Today Richie decided to no longer write in the third person because Richie is tired of the tediousness of writing in this manner.
I will now write in a more easy manner.
What have I been learning?
How to deal with my emotions, how to work through anger, how to move from loneliness to solitude, and that I am definitely more like the older brother in the prodigal son story.
I said goodbye to some really good friends in the last week so things have been sad.
I hope to see them again in this life, but I have hope in Christ to see them in the next.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thanksgiving
Richie thinks how thanksgiving is tomorrow. He will probably skype with his parents and there will be a little feast at the community house on the Willemsstraat. It should be a nice day. Richie has to work in the morning, but this is not so much a problem as it is not a usual thanksgiving. He is in Amsterdam.
Richie is in a small state of mourning. There are many volunteers leaving at the end of the month. He enjoyed spending time with them and will be sad to see them go. Some of the ones he is closer with he hopes to see again in this life. One of these is Seth. He has enjoyed the last few months of hanging out with him and getting to know him. He is from North Carolina and a godly and good man.
Richie bought his plane ticket home yesterday. He found a good price with Icelandair leaving from Copenhagen on February 13. It may not be the most comfortable flight and he may not get food for free on the flight (based on the reviews)...but he will survive.
Richie had the opportunity to share last Friday at a hostel night. He believes he remembers describing these events in a past post so he will not bother describing it this time. He was in charge of coordinating the night along side Maaike. He came up with a theme stolen from Charles Dickens called Great Expectations, and he composed a speech about our expectations when we come to God and Christ. He kept it general at the beginning of his speech. He spoke of expectations in sports, traveling, relationships, and then he spoke of expectations of the Pharisees when they came to Jesus. Jesus did not meet their expectations, and yet he was the Son of God. Then Richie made it personal by speaking of expectations when coming to God. What do we expect from him? Are our expectations reasonable? In line with scripture? Do we get angry with God when he does not meet our expectations? And then Richie asked the guests to evaluate their expectations and see if they are blinding him or her from seeing truth. Giving this speech was an interesting experience for Richie because he received very little feed back after delivery. People kind of just sat strait faced and dumbfounded, and in Richie's mind, they seemed to have turned their brains off. After the speech, they turned their brains on again and chatted with each other, but Richie is starting to think he should reevaluate his speech giving and try to make things feel more conversational when delivering rather than preprepared. He had a strong sense of the prepreparedness of the speech. He did get good feedback from the manager who had attended yesterday (Tuesday) so that was nice and made him feel a bit better.
Richie also had the opportunity to lead a Bible discussion last night. He chose to discuss Cain and Abel. It was a nice discussion. Two guests came. One who when to Trinity Western University in Canada, and the other was a guest from Michigan close to the end of a two year travel trip he is on. His name was Steven, the guest who went to Trinity Western was Colon. They were both friendly and eager to discuss, so the conversation was not so hard.
Steven was an interesting guest to talk to for Richie. He always finds it interesting to speak to world travelers. Richie asked him, now that he is close to the end of his journey, if he feels like he has changed a lot since the beginning. He mainly feels like some priorities in life changed. He spoke of the family oriented nature of the Central and South American life, and how that challenged the priorities of America where everyone strives to have the best and be the best. This was the main philosophy shift he felt. He said he had such inclinations before, but seeing it lived out in Central and South America made it real for him.
This was an interesting conversation to have because it caused Richie to remember another conversation he had with Ewout, one of the managers of the Shelter hostels. Richie had commented how both Apple and Microsoft come from America and how the rest of the world uses one of these operating systems. He stated it as a curious phenomenon. Then Ewout made the observation that in America, economics is largely inspired by trying to be the best, make the best operating system, have the best life, make the best car, or the best country, whatever. Yet in countries in South America or Central America economics may be more driven by the family or focused on the family so they are not as worried about being best. It was an interesting thought for Richie.
Richie is in a small state of mourning. There are many volunteers leaving at the end of the month. He enjoyed spending time with them and will be sad to see them go. Some of the ones he is closer with he hopes to see again in this life. One of these is Seth. He has enjoyed the last few months of hanging out with him and getting to know him. He is from North Carolina and a godly and good man.
Richie bought his plane ticket home yesterday. He found a good price with Icelandair leaving from Copenhagen on February 13. It may not be the most comfortable flight and he may not get food for free on the flight (based on the reviews)...but he will survive.
Richie had the opportunity to share last Friday at a hostel night. He believes he remembers describing these events in a past post so he will not bother describing it this time. He was in charge of coordinating the night along side Maaike. He came up with a theme stolen from Charles Dickens called Great Expectations, and he composed a speech about our expectations when we come to God and Christ. He kept it general at the beginning of his speech. He spoke of expectations in sports, traveling, relationships, and then he spoke of expectations of the Pharisees when they came to Jesus. Jesus did not meet their expectations, and yet he was the Son of God. Then Richie made it personal by speaking of expectations when coming to God. What do we expect from him? Are our expectations reasonable? In line with scripture? Do we get angry with God when he does not meet our expectations? And then Richie asked the guests to evaluate their expectations and see if they are blinding him or her from seeing truth. Giving this speech was an interesting experience for Richie because he received very little feed back after delivery. People kind of just sat strait faced and dumbfounded, and in Richie's mind, they seemed to have turned their brains off. After the speech, they turned their brains on again and chatted with each other, but Richie is starting to think he should reevaluate his speech giving and try to make things feel more conversational when delivering rather than preprepared. He had a strong sense of the prepreparedness of the speech. He did get good feedback from the manager who had attended yesterday (Tuesday) so that was nice and made him feel a bit better.
Richie also had the opportunity to lead a Bible discussion last night. He chose to discuss Cain and Abel. It was a nice discussion. Two guests came. One who when to Trinity Western University in Canada, and the other was a guest from Michigan close to the end of a two year travel trip he is on. His name was Steven, the guest who went to Trinity Western was Colon. They were both friendly and eager to discuss, so the conversation was not so hard.
Steven was an interesting guest to talk to for Richie. He always finds it interesting to speak to world travelers. Richie asked him, now that he is close to the end of his journey, if he feels like he has changed a lot since the beginning. He mainly feels like some priorities in life changed. He spoke of the family oriented nature of the Central and South American life, and how that challenged the priorities of America where everyone strives to have the best and be the best. This was the main philosophy shift he felt. He said he had such inclinations before, but seeing it lived out in Central and South America made it real for him.
This was an interesting conversation to have because it caused Richie to remember another conversation he had with Ewout, one of the managers of the Shelter hostels. Richie had commented how both Apple and Microsoft come from America and how the rest of the world uses one of these operating systems. He stated it as a curious phenomenon. Then Ewout made the observation that in America, economics is largely inspired by trying to be the best, make the best operating system, have the best life, make the best car, or the best country, whatever. Yet in countries in South America or Central America economics may be more driven by the family or focused on the family so they are not as worried about being best. It was an interesting thought for Richie.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Belgium
Richie just returned today from Belgium. So he would like to record his experiences before he forgets.
First, Richie really like Brussels. He knows some people consider it to be not so pretty, but Richie found it rather nice and enjoyed walking around in the city for the one day he was there. Richie and his friend Kristen stayed the first night of the travels in Brussels with a nice man named Sergi. The discovered him via couchsurfing and he was kind enough to let them sleep at his place. He had a very nice apartment, he gave them a very good map of the city, and he had several good suggestions for places to go and things to see. He also shared about his work with a fair trade company and this seemed like interesting work. Things in this line of work take a long time as governments are slow to act, but he said as long as a person was not results oriented the job is good. Richie thought Sergi had a very nice apartment, he was impressed with his knowledge of language, and Kristen and Richie were able to sleep in actual beds at Sergi's apartment making it all nice.
Now for the city. Richie did not realize that Belgium is comic book central and that Tintin came from this beautiful country. Brussels has a comic book museum and that he visited with Kristen and although everything was in French, Richie had a nice time. There are also many comic murals around the town so these were nice for pictures. Richie also got a laugh out of the church with a urnal built into the side of it.
Richie laughed at Kristen who fell in the middle of the street after she tripped over the median. Richie had to pull her out of the road and she dirtied her white coat. This white coat had already been a source of angest for her when she got it dirty by spilling a little bit of her waffle toppings (banana, strawberries, chocolate) on it. She said she had recently cleaned it.
Richie saw the Mannekin Pis, the Jannekin Pis (female version), the main square, and several other things. He also got a laugh about the flea market when all the goods for sale were spread out on blankets on the ground or simply just on the ground.
Richie spent the next two nights of this three night trip in Belgium in a small southern city called Mons. This is the place where Kristen's cousin Brandy lives. Brandy and her husband are both very Canadian. Her husband Aiden has a strange brew accent and Brandy has something of an accent as well. Richie got more of a taste of
Canadian culture on this trip than he got of Belgium culture.
Things Richie and Kristen saw in Mons:
Van Gogh's old house. It is sinking into a swamp.
Some country side.
The Belfry.
A huge church.
An art museum.
They had some chocolate and waffles.
Watched the movie Se7en.
It was all a very good experience.
Now Richie is back in the Netherlands. Sitting at reception.
Richie also finished Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard, but retention quality was low.
First, Richie really like Brussels. He knows some people consider it to be not so pretty, but Richie found it rather nice and enjoyed walking around in the city for the one day he was there. Richie and his friend Kristen stayed the first night of the travels in Brussels with a nice man named Sergi. The discovered him via couchsurfing and he was kind enough to let them sleep at his place. He had a very nice apartment, he gave them a very good map of the city, and he had several good suggestions for places to go and things to see. He also shared about his work with a fair trade company and this seemed like interesting work. Things in this line of work take a long time as governments are slow to act, but he said as long as a person was not results oriented the job is good. Richie thought Sergi had a very nice apartment, he was impressed with his knowledge of language, and Kristen and Richie were able to sleep in actual beds at Sergi's apartment making it all nice.
Now for the city. Richie did not realize that Belgium is comic book central and that Tintin came from this beautiful country. Brussels has a comic book museum and that he visited with Kristen and although everything was in French, Richie had a nice time. There are also many comic murals around the town so these were nice for pictures. Richie also got a laugh out of the church with a urnal built into the side of it.
Richie laughed at Kristen who fell in the middle of the street after she tripped over the median. Richie had to pull her out of the road and she dirtied her white coat. This white coat had already been a source of angest for her when she got it dirty by spilling a little bit of her waffle toppings (banana, strawberries, chocolate) on it. She said she had recently cleaned it.
Richie saw the Mannekin Pis, the Jannekin Pis (female version), the main square, and several other things. He also got a laugh about the flea market when all the goods for sale were spread out on blankets on the ground or simply just on the ground.
Richie spent the next two nights of this three night trip in Belgium in a small southern city called Mons. This is the place where Kristen's cousin Brandy lives. Brandy and her husband are both very Canadian. Her husband Aiden has a strange brew accent and Brandy has something of an accent as well. Richie got more of a taste of
Canadian culture on this trip than he got of Belgium culture.
Things Richie and Kristen saw in Mons:
Van Gogh's old house. It is sinking into a swamp.
Some country side.
The Belfry.
A huge church.
An art museum.
They had some chocolate and waffles.
Watched the movie Se7en.
It was all a very good experience.
Now Richie is back in the Netherlands. Sitting at reception.
Richie also finished Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard, but retention quality was low.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
space cakes
The excitement of the hostel:
Richie's hostel has a group of 38 junior highers (and their adult leaders) in the hostel. Richie feels like dad of the daycare.
Richie also got to see a girl get carried away to the hospital after getting a high overdose on a space cake. What a nice experience for him. Richie read some information on the internet and the space cakes should be eaten carefully even though if a person does get too high there is no danger and nothing the hospital people can really do (according to the internet).
Richie is currently reading Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard...but for some reason he has trouble remembering much of what he reads.
Richie's hostel has a group of 38 junior highers (and their adult leaders) in the hostel. Richie feels like dad of the daycare.
Richie also got to see a girl get carried away to the hospital after getting a high overdose on a space cake. What a nice experience for him. Richie read some information on the internet and the space cakes should be eaten carefully even though if a person does get too high there is no danger and nothing the hospital people can really do (according to the internet).
Richie is currently reading Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard...but for some reason he has trouble remembering much of what he reads.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Trips
Richie just returned to computer access after a nice trip to Berlin and then the UK.
He saw many nice sites in the UK with his parents and uncle and aunt and cousin. These include stone hendge, Bath, Carthage, the Forest of Dean, Stratford, Warwick Castle, Oxford, and one other little town the name of which Richie can not remember.
He also got detained at the Border of the UK for about 2.5 hours. They were suspicious of his ability to support himself while in the UK. He appreciates their concern and would like them to know that he did not become a homeless man on the streets of London but returned to Amsterdam and the volunteer life. They did, however, give Richie a free lunch and the ability to watch a bit of the movie the changeling which turned out to be better than anyone planned.
Berlin was good with WWII, a good beer or two (in moderation of course), and academic society to spend time with. All very inspirational to return to school study a second langauge along with something else. He sadly did not get to experience everything, but it was a good taste.
He enjoyed eating at the Cod Almighty in some town he cannot remember and another kebab place in Stratford. He also appreciates the English for their assumption of the easiness of directions when the reality is otherwise. He also found that once you get out of the major cities everything stops moving by 5pm and it is terribly hard to shop or eat after this time unless a person wants a Doner Kebab. He thanks Amsterdam and the Dutch for not living this lifestyle.
He saw many nice sites in the UK with his parents and uncle and aunt and cousin. These include stone hendge, Bath, Carthage, the Forest of Dean, Stratford, Warwick Castle, Oxford, and one other little town the name of which Richie can not remember.
He also got detained at the Border of the UK for about 2.5 hours. They were suspicious of his ability to support himself while in the UK. He appreciates their concern and would like them to know that he did not become a homeless man on the streets of London but returned to Amsterdam and the volunteer life. They did, however, give Richie a free lunch and the ability to watch a bit of the movie the changeling which turned out to be better than anyone planned.
Berlin was good with WWII, a good beer or two (in moderation of course), and academic society to spend time with. All very inspirational to return to school study a second langauge along with something else. He sadly did not get to experience everything, but it was a good taste.
He enjoyed eating at the Cod Almighty in some town he cannot remember and another kebab place in Stratford. He also appreciates the English for their assumption of the easiness of directions when the reality is otherwise. He also found that once you get out of the major cities everything stops moving by 5pm and it is terribly hard to shop or eat after this time unless a person wants a Doner Kebab. He thanks Amsterdam and the Dutch for not living this lifestyle.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Marathons and the New Age
On Saturday night, Richie was riding his bike around town with his friend Kristen. Richie enjoys looking in art galleries so when he spotted one while they were riding he slammed on the brakes and entered to look at the paintings. They were all very nice and interesting to examine. Richie likes trying to understand depth and perception and how the artist puts the paint together in order to get the viewer to see a particular image. An interesting prospect for Richie's inquisitive mind.
They left this gallery and kept riding only to spot another not too far down the road. This one had only two other people in it. Richie and Kristen quietly entered the gallery and spent sometime observing the art. The style was completely different, much more impessionistic and "a study of color and their effect on the mind" as the artist Sara put it. Her and her friend were there in the gallery relaxing and waiting for dinner to be done. At least this is what I believe they were doing as after Richie and kristen spoke to them for a while they said dinner was done so Richie and kristen had to leave. Anyway, they began to speak to Richie and Kristen and pretty soon it was evident to Kristen that they were new age. Things turned to what Richie and Kristen were doing in Amsterdam. This easliy lead to the words Christian Hostel, which revealed Richie and Kristen to be Christians. Sara and her friend readily accept this as they would accept any other religion. Of course they did say that they disagreed with some interpretations of the Scripture. Probably some interpretation that has to do with Jesus being the way, the truth, and the life and no one getting to the Father except through Jesus. This, however, did not come up. Anyway, Sara's friend was a gardener and enjoyed philosophizing. They especially enjoyed it when they found out Richie was a math major. Math is the language of the universe and there are many philosophies that run from math. So the gardener liked speaking of such things. Additionally, Sara gave Richie and Kristen a blessing from the Universe through a dance she performed close to when Richie and Kristen left. It was nice, but Richie found himself wondering what was blessing him so he prayed and asked God to bless him through this woman's dance. The gardener also gave Kristen some flowers as a gift from the universe or maybe from him.
Then Sunday was the Amsterdam Marathon. Richie decided to go. He watched and took some pictures at the 5K mark and then watched the finish. He enjoyed being in the running culture as it is one of those things that transcend culture. So Richie felt as much at home there as he felt in America. The winner ran a 2:06 with some seconds. Quite a fast pace.
They left this gallery and kept riding only to spot another not too far down the road. This one had only two other people in it. Richie and Kristen quietly entered the gallery and spent sometime observing the art. The style was completely different, much more impessionistic and "a study of color and their effect on the mind" as the artist Sara put it. Her and her friend were there in the gallery relaxing and waiting for dinner to be done. At least this is what I believe they were doing as after Richie and kristen spoke to them for a while they said dinner was done so Richie and kristen had to leave. Anyway, they began to speak to Richie and Kristen and pretty soon it was evident to Kristen that they were new age. Things turned to what Richie and Kristen were doing in Amsterdam. This easliy lead to the words Christian Hostel, which revealed Richie and Kristen to be Christians. Sara and her friend readily accept this as they would accept any other religion. Of course they did say that they disagreed with some interpretations of the Scripture. Probably some interpretation that has to do with Jesus being the way, the truth, and the life and no one getting to the Father except through Jesus. This, however, did not come up. Anyway, Sara's friend was a gardener and enjoyed philosophizing. They especially enjoyed it when they found out Richie was a math major. Math is the language of the universe and there are many philosophies that run from math. So the gardener liked speaking of such things. Additionally, Sara gave Richie and Kristen a blessing from the Universe through a dance she performed close to when Richie and Kristen left. It was nice, but Richie found himself wondering what was blessing him so he prayed and asked God to bless him through this woman's dance. The gardener also gave Kristen some flowers as a gift from the universe or maybe from him.
Then Sunday was the Amsterdam Marathon. Richie decided to go. He watched and took some pictures at the 5K mark and then watched the finish. He enjoyed being in the running culture as it is one of those things that transcend culture. So Richie felt as much at home there as he felt in America. The winner ran a 2:06 with some seconds. Quite a fast pace.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Hesitations 5=1
Richie is here again. Morning reception.
Richie has had an interesting week. A mixture of restlessness, discontent, but now he feels rather peaceful.
He watched a Russian film three times this last week for a film discussion on Thursday night. He thinks it is an excellent film. It is called The Return.
No interesting interactions with guests this week.
There is a big fair in Dam Square. Richie thinks everything there is overpriced. A person could ride the ferris wheel for 8 euro, a swing like ride for 5 euro, and another ride for 8 euro. The cheapest option was a small Waffle for 2.5 euro. The things tourists will spend.
Is getting the travel bug ok? Does a persons character develop more in the act of travel or in staying in one place and working through the difficulties of relationship?
Oh yes. A couple of weeks ago Richie almost got pooped on by a pigeon. Richie was with Kristen and Seth standing under a tree. They were talking and plop there it was one of the larger pigeon poops in the world. Splattered a little on Richie's shoe as well.
Richie had some great Indian curry this last week as well. It was very hot, but very good. He went out with three other friends to this resturant fairly close to the community house. It was less than the steak that he had eaten on his previous night out and it was better and more filling. They gave bottomless rice.
In other news, as the community house (where all the staff live) is similar to dorm life, his room got pranked. A person or a pair of persons entered his room and saran wraped every little article of his clothing and other things as well as his roommates. The person has yet to reveal their self. So Richie and Joost do not know who to retaliate against.
Richie has had an interesting week. A mixture of restlessness, discontent, but now he feels rather peaceful.
He watched a Russian film three times this last week for a film discussion on Thursday night. He thinks it is an excellent film. It is called The Return.
No interesting interactions with guests this week.
There is a big fair in Dam Square. Richie thinks everything there is overpriced. A person could ride the ferris wheel for 8 euro, a swing like ride for 5 euro, and another ride for 8 euro. The cheapest option was a small Waffle for 2.5 euro. The things tourists will spend.
Is getting the travel bug ok? Does a persons character develop more in the act of travel or in staying in one place and working through the difficulties of relationship?
Oh yes. A couple of weeks ago Richie almost got pooped on by a pigeon. Richie was with Kristen and Seth standing under a tree. They were talking and plop there it was one of the larger pigeon poops in the world. Splattered a little on Richie's shoe as well.
Richie had some great Indian curry this last week as well. It was very hot, but very good. He went out with three other friends to this resturant fairly close to the community house. It was less than the steak that he had eaten on his previous night out and it was better and more filling. They gave bottomless rice.
In other news, as the community house (where all the staff live) is similar to dorm life, his room got pranked. A person or a pair of persons entered his room and saran wraped every little article of his clothing and other things as well as his roommates. The person has yet to reveal their self. So Richie and Joost do not know who to retaliate against.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Meditations 4
Here Richie is again after several days taken to finish a book he was reading back into the writing business.
He read The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy. It was a nice book. Victorian bent, but it had more twists than usual which kept his interest.
Richie says good bye to two Somalian guests as they go out for the day. Do they go out for a smoke? or for a walk? Maybe they are just going to enjoy the city. Richie does not know. The language barrier is too difficult for deep conversation so their relationship consists of hellos and goodbyes and the occasional smile.
A couple days ago Richie had the honor of helping a guest stay focused for the writing of her thesis for graduate school. Laurel has had writers block for the last year and her thesis is long over due. So she decided to pay people to sit with her and keep her focused. Richie volunteered and got some cash out of the deal. Her thesis is on the use of music in silent films. Interesting topic. Richie quickly ended up using the cash to buy dinner that night because of a birthday party for one of the staff. They went out to an overpriced Argentinean steak house which served small portions. Richie's palet, however, is dulled at this point so the steak tasted rather nice. He hopes it was legitimate Argentinean steak. The best part of the whole event, though, was dressing up like ninjas. It was a group of six all dressed up, four black ninjas, Richie was a red ninja, and one brown ninja. Some people gave Richie and the other ninja's funny looks. Others merely did acknowledge any significance in the special dress. Yes there are pictures. No they were not made with Richie's camera, but maybe Kristen who did take some pictures put them on facebook so Richie can take them for himself.
Richie also had the pleasure of having a real dutch day this last week. He went to his roommates house. It was classic dutch, small, more of an apartment or condo by American standards, but it was nice to get into the home of a real dutch family. Also, Richie was able to see Joost's sister's house, and a farm with a bunch of swine and cattle. It was a nice day, though rainy.
---Richie speaks to a guest. A nice man with an interesting style. He wants to stay at the Shelter City instead of the shelter Jordan since it is closer to the Centraal Station. Richie says sure, but he can only recieve €12.50 in return for his room. The guest is ok with that so things seem to work out.
---Another guest comes in. A Japanese man who speak very few words. He has stayed here before and Richie is surprised at the amount of English he knows now after a couple weeks since before he knew zero English. He seems to be able to understand English that is spoken very slowly. He is a nice man with a generous heart. Richie checks him in.
Richie also was able to learn during the day away with his roommate of a nice dutch tradition. Every night all the family that is home gets together at about 8 in the evening to drink coffee or tea and watch the news. It is a tradition that more should be broadened to more cultures.
Richie also has started to have new thoughts about his time here in Amsterdam. He is thinking of trying to leave mid January and spend some weeks traveling in Europe. He feels rather restless here sometimes and wants to see more of Europe since he is over here. He expects to come back again, but he will be very disappointed and sad if he is unable to see some other places besided Amsterdam.
So Richie has had two odd feelings of late. One feeling of great restlessness and another feeling that he is being like Jonah. He does not know if these are legitimate feelings. The other night while he was lying in his bed he had this though pass through his mind that he was like Jonah. Richie, however, does not understand why this is the case as he has not felt some calling from God to go to some place. So he should probably disregard this feeling but it sits with him.
Richie also felt very restless after he finished his nightman shift. He felt this need to get out of Amsterdam and see some thing else. He believes that if he knows he will be able to travel for a while in January before he goes home it will calm these feelings and he will be able to be more content here in Amsterdam.
Richie is also feeling odd spiritually. He has begun to try to look at Christianity like somebody on the outside looking in and the beliefs of Christianity have begun to look rather odd. This occured the other night when he was looking at the classic picture of man on one side of the chasim and God on the other and then the cross creating the bridge. Richie thought of how odd this image must appear to someone who has never seen it before. Why does this image seem to speak to non-Christians? It is a very common Evangelistic tool, but it seems odd. If someone were living his or her life without God would he or she necessarily feel this chasim? Would he or she care about the chasim that seems to have no effect on their life currently? Maybe, it does help bring some people to Christ I suppose or else it would not be used.
--Japanese man comes back. He stumbles around with the right words to say and then gets out the question about a kitchen for guests. Richie says sorry there is not guest kitchen. He leaves.
--Richie checks in four guests from Germany and then two from France. All men. All friendly. All seeing the sights.
Richie also remembers today that Christians will never be cool in the worlds eyes no matter how hard they try. The world will not understand them. Believing in some God-man that lived 2000 years ago for life after death and salvation in Christ. Religion is an odd thing.
He read The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy. It was a nice book. Victorian bent, but it had more twists than usual which kept his interest.
Richie says good bye to two Somalian guests as they go out for the day. Do they go out for a smoke? or for a walk? Maybe they are just going to enjoy the city. Richie does not know. The language barrier is too difficult for deep conversation so their relationship consists of hellos and goodbyes and the occasional smile.
A couple days ago Richie had the honor of helping a guest stay focused for the writing of her thesis for graduate school. Laurel has had writers block for the last year and her thesis is long over due. So she decided to pay people to sit with her and keep her focused. Richie volunteered and got some cash out of the deal. Her thesis is on the use of music in silent films. Interesting topic. Richie quickly ended up using the cash to buy dinner that night because of a birthday party for one of the staff. They went out to an overpriced Argentinean steak house which served small portions. Richie's palet, however, is dulled at this point so the steak tasted rather nice. He hopes it was legitimate Argentinean steak. The best part of the whole event, though, was dressing up like ninjas. It was a group of six all dressed up, four black ninjas, Richie was a red ninja, and one brown ninja. Some people gave Richie and the other ninja's funny looks. Others merely did acknowledge any significance in the special dress. Yes there are pictures. No they were not made with Richie's camera, but maybe Kristen who did take some pictures put them on facebook so Richie can take them for himself.
Richie also had the pleasure of having a real dutch day this last week. He went to his roommates house. It was classic dutch, small, more of an apartment or condo by American standards, but it was nice to get into the home of a real dutch family. Also, Richie was able to see Joost's sister's house, and a farm with a bunch of swine and cattle. It was a nice day, though rainy.
---Richie speaks to a guest. A nice man with an interesting style. He wants to stay at the Shelter City instead of the shelter Jordan since it is closer to the Centraal Station. Richie says sure, but he can only recieve €12.50 in return for his room. The guest is ok with that so things seem to work out.
---Another guest comes in. A Japanese man who speak very few words. He has stayed here before and Richie is surprised at the amount of English he knows now after a couple weeks since before he knew zero English. He seems to be able to understand English that is spoken very slowly. He is a nice man with a generous heart. Richie checks him in.
Richie also was able to learn during the day away with his roommate of a nice dutch tradition. Every night all the family that is home gets together at about 8 in the evening to drink coffee or tea and watch the news. It is a tradition that more should be broadened to more cultures.
Richie also has started to have new thoughts about his time here in Amsterdam. He is thinking of trying to leave mid January and spend some weeks traveling in Europe. He feels rather restless here sometimes and wants to see more of Europe since he is over here. He expects to come back again, but he will be very disappointed and sad if he is unable to see some other places besided Amsterdam.
So Richie has had two odd feelings of late. One feeling of great restlessness and another feeling that he is being like Jonah. He does not know if these are legitimate feelings. The other night while he was lying in his bed he had this though pass through his mind that he was like Jonah. Richie, however, does not understand why this is the case as he has not felt some calling from God to go to some place. So he should probably disregard this feeling but it sits with him.
Richie also felt very restless after he finished his nightman shift. He felt this need to get out of Amsterdam and see some thing else. He believes that if he knows he will be able to travel for a while in January before he goes home it will calm these feelings and he will be able to be more content here in Amsterdam.
Richie is also feeling odd spiritually. He has begun to try to look at Christianity like somebody on the outside looking in and the beliefs of Christianity have begun to look rather odd. This occured the other night when he was looking at the classic picture of man on one side of the chasim and God on the other and then the cross creating the bridge. Richie thought of how odd this image must appear to someone who has never seen it before. Why does this image seem to speak to non-Christians? It is a very common Evangelistic tool, but it seems odd. If someone were living his or her life without God would he or she necessarily feel this chasim? Would he or she care about the chasim that seems to have no effect on their life currently? Maybe, it does help bring some people to Christ I suppose or else it would not be used.
--Japanese man comes back. He stumbles around with the right words to say and then gets out the question about a kitchen for guests. Richie says sorry there is not guest kitchen. He leaves.
--Richie checks in four guests from Germany and then two from France. All men. All friendly. All seeing the sights.
Richie also remembers today that Christians will never be cool in the worlds eyes no matter how hard they try. The world will not understand them. Believing in some God-man that lived 2000 years ago for life after death and salvation in Christ. Religion is an odd thing.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Meditations 3
So here we are again. Richie is a nightman surprise surprise. He is also a sick boy with a stuffy nose, but also he is a thankful boy for paste magazine and paste station which enables him to stay in touch a little with good music. Thank goodness.
Richie is tired tonight. He did not sleep so long during the day because he chose to go to church in the afternoon. It was a nice service but not super insightful to Richie. He had heard the words before. It was the read your Bible, pray everyday so that you can keep your soil healthy sermon on the parable of Jesus where Jesus speaks about the spreading of the seed and the different type of soil that the seed finds. The problem in Richie's mind is that a person can read the Bible and pray every day and still feel distant from God. Richie knows this from experience, but the pastor did not address this issue. Sadly, Richie's tiredness because of the nightman shift resulted in him often staring off into space despite being in social situations.
Tonight, however, is the most interesting of the nights he has been nightman. A guest complained about some boys being loud. Richie went into the room of these boys and found several open bottles of beer and several unopen ones. So Richie got to tell the boys to be quiet and take the beer away. He forgot, however, to give them a warning for their misdemeanor. Oh well.
Richie went to Corrie ten Booms house this last week before he started his nightman shift. While at the house, Richie was more fascinated with the style of living of the ten Booms than their story. Not that their story is not awesome or fascinating, it is only that Richie found himself in a house/apartment above the business which is movie like and ideal. It would be great to live above the business a person owns and just go down the stairs to start work.
No strides have been made for Richie in regards to an idea of a future job or direction. He actually has started to think about this less and just live in the current moment of his life. He prays for direction, but feels no direct leading. He figures he will just have to step out and take the opportunities presented to him. If something does not work out or interest is lost then he will move on to the next opportunity. He simply needs to find opportunities, a difficult task.
Richie spent another day this week (before he started his nightman shifts) hanging out with his friend Maranda. They went to Van Gogh (Richie's third time) and walked around the city. They stopped in a cafe for a time and ended the day by eating at the Shelter City Hostel. It was a relaxing day.
Richie is tired tonight. He did not sleep so long during the day because he chose to go to church in the afternoon. It was a nice service but not super insightful to Richie. He had heard the words before. It was the read your Bible, pray everyday so that you can keep your soil healthy sermon on the parable of Jesus where Jesus speaks about the spreading of the seed and the different type of soil that the seed finds. The problem in Richie's mind is that a person can read the Bible and pray every day and still feel distant from God. Richie knows this from experience, but the pastor did not address this issue. Sadly, Richie's tiredness because of the nightman shift resulted in him often staring off into space despite being in social situations.
Tonight, however, is the most interesting of the nights he has been nightman. A guest complained about some boys being loud. Richie went into the room of these boys and found several open bottles of beer and several unopen ones. So Richie got to tell the boys to be quiet and take the beer away. He forgot, however, to give them a warning for their misdemeanor. Oh well.
Richie went to Corrie ten Booms house this last week before he started his nightman shift. While at the house, Richie was more fascinated with the style of living of the ten Booms than their story. Not that their story is not awesome or fascinating, it is only that Richie found himself in a house/apartment above the business which is movie like and ideal. It would be great to live above the business a person owns and just go down the stairs to start work.
No strides have been made for Richie in regards to an idea of a future job or direction. He actually has started to think about this less and just live in the current moment of his life. He prays for direction, but feels no direct leading. He figures he will just have to step out and take the opportunities presented to him. If something does not work out or interest is lost then he will move on to the next opportunity. He simply needs to find opportunities, a difficult task.
Richie spent another day this week (before he started his nightman shifts) hanging out with his friend Maranda. They went to Van Gogh (Richie's third time) and walked around the city. They stopped in a cafe for a time and ended the day by eating at the Shelter City Hostel. It was a relaxing day.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Meditations 2
Well here we are again after a 15 day lack of inspiration.
Some things have happened to Richie.
Richie went to a castel in Muiden. Richie thought it was a nice castle with a focus on children. Richie enjoyed playing some of the video games inside the castle which included throwing rocks on people trying to enter the castle and protecting a castle from invaders. Richie also enjoyed looking at himself in a mirror while putting his face through a jesters costum.
Richie went to the Dutch resistance museum. This museum was a marathon of information for Richie's brain. While in the museum, Richie recalled the times in his past when he had to read a history book for class and say a correlation between that and the musuem. The museum was full of information and there was much small print for Richie to read. The information, however, was so overwhelming Richie chose to leave after seeing the main part of the musuem rather than exploring all the nooks and crannies of the place.
Richie also stopped in at the Van Gogh musuem for the second time and saw the new exhibit of Alfred Stevens. Richie enjoyed his paintings immensely. Most of them were of women with beautiful dresses, but there was this one of Mary Magdalene that was very stunning for Richie. It shined above many of the others for Richie because of her stare and the way her hair had been painted.
Richie has also chosen to try to extend his stay in the Netherlands. Now everything is up the the government. He hopes they are kind enough to say yes. If not Richie will leave as planned in November. If they say yes Richie will stay until February, returning to America for the winter olympics during which he will attend a hockey game with his friends Will and AJ. This decision to extend did not come without a cost for Richie. He will now miss spending Christmas with his family in Sacramento. Richie loves these Christmases and this made his decision to extend very difficult. In contrast, Richie sees God working her in Amsterdam in his life and the work of the ministry her of sharing Christs love with all the people that come through the door. So Richie has decide to stay unless God closes the door by having the dutch authorities say no. Richie is also challenged by the socialness of the job here at the hostel. He likes learning and practicing asking good and thoughtful questions and hearing about the lives of the travelers. Not every conversation is spiritual but it is good for Richie to be social and not go with his first tendency to curl up with a book.
In the last couple weeks Richie had an extended conversation with a woman who was a chiropractor. He made the mistake of mentioning how his dad (as a doctor) looks down upon chiropractors. This statement inspired the woman to give her opinion of how doctors try to cover over the problems of people by giving them medicine. Richie said he did not believe that to be true and then switched the conversation away from this and back to her and how she got interested in being a chiropractor etc. It was interesting for Richie to here how she was not totally sold on being a chiropractor the rest of her life, but that she had taken the path God seemed to open for her (the conversation implied she had a relationship with God and was most likely a Christian by the way she told her story after Richie asked her how she decided to become a chiropractor). She is not totally in love with being a chiropractor but she says she will do it for a time.
Then tonight Richie was able to have a brief conversation with an acupuncturist. A chinese medicine man here in Amsterdam for a meeting on some sort of new techinique or herb. Richie thought it was interesting that he had met two people in alternative medicine. Growing up in a doctors home, he has a natural tendency to frown upon these alternative methods, but he asked questions and was interested in the field anyway. He knows very little about what it means to be in acupuncture. A lot of needles he supposes.
Richie also met this woman named Margot. Sadly this woman was eating something by a canal (she called indulging in the sinful act of pleasure at eating a tast treat like chocolate or something) and then her teeth fell into the canal. Quite the disastor (she believed God was judging her for her gluttony) and she came into the hostel and presented her case to Seth and Richie (Richie was training Seth at reception at the time). Well this seemed like quite the tragedy for Seth and Richie so they prayed about the whole thing and then with expectation Richie left Seth at reception and went to the canal hoping for a miracle. Sadly none occured, but when Margot came out the the hostel and walked over to the canal to have another look for her teeth and she saw Richie she was quite overjoyed. She called him her blond haired night in shining armor or maybe angel Richie cannot remember exactly. She is a woman of low self-esteem and much confusion about God and how he views her. She feels as though she must make herself righteous before she is able to come to God and when the truth of the gospel is spoken to her it goes in one of her ears and out the other. It is a rather sad situation but one in which God is more than able to work.
Richie has also been challenged in how to interact and converse with people who say such things like I am searching or who are unwilling to accept the words of Christ and his death. The searcher is difficult because to Richie it seems in order to actually know if something is truth they need to commit to something for a time and practice it. If while practicing it they find that it is false for some reason or the other than they move on. Yet the searcher does not commit, dabbles in many things, does not feel like he knows what truth is, and then determines that all religions are the same because he only sees them on the surface. Then there is the person that loves everything about the Bible and God, but cannot handle Jesus because of his death. It is hard for Richie to know what to say to this sort of person. Richie says the death is crucial for the forgiveness of sins but this falls on deaf ears in general.
Last, Richie did get the chance to show the cleaners in the hostel the film The Gospel of John. Cleaners are people who stay in the hostel for an extended period of time and work for room and board by cleaning the hostel every day. This film has Desmond from Lost playing Jesus and is very well done. It affected the cleaners in a great way and Richie was able to talk with Mo (one of the cleaners afterward) about the film and learned of how much Mo enjoyed and appreciated the film. While watching it, it inspired him to pray to Jesus for the first time. He said while watching it that he just started praying. Richie found this encouraging. Richie only regrets not asking Mo if he wanted to pray before Richie left.
Some things have happened to Richie.
Richie went to a castel in Muiden. Richie thought it was a nice castle with a focus on children. Richie enjoyed playing some of the video games inside the castle which included throwing rocks on people trying to enter the castle and protecting a castle from invaders. Richie also enjoyed looking at himself in a mirror while putting his face through a jesters costum.
Richie went to the Dutch resistance museum. This museum was a marathon of information for Richie's brain. While in the museum, Richie recalled the times in his past when he had to read a history book for class and say a correlation between that and the musuem. The museum was full of information and there was much small print for Richie to read. The information, however, was so overwhelming Richie chose to leave after seeing the main part of the musuem rather than exploring all the nooks and crannies of the place.
Richie also stopped in at the Van Gogh musuem for the second time and saw the new exhibit of Alfred Stevens. Richie enjoyed his paintings immensely. Most of them were of women with beautiful dresses, but there was this one of Mary Magdalene that was very stunning for Richie. It shined above many of the others for Richie because of her stare and the way her hair had been painted.
Richie has also chosen to try to extend his stay in the Netherlands. Now everything is up the the government. He hopes they are kind enough to say yes. If not Richie will leave as planned in November. If they say yes Richie will stay until February, returning to America for the winter olympics during which he will attend a hockey game with his friends Will and AJ. This decision to extend did not come without a cost for Richie. He will now miss spending Christmas with his family in Sacramento. Richie loves these Christmases and this made his decision to extend very difficult. In contrast, Richie sees God working her in Amsterdam in his life and the work of the ministry her of sharing Christs love with all the people that come through the door. So Richie has decide to stay unless God closes the door by having the dutch authorities say no. Richie is also challenged by the socialness of the job here at the hostel. He likes learning and practicing asking good and thoughtful questions and hearing about the lives of the travelers. Not every conversation is spiritual but it is good for Richie to be social and not go with his first tendency to curl up with a book.
In the last couple weeks Richie had an extended conversation with a woman who was a chiropractor. He made the mistake of mentioning how his dad (as a doctor) looks down upon chiropractors. This statement inspired the woman to give her opinion of how doctors try to cover over the problems of people by giving them medicine. Richie said he did not believe that to be true and then switched the conversation away from this and back to her and how she got interested in being a chiropractor etc. It was interesting for Richie to here how she was not totally sold on being a chiropractor the rest of her life, but that she had taken the path God seemed to open for her (the conversation implied she had a relationship with God and was most likely a Christian by the way she told her story after Richie asked her how she decided to become a chiropractor). She is not totally in love with being a chiropractor but she says she will do it for a time.
Then tonight Richie was able to have a brief conversation with an acupuncturist. A chinese medicine man here in Amsterdam for a meeting on some sort of new techinique or herb. Richie thought it was interesting that he had met two people in alternative medicine. Growing up in a doctors home, he has a natural tendency to frown upon these alternative methods, but he asked questions and was interested in the field anyway. He knows very little about what it means to be in acupuncture. A lot of needles he supposes.
Richie also met this woman named Margot. Sadly this woman was eating something by a canal (she called indulging in the sinful act of pleasure at eating a tast treat like chocolate or something) and then her teeth fell into the canal. Quite the disastor (she believed God was judging her for her gluttony) and she came into the hostel and presented her case to Seth and Richie (Richie was training Seth at reception at the time). Well this seemed like quite the tragedy for Seth and Richie so they prayed about the whole thing and then with expectation Richie left Seth at reception and went to the canal hoping for a miracle. Sadly none occured, but when Margot came out the the hostel and walked over to the canal to have another look for her teeth and she saw Richie she was quite overjoyed. She called him her blond haired night in shining armor or maybe angel Richie cannot remember exactly. She is a woman of low self-esteem and much confusion about God and how he views her. She feels as though she must make herself righteous before she is able to come to God and when the truth of the gospel is spoken to her it goes in one of her ears and out the other. It is a rather sad situation but one in which God is more than able to work.
Richie has also been challenged in how to interact and converse with people who say such things like I am searching or who are unwilling to accept the words of Christ and his death. The searcher is difficult because to Richie it seems in order to actually know if something is truth they need to commit to something for a time and practice it. If while practicing it they find that it is false for some reason or the other than they move on. Yet the searcher does not commit, dabbles in many things, does not feel like he knows what truth is, and then determines that all religions are the same because he only sees them on the surface. Then there is the person that loves everything about the Bible and God, but cannot handle Jesus because of his death. It is hard for Richie to know what to say to this sort of person. Richie says the death is crucial for the forgiveness of sins but this falls on deaf ears in general.
Last, Richie did get the chance to show the cleaners in the hostel the film The Gospel of John. Cleaners are people who stay in the hostel for an extended period of time and work for room and board by cleaning the hostel every day. This film has Desmond from Lost playing Jesus and is very well done. It affected the cleaners in a great way and Richie was able to talk with Mo (one of the cleaners afterward) about the film and learned of how much Mo enjoyed and appreciated the film. While watching it, it inspired him to pray to Jesus for the first time. He said while watching it that he just started praying. Richie found this encouraging. Richie only regrets not asking Mo if he wanted to pray before Richie left.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Meditations 1
Richie is sitting here at the computer at the reception desk at the hostel at which he works. He is meditating and musing over various things.
He thinks of his mood swings. He reflects on his thoughts two weeks ago and how he wanted to leave because all of his new friends were leaving. Now he has made new friends again, and some of these friends are staying longer. This makes him want to stay longer. He could stay until February but he also wants to go home for an extended family Christmas. This is his problem.
Richie also thinks about how quickly people fade from his mind when he only knows them for a short period of time. It is an odd reality to him. He can connect with people on a basic level and become friends with them rapidly, but if he only knows them for a short period when they leave after only a couple of weeks he has moved on. Of course, he is sad when they initially leave, but he is also able to adapt to the new situation he finds himself in and make new friends and focus on new people. Richie supposes that maybe it is a good thing that he only misses people for a short time because it might be very painful for him if he missed them for longer periods. On the other hand, for those people he has known longer, he usually lives in the confidence that he will be around them some time in the future so he does not miss them so much.
For Richie, things at the hostel have become fairly regular. Since his stay is so short, however, the routine will not be steady for so very long. If he prolongs his stay then the routine will of course be prolonged as well. He is used to checking people in, listening to broken English, trying to communicate with people that speak a different language than he does, and having a lot of free time to simply hang out with other staff members and visit the hot spots of Amsterdam. Since the new volunteers arrived, there has been a much greater interest in getting out of the house and into the city and seeing what can be seen. Richie is glad about this because he no longer needs to explore alone. Additionally, Richie has had the beginning of some new and good friendships with two Americans, Seth and Matt, from North Carolina, and some Dutch friends Ellen and Eline, and some other people. All are friendly, it is easy to talk and relate to them.
Of course, some days are better than others for Richie. Sometimes Richie has trouble handling all the people that pass through reception with patience. He does not always make sure the tone of his voice is light and cheerful. Sometimes it slips into more gruff tones. Additionally, since the people seem to always arrive at the same time, when Richie has to check in loads of people at once, he can become irritated with the change from solitude to loads of people. He, however, adapts and does his best.
Richie also ponders his future. Currently he is leaning toward life in Seattle rather than moving back to southern California. He may just try to get some of his friends who currently reside there to move up to where he is when the time comes.
Today is a good day. Richie got his first tip from two older women from the US. How nice.
He thinks of his mood swings. He reflects on his thoughts two weeks ago and how he wanted to leave because all of his new friends were leaving. Now he has made new friends again, and some of these friends are staying longer. This makes him want to stay longer. He could stay until February but he also wants to go home for an extended family Christmas. This is his problem.
Richie also thinks about how quickly people fade from his mind when he only knows them for a short period of time. It is an odd reality to him. He can connect with people on a basic level and become friends with them rapidly, but if he only knows them for a short period when they leave after only a couple of weeks he has moved on. Of course, he is sad when they initially leave, but he is also able to adapt to the new situation he finds himself in and make new friends and focus on new people. Richie supposes that maybe it is a good thing that he only misses people for a short time because it might be very painful for him if he missed them for longer periods. On the other hand, for those people he has known longer, he usually lives in the confidence that he will be around them some time in the future so he does not miss them so much.
For Richie, things at the hostel have become fairly regular. Since his stay is so short, however, the routine will not be steady for so very long. If he prolongs his stay then the routine will of course be prolonged as well. He is used to checking people in, listening to broken English, trying to communicate with people that speak a different language than he does, and having a lot of free time to simply hang out with other staff members and visit the hot spots of Amsterdam. Since the new volunteers arrived, there has been a much greater interest in getting out of the house and into the city and seeing what can be seen. Richie is glad about this because he no longer needs to explore alone. Additionally, Richie has had the beginning of some new and good friendships with two Americans, Seth and Matt, from North Carolina, and some Dutch friends Ellen and Eline, and some other people. All are friendly, it is easy to talk and relate to them.
Of course, some days are better than others for Richie. Sometimes Richie has trouble handling all the people that pass through reception with patience. He does not always make sure the tone of his voice is light and cheerful. Sometimes it slips into more gruff tones. Additionally, since the people seem to always arrive at the same time, when Richie has to check in loads of people at once, he can become irritated with the change from solitude to loads of people. He, however, adapts and does his best.
Richie also ponders his future. Currently he is leaning toward life in Seattle rather than moving back to southern California. He may just try to get some of his friends who currently reside there to move up to where he is when the time comes.
Today is a good day. Richie got his first tip from two older women from the US. How nice.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Days Off
Yesterday was Richie's day off. Days off are kind of awkward for him here at the hostel because he always feels the pressure to do something extraordinary. Richie thinks, I am here in Amsterdam and not at home in the states so I cannot merely settle down with a book. I must go out and see something new." So he tries to do something new. He decided to go to the Rijksmuseum in the morning. He went and saw some Rembrandt paintings and learned some about Dutch history. He learned how it was popular for a time for Dutch people to have slaves. He saw paintings of all these wealthy Dutch people, and he also learned about the famous dutch pottery from Delft. This pottery was started as an imitation of Chinese pottery, and Richie supposes now it has become a little more Dutch as time has passed.
Richie's next step was searching for one of his new friends, Seth from North Carolina. He could not find him at either hostel, so Richie ended up spending the afternoon alone. He decided to go to this big park/forest area and it was quite nice except that he had left his book at home so he had nothing to read. He did, however, have a new testament, which he tried to read, but he kept falling asleep on the park bench and could not get through the book of Jude. So he laid down on the bench with his head on his bag and fell asleep.
After a time he woke up and while he was sitting on the park bench he enjoyed the view from where he sat. Then this little boy came up the stairs (the bench was located on this plateau which could be accessed by these stairs they had made in the park) and exclaimed woah! at the view. He was a rather chubby boy with sweats on and to Richie this seemed typical of a boy of his type. Richie had already profiled him. This put a smile on Richie's just woken face. Then Richie returned home.
So Richie did not spend his day off doing anything particularly extravagant, but it was nice nonetheless. Maybe next time he will go to another town or more museums. His only regret was not having his book (and wearing pants as it was a hot day and he cycled for quite a while).
In other news for the life of Richie. He has also been rather reflective about things, particularly in the area of travel. It has been interesting living her as he has met some Christians who are bums. They have next to nothing, they do not work, they used to work at the shelter and then after they stopped volunteering they just hung around Amsterdam. Most depend on the charity of others for their survival. Or, as in one persons case, they work 9 days out of a month and most of those nine days of work they spend killing time on the internet rather than actually doing work. The goal seems to be to do as little work as possible. Maybe they cannot find work, or are having trouble, but the idea of being a Christian bum seems an odd one to Richie. It kind of blows his mind a little bit as it is new to him.
Richie can see the possible positive sides of this sort of lifestyle. They depend on others and trust God to supply their daily bread. This seems a good thing. Yet it also seems a waste of talents. Sure it is fun to travel, see new places, but traveling around with no money, depending on the charity of others to get you from one point of the next. Richie'supposes all this is for the love of travel, the desire to see the world, or something like that. Richie was brought up to think that you work, make some money, then you can use that money to travel if you want. If you have no money you do not travel. This new mindset is different. You travel until you are dead, moving from place to place with no commitments to much of anything, a sort of vagabond. Can a Christian be a vagabond? Or is a Christian life a life of maybe times of travel but really a dedication to a particular community which God has called a person to? Richie's church has made him think that people are usually called to a particular area to serve the people there, but maybe a Christian can be called to minister to other vagabonds and live that lifestyle.
Richie's eyes have also been opened to the truth that a person is only made more interesting and attractive one they have traveled because of something in their personality not something in the traveling. So odds are that person would be just as interesting without the traveling, the traveling is just a bonus. For some reason, Richie has lived a long time seeing travel as something that interesting people do, but some people have seen a lot of places but have annoying personalities anyway and are really not all that attractive to Richie.
Some new and good revelations.
Richie's next step was searching for one of his new friends, Seth from North Carolina. He could not find him at either hostel, so Richie ended up spending the afternoon alone. He decided to go to this big park/forest area and it was quite nice except that he had left his book at home so he had nothing to read. He did, however, have a new testament, which he tried to read, but he kept falling asleep on the park bench and could not get through the book of Jude. So he laid down on the bench with his head on his bag and fell asleep.
After a time he woke up and while he was sitting on the park bench he enjoyed the view from where he sat. Then this little boy came up the stairs (the bench was located on this plateau which could be accessed by these stairs they had made in the park) and exclaimed woah! at the view. He was a rather chubby boy with sweats on and to Richie this seemed typical of a boy of his type. Richie had already profiled him. This put a smile on Richie's just woken face. Then Richie returned home.
So Richie did not spend his day off doing anything particularly extravagant, but it was nice nonetheless. Maybe next time he will go to another town or more museums. His only regret was not having his book (and wearing pants as it was a hot day and he cycled for quite a while).
In other news for the life of Richie. He has also been rather reflective about things, particularly in the area of travel. It has been interesting living her as he has met some Christians who are bums. They have next to nothing, they do not work, they used to work at the shelter and then after they stopped volunteering they just hung around Amsterdam. Most depend on the charity of others for their survival. Or, as in one persons case, they work 9 days out of a month and most of those nine days of work they spend killing time on the internet rather than actually doing work. The goal seems to be to do as little work as possible. Maybe they cannot find work, or are having trouble, but the idea of being a Christian bum seems an odd one to Richie. It kind of blows his mind a little bit as it is new to him.
Richie can see the possible positive sides of this sort of lifestyle. They depend on others and trust God to supply their daily bread. This seems a good thing. Yet it also seems a waste of talents. Sure it is fun to travel, see new places, but traveling around with no money, depending on the charity of others to get you from one point of the next. Richie'supposes all this is for the love of travel, the desire to see the world, or something like that. Richie was brought up to think that you work, make some money, then you can use that money to travel if you want. If you have no money you do not travel. This new mindset is different. You travel until you are dead, moving from place to place with no commitments to much of anything, a sort of vagabond. Can a Christian be a vagabond? Or is a Christian life a life of maybe times of travel but really a dedication to a particular community which God has called a person to? Richie's church has made him think that people are usually called to a particular area to serve the people there, but maybe a Christian can be called to minister to other vagabonds and live that lifestyle.
Richie's eyes have also been opened to the truth that a person is only made more interesting and attractive one they have traveled because of something in their personality not something in the traveling. So odds are that person would be just as interesting without the traveling, the traveling is just a bonus. For some reason, Richie has lived a long time seeing travel as something that interesting people do, but some people have seen a lot of places but have annoying personalities anyway and are really not all that attractive to Richie.
Some new and good revelations.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Nightman
Richie is close to finishing his second nightman shift and his last training shift. Tonight he will have to go it alone and prevent himself from boredom through youtube, books, and the internet.
This last night was a good one though. The man training him (Marco) is good company and this girl phoned who used to work for the shelter and she needed to sleep at the hostel for the night. She was real chatty when she showed up so Richie, Marco and her all hung out until about 3 am when she got tired and went to sleep. Then it was the typical stalk around the floors, clean the bathrooms, prepare the kitchen, take out the trash, etc. Richie's normal nightman duties.
Richie also found several new bands using Paste Magazine so the tunes kept the night moving. The new bands included: Passion Pit, Blind Spot, Gregory Alan Isakov, and Fanfarlo. Some better than others.
Another thing that has occured in the life of Richie is the departure of many of the friends he met in the first two weeks of service here at the Shelter Jordaan. Sadly he had to see his friends Yvonne, Ard, Jen, Evert, Hannah, and Rachael leave. Now he must make new friends with the new staff members. A task that he hopes to find not overly difficult. Thankfully he still has his friend and roommate Joost to keep him company. Joost is a good man with a great heart, a sincere laugh, and a good sense of humor. A good dutch man.
So now Richie is about to go home and once again sleep the day away probably until around 4 in the afternoon. He will probably wake up like he did yesterday ready to get out of the old Willemstraat and see some of the city only to find most interesting things (like museums) close too early for him to go to them. But whatever, it is a rainy day today so maybe his attitude will be different from yesterday. He also has a good book to read, however, he can read anywhere and Amsterdam will not move with him.
Oh yes, he also had one nice adventure recently. He went with Yvonne, and her father and her friend to a cheap German grocery store in Amsterdam, an expensive place to see windmills, to the beach and then to Rotterdam. The expensive windmill tourist place was not as good as Kinderdijk, the German grocery seemed like a typical grocery store to Richie, the beach was good, and Rotterdam was a very modern city and reminded him of an American city. There were of course some older buildings, but Richie knew that the city was bombed to the ground in WWII so it makes sense that it might feel a little bit like an American city since it is more modern. Additionally, the feel of this city was completely different than Amsterdam for Richie. Difficult to describe, but the mall area seemed rather stuffy with people that were rather pompous and maybe a little bit insecure. Richie likes the feel of Amsterdam quite a bit more, better aged, appearing friendlier. It is kind of like the difference between the Dodgers and the Angels with the Dodgers being Amsterdam and the Angels Rotterdam. Richie understands that he just limited the understanding of this to only baseball fans who have a good knowledge of the tension between the Angels and the Dodgers, but he does not see this as something to worry about.
This last night was a good one though. The man training him (Marco) is good company and this girl phoned who used to work for the shelter and she needed to sleep at the hostel for the night. She was real chatty when she showed up so Richie, Marco and her all hung out until about 3 am when she got tired and went to sleep. Then it was the typical stalk around the floors, clean the bathrooms, prepare the kitchen, take out the trash, etc. Richie's normal nightman duties.
Richie also found several new bands using Paste Magazine so the tunes kept the night moving. The new bands included: Passion Pit, Blind Spot, Gregory Alan Isakov, and Fanfarlo. Some better than others.
Another thing that has occured in the life of Richie is the departure of many of the friends he met in the first two weeks of service here at the Shelter Jordaan. Sadly he had to see his friends Yvonne, Ard, Jen, Evert, Hannah, and Rachael leave. Now he must make new friends with the new staff members. A task that he hopes to find not overly difficult. Thankfully he still has his friend and roommate Joost to keep him company. Joost is a good man with a great heart, a sincere laugh, and a good sense of humor. A good dutch man.
So now Richie is about to go home and once again sleep the day away probably until around 4 in the afternoon. He will probably wake up like he did yesterday ready to get out of the old Willemstraat and see some of the city only to find most interesting things (like museums) close too early for him to go to them. But whatever, it is a rainy day today so maybe his attitude will be different from yesterday. He also has a good book to read, however, he can read anywhere and Amsterdam will not move with him.
Oh yes, he also had one nice adventure recently. He went with Yvonne, and her father and her friend to a cheap German grocery store in Amsterdam, an expensive place to see windmills, to the beach and then to Rotterdam. The expensive windmill tourist place was not as good as Kinderdijk, the German grocery seemed like a typical grocery store to Richie, the beach was good, and Rotterdam was a very modern city and reminded him of an American city. There were of course some older buildings, but Richie knew that the city was bombed to the ground in WWII so it makes sense that it might feel a little bit like an American city since it is more modern. Additionally, the feel of this city was completely different than Amsterdam for Richie. Difficult to describe, but the mall area seemed rather stuffy with people that were rather pompous and maybe a little bit insecure. Richie likes the feel of Amsterdam quite a bit more, better aged, appearing friendlier. It is kind of like the difference between the Dodgers and the Angels with the Dodgers being Amsterdam and the Angels Rotterdam. Richie understands that he just limited the understanding of this to only baseball fans who have a good knowledge of the tension between the Angels and the Dodgers, but he does not see this as something to worry about.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Richie First Weeks
Richie has now been in Amsterdam for two weeks and has had several wonderful adventures.
Richie first flew into Geneva Switzerland where he had to take the train to Basel, Switzerland and then on to Amsterdam on a City Night Line train. He saw much of the country side of Switzerland as he gazed out the window of the train, and he contemplated Heidi and thought of wild goats.
On arrival in Basel, he did not know of the luggage lockers at the station (something he only heard of later from a friend of the name Nate). So he walked and sweated around the town, took some pictures, ate some raw fish and had a beer. He moseyed over to a little park to rest from the load he was bearing and as he sat he watched loads of people walking down a particular street. Curiosity got the better of him and he chose to follow, once again carrying his baggage. Following this crowd lead him to a wonderful and touristy section of Basel. It was all quite nice for him except for the weight of his backpack.
He then returned to the train station and got on the CNL for Amsterdam. Once he had bored the train he soon discovered that he was on the wrong end and had to walk across the train to the other end in order to find his seat. He was pleased to have gone to the other end of the train because he sat next two a couple who was quite nice. There were about his age one in the army in the Netherlands and his girlfriend was studying in the Netherlands. He spoke with them for a time and then they were interupted by an interesting man who praised the Netherlands as the best country. Richie thought of him as being on repeat since he continually spoke of the Netherlands as the best country with the best economy in the EU. He was very much in love. He finally left and went back to his seat and Richie was relieved and had a good laugh with his new found friends who were sitting across from him. Then he went to sleep.
Richie's train arrived in Amsterdam one hour late so the people who were supposed to meet him at the train station to show him to the house were no longer there. Richie was not frightened or flustered. He merely went into the Victoria hotel and asked the man at the front desk how to get to the street Willemstraat. The man kindly showed him on a map and gave the map to Richie. So Richie left the Victoria hotel and walked to the front door of the Willemstraat and it is here that he met his first friend, Jono.
Jono is an Australian who is also working at one of the Shelter Hostels in Amsterdam, but rather than working at the one Richie was assigned by management, Jono is working at the Shelter City. Richie had no plans for the day so he joined Jono in his activities. They went to the Saturday market where Jono bought 8 pairs of underwear and 5 pairs of socks for about 20 euro (quite a good deal Richie thought). They then went to the Shelter City and Jono showed Richie around. While at the shelter city Richie played table tennis with a man from (I believe this is right) Somalia. He is muslim and was a nice table tennis partner, but then he had to leave for prayer so that event was over for Richie. Richie has not interacted with him since.
After this table tennis time Richie played soccer in a small area near Neumarket in Amsterdam with some people from the Hostel. He played with them until almost five oclock when he went back to the Willemstraat house to shower for his first shift at 18:15.
Yvonne was Richie's first trainer and quite a good one. She was friendly and easy to chat with so they became instant friends. Yvonne showed Richie the rules and tasks he had to complete in the kitchen and all was well. Richie, however, became very tired as the shift went on and was happy to return home and go to bed.
Now that Richie has given a detail of the first couple days of his trip he will not only give a brief outline of the last couple weeks because he no longer cares to write in detail.
Richie went bridge jumping in his first week and jumped from an 8m bridge. He had quite a thrill while doing this.
Richie was glad he knew Yvonne and was friends with her because she met a guy who owns a boat and last Saturday he was able to go with her and this guy on the boat and have a little tour of Amsterdam. They saw the first draw bridge ever and the place where seven bridges can be seen in a row. They also ate dinner out on the water. A very nice evening and for free. Richie however was a little uncomfortable pulling his camera out of his bag so no pictures were taken of this event.
Richie has also gone to Kinderdijk where he saw many windmills and enjoyed the country.
Richie was also able to help Yvonne and Maaike continue toelling stories to each other about a princess in a castle. He gave Yvonne an idea to get the girl to become a feminist after finding out the boy she thought she liked was boring. He also ended the story in a rather awkward fashion for the two girls.
Another new friend of Richie's is Ard who is a nice man who plans on going to Bible School in Germany in September.
Last, Richie has been trained at reception for the hostel. He enjoys this work but wonders why people seem to always come in floods and then die out. That is to say, two or three groups will arrive at once and then there will be no one for the next couple ours and then another two or three groups will arrive. This sort of thing makes little sense to his logical mind. In a perfectly ordered universe Richie believes they would arrive at evenly spread intervals giving him just enough time to check in one group before the next group arrives.
When there are no people to check in or help, however, Richie finds reception to be very dull and that is why he happens to be writing in this blog.
Richie has also enjoyed reading and finishing two books in the last two weeks. One book on economics and the other called Finding a Job You Can Love. The latter book focused on finding one's motivational pattern so that one knows how one can be motivated in the work place. Richie sees this as an interesting idea, but when mentioning this to two other workers, Jen and Maaike, they opened his eyes to the need to also know passions in addition to motivations in order to find a job one can love. Richie is now trying to determine what motivates him and the truth is looking rather uninteresting.
As far as witnessing is concerned, Richie has talked to many guests and has primarily been friendly, rather than intense about talking to them about Jesus. Should he try to be more intentional? Richie was able to have a long discussion while with Ivonne and the man who owned the boat (Richie forgets his name at the moment) about Jesus and the Bible. The man who owned the boat asked how Yvonne and Richie could both practive the same religion as they grew up on different continents. This spawned much discussion.
Richie first flew into Geneva Switzerland where he had to take the train to Basel, Switzerland and then on to Amsterdam on a City Night Line train. He saw much of the country side of Switzerland as he gazed out the window of the train, and he contemplated Heidi and thought of wild goats.
On arrival in Basel, he did not know of the luggage lockers at the station (something he only heard of later from a friend of the name Nate). So he walked and sweated around the town, took some pictures, ate some raw fish and had a beer. He moseyed over to a little park to rest from the load he was bearing and as he sat he watched loads of people walking down a particular street. Curiosity got the better of him and he chose to follow, once again carrying his baggage. Following this crowd lead him to a wonderful and touristy section of Basel. It was all quite nice for him except for the weight of his backpack.
He then returned to the train station and got on the CNL for Amsterdam. Once he had bored the train he soon discovered that he was on the wrong end and had to walk across the train to the other end in order to find his seat. He was pleased to have gone to the other end of the train because he sat next two a couple who was quite nice. There were about his age one in the army in the Netherlands and his girlfriend was studying in the Netherlands. He spoke with them for a time and then they were interupted by an interesting man who praised the Netherlands as the best country. Richie thought of him as being on repeat since he continually spoke of the Netherlands as the best country with the best economy in the EU. He was very much in love. He finally left and went back to his seat and Richie was relieved and had a good laugh with his new found friends who were sitting across from him. Then he went to sleep.
Richie's train arrived in Amsterdam one hour late so the people who were supposed to meet him at the train station to show him to the house were no longer there. Richie was not frightened or flustered. He merely went into the Victoria hotel and asked the man at the front desk how to get to the street Willemstraat. The man kindly showed him on a map and gave the map to Richie. So Richie left the Victoria hotel and walked to the front door of the Willemstraat and it is here that he met his first friend, Jono.
Jono is an Australian who is also working at one of the Shelter Hostels in Amsterdam, but rather than working at the one Richie was assigned by management, Jono is working at the Shelter City. Richie had no plans for the day so he joined Jono in his activities. They went to the Saturday market where Jono bought 8 pairs of underwear and 5 pairs of socks for about 20 euro (quite a good deal Richie thought). They then went to the Shelter City and Jono showed Richie around. While at the shelter city Richie played table tennis with a man from (I believe this is right) Somalia. He is muslim and was a nice table tennis partner, but then he had to leave for prayer so that event was over for Richie. Richie has not interacted with him since.
After this table tennis time Richie played soccer in a small area near Neumarket in Amsterdam with some people from the Hostel. He played with them until almost five oclock when he went back to the Willemstraat house to shower for his first shift at 18:15.
Yvonne was Richie's first trainer and quite a good one. She was friendly and easy to chat with so they became instant friends. Yvonne showed Richie the rules and tasks he had to complete in the kitchen and all was well. Richie, however, became very tired as the shift went on and was happy to return home and go to bed.
Now that Richie has given a detail of the first couple days of his trip he will not only give a brief outline of the last couple weeks because he no longer cares to write in detail.
Richie went bridge jumping in his first week and jumped from an 8m bridge. He had quite a thrill while doing this.
Richie was glad he knew Yvonne and was friends with her because she met a guy who owns a boat and last Saturday he was able to go with her and this guy on the boat and have a little tour of Amsterdam. They saw the first draw bridge ever and the place where seven bridges can be seen in a row. They also ate dinner out on the water. A very nice evening and for free. Richie however was a little uncomfortable pulling his camera out of his bag so no pictures were taken of this event.
Richie has also gone to Kinderdijk where he saw many windmills and enjoyed the country.
Richie was also able to help Yvonne and Maaike continue toelling stories to each other about a princess in a castle. He gave Yvonne an idea to get the girl to become a feminist after finding out the boy she thought she liked was boring. He also ended the story in a rather awkward fashion for the two girls.
Another new friend of Richie's is Ard who is a nice man who plans on going to Bible School in Germany in September.
Last, Richie has been trained at reception for the hostel. He enjoys this work but wonders why people seem to always come in floods and then die out. That is to say, two or three groups will arrive at once and then there will be no one for the next couple ours and then another two or three groups will arrive. This sort of thing makes little sense to his logical mind. In a perfectly ordered universe Richie believes they would arrive at evenly spread intervals giving him just enough time to check in one group before the next group arrives.
When there are no people to check in or help, however, Richie finds reception to be very dull and that is why he happens to be writing in this blog.
Richie has also enjoyed reading and finishing two books in the last two weeks. One book on economics and the other called Finding a Job You Can Love. The latter book focused on finding one's motivational pattern so that one knows how one can be motivated in the work place. Richie sees this as an interesting idea, but when mentioning this to two other workers, Jen and Maaike, they opened his eyes to the need to also know passions in addition to motivations in order to find a job one can love. Richie is now trying to determine what motivates him and the truth is looking rather uninteresting.
As far as witnessing is concerned, Richie has talked to many guests and has primarily been friendly, rather than intense about talking to them about Jesus. Should he try to be more intentional? Richie was able to have a long discussion while with Ivonne and the man who owned the boat (Richie forgets his name at the moment) about Jesus and the Bible. The man who owned the boat asked how Yvonne and Richie could both practive the same religion as they grew up on different continents. This spawned much discussion.
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