Yesterday, we attended the morning service at the American Church Berlin. This is the same place where half of our group served on Friday at the food distribution ministry they have there.
I don't know if I had mentioned this in my earlier post, but one of the reasons why I want to go back there on a fairly regular basis on Fridays is because of the people they reach out to. One of the things that the pastor said in his sermon yesterday that really impressed me was that they had a huge building project underway to start some of the restoration work in the building that they were using. But the building was not the priority. The ministries and the people came first.
How often have we theologized about that in the US, and how often have we actually lived that out? And perhaps I shouldn't be allowed to speak of the US as an insider, but in this case, I'm claiming my own fault in doing more speaking than acting.
And the people, the church. It was almost a strange phenomenon walking into service and not being able to tell right away what ethnic group each person is from. But shouldn't that be what the church is about? Even growing up in Singapore, most of the people I go to church with are Chinese. And when there is an occasional "outsider" of a different ethnic group, we know them right away. I wonder if they've felt welcome. I wonder if they've felt enough love from the community to convince them to stay. I wonder...
On a related note, MaryAnn asked us yesterday to make a list of 5-7 things that really stuck out to us on this trip. So here's mine:
1) Hospitality - Doors that are open to people from all walks of life, from student groups to "lost boys"
2) History - So much of the way things are today is wrapped in the doings of yesterday. Until we even begin to try and understand the things of yesterday, it will be hard to try to figure out how to live cross-culturally here today.
3) Stories - We all have stories; something to share that unites us. When we're able to share those things together in sacred space, that's when we find true community between both followers of Christ and those who have not known.
4) Diversity - No place or person have the exact same story. And no single method of getting to know, or working alongside any place, person, or thing will work as effectively as it will with the next.
5) Mercy and Liberation - They can only be found in Christ. And the only way to fully experience what we've found in Christ is to let it permeate us till it overflows to the next person in Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth.
That's all for now, I think. My brain is still barely awake, but breakfast is in about 40 minutes. I'm hungry.
Love you all.
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