Nr. 22    October – November 2003

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IN THIS ISSUE

·                Pieter Visser praises the Lord after leaving the Shelter after almost 14 years of service: It is all about You, Jesus!

·                Many changes are taking place, including a new management structure.

·                Prayer Support

 

 


PIETER VISSER SAYS GOODBYE TO THE SHELTER
For the last eight years he worked as the manager of The Shelter City, and before this he served as assistant manager in the Shelter Jordan for five years. During this period of almost 14 years, Pieter Visser became an important pillar for the youth hostel ministry in Amsterdam. His compassion and love for the people in the hostels served as a great example for his colleagues and for the hundreds of staff members who served with him over the years.
As of October 1st, Pieter has left the hostel and received another role within our mother organisation Tot Heil des Volks. He will be coordinating three other ministries in Amsterdam, all reaching out to homeless people. Amsterdammers Helping Amsterdammers (where Paul, the bike repair man of The Shelter City is working as a volunteer) and De Tweede Mijl (The Second Mile) are places where homeless people can come for coffee and tea, but also for a talk and advice. The third organisation is a Christian boarding-house called Het Lichtpunt (The Lightpoint).

 

Pieter: It is all about You, Jesus. This was the reason that I came in 1989 to work with The Shelter Youth Hostel Ministry: to share with the guests in the hostel that each person needs to have Christ as his/her Lord and Saviour. Talking about Christ and praying together with people was for me always the greatest thing to do.

Through the years I realised more and more how unique the two hostels are. It is where you can Meet The World In One Place, and where people are Experiencing God’s Shelter, as the title of our anniversary book says. So many different people, each with their own background, situation, worldview, and concept of God, have stayed in the hostel as a guest and heard about God as the best Shelter one can ever find.

The great thing for me, was to see again and again that God brought people to us who were already so open for the gospel. I often prayed: “Lord, help us to be Your instruments, completely available for You, and take away the obstacles that may be there. Help us to do our work with empty hands, so that You can fill them.” God heard these prayers. He gave the words to speak, and He protected us in difficult, sometimes violent situations. In all this, I experienced: The Shelters are His and not our work, they are places of His light.

What I enjoyed very much, were the contacts with all the staff members. To work together as a team with the same goal, to learn from God, and to talk about that in the staff meetings as well as in personal conversations. This is something I will miss for sure!!

I received reactions from different parts of the world in answer to the request to write something for my goodbye. Reading these, it struck me again how The Shelter ministry has changed lives of workers as well, not just lives of guests. Here are just a couple of reactions:
Eryn from USA wrote: “In the 8 months I was there, two people accepted Christ. I never expected that. And many more heard the message. One of those two who became a Christian is now taking missions trips around the world for Youth for Christ. All because she was there at The Shelter and stayed a while to be a cleaner.”
Jan Groen from The Netherlands came for a visit and shared how his time in The Shelter City changed his view on so many things. He is now working as a social worker and tries to tell people about God through his work in a not Christian environment.

Thank you all, dear staff members from different years who still are in contact with The Shelter via this newsletter. Thanks for all your time and efforts to reach out to the guests, for the encouraging times of fellowship together, and for staying in touch.

My prayer for you all is that God will guide you in everything you do at this moment, that His peace will fulfil you totally! I would ask you to please continue to pray for the two Shelters. In the coming months many changes will take place, as you can read below.

Please, pray as well for my work(and for everyone involved) in the three ministries. I will be working one day a week in each of the three. The rest of the week I will be at home as houseman while my wife Jannie is working. Together we care for our household with our four children.

It is great that I continue being part of the Tot Heil des Volks organisation. I will be serving with the same goal as in the hostels but with a totally different target group. God bless you all!!
Greetings from the whole Visser family,

  Pieter 

 

LET US KNOW

Let us know what you think about the frequency with which this Shelter Newsletter is published. Currently we are sending 6 newsletters a year (every other month). Is this too much, too little, or just fine? Please, send us your feedback. It will mean a lot to us and it is really easy to do. Just click on this link and write one line (or more if you’d like) with your opinion: newsletter@shelter.nl Thanks! .

 

NEW MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE

While the ministry to the guests in the hostel continues as usual, many changes are being developed behind the scenes. In the previous Newsletters we already informed you about the ministry training program for the staff of the hostels. The first classes have started last week and are taught outside of the hostel building. To make this possible the staff will work shorter hostel shifts (6 hostel shifts of 5,5 hours per week). Although the training program only begins on a small scale during this start-up phase, we want to develop it further into an full Ministry Training School. (For more details see the information on our website).

Also, the renovation and rebuilding of the Willemstraat building will start in the coming weeks. In the spring of next year this new accommodation for staff and volunteers will be ready. This will result in better living quarters. It will also serve as a place for community and fellowship that will help to build up the staff members, both individually and as a team.

In connection with these developments, the management structure of the hostels is changing as well. With Pieter Visser gone, Jacob Kops, currently the manager of The Shelter Jordan, will take over as General Manager of both hostels. He will be assisted by Rosemary Barrett and Henny Maljaars. Together they make up the management team of The Shelter hostels.
In addition, each hostel will have Duty Managers who are concerned with the everyday running of the hostels and the training and mentoring of staff members. To give you the complete picture, these are the names of the Duty Managers. In The Shelter Jordan: Hans de Boer, Bertine Martens, and Freek Koster. In The Shelter City: Johanna van Stapele, Martijn Rutgers, Lynn Schouten, Jan de Visser, and Martin Penning.

 

 

ABOUT

The Shelter Youth Hostel Ministry is a Christian evangelism ministry in the centre of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Our goal is to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the 30,000 travellers who are staying each year in our two Christian youth, The Shelter City and The Shelter Jordan. The ministry is part of the association Tot Heil des Volks

CONTACT

Newsletter:
Newsletter@shelter.nl
www.theshelter.nl/news

Youth Hostel Ministry:
www.theshelter.nl/ministry

The Shelter hostels:
www.shelter.nl

 

PRAYER SUPPORT

·                We are thankful for the service of Pieter Visser in the hostels. Pray for him in his new role as coordinator of three ministries in Amsterdam.

·                Sokol from Albania accepted Christ in the hostel and was baptised two weeks ago. We can praise Christ for His work of Salvation, and pray that Sokol may mature in faith and Christian lifestyle

·                Please pray for Bertine Martens, Duty Manager in The Shelter Jordan. She struggles with her health and is in need of rest and refreshment.

·                Anneke Kofman has left the management team of The Shelter Jordan to study at a Cell Church Bible College in the USA. Please pray that she will receive the visa she is waiting for, and that she may be blessed in her studies.

·                Freek Koster (24) replaces Anneke as Duty Manager in The Shelter Jordan. Pray that God will bless the work of his hands and use him in a powerful way.

·                We also would appreciate your prayers for the Ministry Training School, the rebuilding of the Willemstraat building, and the new management structure of the hostels.

 

DONATIONS

The work of The Shelter Youth Hostel Ministry would not be able to continue without financial support. Read more at www.shelter.nl/donations