There was a very large turn out for the event and I met many visitors I see at work in the homeless shelters. There was a lot to do during the day with stands from different organisations providing activities and information. It was possible to relax in a hammock at the chill out area, listen to bands performing on the stage and leave a message on the events twitter account. There was also a short theatre play and the homeless choir also performed.

Later in the day there was an awards ceremony, with prizes awarded to the best organisations for a number of categories. The prize for the best clothing and shower facility was awarded to De Kloof, one of the shelters in which I work.

It was nice to be able sit and talk to the visitors that I know from the projects in a more open environment. It was possible to have longer conversations, to listen to their stories and get to know them a little better. Those that I spoke to were enjoying the day and they wished that similar events could take place more often.

A big problem for the homeless is boredom, long days with nothing to do and very few people to talk to. Events like the Homeless day help to break the monotony by providing some fun and entertainment, something that is often taken for granted by many people.

At the beginning of this year I set myself the goal to explore together with the house the meaning of the word hospitality in relation to the Mission House. In the first few months we all had different thoughts about being hospitable. Sometimes someone would feel like living in a hotel, because the door was open for everybody. Sometimes we had to refuse a guest and it would feel like we lived in a prison.

However, as the year continued we learned more and more about hospitality. We've had weekends full of different guests from all over Europe who all connected with us and with each other, no matter if we'd knew one another before or not. Guests helped with the household during their stay, cooked for us and we took them out in the city, offered them a nice bed and our sometimes full-time company.

Obviously most of the guests were family and friends. However, when family or friends were over they were not only here to speak with their child or friend again. The rest of the house also joined in the joy. That's at least how I see it. We could say that we have shared our family and friends and this is a nice thing.

The climax though of our learning track on hospitality was experienced during the last weekend. As every year we organised the Mission Taster Weekend, where people who applied for next years' Mission House and others who are interested in Mission can come over for a weekend to experience the Mission House. In total we had 11 guests over from all different countries. As you can imagine this is quite a lot of people. On the one hand very nice, because we have the possibility to meet lots of new people and on the other hand very tiring, because it means a lot of organising and very few moments for yourself during the weekend.

Therefore it was great to see how enthusiastic everybody was to show the house, the projects, the good relationships we have together, cooking skills and their enthousiasm about their own volunteer year. Also great to see was how welcome our guests felt themselves and how enthusiastic they were talking about their experiences here in Amsterdam. One of our goals, to share our own enthousiasm about the Mission House to others has at least worked out.

Just one thing is left that I feel really sorry about concerning hospitality. As a proof of our hospitality I introduced in the house a guestbook. Has it been used a lot in the first months, after taking care of so many guests during the year, we kept forgetting to ask people to write in it.

Luckily hospitality is in the end not something measurable. As it is with most things in life.

However, all those guests that have not been asked to write something down in our guestbook, you ar most welcome to come back and spend some time with us again!

 On Saturday I went to one of the homeless shelter, and had a party there with my colleges. We had a very nice dinner, then a Karaoke evening. After that I went out with my friends to the city to dance.

On Sunday afternoon we (MH) went to see Erjo’s theater group performance, which was really creative and funny. Siebert bought the CD of a girl, who also played in the group. It is an awsome CD, with 2 songs. If you have the possibility, you have to listen that. The 2 songs called: YEA, and NOO... 

After the great performance, we decided to go to the Museumplein to see the members of AJAX, because they became the champion. That was very crowded, there was soo much people in that square. Everyone was shouting and singing to show how happy are they because Amsterdam won against Enschede.

The only bad thing what happened with me in this weekend that the police blocked all the bridges because of the celebration around the Museumplein. My bike was just the other side of the bridge, and I had to walk so far to get into the city centre and grab my bike.

Well..that was my weekend.

 Also this year we guys from the Mission House wanted to take part at the unique happening. For most of us this was the first time to celebrate Queensday in Amsterdam or at all.

The big Party started on Friday with the Queensnight. Already this night all the streets in Amsterdam where filled with people in orange and it was just one big massive crowd of people who wanted to celebrate the Queen ;) All the places from the Jordan to the Nieuwe Markt and from the Centraal Station to the Leidsplein were full with in- and outdoor parties, DJ, Bands and whatever you can imagine.

And then the next morning the Mission House started EARLY after a more or less long night together with a nice Queensdaybreakfast (…).  

Erjo and Judit started to sell good old Mission House relics on the street in front of the house, Verena and Siebert went to the Jordan where they bought some cheap dvd’s and tshirts and Tom and I went up to Amsterdam Nord to start our great boat tour through the Prinsengracht, Amstel and Keizergracht.

All in all everyone had an awesome Queensday which was nicely ended with everyone together at a lovely BBQ in the garden of the Mission House.

Queensday is definetly unique and has to be celebrated in Amsterdam !!!

After a few minutes cycling I arrived at the homeless shelter where there is a large team of around 25 different volunteers. Most of them come from a village outside of Amsterdam and travel into the city together in a minibus. After a short bible study and time of prayer we prepare the food and set up the room ready for the guests.  

At the bar coffee and tea was served and the guests enjoyed eating the special Easter bread. Later there was a church service and everyone was able to sing hymns and listen to the worship group. Next the chairs were cleared away and the room was prepared for the meal. There was a large selection of food for all to eat, chicken, fish, meat balls and a huge variety of salads. Everyone enjoyed the meal and there was plenty of food to go around. Even after several helpings there was lots left at the end of the day. In the evening we were having a BBQ at the Mission House and I was given the left over food to take home for this. I headed back to the Mission House, cycling slowly whilst carrying 3 extra tubs of food which we enjoyed sharing in the garden later that evening.



After talking about where to go for this weekend it was decided to go to one of the islands enrich the beautiful country of the Netherlands. On a very sunny Friday the house packed a car full of stuff to head for a beautiful villa on the island Texel. In the middle of an American suburb-like bungalow park we slept in a house with a bath(!), twenty minutes walking from the beach and fifteen from the nearest town.

The result was a weekend of deep and long conversations, getting to know each other even better, swimming in the sea, chilling out in the garden, horse-riding, eating patat, lying in bath, watching movies and watch the beautiful countryside of Texel. A weekend full of familytime.

Not only was it a relaxing weekend. Much more important is that (I’ll speak for myself now) I gained a lot of new energy from this weekend. At some point during the year everything is getting into a routine. As for myself, I can not really handle routines. They itch. They get under my skin. And they hang on my arms like stones. Going away together, spending time together in a different environment, a different atmosphere, also gives new insights into each other. And this is what life in a community needs from time to time.

The same faces but new information and new experiences together makes life in a community worth it.

I wonder now what the coming two and a half months will bring for new insights!

Yes, two and a half months. That’s only some 80 days left…

It all started when we found out that Cornelius’ birthday would be on the 3th of April 2011. This is was a Sunday so the Saturday before this Sunday would be the perfect Saturday to throw a party to celebrate the 20^th birthday of Cornelius. On this faithful day( on which I was still at my parents place in Friesland, Holland) the members of the house started preparing for something that would become one of the best party’s of the last few months. When you throw a party you are required to have some people to join it… they went to get the people(other volunteers, friends found in Amsterdam and people related to the Mission House and of course some friends from back home)… check! You also need to have a location.. we have the perfect location.. check! Beside those two vital thing you need drinks.. they went and bought some drinks.. check!  You don’t want the people to starve so they went to get the food, which resulted in another perfect pasta-salad made by Verena… check! You also should want that the house looks nice and well prepared for a party… so they changed the furniture and hung up some flags.. check! And of course, last but definitely not least you need music.. As always provided by Youtube.. CHECK!!

After all this hard work of the people living in the house the invited guests where ready to come. And they came in big numbers and we had a really, really good party. When the party in the house ended we went into the city to continue partying there. From that part on I lost track of almost everyone so I can’t report on that.. I’m sincerely sorry.. You might wonder why I also can’t report on what actually happened during the house party.. The reason for this is that this is extremely confidential information and can only be shared by our most trusted friends..

If you want to find out what the party’s are like join the Mission House next year! Or for the people living in Amsterdam, become one of our ‘’most trusted friends!’’

Every months we have an open house with nice dinner. So we decided to do our „Challenge” there. The next Thursday (7th april), we will cook a nice fair trade and biological dinner for the guests, and give a presentation about this subject. We are looking forward to do our Challenge, so I hope that we can meet with you there!

 For 6 weeks after the incident I am not able to apply any weight to the leg whilst it heals. This means that I have to stay at the Mission House and rest and I am not able to travel into my projects. (Getting there using my bike would be a little hard.)

 I have a physiotherapist who comes to visit me at the house once a week and I have been given lots of exercises so that I keep working my leg. One of the hardest tasks is getting up and down the stairs, as the Mission House is up on the second floor of the building. It is also harder because like all Amsterdam stairs they are very steep and curved.

 After some practice I am now able to get up and down by sitting down and lowering myself step by step. This means that I can go outside into the garden with my crutches to get some fresh air. We also have a wheelchair so that I can go out further when people are able to push. I have now discovered that Amsterdam is not a very friendly city for wheelchair users. The pavements are very narrow and you must also navigate through many obstacles such as bikes which block the paths.

Last week I started to help out in the World House which is located on the ground floor in the same building as the Mission House. I helped making phone calls to contact all of the clients who had registered for the new language courses which were starting the following week. It was good to be busy and to have some work to do, rather than being stuck upstairs in the house. I am also going to be helping out over the next few weeks until I am back on my feet and able to make it back to my usual projects.  

My actual job there is to arrange the clothes which people donate to the worldhouse and it seems that many people get their closets ready for spring ( I hope it will come soon!!!) tidy out their old stuff because we got over 20 bags with new clothes and I have got pretty much to do there.  It’s really important that some people donate their old stuff because it’s unbelievable how fast the stuff goes away. But some things don’t go away, I’m pretty sure, they will remain there forever. I don’t mean the things which are completely wasted and ruined, yes people “donate” completely broken stuff, no idea why, I mean the completely ugly stuff. We have now for example a pink navel shirt made of sequin and pearls or a more than colorful track suit I can’t believe was ever trendy or a head even my grandmother would refuse to wear and you don’t know what she normally wears… I could go on and on with the list. But these clothes are to cool to don’t appreciate their uniqueness so we, the guys who laughed as hard as me, decided to have a little bad taste party. I hope there will somebody come someday who has a really strange taste concerning clothes otherwise I will fold up these clothes week for week.

Last Sunday it was my duty to welcome the people in the Sunday morning service. Say ‘hello’, give a nice smile and hand out the hymne sheet. Simple work, but very rewarding. After the service I also served coffee and tea and in between I helped at the teenage club.

It was a busy Sunday morning. Not difficult, but very rewarding. It was really nice to notice that I felt part of the community. The people knew my name, asked how I was doing and thanked me for helping. Small things, but so important to feel at home.

For me personally, it took me a long time to find a church in Amsterdam that fits to me. So many churches are around and they all have their pro’s and cons. Imagine yourself with four pizza’s in front of you, all the same in taste, shape, size and price. You can only pick one. That’s church in Amsterdam.

But also, I found really difficult to come to church, completely on my own. It’s always guessing what to do with the Holy Communion. Are strangers also allowed to join? Do you break the bread yourself or does somebody do it for you? Drink the wine or dip the bread into it? And who to talk to after the service? And be honest, are we really open and hospitable to new people in our church?

Therefore it is really nice that there is already a church that’s welcoming us. Actually, there are two, as we also have the Elthetokerk as a fosterchurch. This makes going to church so much more attractive. I feel welcomed and integrated and get enthusiastic about contributing.

The rest of my Sunday was beautiful, the cafe was open all afternoon and in the evening another really nice community welcomed us, Oudezijds100.

Now there is just one important thing going through my mind. Did you know that on average we use per person four trees a year on paper and cardboard? On the third Wednesday of March, around the beginning of Spring, we have that National Tree Feast Day. This is the Day to celebrate what trees give to us. O2, life. But most of all, it’s the day to plant those four trees backin the ground! Hope you’ll keep it in mind…

 What is my work there exactly? I usually cook for them, feed them, and just spend time with them. After a few weeks working with them, I can say: this work is hard, but very nice, because they can give you a lot of love and joy. Thats also very cool feeling, when after a while, you can keep in contact with them, you can communicate with them, and understand them a little bit without talking. I think it is a miracle, God’s miracle.

 I just can offer you, if you have the possibility in your life to work or give help to handicapped people, try it!

Several of the volunteers from the house had travelled home for Christmas which left four of us in the Mission House to celebrate together. The celebrations started on Christmas Eve when we shared a specially cooked meal together. Later in the evening we attended a traditional Dutch Kerstnacht service at the Oude Kerk. We sang many traditional Dutch carols, some of which I could recognise the tune to from English translations.

On Christmas morning we travelled to the detention centre at Zandaam, this is a place where people without passports or visas for the Netherlands are held as they do not have the right to live in the country. We joined for the Christmas morning service and afterwards we helped to serve food for the detainees. I normally work as part of a visitors group at the centre on Thursday afternoons and this meant that many of the detainees recognised me, this particular morning I also saw two new people who often visit one of the homeless shelters where I work. It was great to see how happy they were to see a familiar face and to have someone that they could talk to.

In the afternoon we headed back to the Mission House and began to prepare our Christmas meal which we sat down and ate together in the evening. This completed a very different and special Christmas which I will always remember. I am glad that I decided to stay at the Mission House over the Christmas period.

He does not catch your attention because of his remarkable pink shinning hat he always wears. There is another thing what makes him so unique. He always wears this poster around his neck saying the words, fitting to the color of his hat, “DE HEMEL IS VOL” what you can translate to English with “THE HEAVEN IS FULL”.

People are passing by wondering about this strange sounding statement, others fussing about the blasphemic aftertaste the proposition includes. But actually nobody goes to him and ask what he means with his statement and what he wants to achieve with his action. So he just stands there with his poster and waits …

Waits for someone who just asks.

I had couple days ago this conversation with Tom about this curious old man who came to the Bible Studies from the homeless Shelter ‘Tweede Mijl’. It was the same old man with the long grey beard, the dark big coat and the pink hat who stands on the Dam Square with his poster.

When the man entered the homeless shelter the atmosphere got disturbed and people started to shout at him, that he should leave this place with his “unchristian” statements. So the man left.

Last Sunday at “DE CRYPTA” a church service for homeless people where I also work as a volunteer I then saw precisely this man of course with his poster. As I was very curious to meet this man, I asked this man after the church service why he always shows this poster.

He just smiled and uncoiled the rest of the poster which was first coiled and I could read “DE HEMEL IS VOL LIEFDE” – “THE HEAVEN IS FULL WITH LOVE”.

This story just shows again that we always have to be open minded and not judge right away without hearing the story behind the face.

Sometimes a single word can change everything.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1315/5117424855_0623249052_z.jpg

Not so strange thus, that in the Netherlands we made this day into a special day. The story is turned around a little bit; Sinterklaas comes to the Netherlands on a steamboat from Spain and he has a lot of helpers (Zwarte Pieten) that he didn't have when he was alive. It makes the man even more holy.

From the moment in middle November that Sinterklaas arrives in the Netherlands, on a boat, with a horse and with his helpers, there is this special atmosphere throughout the whole country. An exciting thrill, 'what presents will I get?', 'with who shall I celebrate this event?' and off course the expectations of how wonderful the evening of the fifth of December will be. 

So it went in the Mission House. As this event is especially for little children who still believe in the fake story of Sinterklaas, the event is also celebrated by adults. Why not, who doesn't want to get presents, separate from their birthday? We decided to pick names out of a hat and buy a special present for this person. Of course we kept secret who we got! As it is tradition to not just buy a present, but also write a poem for the receiver of the gift and to put the present in a nice box, we decided to do so as well. When in Rom.., I mean: the Netherlands.... 

With great excitement we started the evening and started handing out the gifts. Happy faces, nice poems and exciting presents. But then the doorbell went. Suddenly the excitement turned around in confusion... Who was it? Who is visiting us on this evening that everybody is at home, celebrating? You guessed so...

Sinterklaas and two Zwarte Pieten came in and crushed the livingroom with pepernoten and chocolate. We were shocked. We were frozen. And we were scared. We had to come to Sinterklaas, sit on his lap and he knew everything about us! Luckily no one was taken away by Zwarte Piet. I mean, when we haven't behaved properly it's commonly known that Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet will take you in their bag to Spain...

Yes, there is sun over there. But after this nice Sinterklaas evening, nobody wants to miss Christmas of course!

Back in Amsterdam after a really good seminar work starts normally again. Yesterday Siebert, Erjo and me had a quite cool football game in the garden. Together with many guys from the worldhouse, one of our projects, we played a pretty good match and decided that we have to do that more often…

That’s it for this week…

However the page is much more than just a PR drive. More importantly it is about connecting the Mission House family, to bring ex volunteers in contact with each other, to share stories, to find old friends and keep up to date with this years team. It is about sharing and staying connected with the house. We will also being uploading photos exclusive to the Facebook page, start discussions online while inviting everyone for the monthly open house.

Do you want to stay connected to the house? Whether you are an (ex) volunteer, a parent, friend, interested member of the public or just a passer by you are all welcome at;

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Amsterdam-Netherlands/The-Mission-House-Amstelrank/165367460152221?ref=ts

Soon it was time to head back to the centre for the activity club. This week we celebrated ‘thanks day’ a special festival to give thanks for the harvest and crops. We designed baskets which contained a bible message and a variety of fruits. These were then handed out at the nearby old peoples home. The residents were surprised and were made very happy by the small gifts from the children.

At the end of the afternoon we had to cycle home quickly before it was dark, as we had not had chance to buy any lights for our bikes. Now as soon as it gets dark in the evenings police can be seen on most street corners waiting to hand out fines to any cyclists caught without working lights. I decided to stop and buy a set before heading to buy food for our evening meal.

Thomas, better known as Tom was the first person to have a birthday in the Mission House. And so with it fast approaching the house had to think what we could do for him and what we could get him. So together we thought up some ideas of what would suit Tom. It was a very exciting time as Tom’s parents were coming over to stay in the Mission house along with his little sister to celebrate Tom’s birthday with us and him.

We thought long and hard and realised that Tom had a collection of funny T-shirts, a few depicting his love of comics. So with that information fresh in hand we went to buy him a t-shirt with a large picture of Mickey Mouse on the front. With Tom being British we thought it would be nice to give him a taste of Britain while he was in Amsterdam and bought him some brown sauce (HP Sauce) from the British section that they have in Waterstones. We then decided to cook Tom with a typical British breakfast, with baked beans, scrambled egg and bacon. We spoke to Tom’s family and informed them of our plans so that they and the rest of the house, on the morning of Tom’s birthday, would be waiting for him to walk in for breakfast. We greeted Tom by singing happy birthday with everyone from the Mission House and his family to give him a birthday surprise.

Then that evening, luck would have it that there was a fair in Amsterdam and so after dinner we all decided to pop down to the fair and Tom being as crazy as he is went on the biggest ride on the fair and even took part in the ghost train which they had. After he recovered from that he lead us to his favourite drinking hole in Amsterdam to sip on a few pints and to laugh about the good day that we, and of course he, had just had.

This year I am the only person from the Mission House who works for the Seamen’s Centre as it is a really tough job going on the ship every week no matter what weather it is, no matter how high the waves are, no matter how hard the wind blows.

Leon Rasser and I the ship visitors from the Seamen’s Centre conquer every single barrier, the security control at the harbor and on board of the ships, the dangerous way through the harbor and finally the sometime dangerous climbing act to get on the boat. We go on board of the ships to be there for the seamen who spend months on the sea without seeing any people except the crew members. So we give them the opportunity by selling them cheap phone cards (instead of enormous prices other people charge for the product) to get in touch with their family back home. Further we explain how to get to the city center or to the Seamen’s Club to get more diversification to their monotonous life on sea. Moreover we offer them the opportunity to have a chat starting with easy topics as soccer or news but also going to serious talks about religion.

It is always also for us a nice experience to go on the ships so we see all different kinds of ships from the little tug boat to the giant oil tanker and I’m always amazed by the hospitality especially of the Indonesian seafarer. So we have tried, when we were invited for a nice meal on board several different culinary deliciousness from around the world.

Luckily Joice gave us language courses this Thursday so that we will soon be able to understand the things we are told in our projects and don’t guess anymore what to do because this might not every time be the right thing.

Have you have played “hide and seek” since you have been older than at least 18 years old? I didn’t -until yesterday. Carly had to organize family time and had this wonderful idea. So the 8 of us played in the garden of the diaconie, hided ourselves in garbage pins, on trees or under cars (people on the street must have thought that we’re burglars or at least out of control) .  Probably this seems a little strange to you but I just can say, playing hide and seek is still fun, even if you already left primary school…

 After the group had arrived on the location very late, it looked like it was going to be a very nice and cosy weekend together. Though one thing lacked and we all felt it...

In the last weeks a new housemate integrated in our community. ‘Ugly Fish’ as we call him. Or her. Nobody knows. This is a ridiculously ugly fake fish pierced to a wooden plate. It can sing a lot, but only two songs. It tells us to be happy and not worry and it asks to be thrown into the water. We soon realised that throwing it into the water might stop it singing, but also stop it living (with us). So we gave the animal a chance to live with us and respect its’ habits of singing.

As the songs can be very annoying, throwing it into the water is tempting but also threatening. Throwing the fish into the water would not only mean betrayal to our fish, but betrayal to the house as well. Our fish has become part of the house. Part of the rituals that every group has. Ugly Fish will sing whenever supper comes to the table and it causes a kind of Pavlov reaction within us. Ugly Fish will make everybody come to the dinner table. Without Ugly Fish there would be no dinner together.

Probably it was therefore that after a very constructive weekend with a lot of challenges and a lot of time to relax and think, it felt like home to be back in the house. Diner was ready, Ugly Fish was singing and we were complete again.

We developed our own rituals by adopting our new housemate Ugly Fish. And however annoying this animal can be, we all miss it when it doesn’t sing. It shows that this house after six weeks developed into a real ‘family’.