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Reflecting on Amsterdam
My time at the Shelter Jordan has officially ended. I am onto a new journey. Over three months ago, I arrived in Amsterdam with all of my luggage and a bit of a naive picture of what lay ahead of me. These past few months have been amazing and I wouldn’t change anything about them because I have learned so much.
One of my friends at the Shelter, Elizabeth, has done a lot of traveling. She and I came in and left at the same time. She taught me a lot about adjusting to a new place and keeping a firm grounding even when everything around me is changing. Elizabeth was reading a book on World Religions while we were at the Jordan, and she found a quote that really portrays one of the main lessons we both learned. “If you never mix with people from different races, you will have no eye for detail.”
Before I began working at the shelter and meeting people from every walk of life, I would put them into general groups. Japanese tourists go to Disneyland with cameras strapped to their necks. Hippies smoke joints and are peace-loving. Those are just a few of my narrow-minded categories. Now I have faces and names and personalities in my mind who are Japanese, Italian, French, Spanish, but that is only a small part of their identity.
I can no longer put them into general groups because they are all so beautiful and unique. I have memories with them. I built card castles with Baptiste from France, reminisced about favorite Mexican food with two medical students from Mexico, talked about tulips with Chiang from Japan and have even been invited for a visit to her home.
I am not defined by my American passport, though being an American definitely has an impact on who I am and how I grew up. I am fortunate to have been raised by parents who taught me the importance of learning about the world. My mom used to say that everyone should take a semester and travel the world. I now whole-heartedly agree.
There is a movement in the youth, the idea that the holocaust never happened. This makes me so sick to my stomach because one simply has to cross the border into Europe and they’ll see the aftermath of it everywhere.
I believe coming here has taught me to appreciate my family and to appreciate communication. I have gotten to know my grandma better through this experience because she is pretty hip and we get to talk on skype.
In high school, I hated history class. Here, I eat it up. I will go to museums and read historical markers and investigate random statues all day long. Everything has a story, and many of those stories form the foundation for the story of America.
God has taken me on a long spiritual journey through my time at the Shelter. I am still processing it all. I have learned about moral relativism and about loving people even when I wholeheartedly disagree with their theology. I’m still learning to love actually-I think that will be a lifelong process.
I have learned to listen, and continue to learn to listen, to people when I really want to talk. People are so hungry to pour out their stories and to be reassured they are worth something to someone else. Some days all I did was sit and listen. Oftentimes while ordering a hot chocolate or a tea, someone would just pour their story out over the counter. I haven’t the wisdom to deal with the issues many are going through, so I gingerly take in their story, massage it for a bit, until it feels better and a bit more manageable, and give it back. Sometimes an opportunity for the Gospel would present itself, and sometimes not. That wasn’t really the issue. I am learning that these are people, not just possible converts.
The next journey is Eastern Europe. I have 20 days, from May 1st to May 20th, to travel some of Eastern Europe. I’ll be alone, so your thoughts and prayers are appreciated. The first stop is Berlin, Germany, and then on to Krakow, Poland. I picked Eastern Europe because it is cheap, because I think my heart has been leaning toward this direction for a while, and because Western Europe is so.. Westernized. Eastern Europe has a unique culture. I hope all of you have a fantastic summer and continue reading the blogs I post from my Eastern Europe adventures.
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