Tschüß, Hamburg!

I'm currently blogging through my summer mission trip to Germany! If you haven't yet, read this!

July 3, 2012

Today is my last full day in Hamburg. Tomorrow I will travel to Paderborn (yay!!) by train, switching once in Hannover. I'm sad to leave Katie, but also very excited to join Juergen and be with some (at least one!) believers. I cannot wait!

Yesterday, I got to have a conversation in German with a woman on the park bench! She was extremely patient with my words, because I was messing up quite a bit. Perhaps more chances like that will come and I can talk about the "Bibelcamps" in Paderborn... I pray for more opportunities!

After Katie got off work yesterday, I took her to Eppendorf and we had some really delicious and cheap crepes. Afterwards, we went to the Markt and purchased some beverages to take to the park and relax. It was a pleasant evening with good conversation including how real, open, and chill the Village Church is and how the people are there. It made me miss my community. 

Of all the sites I've seen, and all the incredible days that have been jam-packed with activities, yesterday might have been my favorite. It was so carefree, independent and in communion with the Lord. I was able to do a lot of reflecting, and all of the independent exploring I did has helped me to be much less fearful and leery of traveling alone to Paderborn. I haven't been sure what to read since arriving, but my mentor suggested something like James before I left, and when I read George Mueller's mention of the book in his autobiography yesterday, I really felt spoken to by it. I believe I will start there, in James.

July 4, 2012

I had a conversation this morning with a woman named Anja in a coffee shop here in Hamburg while waiting for my train to Paderborn. We were speaking in German for a bit, but switched to English for deeper conversation. She is German, but lives in Los Angeles with her American husband. In praying for Father to lead the conversation to spiritual matters, I discovered that she's studied Education and World Religions. We had a really great conversation (though heart-wrenching for me), including Christianity, God, love, the point of it all, and a good talk about religion. She decided to study religions to see if there was an overarching "universal truth" and has decided that religion is a man-made institution and isn't how God intended it. She found that religions seem to bring some good into the world, but they seem to forget the main themes of their doctrine. They always think they are "special" and can break the rules to kill people, resulting in wars. We talked about how "not religion, but a relationship with Christ" is how it is supposed to be,  and how I see extremists (she mentioned that too) as evidence of our broken, imperfect state. I described how people at home often have a strict list of right and wrongs, do's and don't's, trying to "earn" their way to heaven," so ultimately, "religion" becomes a heavy burden. In reality, it is nothing we can earn, which is why Christ came for us. It is not a burden or weight, but a relationships. I gave her one of my KGP's [a tract from Campus Crusade for Christ] in German with my email address and a personal note on it. It was counter-intuitive to the conversation, since she said she doesn't like that every religion says "our way is the only way," and I'm normally hesitant since they come off as impersonal or pushy, but I had to take the chance and pray for the Holy Spirit to do the rest. Because we had talked for so long and I felt I had built a rapport with her, I felt led to give her the tract and explain that I agree with 100% of what it says. She took it very graciously, and told me that because of our conversation she would actually read it, thanked me, and hugged me.

I arrived safely in Paderborn this afternoon. I'll be taking it easy tomorrow with Juergen and Lydia Schulz, the Pastor here and his wife who are hosting me until Padercamp. Tomorrow I will mostly be with Lydia and their two young boys, Janis and Finni. Janis has been helping me quite a bit with my German! We read alphabet books in English and German--he helps me with my pronunciation and I help him with his. I can't express how refreshing it has already been in this one day to be among believers. I spent the day with Lydia and chatted just a bit with Juergen before he left for meetings. It's amazing how quickly I noticed the lacking of community. I didn't realize how constantly I am surrounded by it at home with family, roomates, friends, church, home groups, places in Denton like Zera Coffee Company, and churches on every corner. My life in Denton is saturated with the body, and here it is so much more void.

I can clearly feel the Lord answering praying from here and I am so thankful for all the people at home praying for me. The trip so far has been one answered prayer after another, from the eases and comforts of traveling to the inside-outs of my heart. I can feel the Lord working. I am still praying for things such as faith, strength in the Lord, flexibility, capability with the language (I'm understanding quite well, but am becoming frustrated that I can't express as much as I would like to. Why can't I have as wide a vocabulary as I have in English?), and opportunities to share the gospel and see lives changed for the Lord.