.Amsterdam Ministry.

.Staff Day.

<"">

<"">



<" ">
Today was Staff Day and all of us Jordan staff went to the town of Utrecht and climbed over 400 spiral stairs to the top of the tallest church tower in Holland. It was pretty much sweet, and really really fun. I got a lot of cool pics. After we climbed the tower we also went and checked out the church and the church gardens. Everything was really beautiful. Then we walked to this Snooker(Billiards) place and played pool for a while. Meghan and I just ended up getting bored with being all serious and tied our hair up all crazy style and just started freaking out to the music that was playing...it was great. Oh man......then we went and got Chinese food and then we all sat in a very tiny apartment and all ate together. Afterward we got icecream and came back home. I think getting outside Amsterdam is really fun. It's nice to get to see some of the other towns and cities in Holland. They all have similar aspects, but are very different at the same time. Staff day was really nice because we all have different schedules and never get to all hang out together....so it was way cool. I spent the whole day taking pictures and that made totally me stoked.

posted by Sarah McAllister @ 10:47 PM 0 comments

.More Staff Day Pics.

<"">

<"">

<""> <"">
<"">

<"">

posted by Sarah McAllister @ 9:22 AM 0 comments

.What makes my Heart Sing.

Isn't it funny how humans tick?!?! It's amazing to me how we are all wired so differently and yet so the same. In every person there are certain things that make each of our hearts sing. In those little things, whether they are; dreams, passions, talents, or inspirations they all simply make our hearts sing a personal love song to the Lord. At least, this is the case for me. There are those simple things in life that I am so blessed to have, and couldn't imagine my life without. For example, the color of the sky during a brilliant sunset on the beach. I could sit for hours and stare in awe of the Maker and His masterpiece of transluscent and vibrant paints on his enormous sky wide canvas. Or, when it rains, I love it when it pours. Torrential downpour. The kind of rain that you would leap out of your chair as a kid and grab your galoshes just so you could beat your little sister to making the biggest splash in that perfect puddle. Another personal favorite is when it snows. The cold crisp smell of the dry snow, especially all piled up everywhere is amazing. When it starts coming down, almost one flake at a time, dancing, twirling from the sky. It's the little things of life that bring us joy, the gifts God gives us to bless His children. I love it. God is so big and so good, and without his blessings, life would not be complete. The blessings that I thought of all had to do with the outdoors and the beauty of His creation,,,but it definetly doesn't stop there. If we take time to look, they are all around us. Just waiting to be found. Or waiting to be unveiled by Him for us. Pretty sweet!!!!!

posted by Sarah McAllister @ 1:33 PM 0 comments

.Psalm 27.8.

My heart says of you, "Seek His face!" Your face, Lord, I will seek.
~~Psalm 27:8

posted by Sarah McAllister @ 2:25 PM 0 comments

.Cookie Outreach Night.

Both the Jordan and the City had Cookie outreach nights. They were really cool and really fun. A lot of poeple showed up for both of them. Ryan shared a message at the Jordan and Susana shared one at the City. Fun fun....makin', bakin', frostin' and decoratin' cookies.............
<""> The City Cafe
<""> This is Niels and I......Can't you tell how excited we are to make cookies?!?!?!
<""> this is my 66 Volvo 122s cookie....haha.......
<"">This is Joshua's "Joshua tough Guy kicking Jonathon Tough Guy's butt cookie"

posted by Sarah McAllister @ 7:13 PM 0 comments

.Jimmy is so cool.

<"">
Oh man,,,praise God. This is so cool. God does amazing things. At both Shelter hostels, The City and The Jordan, there are cleaners who volunteer(usually street people, or younger people who don't have anywhere to go),....so there are three cleaners at the Jordan and six at the City, and in return for their work they get a free bed and free food. Jimmy is from Malaysia and worked for a month at the City before now working in the Jordan. Yesterday Jimmy's digital camera and all of his cash got stolen out of his locker, but he has had the best attitude about it all. It's crazy, I think if it were me, I'd be so ticked off. Then today there was a group of people in the Jordan getting a tour and Desiree was sharing about what it's like to work here and what we do and all that, then Jimmy was in the room too, and he started talking about how cool the last two months have been for him here and how he met Jesus here and how the staff members are all so friendly and generous.......oh man......God is so good. None of us really knew if he believed or not and all that, then he gets up infront of a crowd and shares about meeting Jesus here. Praise God for Jimmy. He is so cool.

posted by Sarah McAllister @ 12:02 AM 0 comments

.Living for Him Alone.

Today I was reading in The Call, by Os Guinness and he was talking all about living for the Lord. Living for an audience of One. Choosing to live for the Lord instead of ourselves and choosing to take the time to be in solitude with Him. Making time in our day to set apart for the Lord to speak to us and fill us. It was really cool and I really enjoyed this quote:

"Where as normal life puffs up our sense of self importance and locks us into patterns of thought and behavior dependent on others, solitude liberates us from these entanglements by carving our a space from which we can see ourselves and our situation before the audience of One."~~Os Guinness, The Call.

posted by Sarah McAllister @ 10:28 PM 0 comments

.Colossians 3.23.

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men."~~Colossians 3.23

I read Colossians this morning. This verse really spoke to my heart because working here in the hostel you can get so involved with working and just getting stuff done, that we can often lose track of who we do things for and why we are working here and I think this verse just helps to keep me in track that it's all about serving God and it's all about working to bring Him glory and to just simpy serve God instead of ourselves. I think it's pretty cool how God does that. He'll lay a passage directly in your path when you need to hear it. Awesome!!!!

posted by Sarah McAllister @ 12:38 PM 0 comments

.God is Moving.

It is like whoa.....so neat to see God moving and see the heart of the Father reflected at The Shelter. That's fun. It's sweet to watch His hand at work. Because it's never in our control....it's almost like a diving board effect....we first jump off, but don't know how cold the water is until we make our splash. God needs us to first jump, then wait midair for Him to be the surprize in the water. Living Water. For us to simply live in Him. Through faith and obedience. He wants to make our lives, not just a splash, but one colossal wave, using even the aftermath of the whitewater mist to bring Glory to His name. A constant current of movement, perhaps even a swishing and/or splashing process.

.this is part of my journal entry from today, just some thoughts I was having after I read John 15. You should read it, it's amazing.
loves, Sarah

posted by Sarah McAllister @ 11:39 PM 1 comments

.Just Chillen.

<"">
<"">
<" ">
.Dutch. German. American......just kickin' it.....and being CRAZY!!!!

posted by Sarah McAllister @ 7:01 PM 0 comments

.Keukenhof.

"<>"

"<>"

"<>"

"<>"

"<>"

"<>"
"<>"
Today I visited Keukenhof, the famous tulip gardens outside of Leiden, Holland. It was SO beautiful. I am a flower freak due to my Cannon Beach job in the flower shop,,,but yeah. They were so amazing. And there are so many different types of tulips I cannot even explain to you.........if you ever get the chance to visit keukenhof, do because it's totally worth it.

posted by Sarah McAllister @ 11:22 PM 1 comments

.A day at the Beach.

"<> "<">
After visiting Keukenof Nicolette and I went to the beach to lie in the sun for the rest of our day off....it was lovely...........

posted by Sarah McAllister @ 9:59 PM 0 comments

.BEAUtiful Canals.

<"">
Here is one of my favorite canals in town. I love it!!!

posted by Sarah McAllister @ 8:27 PM 0 comments

.VW Love Bug.

"< >"
Here's one for you Jesse!! This cute VW was parked just down the street from The Shelter Jordan a few days ago.

posted by Sarah McAllister @ 7:57 PM 0 comments

.Picnic in the Park.

"<>"

"<>"

"<>"

"<>"
There is a really nice park called Wester Park a couple blocks away from our house so a big group of us staff and guests from the hostel went there to hang out and eat food and worship and play frisbee and the best part of it all was climbing trees and having grass fights. Yeah man!!! So much fun!!

posted by Sarah McAllister @ 8:07 PM 0 comments

.My NOW safe Bike.

"<"
So, due to my bike accident a few weeks ago, I decided to "safety-ify" my bicycle...in doing so, I found some blue fruit packaging and wrapped it around my bike for padding and now my bike is safer for me to ride so I won't get bruised next time I go flying off of it....hopefully in all honesty there won't be a next time, but now (or at least while I had it) my bike was taking precautionary steps in my bicycle safety. Pretty funny.

posted by Sarah McAllister @ 8:29 PM 0 comments

.Crazy Kitchen Crew.

<"">


<"">

<"">
Benjamin, Desiree and I were going crazy in the kitchen a couple days ago and I decided to take some pictures of us FREAKING OUT!!! It was so funny. I was laughing so hard I was crying. It was really funny. If you are ever bored, just try dancing around and shaking your head and body really hard and taking pictures of it all.................oh man it's hillarious!!!

posted by Sarah McAllister @ 8:13 PM 0 comments

.A Night for the Queen.

"<>"

"<>"

"< >"

"< >" "<>"
On May 5th Holland celebrates the anniversary of their independence from WWII. On the 4th there is two minutes of silence at 8pm after the Queen and Royal family leaves flowers at the WWII monument in Dam Square. Then on the 5th there was a free symphony on the water in celebration. It was super fun. Meghan, Tina and I all went and hung out by the canal on a blanket under the stars. It was so fun, and the symphony was so beautiful. fun fun fun.

posted by Sarah McAllister @ 8:17 PM 0 comments

.Tina and I being Crazy.

<"">

<"">
Tina's my German friend. I love her. She's awesome!!! Here's us being crazy.

posted by Sarah McAllister @ 8:23 PM 0 comments

.Dead Duck Day.

"<"
Today Jacko, Meghan, Tina, Cameron and I were walking home from the park and we looked down into the gully and saw a dead duck just lying there. I don't really know what dead ducks normally do but lie there......dead...but either way it was pretty sad and random and funny all at the same time. Then Meghan tried to eat it.....hahaha. It was great!!!

"<"

posted by Sarah McAllister @ 9:44 PM 0 comments

.My 21st Birthday.....YAY ME!!!!!.

">"
"> "

"<"

So....being 21 doesn't really feel any different than being 20........it probably has something to do with the fact that the legal drinking age in Holland being 16, and the legal drinking age in the U.S. being 21. Either way, I am not drinking over here anyhow so it doesn't matter to me. But yeah ...didn't do all that much for my birthday, aside from getting lots of hugs and kisses from all my Dutch friends. Kisses on the cheek, no worries. haha. Fun fun. And my birthday happened to fall upon a Monday, so all I had to do was go to school in the morning and I lead a Bible study in te evening........so this weekend or next my friends and I are gonna try to go find a hip hop club and dance the night away. YE-UH!!!!! I'm So excited!!! 21, 21, 21!!! YEAH!!!!!
p.s. Happy Birthday sounds far better than Gefiliciteerd!!!!......yeah what is that anyways?!! hahaha!!!

posted by Sarah McAllister @ 9:13 PM 0 comments