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The Shelter Youth Hostel Ministry NEWSLETTER |
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Nr. 37 – April/May 2006 Editor:
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THINKING OF Laurissa Anderson served as a staff member in the YHM
for over a year. Last January she returned home only to realize that you can
take the girl out of the Shelter but you can’t take the Shelter out of the
girl.
Everything was so
intense in the Shelters. There were
times when the intensity of work and the amount of people around became too
much for me. But I always made it
through…often with countless lessons learned about God, people, and
myself. I saw the ‘light bulb’ of
people’s hearts turn on as God revealed more of Himself, and as God brought
changes in the many hearts that were touched by Him and His truth. Great people I miss being around
hoards of people everyday. I
definitely miss the community and love, friendship and challenges of living
in the Willemsstraat. Living and
working with people from all over the world, who are all followers of Jesus
was amazing for me. It was such a
beautiful picture of the body of Christ the way God would want it—nations
coming together. To see and be a part
of the greater body of Christ was a taste of heaven for me. In a place of such growth, comfort, and
opportunities, I was right at home. I want the ‘home’
that I experienced in Amsterdam working at the Jordan to continue here in
Bradford, Pennsylvania, where I am right now.
This is my hardest struggle right now.
I saw so many other staff members have struggles during their time of
service in the hostels—and I saw how much God had changed them to be more
like His Son. Growth and challenges
were a part of my time in Amsterdam, and it is now that I am seeing those
changes in me fight with the “Laurissa before Amsterdam”. It is a hard battle, but I am trusting that
God will bring me through and that He has some purpose for my current
struggles Sweeter growth Laurissa Anderson |
Besides the daily Bible
discussion and the Friday night outreaches, we are always looking for other
creative ways to connect with the guests in the hostel and find opportunities
to share Christ with them. Christina Cameron, a staff member from the USA,
took some guests on a tour. Fun city facts One day, about 5 weeks ago, I glanced at the computer screen in front
of Freek and wondered what he was doing. It looked like he was looking at a
map. I decided he wasn’t doing anything interesting so I went about my
business. Earlier that week Freek had asked me to think of some way that I could
use my talents or interests in ways that would reach out to guests. I was
thinking “aren’t the Friday night outreaches enough?” But still I felt
compelled to do something. I thought about that map and suddenly something
clicked into place. I could use my capacity for trivial, useless facts to put
together a tour of part of the city. I could even make it a regular thing for
weekend mornings so that I could get better with practice. I was so excited
about the idea I could barely stand it. I began gathering books and searching on the internet for fun city
facts and sights. I mentioned my idea to Ryan who in turn said “Oh yeah,
Freek and I are going on a practice tour of the Jordaan area in a couple
days. You should come with us.” The aforementioned map was printed out two
days later and handed to me with a trail marked out and stops highlighted
along the way. We wandered around, trying to see what sights were accessible
to the public and which ones weren’t. We gathered the facts and even
uncovered some unexpected finds (such as the oldest enclosed courtyard in Rembrandt’s
house About three weeks later, I showed up at the hostel on a Saturday
morning to give my first tour. Four people had signed up: one Peruvian guy
and three Russian girls. I was pretty nervous because I’d neglected to
actually retrace the steps of the final draft of the tour. As a consequence,
I gave my tour group some exercise, wandering them around a bit trying to
find Rembrandt’s last house. We never did find it. They didn’t seem to mind. One of the greatest pleasures of giving these tours is realising that
which I take for granted. When I pointed out the
The next week, two German girls came on the tour. This time the
location of Rembrandt’s last house had been properly secured and we found it
after only passing it once. They were very gracious about my having to refer
to my fact sheet now and then to make sure my information was accurate. This
tour was even better than the last, despite the rain. I liked how funny they
found the Dutch signs and how they took pictures of them. Questions In both tours, the conversation turned to how I, an American ended up
in
Christina Cameron |
NEW WEBSITE! The Shelter YHM has a brand new website. Take a look at www.youthhostelministry.org. Don’t forget to change your bookmarks, hyperlinks etc! PRAYER
SUPPORT
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The Shelter Youth Hostel Ministry
is a Christian evangelism ministry in the centre of |
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Donations. The work of The Shelter Youth Hostel Ministry would not be able to
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