We talked about where in Turkey Saleem was from and he asked us where we were from.  We told him we lived in Europe but that I was from North Carolina before and that Charles was from Texas.  That’s when things got interesting and it went a little bit like this:

Saleem:  Texas?  Like where George Bush is from?

Us:  Yes.

Saleem: Oh, if you were George Bush I’d close the blinds, grab my knife and slit your throat and serve your flesh as Doner Kebabs but your meat wouldn’t even be good enough to serve.

While we were all laughing about what he just said, part of me was really wondering how serious he was about this.  I quickly explained that Charles was not George Bush.

Saleem:  Good.  George Bush is a war lover.  War is very bad.  People dying and why?  Afganistan.  Why?  Palistinian children – 3 or 4 years old dying.  Why?  War is very bad.

We agreed that war was bad and we continued our conversation about how many kids we all had, how long we’d been married, etc. which eventually led to this point….

Us:  Are you a Muslim?

Saleem:  Yes but not very strict.

Us:  Do you pray five times a day?

Saleem:  No.  I try when I can but mostly I can’t.

Us:  Do you go to the Mosque on Fridays?

Saleem:  I have to work most Fridays but when I’m off, I try and go.

Us:  Do you teach your son about Islam? (He has a 4 year old son – probably why hearing Palistinian children that age were dying hit him so hard)

Saleem:  No.  He is too young. He wouldn’t understand right now so its best we don’t teach him just yet.

Us: Are there other Turkish kids in his kindergarten class?

Saleem:  There are only 3 Turkish kids so if all the <German> kids are eating pork (forbidden for Muslims to eat by the Koran) and we tell him he can’t eat it, then he wouldn’t understand and would cry and wonder why he is different.  So we will tell him later.  I’m a good father.

Us:  So how old do you think he needs to be?

Saleem:  12 or 13 years old or so.  (Remember, in our earlier conversation with Stefan that he thought kids as young as 1st grade are capable of choosing which religion class they want to take and that parents shouldn’t decide that for the kids)

We continued our conversation eventually we felt it was time for us to move on.

Us:  We believe in prayer.  May we pray for you?

Saleem: (totally surprised and shocked) You want to pray for me?

Us:  Yes.  We’d really like to pray for you.  Is there something we can pray for you about?

Saleem:  I don’t know.  Maybe for my family.  Good health.  Yes.  That’s all.  So you are going to go to the church and pray for me now?  (There was a church – the oldest in Berlin – just across the street).

Us:  We believe that God is in our hearts so we can pray anywhere including right here.

Saleem:  No.  You can’t pray for me here.  There’s alcohol served here and this place is not clean…… <he rattled on several more things but I couldn’t keep up with his German – it was obvious he didn’t want us praying for him there>

Us:  OK. We won’t pray for you here but we will pray for you.

We thanked him for our time with him and then made our way out on to the street.  We went one block down and took the time to pray for Saleem.  We continue to pray for him now too.

I wanted to share with you just two of several conversations we had that day.  We also stopped and talked with a computer shop owner who was wanting to move to Florida and get away from the cold of Berlin and also with a girl who was collecting money for an organization that helped homeless boys in Berlin by feeding them, clothing them and giving them job training.

From these conversations we could see that people were yearning for spiritual things and they felt a need for justice in this world but didn’t know how it would be obtained.  Berlin is waiting to hear/see the Gospel.  Europe is waiting to hear/see the Gospel. Want to be a part of that?  Contact us.

I went on this adventure with Charles, a missionary based in France, and therefore I became the interpreter since I knew more German (scary).  As we were walking, a young man, whom we later found out to be named Stefan, approached us asking if we lived in Berlin.  He held a stack of papers like he was doing some sort of survey.  As it turns out, he was getting people who lived in Berlin to sign a petition to allow students to have the choice of taking a religion course instead of ethics.  Currently, everyone is required to take ethics but if they want to take a religion course, it is only offered after normal school hours.

The conversation went a little something like this:

Stefan:  We think that students should have the choice of attending religion courses instead of just ethics classes.

Us: What grades are we talking about?

Stefan:  1st grade through 4th grade and higher.

Us:  Do the parents of the child choose or does the child choose him/herself?

Stefan:  No, no, the child chooses for himself.

Us:  Do you believe a child at that age can really choose for themselves?

Stefan:  Oh yes.  Parents shouldn’t be choosing these things for their children.

Us:  What religion would the religion classes be about?

Stefan:  They can choose which religion.  They should offer Christianity (remember, that would be Catholic or Lutheran here in Germany), Judaism, Islam, and other worldly religions study (think New Age along with a mixture of Eastern Religions).

Us: Do you believe in religion?

Stefan:  Yes, of course.

Us:  Do you believe in God?

Stefan:  Yes, I believe in God.  I’m a Christian.

Us:  Catholic or Lutheran?

Stefan:  Oh, I don’t go to church.  Church is not for me.  I don’t do anything with it. But I do have and read the Bible.

Us:  Do you believe the Bible is the Word of God?

Stefan:  Well, the Bible has a lot of things in it that are really good for people to know but I don’t think I believe it is the Word of God.

Us: We believe that God hears our prayers and answers them.  May we pray for you?

Stefan:  (very shocked look on his face) Um, well, OK.  You really want to pray for me?

Us:  Yes, is there anything we can pray for you for?

Stefan:  Yes, I’m going to have to leave school soon to do my required 9 months in the German army.  I’ll be away from my family.  Please pray for that time period.

Us:  Good.  Let’s pray then.

Stefan:  You mean you are going to pray right now, here?

Us:  Yes.  Is that OK with you?

Stefan:  Yes, that is OK.  Can I then pray for you?

Us: We would love that.

We then prayed right there on the street with him.  We continued to pray for him even after we left and as I write this, I continue to pray for Stefan.  Would you pray with us too?

Tomorrow, I’ll post another conversation we had that day.

This last weekend we did a little two day trip to Rothenburg ob der Tauber with another eDOT family. This was an old walled city that has origins dating back to the 900′s. In the war (WWII for non-Europeans), 40% of the city was bombed but due to a lot of people’s generosity they have rebuilt the city. Even our German friends think that this is a just a beautiful place to visit and I have to agree.

If you do visit this town, you have to go on the Night Watchman tour. He was an excellent tour guide with a great way of telling you the town’s history.

Check out my photos in the Photo Album.

Now our time this summer back in the States was a whirlwind, then I came home to Germany only to immediately run off to Hungary, then worked with a team here in Germany and then ran off to Ukraine. Some would say I’ve been a bit on the go. I also haven’t been alone. As in me, by myself, alone. Now this may come as a shock to some people, but I’m a borderline introvert. This means that I need my alone time or I tend to go a little crazy. My wonderful wife recognized this this past week and then proceeded to book me a two-night stay at a little hotel in the Black Forest. It was a wonderful two days of solitude where I got to go do some hiking (catch my photos in the Photo Album), play around with Photoshop and spend some time in God’s Word.

One of the amazing things about hiking in Der Schwarzwald (the Black Forest) is that you never know what you are going to come across. As I was hiking, all of the sudden I see this small chapel near the trail (see the photo above). It’s a very small chapel and as I approached I saw a sign with a man’s picture on it. It was a picture of Willibald Strohmeyer. The title above his picture was “SS-Terror and Priest’s death in Muenstertal” (my translation).

As I continued reading, I came to find out that this man was a priest in the area during World War II. He led an order of nuns (yes, they had a priest leading them) that took care of the homeless and needy. When the Nazis came to power, he was too popular by the people to touch. But near the end of the war, when the French were invading this area of Germany, Willibald Strohmeyer encouraged the locals to not resist and to put out white flags in hopes of not provoking the French to destroy this region. On Sunday, April 22, 1945, a group of SS Troopers arrested him during a church service. He was driven into the hills, robbed and brutally murdered. His body wasn’t found until May 5th. The chapel that I had found was to make sure that he was remembered not only for his death but more for how he chose to live his life.

Ironically, the sermon he gave just three hours before his death was on John 16:16-26:

16″In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”
17Some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” 18They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”
19Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? 20I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. 21A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. 22So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. 23In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 24Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
25″Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. 26In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.

- John 16:16-26 (NIV – emphasis mine)

It’s amazing what you can find when you are not on a tourist’s path but deep into life’s journeys.

Opening Presents on Christmas Eve

More photos like this can be found here in the Photo Album

Mom on our trip to Colmar, France for the Weihnachtmarket

More photos like this can be found here in the Photo Album

One of our favorite trips is to Haut Koenigsbourg in France

More photos like this can be found here in the Photo Album

Krista and her sister in front of the largest waterfall in Germany (Triberg in the Black Forest)

More photos like this can be found here in the Photo Album

Hope ya’ll have a wonderful New Year’s Eve. We’ve got our fireworks and we’re ready to go. Tschuess.

Sorry I have not blogged for a while. The day that I last blogged was the day that my parents came for a two week visit. It was wonderful having them here. It also gave us an excuse to take some time off and do some of the sightseeing that one can do around here in the Black Forest and Switzerland.

It was really great catching up with them here and listening to them repeatedly say how much Alex has grown and matured. It was ironic that they came about 8 months after we left the US and in about 8 months time we are planning on returning to the States for a visit. So they came right in the middle.

You can see some of the Photo Albums from our trips using these links (these are just some of mine – between all of us, we had over 4 GBs of pictures):

• Triberg & Badenweiler
• Heidelberg
• Interlaken
• Augustica Rustica & Haut Koenigsbourg

Oh, in some of the pictures you will see John. John is an eDOT member who is currently raising his support to be a part of our team that is located in Kiev, Ukraine. Also, you will see Krista’s Dad, Howard. He was able to have a two day layover with us on his way from Kenya to the USA.

Something we have found interesting is that when you live in America, a lot of people have a fascination with castles and the fairy tales of knights and princesses. However over here in the land of castles (and the origins of fairy tales – remember the Brothers Grimm are from the Black Forest), a lot of people have a fascination with teepees and the Native Americans. Just something to think about.

Check out our exploration of Burgruine Rötteln in the photo album.

There is definitely a difference from rural Germany (which is where we live) and urban Germany. Even how they speak German is very different however it was awesome to see the sights. The Dom (Cologne’s huge cathedral) was spectacular and even just hanging out in the park and letting the kids splash in the fountains was very relaxing. A highlight for us was that they have a Mexican restaurant (not something we have found in our area) and so we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

But probably the most memorable time in the weekend was on our way to the restaurant. After we parked our cars and were trying to figure out if we needed to pay for parking (of course, the signs are in German), several men were yelling to us that parking was free as it was after 3 PM on a Saturday. My friend approached them and started conversing with them in his limited German. Our wives and kids went on to the restaurant but he and I stayed just for a few minutes talking with them. On Saturday nights (and from what I could tell, other nights as well), these gentlemen hung out at this coffee shop (owned by a man from Tunisia) and played Rummy (but not for money, they insisted). All of these men were from Algeria (over 30% of Cologne are immigrants). They invited my friend to come hang out with them any time he wanted and he could play cards and work on his German (they all had to learn German when they moved here too). We introduced ourselves and then were going to introduce our families when we realized they had already left and decided we had better get moving ourselves.

We walked away from that experience pumped. Not only were we able to speak with these men in German, but also to be invited to hang out with them is just the opportunity that my friend is looking for in his ministry. Lives are changed when relationships are built and in those relationships, people see God’s Work in our lives as Christians. That doesn’t mean being perfect, it just means that they can see the Hope we have and how that moves us.

Please check out our photo album with all of the pictures from Cologne.

It was interesting as these are “newer” castles that were constructing in the 19th century. You may look at Schloss Neuschwantstein and think it looks familar. Well, if you like Walt Disney World, then you probably can guess that this was the castle that inspired the design of Cinderella’s castle. Unfortunately, the do not allow photos of the inside of the castles (but you could probably find plenty online) but they were both absolutely fabulous. A must see if you come this way.

Oh, if you want to see this latest photo set directly, just click here

Tschuess!!