The Shelter Youth Hostel Ministry
NEWSLETTER
Nr. 31 – April/May 2005 Editor: Auke Algera Info: newsletter@shelter.nl
evangelism in the 21st century
The world in which we live is changing rapidly. The travellers who stay in
our hostels are influenced by this and come with different questions and
ideas about God than, lets say, ten years ago. What does this mean for the
way we share the Gospel in the youth hostel ministry? Do we have to change
our approach to evangelism, introduce new programs and activities, equip our
staff differently? These are questions that are on the mind of Jan de
Visser, duty manager in the Shelter City with special responsibility for
evangelism.
Not Always
Easy
Jan is speaking very positively about the evangelism done by the current
staff team. “One of the achievements of the last year is that we now have a
special program on a weekly basis”, he says. “But most of the contacts are
with cleaners or guests who stay for a few weeks. Reaching the one night
tourist with the Gospel of Jesus Christ is difficult.” Jan wonders whether
there are hard core evangelist out there who are able to have twenty
evangelistic conversations a night. His experience is that most staff
members find it rather difficult to have deeper conversations with people
they hardly know.
Religious Pluralism
But there is
a growing interest in religion among the travellers and in society in
general. A Dutch research showed that 60 percent of the Dutch people between
15 and 40 years of age believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, and 54
percent believes in an afterlife. The difficulty is, however, that people
don’t give these believes any substantial place in their personal life. It
doesn’t lead to worship of, or obedience to God.
A similar
attitude regarding religion can be found among the hostel guests. Jan gives
the example of the daily prayer meeting that takes place at 23.30 hours in
the café. This opportunity for both guests and staff to ask for prayer and
to pray together has become very popular. It often attracts more people than
the daily Bible discussion. “The surprising thing,” says Jan, “is that
sometimes guests sound like believers when they talk about God and ask for
prayer, but later tell me that they are not Christian at all. They are just
religious or open to spirituality.”
Possible
Approaches
Thinking about how to reach the guests with the Gospel in this post-modern
and pluralistic society, Jan sees a number of possible developments: “We may
consider doing more short events in the café. These would be very
short programs to help our staff members to start conversations with the
guest. Maybe we will end up having a ten minutes program every evening.” Jan
is thinking of using various kinds of performance, drama, songs, forum
discussions, film discussions, etc.
Another
evangelism tool is multi media. There are many websites with
interactive programs to learn about Jesus. Jan envisions having a number of
computers in the hostel where guest can search for truth and maybe also
watch some Christian movies. “It would be great to have the Jesus movie on
the computer in 50 different languages. People would be able to watch it at
their own time and in their on language”, says Jan enthusiastically.
Jan would
also like to improve the follow up for travellers who leave the
Shelter after being influenced by the Gospel. He explains, “I hope we will
be able to build a stronger network and actively help people find a church
or other Christians.”
Along these lines, Jan is searching for ways to effectively reach the guests with the Good News. He cautions that it is important not to focus on tools and programs to much but always keep God Himself in the centre. His request to you, therefore, is to continue to pray for this ministry.
At the Open Day
On February 9th and 16th, we organized an open day at
The Shelter. About 35 people in total took this opportunity to get a feel of
the youth hostel ministry. One of them, Lotte Vis, wrote the following
report for her School magazine.
The Shelter
Snail
The Shelter hostels can be recognized by the colourful signs that are
attached to the buildings. The picture is that of a snail. The manager,
Jacob Kops, explains to me that the snail is carrying his home in the same
way as that travellers are carrying their backpacks. The sign also describes
The Shelter as “Christian Youth Hostels”.
We all check
in at the reception desk where everyone speaks English. We are here because
of the open day and we book a bed for the night as well to experience what
it is like to stay in The Shelter. One of the young people in our group
says, “It would be quite a challenge to work here as a volunteer. We were
excited when we learned about this open day. It is the ideal opportunity for
us as Dutch people to see the hostel and meet people from so many nations.”
Not An
Average Hostel
As soon as all the visitors for the open day have arrived, we get a tour of
the hostel. We walk through a hallway with many doors. Peaking through an
open door, we see rows of bunk beds. Frank, our guide, tells us that the
rooms in the downstairs hallway are for female guests, the men sleep one
floor up. A little further down the hallway sits a man at a table. His
clothes are old and torn. Our guide explains that the hostel also attracts
homeless people now and then.
It is not busy in the café. A darkly tanned man sits on one of the chairs. He is a traveller from Australia and speaks English as well as a very little bit of incomprehensible Dutch. “I already recognized that this is not an average hostel,” the man says, “I am not a religious person but I like the atmosphere of this place. I don’t regret coming to this hostel. The staff is always friendly and they take time for your questions. They do proclaim their faith in God but not in a forceful way, which I appreciate. They do make me think.”
The visitors of the open day on 9th February.
Missions Class
After a tasty lunch, we walk through the centre of Amsterdam to the
Willemsstraat building. We join in one of the sessions of the Ministry
Training Program. This one is about Missions. “All staff members take part
in the training program,” the teacher explains, “The purpose is to become
equipped to communicate the Gospel with the guests in the hostel.” A role
play in which I take part, teaches me that it is not always easy to relate
to people of different cultures and to communicate the Gospel.
After the
training session we walk to the other hostel, The Shelter Jordan, to enjoy a
warm meal. One of the members of our group reflects on the afternoon and
says, “The class about Missions was really interesting. It would be great to
follow more sessions like this one.”
Board Games
For the evening program we return to The Shelter City. I hear that there
will be a special kind of games evening and I am curious what this will
entail. I quickly find out how it works. You start a board game and when the
bell rings you move to a different table to play a different game. This way
you get into contact with many different people as well.
After the games we are invited to join the Bible study. I am not the only one who decides to go. Quite a big group is present to talk about “The truth in life”. After the meeting I sit down with one of the other visitors of the open day and we review the day. It was impressive. I hope The Shelter will continue its work for many more years.
Lotte Vis
NEW AT THE
CITY
On 28th April
the
Shelter City will officially introduce the improvements that have been made
over the last fourteen months.
What used to
be dorm number 8 with almost 40 beds is turned into a hallway with five
smaller dorms, each with 4 to 8 beds.
The other
big dormitory (number 7) has been divided into two smaller ones.
Both the downstairs hallway (now being used as an extension of the café) and
the café have been refurbished.
PRAYER
SUPPORT
·
Please pray for the evangelism in the hostels, for wisdom and vision to
choose the right approaches.
·
We are thankful for the improvements in the Shelter City building. Pray that
this will help to attract more tourists.
·
We are thankful for the applications that we received and which make it
possible to fill our team until July. From August onward we have openings
for staff. We especially have need for male staff members.
·
Pray for the spiritual life of our staff, that they will remain devoted to
Bible reading and prayer. Also pray that they will grow in knowledge and
wisdom as a result of the training school, and that they will find
fellowship and encouragement in the staff community.
· Pray that God will continue to use this ministry to change the heart of people and to reveal Himself to those who are searching.
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 hostels: The Shelter City and The Shelter Jordan. The ministry is part of the association Tot Heil des Volks, a non-denominational mission organisation registered in Amsterdam. Internet: www.youthhostelministry.shelter.nl
Donations. The work of The Shelter Youth Hostel Ministry would not be able to continue without financial support. Help support this ministry! Read more at www.yhm.shelter.nl/donations.html
This Newsletter can also be found at www.yhm.shelter.nl
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