Germany/Summer

Here is a visual recap of the past 3 weeks that I made. The video is only 7 or 8 minutes long. Please take the time to watch!

Today we went to Wupperthal to prayer walk with David’s church. It was so pretty– it was a beautiful day and the weather was perfect. Then we came back to Düsseldorf to meet the other 2 teams who had just arrived; then everyone headed over to David’s house for debrief. The Munich team worked closely with a very good friend of Kristen’s (leader Kristen) and one of the “founders” of GS2 named Theresa. Ever since October, Theresa has been battling Colon Cancer. The Munich team said that if Theresa had been in a consentration camp, she would have looked better than she did. All skin and bones. Yet Theresa still got up (weakly) to get them water, talk with them and invest her everything into their lives. I have heard stories upon stories of her godliness. When we were debriefing, Kristen got the call from Theresa’s parents that she had passed away. It was so emotional for everyone, especially the Munich team and Kristen since they knew her. We spent a good 2 hours playing worship songs on Davids guitar, weeping, praying, comforting, and grieving. Within that emotion, I think we were all crying out the stresses we all dealt with the past 3 weeks. It was a hard day, but it was nice to know we were finally coming home. It was nice to be with the other teams and exchange stories, tears, and laughter. I am ready to be home.

Today we went to the German version of the YMCA (it was the CMJW or something) We taught baseball, did crafts, played piano, talked with the kids and just had a good time. Then after lunch things really started to slow down, and honestly–we all couldn’t wait to leave. The kids were playing baseball on their own now and we were all so pooped. Kristen and I fell asleep on the bench a few times. But we were all looking forward to later tonight, and finally it came. Dinner at a really nice Italian restaurant where the food was soooo good and in very large proportions (something we said goodbye to in the US–Germans eat in small proportions). Then we went last minute shopping in the Altsdadt, and as it started raining, we headed over to the local waffle place (I don’t know what the Germans call it) where Chelsea and I shared a Nutella Waffle–the best dessert in the world. From the end of the YMCA and on, it was a perfect day (except that Chase went to the hospital because he busted his hand playing baseball, but he’s ok–no worries).

Today we went to Doak’s house to help clean and pack (they are moving back to the US). Then we went to Cologne for sight seeing, and boy, did we see some sights. We toured probably the largest church there in Germany (I don’t know for a fact though), it was so gaudy, but so beautiful. Then we were in for a nice surpise, we came back to Düsseldorf to have a home cooked dinner with the German youth! We were so happy to see everyone again. It was a great time.

We are still recovering from yesterday. Part of me is trying to forget what we saw…

If you can believe it, today was worse than yesterday in Amsterdam. We went to pray for a newly built Mosque (supposed to be the largest in Germany). We were all dumbfounded when we were told that it was supported by the local Catholic church, they also suspect that the Catholic church is financially supporting it too. After this, we went back to Dusseldorf over to Julie’s friend’s home to eat a homecooked dinner (the best part of the night, it was so good). Then we went out with them to prayerwalk for a very dark part of Dusseldorf. It was still light out, so it wasn’t as horrible as it normally would be later on in the night, but even still. Gay bars were like Starbucks, there were so many. People on the streets shooting heroine, shouting, fighting and picking up prostitutes. We visited a brothel (we didn’t go inside, don’t worry) and prayed there for a while; I have never cried so much at one time before. My heart was so broken towards these women in the brothel, I couldn’t keep myself together; I can’t imagine the amount of brokenness in God’s heart–I can’t imagine the weight He must carry. As of right now, I have no emotion left. These past two days have taken everything from me. I could never explain with all the words and languages in the world what my soul is going through. We are being tormented by the weight of sin on our shoulders; I must say we have been privileged to experience a minute portion of the weight God must carry. It has made us even more grateful that He is able to bear our sins so that we might be free. As awful as it was, I pray that every Christian might experience this; perhaps it may put us all into place at how much we take Christ for granted.

I have nothing left.

We went to Amsterdam today. One of the most horrible places I have been thus far. The buildings and landscape were pretty, but the people are so lost. Morality has been replaced with marijuana pride and legal prostitution. I can’t begin to tell you the spiritual, emotional and physical trials we experienced. The darkness is so heavy here you can feel it the moment you get out of the car. We are all exhausted in every way, I don’t think I can write much more. All I can say is that my heart is so full of rage and brokenness due to the lack of morality and godliness. I can’t wait for today to be over…

Today was Kristen’s birthday so we got to do a lot of fun stuff. This morning we went to a cute little Kondetorei to have some pastries and hot chocolate, and the people there sung Happy Birthday to Kristen in German, which was pretty much all she wanted. Then we went shopping and prayer walking; soon following, we went to Julie’s house and had a real party. Julie and Chase went to pick Jared up from the airport while the rest of us stayed back, ate Chinese food and called our parents. Once everyone was back we just hung out, drank Chai, laughed, ate German junk food, and had an all around fun time. It was so great to get to know Julie better and hang out with her, the same with Jared. This has been the “funnest” night out of the past 2 weeks. I think we would all agree on that. God reunited us through fellowship tonight; I think we were all forgetting the importance of having fun with each other until now.

Today we walked around the Altsdadt (by now, our second home..) and the park inviting people to celebrate with us. 6 people came which was more than we expected, but less than we had hoped. Then we had hot dogs and played baseball, which by now, all the Germans were crazy good at, and all the Americans sucked. It was pretty hilarious. We had a great time, but we had to say goodbye to the German youth group which was hard. Not that much happened today, it was pretty laid back. We needed the rest!

Today we had a get together at the church we’ve been partnering with. We had a morning of different types of worship: fellowship, song, reciting, praying, confessing, reading His word, writing, etc. It was so great. It was definitely something we needed after a great, but hard, day yesterday. Then we went to the Altsdadt again (still pouring rain!) and surveyed. We were also inviting people to come to the park tomorrow to celebrate the 4th of July with us. I’m not going to lie, today was awful for me. I felt absolutely terrible (still do) I had no strength, no one wanted to talk at the Altsdadt because of the rain. It was the longest day EVER. But some really awesome things happened. We prayed over an Italian homeless man who was very small and had a hump on his back. You can laugh, but this man was an angel I think. We came over to him and tried talking to him, but he only knew Italian. By hand signals, we tried to tell him we were going to pray for him right there; he understood. So while people walked by and stared, we kneeled down to him and prayed over him. As we got up, he was smiling uncontrollably at us. Even though we couldn’t communicate, the Holy Spirit gave him a clear message. Hopefully we’ll see him in Heaven. After this we went to Chris and Shannons to watch The Hiding Place, but we all fell asleep within 30 minutes, so we just came back to the hostel and went to bed early (Hallelujah!)

Today we surveyed again in the Altsdadt and I was able to share the Gospel with two people. It was so amazing! We all seemed to have great conversations; I guess the Holy Spirit was working hard today! Then it was back to the sports camp. It wasn’t quite as long today which was nice, because yesterday was really a pretty long day. It started out in the 90’s today and then 5 hours later we had to pack up and leave early because it started to rain cats and dogs. Talk about unpredictable! Lightning and thunder are everywhere, its like being in a thunderstorm in Oklahoma. We were all running back to our hostel and by the time we got back, we were all soaking wet. Nothing is better than taking a hot shower after a cold, wet rain, and getting into nice DRY pajamas. It has been such a great day. Everyone is enjoying everyone and everything. The Spirit really is working hard today in all of Düsseldorf! The only bad thing is that I am starting to feel sick. Yesterday Brynne went to the Doctor because she was sick and no one wanted to be sick after we heard her doctor (more like horror) story. But I am so exhausted with a sore throat and sore sinuses. We’ll see if it gets worse though…