drama and a monologue. We really hope to get people thinking about why this holiday is celebrated and that it isn’t just a day to get off.

The thing that I’ve been thinking about the most is what would it have been like on this Sabbath day over 2000 years ago. To have found a man and followed him for 3 years, to then see him die on a cross and then today just to be in this sort of limbo. How great it is that we have hindsight to understand and see what was to take place, but the disciples didn’t have that. All they had was grief because Christ was gone. It so strange for us to think about now, but I also think it would have been very strange to have live through. What a difference tomorrow makes.





On a much different note, today was World Pillow Fight Day.  So a group of us went to Dam Square to see the action.  I hope you can see the pillows.  There were feathers everywhere in the end.
 

Interesting Day....That's all I can think to say.....

Today was my first day back at CS in about a week and it was a very busy day. The group of kids left today (which was nice, but at the same time sad cause they were really opening up to the gospel, but in a way I’m kind of glad to see them go) and so with the other guests checking out we had 75 beds to make. I took our largest 18 bed room by myself and my other 2 bed cleaners did the rest. I am very proud of myself for doing the whole room, but it was so difficult. It was full of all the kids, so when I looked in for the first time there was just trash everywhere!!!!! I grabbed the vacuum cleaner and vacuumed the middle between the beds and then lay on my belly and scoop the trash out from under the beds. I think I said “Eeww!” about a million times today. But it took me what felt like 30 minutes just to vacuum one room. I told everyone that I felt like Grandma on the last day of church camp, sweeping under all the beds and asking who belonged to what. It was definitely a good experience, even though I’m completely exhausted.


Today we also went walking around/shopping and the best part was we walked by a US & British Food Shop. So of course we had to walk in. There are that many things that I miss from home yet, but the biggest thing is syrup! The syrup here is terrible and we have pancakes all the time. So today I bought 2 mountain dews and a bottle of aunt jemima. It was kind of expensive, but I didn’t care. Now I’m going to act like my brother and carry a bottle of syrup with me wherever I go, and get it out when people aren’t looking. LOL!!!!! Love you Kail!!!!!

But I was so excited about my purchase that I took a picture of it.  :)
 

Also here is a picture of our "Finner Things Club"....and yes it's like the Office.  :)

It's been raining the last few days, which has made it cold here, so we have parties and drink fancy tea.  It's so nice.  :)