Many people have asked me the questions, "So what exactly do you do in Amsterdam?"
So I decided to try to try to answer.
Here is a day in my life in Amsterdam
6:00 am- Alarm goes off and I tiptoe around my room trying to not wake up my roommates as I get ready. I have the morning cafe shift so I have to be at the hostel at 7:15 am to start preparations.
7:00 am- Leave the Willemsstraat (our house) in the Jordaan district. Bike 15 minutes to city center being careful to avoid the red light district.
7:15 am- Prepare breakfast, set out dishes, re stock anything that is low in cafe.
7:45 am- Prayer time with morning staff and manager
8:00 am- 10:30 am- Serve Breakfast- This is a 2 1/2 hour period that flies by because it is so busy. I love the morning shift because you get to see so many people and they are generally in better moods than they are when they come to reception.
10:30-11am- Eat breakfast w/ cafe staff and manager
11am- 1 pm- Clean cafe, do dishes, prepare food and drinks for guests
1pm- Prepare lunch for cleaners and staff
1:30- Shift ends, Eat lunch with cleaners and staff.
2:30- 5:30- Hang out with cleaners or guests, run errands, go back to house to rest or clean
5:30 pm- Dinner at the hostel w/ staff and cleaners
7:30 pm- Bible discussion with guests, led by a staff member
8:30 pm- Evening activity at hostel/ just hanging out with guests. This is where the "really work" takes place. It's these evening conversations that lead to deep discussions. I rarely return home before 11 pm, even if I have a morning shift.
11 pm- Bike home

Each day is a little different. i work different shifts at different times so sometimes I arrive later in the day and stay later at night. I sometimes work in the cafe and sometimes in reception also, but since 5 of my last 8 shifts have been morning cafe I figured this was a fairly good view of what my days look like.

Like any mission field this place presents so many challenges, but i know that God is working in this place and I am encouraged by the opportunities I have been presented with to share my faith and discuss all sorts of religious/ spiritual issues

Funny moments from yesterday:
1. At breakfast one of our options includes a hard boiled egg. Well this man comes up to me after he got his food and asks me what he is supposed to do with the egg. It took 5 minutes of explaining to get him to understand that the egg was already cooked and he was supposed to eat it. My question is, "Why did he order is if he didn't even know what it was?"

2. Yesterday I on my way to work I almost ran over a pigeon. It wouldn't get out of the way and finally moved at the last second. I nearly screamed b/c i thought I was going to hit it. There are a lot of pigeons here and they are just another biking hazard here in the city.

3. We spent all of dinner playing pranks on one of our managers last night. The crowning moment was when he left the room for a moment and came bakc to find his dessert gone. He nearly had a tantrum when he thought we had eaten it (he wasn't really mad). We finally gave it back. It is good to work for someone who you can have fun with too.

Well, it is about time to head over to lunch. I work an evening shift in the cafe tonight and it's going to be super busy b/c we have a local band coming to play so there will be lots of people.