Last week at the shelter! :(

wow its already the last week here at the shelter.
The pace of life is so fast that time flies...
I am dealing with alot of random emotions connected to leaving etc...
We have a good bye lunch for Jolanda (my room mate) and I this saturday.
I'm sad to leave but I know I need to rest my weary body.

Bridge jumping!

this saturday I went bridge jumping with some friends... there is a sweet bridge in the east of amsterdam its 12 meters high. Awesome drop and cold water!
It gave me an energy rush to last a week.

Latly

Cleaner team is cool two of our cleaners are doing Alpha!
There are allot of emotions and jazz that is being dealt with I've been talking and dealing with allot of stuff. So glad that the time I spend with God in the morning empowers me to lean on him in the day. And direct people to His presence.
(picture of cleaner Tamar and I)

staff day

Tuesday we had staff day.. we were going to go Canoeing but the wind was to strong and water to cold (they knew we'd be dunking) so we went to an open air museum on re-claimed land an hour train ride north west of amsterdam.
We hung out for the day in the beautiful weather... after we went to an Indian restrant... it was a good day.

Great God (using the prayer room)

Cool testimony that I've been really encouraged with is my friend and co-worker Damara. She came up to me last week and told me how happy she is that we have the prayer room. She went on to say how she loves that its a space set apart for God without distractions (that we find so often in our own room)
After meeting with God regularly. He showed her alot about her time here at the shelter.
From now on I see the change in her that came from hearing the Lord and following His ways.
Her smile energy and love encourage me every day now and bring me joy!

peace

So latly i've been experianceing alot of hospitality from strangers and friends. I guess it goes with not really having your own place your forced to allow others to offer hospitality to you.
One verse I have been constantly reminded of is in Matthew 10 when Jesus is sending out his twelve. Verses 12-16.
This has encouraged me to pray for each person I interact with and ask Gods blessings on those who blessed me with hospitality.

Life

I bought my plan ticket to canada this week.
I'll be flying home on the 17th of June till the 4th of Augest.
Going home for 6 weeks..
processing all that jazz..
God bless

crazy hich hiking trip to Koln (Coloyn) Germany!

So on monday morning I got up like a normal day off, went running and took a shower. While I ate breakfast I had a good chat with Carmi (south african newzelander) and we decided to use our two days off to hitch hike to Koln Germany. Also to see Katrina an old staff member who was going through a bit of a rough time in her exchange program study. We called up Coen (who is known as one of the hich hiking experts in our comunity) and he was up for teaching us. We headed out after Coen's morning shift, we biked/walked to the first highway petrol station and began to ask people who were tanking up where they were going and if we could get a ride with them. We met alot of intresting people and it took nine rides in six hours to get to Koln.
Katrina freaked out when she saw us camped out in the Dom square. It was a sweet reunion. We hung out and spent the night, we read the bible together and after an awesome breakfast of fresh breads and (carmi and coens beer) we got a chance to pray for Katrina! I was so glad that we could encourage her just by our presence.
Katrina had a packed schedual so we walked through town on our own and headed home. It took us 3 hours in the rain of walking from the centre and holding out our thumb till we got on the highway. From there it was rather breazy only taking about 4 rides in all to get home. We decided to stop in Utrecht to stay at Coens sisters place. It was cool we had a good time chilling. The next morning his sister bought us train tickets and we rushed to Amsterdam, I biked straight to work ariving just on time for my cleaner supervisor shift.
What a great adventure!
map is always nessary


eating chocolate sandwiches at a truck stop
Katrina sprinting toward us!
us in the uber slow elevator
Katrina and I in her dorm (Canadian sistas)
Beer for breakfast, rockin it German style
Carmi and the crazy cool 'DOM' church
Over the Rhine river we crossed a bridge with locks on it they all had names on them (like carving your name in a wooden bridge but not) we left a lock here also with our names on it and the date, we left our mark!
We need to get out of frikin gerrrmanyyyyyyyyy
Our free coke and coffee!

beach day!

So this Sunday was the start of my three random Vacation days. I call them random because I had no idea what I was going to do. So I started off by going to church (good choice) after church I went to the shelter city (close to the church I went) because it was raining and I was bored. Ended up asking Coen (friend of mine) if He wanted to hick hike to the beach with me.
So we went, just like that. It was my first time we didn't have a specific destination just the beach. So when a kite surfer picked us up we just joined him to the surfing beach. The wind was really strong tho (thus the kite surfing) so we ended up hanging out in the dunes where the wind didn't catch us and blow sand in the eyes. Didn't do much just ate some and chilled.
Later we just walked to the busy road and a kite surfer woman picked us up and drove us home. (to our bikes)
It was a fun first time experience.
Kite Surfers Beach

Is it going to rain?!
Wijk aan zee
Hich hicking to A(mster)Dam

I got mail!

This morning as i got ready for and on my way to work. I was thinking and praying for my church back home in Hamilton and for my family especially my sister.
God just put them on my heart.
Then I got mail.
About 6 letters from two families in my church and one from my sister.
They warmed my heart and reminded me that God is holding us all in His hands and that prayer is powerful.

Sometimes its the reason God puts people on your path so you can pray for them.

Queens day and its after affects

ended early because of the celebrations. The city was packed with people, apparently Amsterdam is the place to be on this holiday. The celebrations actually officially started on the Wednesday night. Some staff members and I walked around the city observing and once in a while joining in. In our area 'Jordan' there were all the well dressed people listening to their jazz and a couple of bars were playing dace music these were all stages on the street mostly a live DJ or bands playing for the crowds. Once a friend and I just started dancing and everyone around us joined in. But walking around dam square and the area of the red light district it wasn't such a chill atmosphere. People were less 'safe' and chill. I got really tired at the end of walking around the entire city center and seeing every style of people and live music. We had the gay scene, the techno, the hard rock and the jazz/pop. We got to bed at 1am which is probably one of the reasons I was so tired on queens day. After my Cleaner Supervising shift I went straight home and chilled... on the way I saw three guys handcuffed by the police(never caught the story of how n' why). Aparently also earlier that day there was an attemted attack on the royal family. A guy drove his car into the crowd trying to hit the family beyond them. Because of the speed he used he lost control and smashed into a monument. However 6 people died with 12 in the hospital.
I went home and chilled relaxed until my head ache left. At 5pm i ventured the streets with my hippi freinds Heather and Jenny. We ended up scavenging the streets finding some abandoned piles of goods.
later in the evening I did it again ending up with a good selection.
On our walk however millions of people were heading to central station. all the main roads in the center were blocked off and it was just a massive flow of pedestrians.

looking from situation to situation I saw a lot of incredibly drunk people lonely sitting in their own urine and vomit. I saw people stumbling along unable to make coherent choices. I saw a lot of brokenness loneliness and sadness. As much as they 'celebrate' there were a lot of sad people that day.

it broke my heart and i didn't celebrate that day.
only prayed for this city and the people who were here this day.
not much else to do.


Queens day was crazy I had a cleaner supervising shift that went from 9:30-1:30