crazy nights at the hostel in amsterdam

we have had some pretty crazy nights at the hostel as of late. i was "sleeper" last night, meaning i stayed up with the nightman and evening reception from 10pm-2am to help out keeping people in order. we had a guy pounding on the doors to the hostel asking if we were the house of God. after trying to talk to him through the intercom a couple times, we finally had to call the police. they came and knew his description, so i guess they took care of him. a few minutes later we caught a guy trying to sneak in. then a guy came to check out-- at 1 am. then around 1:30 a guy tried to check in that was barred from the hostel. i definitely prayed over the hostel that night while i fell asleep in the attic.

today we had an incident with one of the cleaners who cleaned with us for a month. he is an alcoholic and drank a lot during his time with us but let it get way out of control the last few days. we eventually had to kick him out and call the police. tonight while i worked evening reception he kept pounding on the windows and doors and trying to talk to us through the intercom. we ended up having to lock the main door to the hostel and check everyone's rooms and beds before they even came inside to make sure that nothing sketchy was going down.

as Christians, we believe that so many of these things that happen can be spiritual attack, but sometimes it's hard to know the balance between what is spiritual and what is normal for a hostel in amsterdam. but it sure feels like more junk than normal has been happening recently.

if you are the praying type (or even if you're not), please pray for protection over our staff and guests that are staying here, that the work of God may continue despite the crazies that are trying to destroy it. and pray for the cleaner, as he was cleaning with us for almost a month and this, his last interaction with us and with Christianity, has to be such a negative one.

love.