Fritzlar. And the Countdown Begins...

And so it's Saturday morning, and I find myself sitting in the Philips' dining room, having just had breakfast and now on to my second cup of coffee, listening to 陶喆, my favourite Chinese singer, and writing this. And the rest of today will be spent hanging out with Patrick, Jamie and Marco Nachtigall - some of my favourite people in the world, doing some painting for the Teenfreizeit (the annual teen camp for the Church of God in Germany) banner, and watching football, cheering on Deutschland in the 3rd-4th placing match tonight. Life can't get any better, right?

False. This all ends in 18 days and I'll be making my way back to the cornfields of good ol' Anderson, Indiana. I'll write more about this in a bit, but first let me tell you about my second adventure - to Fritzlar.

Fritzlar
So Fritzlar. It's a little German town southwest of Berlin, close to Wabern. It's a little bigger than Chesterfield, Indiana except it actually has its own downtown area that's like your cute little German town. I know we've talked about how much I love the big city, so you're probably wondering what brought me to Fritzlar.

Well, Fritzlar is where CB-F (Christliche Bildungsstätte Fritzlar) is located. This is the Bible school of the Church of God in Germany. I may or may not have mentioned this in an earlier entry, but a part of my internship in Berlin involves traveling around Germany, connecting with churches and pastors, and getting a better understanding of how what we're doing in Berlin fits into the greater context of the Church of God in Germany. My trips to Hannover and Pforzheim (and stopping briefly at Calw) made those connections with the pastors and churches. So Fritzlar was the piece that connected me with the ones in preparation for ministry, and Teenfreizeit in a little over a week would bring the connection with the younger generation of the Church of God.

So Fritzlar. It's a little Bible school that has a bit of a monastic feel to it. Birte, whom I had met a couple weeks ago when she was in Berlin, said there are currently about 18 students, and they basically live and have their classes in two buildings. One building houses the offices of the Bibel schule, the Klinners who are the ones currently giving oversight to the running of the school, the kitchen, dining room and community space, and on two separate floors, the single male and female students. For those of you who have paid your dues at Anderson University, this haus (building) reminds me a lot of Myers Hall. And in the other building that's owned by the church, there's the room where we've been watching all the football matches, and a few other community spaces. This is also where the classrooms and library are, as well as where the married couples live. Small setting, small school, so it's like Birte said, "we're all like a family."

So I arrived on Friday, and that evening we went out to the lake and had a game of volleyball. I was also "initiated" into the group with the Mate ritual, except it was cold lemonade instead of hot water. So much fun.

Saturday, of course, was the big game day. If I thought Berlin was crazy with the way they celebrated a football victory, I clearly hadn't been with the students at the Bibel schule. Families from the church came over to watch the game with us. Between the students, the kids and the black, red and yellow vuvuzelas, we were a riot. After the game was over, we walked up to the downtown area where the guys went crazy with their celebrations. As we were walking up, we were greeted by car after car honking and waving their black, red and yellow gear. One older couple had even made a sign that read, "Auf Wiedersehen! We cry for you, Argentina!" The battery for my camera had died by then or I would have taken a photo of it.

Sunday came around, and we went to the little chapel close to the school for church. That night, we also had a Bollywood party. A couple of the girls had just returned from spending some time in India and wanted to share that. Sunday was an interesting day for me because I was reminded again of how we who have spent some time living cross-culturally always have a strange knack finding each other even in a big crowd - and my "strange" interest for relating to people with stories like that.

That afternoon, I met Inthira for the first time. Inthira was born in Thailand to an Indian father and Burmese mother. After the tsunami hit in 2004, she lost everything. By some strange twist of fate, she and her sister somehow found a way to Germany. There she decided to give her life back to God by enrolling in the Bible school at Fritzlar. We chatted for a bit as we, together with Birte, Fabiano and Nabil made dinner together for our Bollywood party. I also got to practise a few words of Mandarin with her since she said she wants to start practising her Mandarin again as she's feeling called to China. If you know my call to ministry story, you're probably laughing because that same call to China was where this whole crazy journey started for me.

Then that night at dinner, I got to visit with Monica Klinner for a bit as well. Andrew Gale and Steve Rennick from Church at the Crossing in Indianapolis were there as guest teachers, and it was Fourth of July, Independence Day in the United States. So of course, I wished Andrew a happy Fourth, to which he got all excited because someone besides him and Steve remembered an American celebration. So he turned to Steve and said, "Here's another ... oh wait, you're not American..." To which of course I had to laugh because I was reminded again of my "Third-Culture-Kid"ness. So we then went over and wished Monica as well, who's American, but she's married to a German and had lived in Germany for so long that she sometimes forgets American celebrations as well.

Oh, I wish I had time to tell you all these stories, but I guess you just have to be there.

Hey, if you want to see pictures, you should click here

So the Countdown Begins...
And so it begins. Only 18 days left in this beautiful part of the world. Not that the other parts of the world I've been to are any less beautiful, but... you get the point.

I'm not about to get all melancholic about the last 2.5 months... At least, not yet. But my time here has been really good. Frustrating at times, nerve-wrecking at times, exciting at times. But in all, REALLY good.

Patrick, Jamie and Marco Nachtigall arrived in Berlin last night and I got to go meet them at the airport. As I manouevered my way around the city, I found myself being reminded - and surprised - of the fact that I've really only been here 2.5 months. I think anyone who knows me will probably expect me to come back different from when I left, but I think even I myself am surprised by who I've become in a short time.

Let me rephrase that. I don't think I've necessarily become a different person over the last couple of months. But I think I'm definitely finding more of myself - and how my personality of adapting easily to living cross-culturally means that I really don't conform to the molds of any mainstream culture.

I love the postmodern, post-Christian work we're doing in Berlin. But I also miss the traditional church.
I don't think I can live in Midwestern America very much longer because of its melting pot culture. But I will always defend my American "family" (that I can't completely claim to be my own either) when the bad misrepresentations of America rear their ugly heads.

And most importantly, I learnt that just because I don't completely fit in somewhere means that I should completely reject it or want to have anything to do with it. I would definitely feel a lot more comfortable in the postmodern, post-Christian world, but I still hold the traditional church with utmost respect.

So much, so much to process. But special thanks to Arthur, Armando, MaryAnn, Patrick and Jamie (and Marco) for long e-mails, asking questions, listening, poking and probing.

For Water...
Stumbled upon this verse out of our shared reading ...

"For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward." - Mark 9:41

... and it made me think of each one of you who have "given me a cup of water to drink" regardless of whether or not you knew what I was doing, but simply out of knowing I was answering to my name as a follower of Christ. In these (unusually hot by Berlin's standard) summer days and living in a country that doesn't believe in air-conitioning, this whole "give you a cup of water to drink" idea took on a whole new meaning.

To each one of you who have given me a cup of water to drink so I can take one more step on this journey, thank you.

Love you all.