Day of Ascension...

I don't think I really knew what I was getting into today when they told us today was the Day of Ascension and our original plans had been changed. But of all our time spent here, today was probably the most meaningful.

We started off the day with breakfast at the Philips'. Rhonda made another amazing spread. After breakfast, we sat and chatted for a while, talking about just about everything. These days seem to run together, so I honestly don't remember what we talked about today specifically. But it was a really nice change to just sit and chat with people, with no real agenda besides just talking. (Left: Pelmenis, a Russian dish. Rhonda is an AMAZING cook.)

At around 12:30, we headed out somewhere, and I'm not sure any of us besides our hosts, and maybe MaryAnn knew where we were going. We ended up taking a walk around town and had lunch at an authentic Italian pizza place, and I discovered how much I love thin-crust pizza :)

I don't remember the exact time-line of when all these things happened, but some time today, we also saw the areas where the Turkish population had settled. Kelley had explained that the Turkish came to help with the rebuilding after the war.

We also went down the street where the coffeeshop the girls will be working at is. A lot of what we had talked about this morning surrounded the theme of freedom, which, according to Rhonda, was what had been impressed on the heart of the lady who worked at the coffeeshop. And as we walked down that street, there was a silence that was almost uncomfortable. As Aaron said, it was almost paradoxical for us as a group to be walking freely down the street, yet only a car away from us were all these girls bound to selling themselves to make a living. And with all my recent thoughts on mercy that is like rain falling on a parched land, it was almost odd (if we took the dude up there out of the picture) that I felt that few drops of rain on my hand. Mercy. Mercy that redeems and liberates. It was present right there on the streets in Berlin too.

Wilhelm Cathedral

Our next stop was the Wilhelm cathedral. A building torn by war, its basic structure was restored, but it is now a tourist site more than anything else. Right next to it is a structure that now serves as the cathedral. If you remember my Holy Week series from last year, all the pieces of stained glass work suddenly made sense today. Quite frankly, I'm not really sure why I included the stained glass stuff in my writing, but today as I looked at how the pieces of stained glass came together, it suddenly hit me.

We have so much in all of our stories. So much brokenness, so much that doesn't make sense. But if we only stare at the single piece of stained glass in front of us, it wouldn't. All these pieces of our brokenness make sense only when we step back and look at the bigger picture of redemption. It was the same for Nicodemus, Mary Magdalene, John and Mary the mother of Jesus.

And there was a corner of the room where you could go light a candle in remembrance of war victims. To me, that was a symbol of more than just remembering. It reminded me of the 9/11 memorial in NYC that we went to over Spring Break, and how this brokenness is universal. There are people hurting everywhere. And there are people everywhere lighting candles and holding on to hope on behalf of those who are hurting. And that's what we are called to be - those little beacons of light, life and hope to the world of darkness.

As we headed out of the cathedral, there was a group gathering, holding banners that made some reference to Sri Lanka. Aaron, Dan and I wandered over to see what was going on and found out that it was kind of a memorial thing they were doing for victims of the terrorism in Sri Lanka. And right in the background was this massive cathedral that now stands empty. It was a moment like the scene in Elizabethtown where Drew finds himself right next door to that couple that's getting married that weekend that he's burying his father. "Death, life... Death and life, right next door to each other??"

And the cathedral in the background. It was kind of like a message of, well... now what? What is the church doing?

So many more thoughts from today to wrestle with. I apologise that this post was more of a thought spillage than the more poetic prose I try to compose. But we've had a long day and it's late.

Hey, feel free to post your thoughts. I'd love to hear from you. Miss you all in all the other parts of my world that I'm not physically living in right now.