Making up for lost time: a photo montage

Last week-end, we traveled by ferry to several different towns near Potsdam. If I have learned one thing while being here, it is that Germany sure does have a lot of Palaces. Those Prussian princes were not too shy with the pocket book.

 My picture taking drive was a little low that day. We did not end up eating lunch until 4:00 after walking around in the hot sun all day, so my mind was elsewhere.
Yet another Schloss (German word for Palace).

 I thought this small church we went into was decorated very beautifully and simply. Much different than most of the churches you see in Europe. Small and modest.

 View of part of the Wannsee, along which Potsdam and its surroudings towns lye.

 Sometimes I get tired of asking people to take pictures of me. So I apologize for the selfies:

 There was a table with bags of homegrown apples for sale. So tart and yummy!

Last week, we decided to wait in line at this Döner place that is suppossed to be one of the best in Berlin. We waited in line for over an hour. Bahhh, I don't even think that it was worth it. 

On Friday, we visited an old Stasi prison. Our tour was in German, and I think our guide was not used to giving tours in German to people who barely understand the language. I think he kept cracking jokes at us the whole time. At one point, he told us not to lean up against the walls inside the buildings because the paint is chipping and we would get old paint all over our clothes. Then he stared at us for a minute, not sure if we understood what he said, and said 'I guess we will find out who did not understand me by seeing who leans against the walls'

We got back last night from spending the week-end in Dresden. Dresden is very interesting because the city center was completely fire-bombed (courtesy of the U.S. miltary) in 1945. It is part of the former Eastern Block, so the town is a mixture of classic Stalinist style architecture (a.k.a boxy and concrete) and older German architecture that was left standing after the fire bomb.

I really liked this fountain, which lies in a stalinst-style shopping square.

 We later saw it with the water turned off and it looked like an underwater mine.

Classic stalinist style art. It glorifies the everyday laborer.

 Inside an old Catholic church in Dresden. I was excited by this because I could actually understand what was written on the confessionals. Usually you will find them with Latin writing. This one says 'Leave the world and give yourself to me'

 It was hot. And Germany has no air conditioning.

 We went to dinner and after we ate, instead of giving us breathmints, the waitor handed us each samples of perfume...?

 The Frauenkirche was destroyed during the 1945 fire bombing, but the back stones are ones that were recovered and used to rebuild the church.

 An entire section of the Kuppel was recovered from the old building.

 As we were waiting for a ferry to take us across the river to see another Schloss, we had fun taking pictures of the ducks.

 Hello Mr. Duck.

 And, after a long day of walking around in the heat without the relief of air conditioning in any of the buildings, I did not even feel guilty about spending €4,30 on this bar of chocolate.

And there you have it. Little words and lots of pictures.

"It's time to grow up" Love, God

Living in College Station, surrounded by the community of believers I am lucky enough to call my friends, I have become spoiled by the experience of being a Christian. God moves often and he moves strongly when one is surrounded by people who are open and willing to allow God to use them to minister to other people. Barriers to the movement of the Holy Spirit are low, which allows for an environment of powerful ministry. This is part of the reason why College Station has been so comfortable for me. However, as I have mentioned in one of my previous posts- we are not called to me comfortable. We are called to move. We are called to go forth and make disciples of all nations. 

Living in Berlin, I am starting to feel the affects of being cut off from the body of Christ more and more. I have been frustrated here in Berlin because, I have come to realize, I have become accustomed to the experience I have in CS. In a way, I have been spoon fed spiritual potency over the past two and a half years. In College Station I am almost completely immersed in spirituality. So now, as the human will of most Berliners disallows the Holy Spirit to move as freely as it does in College Station, the experience is not so strong. I am not saying that God does not move here, quite the contrary. My experience in Berlin has only shown me that I need not rely on the experience, but on the promise. In a way, I feel like this summer God has softly been showing me that it is time to grow up. In one short year, I will be graduating and moving on to only God knows what. I will not always have the opportunity to be "spoon fed" spirituality. It is time to grow up, learn the promises of God in a deeper, sustainable way, and allow The Lord to prepare me to enter a broken world. 

I encourage each one of you to take a look at your life and see where you might be relying too much on the experience and not enough on following Jesus. 

Ahoj, Praha.

This last week, I said goodbye to the students who only participated in the first four weeks of the study abroad, relaxed a little bit, visited the Reichstag, and rode a little further East to visit the land of the Czechs. 

This past a week was probably one of the most difficult for me mentally and emotionally. Before I left for my study abroad, someone showed me this chart of the stages of culture shock. First, everything is very new and exciting, the middle is a little draggy (this is where home sickness supposedly happens), and then the end is really exciting because you are trying to make the most of the time you have left- plus the thought of going home is exciting. I think this last week has been kind of that middle draggy stage for me. So prayers against home sickness would be very much appreciated. 

We visited the center of German government.

We visited the East Side Gallery- a famous portion of the Berlin wall that is covered with artwork.

We had to say goodbye to some sweet friends.

On Saturday morning at 7:00am Joe, Emily, and I jumped on a bus to head to Prague for the week-end. Prague is only about a 4 hour drive from Berlin, and all three of us had heard so many good things about the city. So, we decided to check it out for ourselves. When we arrived in Prague, we found a place to eat some authentic Czech food before we headed to our hostel. I was a little apprehensive about the whole hostel thing, because I had never stayed in one before this week-end. I wasn't quite sure what to expect. It turned out to be a pretty okay experience, and I think any young person traveling should try it at-least once. We booked beds in a 10 person mixed gender room. Emily and I turned out to be the only girls in a room with 8 guys. I felt a little bit like I was living in a men's dormitory, and I saw a few too many men in their undies. In the morning, I would wake up to a chorus of snoring. However, ear plugs are like magic so all of the snoring didn't bother me too much.

We spent the first day of Prague exploring the Old Town Square. We had to cross Charles Bridge to get to the square from our hostel. There are something like 15 or 16 bridges in Prague all crossing thVltava river. St. Charles is the most famous, the most beautiful, the largest, and the most full of tourists. Prague is really full of tourists. And Americans. Apparently over 30,000 Americans live in Prague. Whose total population is 1.2 million.

                                                  Courtyard of our hostel

                                                         Somewhere on Charles Bridge

                                                            Vltava River

                                                           On Chalres Bridge

                                                                      The castle!

                                                            Old Town Square

                                                 This clock was built in the 1400's

                                                                                             Old Town Square

               The entrance to Charles Bridge by night. You can see birds flying in the lighted area above the entrance

Our second day in Prague, we explored a couple of other famous squares and probably my favorite part of the weekend- the Mucha Museum. Alfons Mucha is a famous Czech artist, and his art is so beautiful. He was really famous and sought after while he was still living in the early 1900's. Usually to me, art is kind of cool, but not super interesting. Usually, art museums are not my activity of choice. Mucha's work is so colorful and the facial expressions on the women he paints portray so much personality and emotion. 

We also took a boat tour later that night. 

                                                                 Classic Trabi

                                                      Czech coins are the coolest.

                                       Of course I had to exercise my American muscles a little.

                                                         A view from the boat tour.

The third day in Prague, we visited the Prague Castle, relaxed by the river a bit, and then headed back to Berlin around 6 o clock. 

                                                        View from the hill where the Castle stands

                                                      He was not amused.

                                               

                                        The prettiest stain glass in the whole church- kudos, Mucha.

                                                 Look who I found! An aggie!

                                              Cathedral at Prague Castle

The more and more I stay here in Berlin, the more and more I feel like God is opening my eyes to how much Germans are turned off from the gospel. It is not just that Berliners don't except the gospel- they are radically oppossed to it. It is really easy to feel like if I share what I believe, no one will hear me. However, at the same time God is reminding me that it is not my position to change the views of everyone I meet. I feel like so often, Christians feel this sense of duty and by consequnece, a sense of guilt if that duty has not been fulfilled up to our own standards. Though we are called to share the gospel, no where in the bible does it say to be discouraged if it seems as if no one hears you. I think for me and all of the other introverts out there, it is very easy for that sense of guilt (or perhaps 'lack of doing good' is a better way to put it) to feel overwhelming. In the modern church, contact evangelism and a type of 'extroverted ministry' one might say, are often stressed. However, to someone who is naturally very worn out by speaking to strangers (aka- the introvert) this standard of contact evangelism is daunting and not easily executed. By no means am I trying to justify hiding in a corner and not proceeding with the Great Commission, I just think for different people, the Great Commission can be executed in different ways. The point of me saying all of this is: for all of you out there that feel guilty for not preaching to the masses...don't. Yes, share your faith openly and without fear- but we are all gifted in different ways of doing this.