Words to describe the past two weeks? Wonderful, crazy, fun, intense, inspiring, convicting, mind blowing, exciting, challenging, and exhausting to name a few.
After arriving at the volunteer’s house in Jordan, Amsterdam Tuesday , July 2nd around 2pm I quickly dropped my backpack off in my (temporary room) and hurried to the MTP (Ministry Training Program) I was already late for. Overwhelming would be the word I would use for the first few hours that I was in Amsterdam; besides all the new sites that I had taken in while walking from Centraal Station to the “House” I now had about 30 new ppl whose names I had to remember – that’s not easy under normal circumstances but it’s even harder when they have names like Marijn, Marije, Joroen, Nadina, Aart-Jan etc… My mind was spinning as I sat down to class with about 15 other new volunteers for orientation.
Hennie (an amazing women who seems to be the “mother” of the hostel) welcomed us all so warmly and began our training; one of the first instructions given and one that was reiterated over and over was, “Get enough sleep – take time for yourself to be with God, processing what you encounter daily.” I recognized it as wisdom then but even more so now. Life as a volunteer here in the Shelter is amazing but extremely busy; there are always people to hang out with, exciting things to do, and work to be done so though I have only been here a week I see how valuable that advice was. The things that we as volunteers encounter every day are so different from what most of us are used to and it can leave you mentally and emotionally drained without even realizing it. I have already had to say no to a fun afternoon out with some of the other “Shelterites” (as we are fondly known around Amsterdam’s Christian circles) to just sit out along one of the canals and be alone with God, to journal and think about conversations that I have had with guests in the hostels and subjects that have been discussed in our training classes. Speaking of training classes – I LOVE them! I wasn’t sure what to expect as I have never done evangelism training before and so was a tiny bit nervous but the first class that I went to was on “How can God allow violence?” And though it was/is a very, very difficult subject to discuss I was so blessed and impressed by the speakers wisdom in the subject. We also had a class Homosexuality and the Amsterdam Gay scene as the Gay pride is coming up – that one was super challenging and actually left my mind spinning in circles. But One of my favorite talks was on how to relate to an individual’s culture because if you can relate to who they are then you can find common ground to discuss life and perhaps deeper issues with. For me personally this class was absolutely amazing because I really love music and want to pursue that more but don’t feel that as a Christian I have to just be limited to the “Christian genre”. I long to use music to express myself, bridge cultural gaps, and give a common ground to relate to people. So when our instructor was talking to us about how to relate to someone you have to find common ground, know where they are coming from, why they are traveling, etc. I was on the edge of my seat to learn everything I could especially when he brought out how we could use music to find common ground with people.
I would have to say that one of the most surprising things for me here in the shelter is the amount of Americans that are here; I think that at least 60% of the volunteers are American. On July 4th it was pretty funny because I came walking down the stairs to 4th of July Decorations everywhere in the house (something which the other nationalities represented were not too fond of ;) ). We celebrated our Independence Day by having a bbq out in the park and playing, soccer, Frisbee, and volleyball all at once…
I could regale countless stories to you of harrowing bike rides, funny, serious, sad, and inspiring conversations, breathtaking views, and getting lost but I only have an hour to finish this before I head to afternoon/evening reception training so I am going to finish this and get it posted if it’s the last thing that I do! I have literally been working on it for the past two weeks but it seems that my moments alone are so few and far between that I usually only get a paragraph or so done before I am interrupted by an invitation to go somewhere, workout, or even if I am sitting by myself in a coffee shop (oops! CAFÉ!) I invariably end up chatting to the person next to me. So Today is THE day to finish it!! J
So I have been mostly trained on evening café which entails starting with dinner and prayer at 5:30pm and starting work at 6:30pm in the café – cleaning, cooking, serving coffee, talking to people, and sometime even getting to have a jam session with other musicians. In other words…I LOVE it!!! The evening café also means that you lead a short Bible reading and prayer time at 11:30pm, which has proven already to be quite intense. I have already led times where we had people who were drunk and high there and have realized that I am going to have to learn quickly to recognize those symptoms BEfore I let them start talking…people under the influence can be incredibly longwinded! After evening prayer we prefab breakfast for the next morning and lock the café up. So usually I don’t get home until about 12:30 am. For those of you who know me…I am not a night person so this has been a challenge but it’s been a good one. Today I am being trained in reception , which I hear can be quite exciting with all of the characters that we can have coming through and it’s great because you get to meet everyone in the hostel instead of just the people who come to the café.
So there are a couple of really cool things that have happened to me since starting here two weeks ago which related to some of my goals of being here in the Shelter. One of those is that I really hope to make a decision about the direction of my future. I know that the two areas that really interest me and I hope to pursue are not related at all so am struggling with how to choose between the two to focus on one. I was also worried that I would have to give those things up for the time I was here at the Shelter. I really prayed about this before I came; that God would show me how I could progress/grow in both these areas. In the past two weeks that I have been here I have realized that my passion for music and healthy living will actually be cultivated, NOT neglected here. There are pianos and guitars both at the house that I live at as well as in the hostel I work at and there are so many opportunities to play and sing with people. It’s awesome! I have also had a lot of people encouraging me to continue and pursue a musical career, Even had like 4 ppl tell me that I should go on x factor ;) – not sure exactly how this will play out but it’s an answer to prayer for me, just that doing what I love DOES touch people...this makes me so happy. In the nutrition area it’s been awesome because though I am not perfect at all and struggle every day to make the right choices when there are so many yummy, unhealthy looking things around to eat, I have gained a reputation for being healthy. And some of the managers of the hostel talked to me about helping to come up with practical ways to improve the diet of the hostel volunteers as well as the quality of food that we were serving at the hostel. WOW! It’s soooo cool! Every day I get into conversations with people about health which challenges me to continue growing myself in it.
Ok, so though I have sooo much more that I want to share, I really want to get this blog out for you so I will just close but I hope that you all enjoy it and please let me know if there are anyquestion that you have specifically for me! And I promise to be posting more :)
