Berlin Baby

The next stop for my travels was Berlin, Germany. I was there to meet up with Jesse and Erica M. who , along with their very adorable little girl Aubrey, are living in Berlin to do ministry. They also happen to be fellow SBU alumni and Jesse a graduate of the same ICS program. This made our time together even better as we reminisced about old professors, classes, and mutual friends.

Jesse and Erica have been in Germany for about 8 months so they are still in the language learning phase of ministry. It was so good for me to be there with them and see this hard, less glamorous season of ministry life. We often fail to remember when we send out our brothers and sisters for cross-cultural ministry that it takes time to learn a new language, understand cultural cues, and to build relationships for ministry. Forgetting this truth can lead to faulty expectations from those at home as to what a family's ministry should look like after 8,10 or even 12 months on the field. Beyond dealing with difficult expectations from home comes an intense internal desire to also be doing the full time daily ministry you feel you came to the field for and of course the desire to be magically fluent in your new language. All of these factors can make the first season of long term service difficult and dry- or at least this is the valuable lesson I learned through my time with Jesse and Erica. Don't get me wrong, they made it clear that there are good things in the first season too, but gave me a more realistic perspective that I am grateful for.

Since Jesse and Erica are still in the beginning stages our time was spent mostly exploring new areas of the city and prayer walking. They have a desire to work with Muslim background people, particularly the thousands of refugees that have flooded into Germany from throughout the Middle East. I loved hearing their heart for these people and exploring the areas in which the refugees live in Berlin. We visited neighborhoods with high populations of Muslim background people and looked for parks, cafés, and other areas where Jesse and Erica will be able to meet and build relationships with those they seek to serve. As we walked we prayed over the homes, parks, and mosques that we passed, asking the Lord to lead them in ministry and send His spirit to work in the hearts surrounding us.

While in the city I also got to meet one of Jesse and Erica's teammates who is a young single gal. We ate dinner together and I was able to hear about her journey and call to ministry. It was a good opportunity to hear from someone like-minded and in a similar stage of life and who has already traversed the waters I hope to be in soon.

My time in Berlin was good to recover physically from the Camino and transition into a new stage of my journey. I had plently of free time to explore the city on my own and got to see some interesting sights including Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate, and the DDR museum. As someone who was born at the very end of the Cold War and Soviet Union era, there is so much about that time I had never understood or studied. It was so fun to get to learn about Berlin Wall, the DDR, and other historical events in the place where they actually occurred.

Standing in an arch of the Berlin Wall

The Reichstag

A beautiful church with a lovely plaza in front.

Checkpoint Charlie

I also got to spend a few nights hanging out with fellow travelers from my hostel. It was good to swap stories and learn about and share our reasons for travelling. It is not surprising that my reasons are often very different from those I am surrounded by. However, it is a good opportunity to show that Christians, which don't have a very food rap on this side of the pond, can be informed, loving citizens of the world who are not just dead set on shoving their religion down other's throats but who actually care about people as people and not just projects to fix or convert. I'm not saying that my conversations with these people made them want to listen to a Gospel presentation or become Christians on the spot but perhaps I was able to change their perception just a bit about Christians and Christianity in general. I can only pray that our encounters were a chance for the Spirit to begin working in their hearts.My next blog is coming soon (I promise!). In the mean time, please lift up Jesse and Erica and their current ministry as well as those I am encountering. Pray that the Lord will be glorified in my words and speech among all those that I meet. Blessings to you!