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.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
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.
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