Day 2 and 3 at the Shelter

A couple of days have passed now and I am starting to feel pretty good around here! The weather is beautiful today, but before I go into today's events let me back up to yesterday. I had a morning shift in the cafe of the Hostel from 7:45 to 1ish. We spend the first 15 minutes praying together as staff which is really a neat priority - it focuses us and reminds us why we are serving, to see the name of Jesus preached in all ways. Then I started making and serving breakfast to the guests. This is a really neat to chance to talk to people from all over the world before they head off into the city for the day. After lunch in the hostel (gotta love that hagelslag. . .aka chocolate sprinkles on bread!) the staff team received emergency training. A lot can go wrong in a hostel with over 100 guests (it is full every night during the busy summer months) so it was very interesting and important to learn that the emergency number here is not 911 but 112! At this point is was about 5 and I really needs some fresh air so I went for a walk to try to familiarize myself with the streets around the hostel. There are so many neat little shops and restaurants, and of course the buildings and cannals are amazing. After dinner at the hostel I joined in on the Bible Discussion time that happens every night. It was a very encouraging and challenging time - two guests and a cleaner (who receives free room and board in the hostel in exchange for cleaning sheets, taking out trash, etc) were there, two are not Christians so it was neat to hear things from their perspective and then have the opportunity to explain the gospel to them. I really see God at work and am excited to see the fruits of our labor here. So that was one day - not to mention how fun it is to be with the staff, even though we're from the US, France, Canada, Germany, Portugal, Wales, South Korea, New Zealand, and the Netherlands we all have the common bond of Christ - it has been amazing to experience how unifying that really is!
This moring I had moring cafe duty again - now I can make a mean "2 eggs with ham and cheese" and soon I will head back over to the hostel for dinner, probably another interesting dish - good thing I'm not a picky eater! I met a Canadian guest named Andrea and had the chance to give her a Bible (Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Smith!), she's been traveling alone since March without one but has been wanted to get back into the Word so that was cool! Well, on that note I will end this post but another post with pictures will soon follow I hope. Pray for strength as this is very draining - good thing I'm enjoying it!

Doi, Arijaan