highlights

These past two and a half months have been amazing.  I can't believe how much has happened and how quickly the time has passed.   This picture is from my very first day, and only a couple of these people are still here.  But the exciting thing is that the current staff is almost all staying for 9 or 10 months.  And they're just as lovely as the wonderful people who have left already.  

 Seriously, the staff here is wonderful.  We've got mostly Germans, some English people, a few Americans, and a few Dutchies!  

So, my schedule is pretty irregular.  I occasionally work in the cafe.  Like, for example, these delicious Nutella frappucinos.

I'm also a cleaner supervisor, which means I get the opportunity to work alongside some great people who usually don't know Jesus.  We keep cleaners for about a month, and we have daily devotions with them.  It can be a pretty exhausting shift, but it's also the most rewarding!  Check out some of my favorite cleaners: Kostas (Greek), Marco (German), and Etta (American).

Bust most of my shifts are at reception, and I love it!  Welcoming people into the hostel is super great.  

I should also mention that I've seen some beautiful and fun things.  Amsterdam is absolutely full of history, old buildings, and cool museums.

I've also had some really awesome roommates, like Rachel (from Iowa) and Rebekah (from England).

This is the cafe, where I get to have a lot of conversations with guests, cleaners, and staff!

Enjoy a few more pics of the people I love, pictured below.  ;)

Oh, and don't forget that time that Rachel and I organized a hostel night, complete with games, a message, and a dinner for about 50 people.  It was a masquerade theme, and I talked about being authentic with God and with others, and I played a song on my uke.  So fun!

These past couple months have been full of firsts.  Like destroying a guitar with my bare hands.  Biking more than I ever have before in my whole life.

More importantly, they've been full of God.  Worship on the patio.  Sharing my testimony a billion times.  Devotions and small groups and praying together.


So there's a short glimpse into my life.  Let me know what you want to see!  Sorry about the long blog silence.  More to come!

maya maya

Being here, being anywhere, you get used to the things you see.  Heartbreak and tragedy just don't hit you the same way.  How could it?  If you see something every day, it starts to seem normal.  I suppose that's how we, as a world, can let horrible things happen, if we are eased into them slowly.

But one little girl has woken my heart back up and broken it all over again.

Her name is Maya.  What can I tell you about her?  She's more musically-oriented than any other child I've ever known.  If she's fussy, you can turn some music on or start singing; she'll forget why she's mad and start dancing.  She sings along with every song I have, even the first time she hears it.  She loves Quincy, when most of the other little ones are afraid of my harmless kitty cat.  She's content to watch me work out, as long as I blow her a kiss as I walk on by.  She's beautiful, absolutely beautiful, with the best smile you could ever see.  She's the happiest little girl I've ever known.

What else could I tell you?  Just a couple months ago, she was severely malnourished - about 6 lbs at age 2.  She was abandoned at the hospital, and my friend Ashley found her and started to take care of her.  Today, she is doing well and has gained lots of weight!  I look at her, and I'm suddenly angry.

Who could do this?  What kind of a person would leave this precious, adorable baby to die, alone in a hospital?

And as quickly as my anger was inflamed, it dissipates.  What kind of a person would do this?  A desperate person, with no hope of keeping the precious baby alive.  Maybe her father thought the hospital could find her a better life.  Or maybe he just didn't want to watch her die.

Whose fault is this?  Mine.  Yours.  Every person who has a lot in this world is burdened with the responsibility for its condition.  I don't want to be a part of a world that leaves beautiful baby girls to die alone in the hospital.  I want to be a part of the world that finds a way to restore the families, to restore the children, a world that doesn't let a single child slip through its fingers unnoticed and unloved.

Just look at her.

Love.