Romania and stuff

Romania

My trip to Romania was very good.  I will go ahead and tell about all the characters in my story so that I do not have to keep referring to the “guy who is German who was in charge of our trip” or “the Romanian girl who could speak English and went around with us”.  There were seven of us total that drove from Chemnitz to Romania.  First is my friend Jon, who I met in the German course and needed to go back to Romania to get some insurance stuff worked out.  Then Ingo, Detliff, Dagma, and Mischa were all from the church here in Chemnitz.  Dagma was the only woman with us and Mischa was our boss.  Silvio and myself were the last of our party from Germany.   I do not think Silvio knew anyone but Mischa before the trip.  He comes from a part of Germany that has a very strong accent and a different dialect that is sometimes very hard to understand.  The rest of the people are Romanians that we met there.  Nate and Mari is a young married couple who went around as our translators.  Nate can speak German and Romanian and Mari Romanian and English so I was able to understand too.  For three nights we stayed with a pastor named Niko and his wife and daughter. So those are all the major players in this tale from afar.  Sorry for the cheesiness, I feel like telling a story and spicing it up, but don’t worry, everything you read here is true. 

So when we started out I really had no idea what we were going to be doing or what I was really supposed to do.  I had been asked if I could drive and so I thought I was going just as a driver and that the other people couldn’t drive at all.  This turned out to be false.  I rode with Silvio the entire time and only drove for a few hours on the long trip there and back.  I couldn’t tell if he just liked to drive or if he was not too sure about my driving.  The first time we swapped on the way there may have had something to do with that.  We had stopped at one of the borders to buy what they call a vignette, which is something you must pay for so that you can drive on the different countries highways.  After a nice little break and stretching it was time to go and Silvio gave me the keys to drive.  I got in the drivers seat, buckled up, and turned on the van.  The other two cars went on ahead of us and since I didn’t want to lose them I kind of rushed the clutch and tried to catch up.  Instead of catching up I stalled out.  And then I did it two or three more times.  I was a bit embarrassed, I had told him I knew how to drive a manual and how I have one back home and all, and then I could not for the life of me get the van to go.  At this point I looked over at Silvio with an expression of I have no idea what is going on here and then noticed the parking break was still on.  I felt a wave of relief that there was another reason for me not being able to get going.  But then it happened again.  I got going in first gear just fine but when I tried to shift to second I killed it again.  I finally got it up to speed and we took off down the highway.  I was happy to be driving in the higher gears where you can’t really kill it like that and then not too long down the road we got stuck in traffic.  And I killed it twice more.  The clutch was very tight so you had to take your foot off of it very slowly.  Because we were in traffic I was trying to go a little too quick and killed it.  Then I killed it again trying to shift into second gear.  At this point Silvio realized what I was doing and let me know I was shifting into fourth gear instead of second.   The van had six gears and the R was on the bottom to the far left, where the second gear is on every other car I have driven.  Because of this I was trying to not move the gear shifter all the way to the left and down when I went to second gear.  I did not realize you have to pull something else to get into R and that the second gear was located in the same place as it normally is.  So, anyways once I figured that out I was ok, but I think the damage may have already been done and so I didn’t have to drive that much.  A little embarrassing, but I guess it kind of worked out good for me.

So anyways, back to our trip.  In the beginning I had it in my mind that this was going to be like the trips to Mexico that I had been on with our church back home.  Because of this I did find several similarities in the two trips, but once I realized that I was trying to make it similar I also found many differences.  We ate good everywhere we went.  The Romanian people we stayed with and met were all very good to us and seemed very appreciative of us being there.  Being with the Germans and seeing their attitudes and the attitudes of the Romanians around the Germans, I realized that Germany is really viewed as a rich country and a good place to live in Europe.  This was a lot like when us as Americans would visit Mexico.  There was a certain attitude that you could feel, and one that I think our youth group and myself probably had when we visited Mexico.  Everything is different from your country and you feel as though you’re being adventurous and learning a new culture.  At the same time there is a kind of arrogance among your group.  It is not a mean arrogance, just kind of a feeling that you know where you come from is better and maybe not even an arrogance but just a feeling of strangeness amongst the new surroundings and so you compare it to what you have back home and think how much easier life is for you.  I know I never realized I felt that when I was in Mexico, and I don’t believe any of the Germans would say they think they are better than the Romanians or anything like that.  But I think once I had seen the poverty in Mexico and the Germans saw the poverty in Romania this arrogance transforms into a kind of pity and maybe even guilt.  The Germans had the same reactions as many of our group had when they came face to face with such extreme poverty, they cried and realized how much we all have.  They thought about their own children living like so many people do, and wanted to bring them back to their world or at least give more to make these kids lives better.  I don’t know how it will impact their lives, but I know for me and probably many others who I have gone to Mexico with it stays with you, although, at the same time, we go back to our worlds and after a few weeks you don’t really think about it anymore.  Before long we are again worrying about what new clothes or shoes we need to look good, or when the next xbox game is coming out.  I really wonder what would the Romanians think or feel if they went to Mexico.  To me, the people in Mexico were worse off, but it really wasn’t by that much.  That’s really not important though, Id just like to know if when people who live in extreme poverty see other people in extreme poverty, would they have the same reactions as us?  Would they see poverty? Would they see everything we don’t see in their lives, or would they see the things that are there and think I wish I had those 4 years old, dirty, holey shoes?  Would it be the same as when I used to go to Matt’s house and wish I had a tv and N64 in my room? 

These kinds of trips remind you that we are the rich people, in America especially.  Its good to be reminded, but also raises a lot of questions.  I used to think how glad I was that my family was not super rich, that my parents made me work growing up and how I learned to be frugal at times and not have to have everything I wanted.  I would read the verses about the rich man going to heaven and how its easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle and think how glad I was that I didn’t have so much that I was so consumed by my possessions.  And then when I saw someone begging or without, I would think Im just a college student, I don’t really have that much to give anyways.  And later Id buy myself a new xbox game.  We are the rich men Jesus talked about.  We are also the ones to whom much has been given, so much is expected from us.  But I don’t know how to give up my things and trust that God will provide.  I can give a little every month or when I go on a trip.  What I think I can give and still have enough to live like I want to, that is.  It makes me feel better about myself, makes me feel like I must be doing something right.  But Jesus told the rich man to sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor. Everything.  How do I give away all my new clothes? What will I wear? What has God already provided that I should keep for myself? What do I really need?  I have no idea.

Id like to end with that, but there is more from Romania that I found interesting.  I had several very good conversations with Jon, Mari, and then with the other Germans.  There are very many Gypsies that live in Romania and the Romanians hate them.  Every Romanian that I talked with about them said the same things.  They said they were lazy and didn’t work or even want to work, that they thought differently than others.  They talked about them being thiefs and begging for money instead of getting real jobs.  There are many houses in Romania that were half built and they said these were all Gypsy houses, that they start to build these huge homes but then don’t have enough money to finish them.  There were also many finished houses that were also clearly Gypsy houses by the decorations they use.  They told me the Gypsies had no taste and built these huge homes with all kinds of tacky decorations.  Mari told me many of the kids didn’t go to school and most didn’t want help to get out of their situations even if there was some kind of help for them, which in most cases there is not.   I guess every society needs someone to hate/blame?

I learned a lot more about Ingo.  He is a man from the church here in Chemnitz who is very interesting to me.  I have known him for three weeks, and been around him a fair amount.  He set up our internet here and then tried to help me with my computer when it didn’t work.  I also have been around him at a few different programs we help with and the entire time had no idea he could speak English.  I do not think I would have known this even now, but he rode with Mari and so the only way to communicate was for him to speak English.  When I had been around him before he acted like he couldn’t understand anything I said in English.  I asked him why he never let on that he could understand and he said it was kind of a German way to not show everything you can do.  He said part of it was from the war and the other part was that you didn’t want to act like you were better than everyone else.  Talking with him and everyone else was very interesting but I cant really explain everything we talked about here. 

A few other things.  We went to a really nice castle one afternoon.  Supposedly Vlad Tepes, aka Vlad the Impaler, aka Dracula was held prisoner here for one year.  There are a few other facts or tales from the castle but Ill attach those to the pictures with which they belong on facebook.  The Romanians eat a lot of peppers and grow grapes everywhere.  It was really cool to be able to pick a bundle of grapes fresh off the vine and eat them.  It was not so cool(pun intended) to eat some of the peppers.  One meal we had some kind of peppers that Silvio and I tried.  He and I both could not eat the whole thing and I even felt kind of lightheaded it was so hot.  Jon had no problem with it and was laughing at us.  Silvio put the last one in his pocket to take home to his son.  I thought that was funny.   We went to the slums, a few families homes, to a childrens home, and to a place where mentally handicapped youth were living.  All these places we dropped off clothes or bikes or something helpful and then played with the kids for a little while. Jon told me he had never seen anything like this and it was very hard for him.  He said hes not usually around this kind of thing.  I was glad he went.  He just wanted a ride back to get his insurance stuff sorted out, but he got a bit of an education too I think.  He is studying politics in the uni here so I told him its good for him to see so that he can now know the people he is serving. He is also Orthodox.  I need to talk with him later, but I don’t think he understood or was used to some of the things we did or what the pastor said.  I am not entirely sure what, or even if I agree with what the pastor said, but he was translating for me and at one point told me now this guy is just being rude. Ha, I am looking forward to finding out what it was he said.

Ill post the pictures on facebook soon I hope.  I didn’t take any pictures of the different places we went because I didn’t feel right about it.  I tried to imagine if people came to my house and started taking pictures like I was an animal in a zoo or some kind of sight to see, and I just think that would feel a bit demeaning.  Besides, you never see the pictures that Jesus, Gandhi, or Mother Theresa took, just the pictures of them loving the people.  Not to say Im anywhere in their ballpark, but I figured it was a start in the right direction to worry more about interacting with the people instead of hiding behind a camera lens.

Quick Update

We dont have internet at the hospital where we are staying right now. Hopefully that will be fixed pretty soon though. I have had a pretty busy and tiring week with work starting in the afternoons and german class in the mornings.  Monday night I got to meet up with one of my classmates to watch a soccer game.  Tuesday night I met up with a guy from who is going to meet with me to hang out and practice speaking in German.  We went and ate dinner then went and met up with some other of my classmates and watched another game.  You can find a soccer game to watch every day of the week here.  Yesterday we working with the kids in Floha, well playing with them, and one of their dads showed up.  He was drunk and drinking more.  He talked with the lady in charge most of the time, but he was really not that threatening which was the only good thing about it.  He is a Nazi as best I could tell. He thought I was from England and wanted to talk with me about the Bible and about what he believes.  Once he found out I was from America he didnt seem to really want to talk with me.  I am really not sure why that made a difference.  I tried to ask the German girl on our team, but I couldnt understand her response and I dont think she wanted to talk about him too much.  I am very interested in talking with the guy though. Hopefully once I learn German a little better I amy get another chance.  Most of the people in my class have been very interesting to discuss our religions with. One guy from China told me he wants to come to church with us sometime.  Im excited about this, but I am not going to be at church for the next two weeks so I hope he doesnt lose interest during that time.  This weekend we are going to a youth workers conference or something.  The next weekend I will be in Romania.  Oh yea, next Wednesday I am driving some people to Romania.  Again, as best as I can tell, it is kind of a mission trip they do every year at least once.  I think we will be taking supplies and things to poor areas in Romania.  One of my friends from the class is form Romania and has asked if we have an open seat.  I have not asked yet, but I hope he will be able to come with us.  He is fun to talk with.  He is an Eastern Orthodox Christian and after the class I took I am very interested in learning more from him.  I think that there were some aspects of Christianity the West may have lost in the Great Schism.  Anyways, more later.  Peace

IMT Start Week

Since my last post I have been extremely busy and at the moment I am pretty tired... therefore, I will try to remember everything but this will probably be more of a highlight post.

My last weekend in Zwickau with verona and her family was spent camping with some of their friends.  It was a very relaxing time just hanging out, going for walks, and swimming in the lake nearby. I wasnt quite sure what to expect, but it was kind of like camping at someones lake house but with the lake not right there.  The food was all really good and their friends were good to try and practice some German with.  I did find out just how unbashful German people are though.  We went swimming with one of the women we were camping with, and instead of changing into a bathing suit she just stripped down in front of us at the lake and jumped in.  There were some other things that I observed or happened on the trip but after this week I cannot remember them at all.

So... Monday morning we drove to Chemnitz and met the rest of the team, except for one girl from Brazil who is coming next week.  There is a girl from Estonia named Mareta. She is 19, has a lot of energy, and is the youngest child in her family.  She has been here the longest of the three new members of the team and can understand the most German although she doesnt like to try and speak it very often.  The next member is Claudia.  She comes from Germany, is the niece of one of our leaders, and is 24.  She can speak a little bit of English and can understand much more, can sing, and has kind of been our front man because she speaks German.  The next member is Raele. She comes from Latvia, is 19, and can also sing very well.  She and the next team member, Snidze, attended Wesley Camp in Latvia and we know several of the same people from Alabama. Sniedze is 24 and was a member of the team last year. She will be working on a little more specialized project than the rest of us so I am not sure as of yet how much we will work with her and the last member, Karen.  Karen is from Brazil and was also on the team last year so she is doing something a little more specialzed as well.  So thats a quick rundown of our team here.

Every morning this week and for the next two weeks, Raele, Mareta, and myself are attending German classes for four hours in the local uni here.  So far I have really enjoyed the classes.  We are in the very lowest begginners class and since Mareta and I have been in Germany for a week or so, we seem to be at the top of the class.  I love meeting the other students and talking with them.  They come from China, Venezuela, Spain, Estonia, India, Turkey, Mongolia, and Romania, but all of them can speak English so its good for me.  There are four students from Turkey and three who came from the same uni there and so I think knew each other beforehand.  In class we split up and talk in German at times.  The other day I was paired with one of the girls from Turkey and she was super interested in who I am and what I did and just everything about me.  She told me that in Turkey they saw people from the US and thought they were not kind, but that I looked kind and was kind.  Im not sure if kind was the exact word she wanted to use, but she doesnt speak English like you and me. Either way I could tell she was really surprised.  I am very interested in talking more with them as well the other students and figuring out just what she meant.  The other thing I have enjoyed about the class is that to learn German our teacher asks us questions about our home country and other historic and geographical questions.  We are all learning about each others countries while we learn German.  I also feel like I have the best education in the class.  Many, many times I am the only one that knows or has heard of some of the people we discuss in relation to German history or even the only other person that knows who someone from that country talks about.  I feel like most of the things we talk about I learned at IB.  Some of the people we talk about I am very surprised that others dont know them at all.  I dont know how prestigious this particular uni is, so that may play a role if these are not the best and brightest from their countries, but I def can see a difference in the level of education as far as history goes.  These students may also be engineers or something like that so they focused on math and science.

Back to IMT... for lunch we come back to the hospital and eat in their cafeteria. The food is not bad, although its nothing special either.  This week we did a lot of start work.. going over rules and what was expected and different forms we needed to fill out, as well as visiting a few of the places we will be working.  It seems from these places and what else they have told me, we will work with one or two different groups each afternoon-night, and what we do differs slightly depending on the group of kids.  With some we will just play and be extra helping hands and with other groups we will be more in charge, planning and leading bible studies and games.  It really kind of feels like some of what I did at BigHouse, just with different kids each day.  So, Micah, Susannah, Danna, and anyone else who works with kids creatively on a regular basis let me know if you have any good ideas for things to do with the kids... please.  This week has been very tiring though.  We have had very little if any free time to ourselves.  To end this week we went camping last night.  It was not so bad, there was a lot of very pretty scenery, but I thought we were going to see an area I was told was forbidden to sleep in and not on the map so that tourists wouldnt flock to it.  We never made it.  We left last night and hiked about an hour to where we slept.  It was a kind of cave.  We slept on the rock there and then this morning hiked some more.  Thats when I was kind of disappointed.  We were all very tired from the week already and hiking and sleeping on rocks the night before didnt make us any less tired.  So when we walked and walked and I thought we were headed to see this really amazing area they were trying to keep from tourists, and it turned out we were just a little bit lost heading back to our car I was kinda disappointed.  Its all good though.  We have had a good bit of free time today and I think we will again tomorrow so I can rest!

addendum

I forgot a few things I wanted to share yesterday.  First things about the kindergarten.  The kids get fresh fruit every day for a snack.  The teachers cut it all up and put them in two bowls overflowing with apples, oranges, and bananas.  They then call all the kids to sit on the floor in a circle and put the bowls in the middle of them.  What commences reminds me very much of what you see at the zoo when the monkeys are fed.  Little hands dig in from every direction and then shove the fruit into their mouths.  The kids end up with juices running down their faces and dirty hands but are really pretty clean.  Another thing that I first experienced at the kindergarten but am realizing it is everywhere, is having to take off your shoes that you wear outside before you go inside.  At the kindergarten I have to put on house shoes, much like Mr. Rogers, every morning, at peoples houses I leave them outside, and even when I went to play volleyball tonight I was supposed to change shoes when I got to the gym. 

I also wanted to tell more about the leftovers that we sometimes eat at dinner.  They are usually left over from lunch, but are sometimes left over from the dinner or lunch on the day before.  This is pretty normal, however, the leftovers are never put away.  They are left out on the counter in the pot they were cooked in, uncovered, and then reheated when its time to eat it again.  I am not trying to be critical here, the food surprisingly still tastes fine and I haven’t gotten sick yet, but I guess this is just something I have never seen before. 

One last thing to add about the city of Zwickau.  It is a really neat city.  Everywhere you look there is history from the 20^th century around and probably even more from before then but I just do not recognize it.  On the sidewalks they have little plaques in front of houses where Jewish people killed in the Holocaust used to live as a kind of remembrance.  The architecture is a mix between the traditional German and the kind used during the GDR under the communists.  There are also still crosswalk lights with the pictures from when the GDR was still around.  It is cool to walk where so much history took place and makes it easier to imagine what it must have been like to live during these times.  So many times I have seen pictures of the Nazis in action, so to speak, however, those were only still frames of a fragment of what happened in real life.  Here I can imagine the Nazis dragging families out of a house, like you would see in a picture, but also everything the might’ve taken place around them as well.  The person driving by in a car slowly, wondering what those people were in trouble for and trying to not draw attention to themselves, or the neighbors down the street walking back from the bakery with bread for dinner, sad to see their longtime acquaintances being taken away, not knowing what is really happening, but scared to ask for fear of incriminating themselves.  I can even imagine the young man standing down the street, who informed the Nazis where the Jews were living, believing the propaganda all around him and thinking he had done the right thing yet still feeling a tinge of guilt as the family is carried away.  Its all so much more real than the pictures when you walk the same streets as the participants of history.

Good luck...

I have a good bit to write about today so this will be a rather long post I think.  This is your fair warning and an understanding if only the bored and my mom make it through to the end.

I have quite a bit to catch up on.  I can not remember which day was which exactly, but here is the rundown of what I have been up to.  One afternoon we started out going to the grandmother of the family that feeds me.  Like any good grandmother she set out a feast of sweets and treats for us.  I ate until I wasn’t hungry ha.  She gave us sweet croissants, ice cream, fresh strawberries and raspberries, fresh cream, milk, chocolate waffle snacks, and several other things that were really good.  I played with the kids for a little while here and then we went to the local swimming pool.  It was very nice, they had a really fun water slide and some other little apparatuses.  I learned Germans are not shy.  They strip down wherever and especially with the kids, they let them run around naked anywhere.  On Saturday I went with a lady from the church here to some kind of 20^th anniversary of a volunteer program they have in Leipzig.  The day before had been the hottest day of the year, so I expected more of the same kind of weather.  It was not to be.  I wore shorts and luckily took a light sweater jacket but was still freezing during the day.  It turned out to be a pretty nice day.  It was kind of like a camps reunion where everyone was reuniting and seeing old friends so I was kind of the new guy who didn’t know anyone.  Add to this fact that I couldn’t really communicate with many of them and it was a bit awkward in the beginning.  I didn’t want to follow the lady around like a puppy all day so I kind of just wandered around for a little while.  Leo(the lady) finally introduced me to a group of friends because they were gonna give me a ride home later.  A few of them spoke ok English so I was able to talk with them some as the day went on, although I felt a bit awkward at times just standing there all day not having any idea what they were talking about.  I would have liked to stay in touch with a few of them, but none of them have Facebook! For dinner that night we had bratwursts on little rolls, I expect to eat this meal plenty this year. 

On Sunday I went to church in the morning.  A girl I found out later was the pastors wife came and translated for me, which was nice.  I hung out with Verona and her family during the day and I think that afternoon we went to the zoo.  It was pretty nice.  I think the Birmingham zoo is larger and has more animals and all but it was not as disappointing as the circus in France was.  Ask me if you don’t know what Im talking about.  This week I have been working in the kindergarten in the mornings and then coming back for an afternoon German lesson and then eating dinner a little later.  Kindergarten here has been very interesting.  I talk and play with the kids using the few German words I know and try to learn more by asking them what everything is.. they seem to like me ok ha.  I think the next great reality show should be taking the German kindergarten teachers and swapping them with some American teachers.  It would be funny.  The German children seem to be allowed to do almost whatever as long as its not fighting with another kid.  They can use scissors and glue and any other art supply whenever they like even if the teachers are in the other room. They climb and hang off all kinds of places.  I was pushing some kids on a big swing thing where several could sit in it at once which was connected to the horizontal bar above by two chains in a triangle formation.  As I was pushing the kids, two of them, one on each side, began hanging on the chains and doing all kinds of flips and acrobatics.  We were above a cement ground and I could really see it ending badly if they fell.  The other teachers didn’t seem to mind though so I didn’t either.  On the way to the playground the kids are also allowed to run on ahead or bring up the rear as they like.  I guess theres not too many places for the kids to go except outside or back to their class, but its definitely not like having to be single filed and quiet. I also eat lunch with the kids everyday.  They all know they must be quiet during lunch and use forks, spoons, and knives as they please.  They are quite good with the utensils though.  Better than most 4 and 5 years olds I think.  After lunch they all strip down to their underwear, boys and girls, for naptime.  This is when I leave.  The kids are all really funny as most children that age are.  There is one who reminds of the kid from Willy Wonka, he might be my favorite.

I cant remember eating too many different things since the last time I wrote.  Dinners are almost always a variant of bread and maybe a few vegetables and cheese and butter, sometimes leftovers from lunch.  I did have pumpkin soup the other day which wasn’t terrible.  I also had these potato and flour balls with goulash on top which was pretty good.  The meals at the kindergarten are not very good unfortunately.  Todays was the first one I really liked. We had boiled potatoes, cucumber salad, and scrambled eggs. 

I am ready to move to Chemnitz I think.  I would like to be able to really unpack and get settled in.  Here I am living out of one suitcase( Im afraid my big one wont shut again if I open it here) and its getting kind of old.

I have found that when you cannot understand the language being spoken, one has quite a lot of free time to think to one’s self.  Its like when you are reading in a noisy place and you are able to tune everything out and focus only on what is being read, except here its much easier because it’s all a bunch of gibberish anyways so you don’t catch a word here or there to distract you.  Now, this very reason for having so much time to think is both a blessing and a curse per se.  It is a blessing because the usual excuses and distractions from focusing on God are almost completely gone.  I cant understand the tv, radio, or other people so theres not much point in “wasting time” (as if when its in English its not wasting time) and things are not nearly as fun when you cant communicate with people around you, or when it takes quite an effort to get any idea across.  There are few if any outside influences that distract my thoughts from God.  I live in a church, eat meals with a family whose mother works in the church, work in the kindergarten in the mornings, and hang out with the family or in the church.  I am not vulnerable to all of the tv shows, music, commercials, etc. that once you get away from it, you realize carries a lot of trash.  However, having so much time to think to oneself can easily be flipped into a bit of a curse.  Although it is great for me to not be distracted by so many things that are usually easy to find and take my time and now focus on God more, it is also easier for me to focus on the very things that so many people escape from with tv, radio, or other people.  It is easy for me to focus on not being able to speak the language yet and worry about what the heck am I going to do for a year here and if Ill miss my family and friends and so on and so forth.  When I begin to do this, being alone with your thoughts is more of a nightmare than a nice study/vacation/work year in Germany.  Recently my dad spoke at church, and although I didn’t attend, I was told he spoke about going through trials and this making you stronger.  How we should embrace trials that God sends our way as a kind of learning and growing time.  Along with my thoughts about my free time, I have also contemplated this idea which I definitely agree with.  I believe they are closely related and in another way than just seeing my time here as just a trial or hard time.  Well, maybe they are kind of a stepping stone to where I am going.  I think that in my time here, especially while I learn the language, I must keep my eyes on Jesus and focus on God’s will and his love for me and let every worry go to the wayside.  I think that when we go through trials it is easiest for us to go to God and focus only on him.  When we are hurting and at our worst or really struggling, these are the times it is easiest for us to quit relying on ourselves and go to God and let him take over for us.  We finally realize in these times that we aren’t sufficient and so we go to God to help us through our troubles.  Its in these times we keep our focus on God and allow him to take over our lives and in return are filled with so much love and peace.  I do not really consider my time here a struggle, definitely not as much as I know others are experiencing.  I think that many people, however, (myself included) tend to ignore and/or escape so much of life on a daily basis instead of remaining focused on God.  I have realized how difficult it can be to keep your thoughts focused towards God and his will even when we get away from daily distractions.  I have also realized how difficult it can be even when you are away from distractions to face God and allow him to have his way in me.  I think it is much easier for myself and so many others to simply stay distracted until we hit the bottom.  Once we are there and really struggling, then it is easy to come to such a forgiving and graceful God and let him teach us and love us.  This will sound obvious, but we have to really keep our focus on God at all times.  The Bible is full of stories that we should be able to learn from(rather than experience for ourselves, although experience is the best teacher I suppose).  Peter walked on the water while he focused on Jesus but the minute he allowed himself to be distracted he began to sink. Walk by faith not by sight. Jonah got eaten by a whale when he got distracted by fears.  We have to fight both outward distractions and our own thoughts. NOT. (that was a “this shirt is black. Not. Joke fyi) We have to  keep our minds, hearts, and spirits on God and he will do the fighting for us.

The last thing I have been thinking about I may just leave as a question for now, well with a little explanation of my line of thinking.  Ive been wondering why do pastors get paid? When/how did that start? And why do they get paid more as they progress up the ladder as Superintendent or Bishop or whatever?  The last part is really what Ive wondered about.  Why do those in higher positions make so much money? Would it not be better if the church just took care of their pastors? I realize that by paying them that yes, this is taking care of them, but does anyone really need that much money? Sure its nice to have things but as Jesus told the rich man, its easier for a camel to go through a needle than for  him to go to Heaven.  I guess I don’t understand why or how pastors allow themselves to make so much money.  If they are called by God then they should trust Him to take care of their needs.  Their needs.  Not their wants necessarily.  When Paul came or sent others to churches in the Bible, that town provided for their needs.  I would think that at least a few pastors would feel a bit of guilt making so much money off of teaching to feed the poor and love your neighbor and then not giving away all of the excess money not needed for their needs.  I realize that I don’t know how pastors spend their money so maybe many of them do this already and I am unaware.  I also realize that pastors are humans too and it is easy to ignore the little feeling you get when you become aware of a homeless person or someone in need.  I also thought that maybe some would respond that you need to have competitive pay and some incentives to encourage people to answer their calling, or something along those lines.  I would think that if you didn’t, though, then we might have less people who are not as sincere or who become comfortable in their role as pastor. Meaning they will only remain pastors and clergy as long as they are really trusting God and certain that they are where God wants them, not just because it’s a comfortable job and they know the routine.  This is probably oversimplified and I know there are a ton of factors that go into someone becoming a pastor or whatever. I am also aware that it is rather easy to think you are being called somewhere and then find out you were wrong or it was really just you wanting something.

Anyways, if you made it this far Im impressed. I guess thats all for today ha.

Its a small world after all...

Today I rode on the autobahn listening to Shakira sing in Spanglish about Africa with a girl from Estonia as we passed a Mcdonalds at every exit.  Its a small world. 

I had a good flight over two days ago.  The longest leg from NYC to Frankfurt was really very nice.  I flew with Singapore Airlines and they provided me with two meals, hot towels before each meal, pillows, blankets, any drink I wanted, headphones, many options for entertainment in the form of video games and movies, and even a pack with a toothbrush and toothpaste to freshen up with.  From Frankfurt I flew to Dresden and then had to catch a train to Zwickau.  I actually had to catch a train from the airport to the main train station and then from there to Zwickau which took me a few minutes to figure out, but it wasnt bad.  Once I arrived in Zwickau I called the lady who I had been in contact with and her husband came and picked me up from the station.  It was about a five minute drive back to where they live, but it was kind of awkward as I didnt speak any German.  I found out later from Mareta that they all thought I spoke German very well ha.  I had used google translate to respond to emails. Verona and Sebastian, the lady Id been in contact with and her husband, do speak English very well too, but I was trying to only speak in German in the car because I didnt know he spoke English.  Anyways, its all good.  I have slept in the past two days which has been nice and then in the afternoons Sebastian teaches a German class for Mareta, myself, and a girl named Kate who is taking a year off from Emory Divinity school to work over here. 

The food has been good.  I have only eaten one breakfast where I had an egg and some bread.  For lunch we have our big meal where they cook a good bit.  My first lunch here we had some kind of short, straight, thick noodles and some sauce they made. I had never had anything like it.  With this they had some zucchini wrapped in bacon and fried in a pan.. it was all good.  My second lunch, from today, was a kind of potato salad and some fried cauliflower with tomatoes and pickles.  They said it was cold food because it was so hot out.  For our dinners we eat bread and cheese and pickles.  It is pretty good to me.  We also have whatever is left over from lunch and occasionally they cut up some onions and salami.  It is very simple but pretty good.  We have been drinking a drink that comes from a flower.  They take some part of the flower and drain it and then add a lot of water to the liquid.  It tastes kind of like a flower smells but not quite as strong. 

I have learned a few things since being here already.  And now that Im trying to remember them I cant.  Their education system is much different.  In the 5th grade they go to one of two schools. One of the schools will allow them to attend a university and the other they will most likely get trained in a profession.  It all depends on their grades up through the 4th grade... talk about pressure on a kid.  In Eastern Germany where the Soviets were, which includes Zwickau, only 25% of the people are Christians.  There were other things that were more interesting but I am tired and cant recall them now.  Until next time.. peace.

Interesting

Its us vs. them. Them. Them. Those others.  It always has been. For me anyways. Not Forever. Not for everyone. Though for most.  There has always been a nemesis, not even a nemesis, just an enemy.  I didnt always understand it. How could I?  I was just a kid.  Why did my people hate others for no reason aside from for a few differences.  They ignored the similarities, it didnt matter they both loved Jesus and their families.  It was only the differences that got brought up.  His skin was different, he liked him instead of her, he was wrong.  Now I understand.  We were scared.  We didnt really know them.  They might be dangerous, they might challenge our beliefs or expose in us feelings we shouldnt have.  The rest of our people would look at us differently if we even tried to understand.  We would turn into one of them.  Our power, the only thing we thought we had, the only thing we thought we had to combat our fear would be gone.  We would have no one to focus on but ourselves.  We would be exposed as weak.  Its better to work on others, to focus on their shortcomings, on why we are better people than they, to fix them to be closer to what we secretly know ourselves not to be.  It snowballs out of control.  Until we forget to check ourselves.  Until we know whats wrong with them without questioning our reasons.  Thank God Im an adult now.  Now I can recognize fear in others.  Now I can work on those afraid.  They need more work than I. And the circle continues...

                                                                             Anonymous