My time here in London is coming to a close. I have an hour to wait before they announce my gate, and then, I'll be getting ready to board my plane and 'high-tail' it back to Germany. My time here in England has been really good--in a lot of ways it's been very challenging, but it has also been very refreshing. In total, I got to spend about five or six hours in conversations with people via video chat, chat, or e-mails. That was a really cool, refreshing thing for me--to be able to connect with people back home.
It was also really good for me to gain another perspective about the ministry that I'm doing in Germany and to get a feel for what it looks like, what it should look like (for me), and what I'm supposed to do in order to help fulfill my role on the team. I'm excited to get back into the swing of things tomorrow and to share my faith again with people. I'm still praying for a chance to share my faith or to have a meaningful conversation before I leave London, or before I meet up with my team at the Rail Station.
It's exciting to me that sharing my faith has become, and is becoming, something I'm seeing as a privilege, and I'm glad to do it because I get to tell people about why I'm different, about why God has changed me, and how he can do the same in their lives. I was reading 1 Timothy this morning, and Paul kept urging Timothy to set the bar high, to set an example for the others, and not to let them judge him based on superficial things, but rather, to have a high standard of faith and to be willing to have people rough that up a bit in order to see if it still stands. When I get back to Germany, it's going to be a different world again, German, different cultural expectations, but I'm learning more and more to get used to those things and adapt them to myself.
One thing is for sure, ministry is something that happens out of the heart, as an overflow. You can't serve from an empty well. Our very first ministry is to ourselves, to make sure that our faith, my faith, is taking root and hold in my heart and life. I can't be a 'truth-proclaimer' to others if I don't have it in my life. My life needs to be full of that gospel. Once my life is full, from spending time in the Bible, from being part of a church community, from prayer, then I can allow the excess of my ministry to fall upon others, but if I'll I'm doing is serving, doing, and being, then I'm not passing anything out that is 'refreshing,' there is no water going anywhere, there is only puffs of hot air. I got to have Jesus get that living water going in my life--once that water starts pumping, you can't shut it off. It just makes me ask, how often do I suppress Jesus and spend all my time pushing that water down instead of letting him fill me up? Because if Jesus is truly working, then the water is coming, but I myself have to do something to divert that flow (and in reality, doing nothing IS doing something--just that something has no end result).
I didn't expect to write a lot here in the airport, but alas, there it is. It's going to be busy for the next few days. From what I know, we're leaving for Mainz tomorrow morning and will be there until the 6th, following that, the team goes directly to Heidelberg until the 11th, but from what I gather, I will not be going on that one, I'll be back at the house. After that, not really sure, the future is a bit uncertain. Hopefully I can get a list of all our outreaches for the next two months, so I can stay informed!
June 2, 2010
June 1, 2010
London: The Overcast Isle City
London. To be perfectly honest, London wasn't my favorite city in the world. It was pretty cool, and I got to see Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye, but, doing it all alone was just kind of a let down. It rained most of the day, so thankfully I was prepared with an umbrella, but it was just kind of an extra bummer thing.
One thing that was really cool was that I was able to really use the subways and trains effectively, so that was nice. The tube is a pretty efficient way to get around London. One thing that was cool is that I got to go to Starbucks and do some writing and afterwards I just walked around that section of London. It was a sketchier part of the city, but it was cool to walk around and pray for the people who live and work there and to know that yeah, God is still doing things in this city.
I saw a homeless guy on the sidewalk and I walked by, and as I did, I was reminded that, yeah, I'm doing ministry full time in Germany in a language I don't speak, and here in England, I have the privilege of knowing the language, and I had prayed for God to give me opportunities to share my faith or to talk about him while I'm here. So I turned around and walked back and asked the guy if he was hungry. He told me he was a little bit, so I asked him if he wanted McDonald's. He said he did; I was thinking that yeah, he'd come with me and we'd get the food, but he didn't move or anything. So I told him I'd get it and be back, so I bought the food and brought it back to him. In my head, I was like, dang it, I don't want to just bring him food and just appear like a 'good guy,' I want him to know that it's Jesus in me that makes me want to serve the hurting. I gave him the bag, and I didn't have anything to say really, so I knelt down a bit and told him something about me being a missionary in Germany and I think I said something about Jesus. I can't remember what he said after that. Either way, I have no idea if what I did affected him, but I'm hoping that, somehow, he can meet Jesus. To me, it's cool that I don't have to worry about his salvation, because it's in the hands of God. God wants him to be saved and God will bring people to minister to him. My job is to simply be faithful and to stop and turn around when God asks me to and to do whatever it takes to obey God and let God take care of what he's good at--saving people.
I thought that was a cool experience here in London--it's funny that that no matter where we are in the world, God still wants us to obey him and have the first place in our lives.
Yesterday was also a semi-average day. I got to my hostel at 3p and immediately skyped with Paul Rheingans, which was fantastic. Later, I walked into town and went into some shops and got some souvenirs for my brother, and then I came back. I skyped with Amanda for a while, which was also really cool. But afterwards, I realized that I had no food. So I walked back into town and bought some food.
The place I'm staying in, Feltham, is pretty sketchy. There are a lot of little family-owned stores, and you can tell that this is a start-up town for immigrants. That's not a bad thing, but I didn't expect that, and the town just seems like a place that wouldn't be very safe at night. But then again, my perspectives are warped since I'm alone and just kind of hyper-aware of everything. But there are many Indians and quite a few Muslims here, that is a fact, not an estimation.
I expected to come to England and be comfortable because the language here is my own, but surprisingly, it's still not comfortable for me. I feel naked--exposed--as if people can read my thoughts. Also, even though I speak the language, I feel very out-of-place and confused here as to how things are. It's a whole different country with different rules and realities (they even drive on the other side of the road!), and it's odd to get used to it. It seems rather different than I expected it to be. I guess it's safe to say that I've become ok and comfortable with not always knowing what's going on and with not being able to speak the language. Even though the people here do speak, I feel as if I don't understand things. It's like two ends of the spectrum, the language is the same, but much else is different. It's something I have to process, I guess.
I'm looking forward to going back to Germany tomorrow! I'm excited to meet up again with my team and to hear about the last outreach. It's going to be a long day of travelling, from here to the airport, to Germany, then taking a train out to Stalhofen. I've never ridden the German Train system, so we'll see how simple it is to figure out.
It was nice to see London, but I'm ready to get back to work, ready to get back to Germany, and ready to keep speaking German! Bring it on! Let's do this!
One thing that was really cool was that I was able to really use the subways and trains effectively, so that was nice. The tube is a pretty efficient way to get around London. One thing that was cool is that I got to go to Starbucks and do some writing and afterwards I just walked around that section of London. It was a sketchier part of the city, but it was cool to walk around and pray for the people who live and work there and to know that yeah, God is still doing things in this city.
I saw a homeless guy on the sidewalk and I walked by, and as I did, I was reminded that, yeah, I'm doing ministry full time in Germany in a language I don't speak, and here in England, I have the privilege of knowing the language, and I had prayed for God to give me opportunities to share my faith or to talk about him while I'm here. So I turned around and walked back and asked the guy if he was hungry. He told me he was a little bit, so I asked him if he wanted McDonald's. He said he did; I was thinking that yeah, he'd come with me and we'd get the food, but he didn't move or anything. So I told him I'd get it and be back, so I bought the food and brought it back to him. In my head, I was like, dang it, I don't want to just bring him food and just appear like a 'good guy,' I want him to know that it's Jesus in me that makes me want to serve the hurting. I gave him the bag, and I didn't have anything to say really, so I knelt down a bit and told him something about me being a missionary in Germany and I think I said something about Jesus. I can't remember what he said after that. Either way, I have no idea if what I did affected him, but I'm hoping that, somehow, he can meet Jesus. To me, it's cool that I don't have to worry about his salvation, because it's in the hands of God. God wants him to be saved and God will bring people to minister to him. My job is to simply be faithful and to stop and turn around when God asks me to and to do whatever it takes to obey God and let God take care of what he's good at--saving people.
I thought that was a cool experience here in London--it's funny that that no matter where we are in the world, God still wants us to obey him and have the first place in our lives.
Yesterday was also a semi-average day. I got to my hostel at 3p and immediately skyped with Paul Rheingans, which was fantastic. Later, I walked into town and went into some shops and got some souvenirs for my brother, and then I came back. I skyped with Amanda for a while, which was also really cool. But afterwards, I realized that I had no food. So I walked back into town and bought some food.
The place I'm staying in, Feltham, is pretty sketchy. There are a lot of little family-owned stores, and you can tell that this is a start-up town for immigrants. That's not a bad thing, but I didn't expect that, and the town just seems like a place that wouldn't be very safe at night. But then again, my perspectives are warped since I'm alone and just kind of hyper-aware of everything. But there are many Indians and quite a few Muslims here, that is a fact, not an estimation.
I expected to come to England and be comfortable because the language here is my own, but surprisingly, it's still not comfortable for me. I feel naked--exposed--as if people can read my thoughts. Also, even though I speak the language, I feel very out-of-place and confused here as to how things are. It's a whole different country with different rules and realities (they even drive on the other side of the road!), and it's odd to get used to it. It seems rather different than I expected it to be. I guess it's safe to say that I've become ok and comfortable with not always knowing what's going on and with not being able to speak the language. Even though the people here do speak, I feel as if I don't understand things. It's like two ends of the spectrum, the language is the same, but much else is different. It's something I have to process, I guess.
I'm looking forward to going back to Germany tomorrow! I'm excited to meet up again with my team and to hear about the last outreach. It's going to be a long day of travelling, from here to the airport, to Germany, then taking a train out to Stalhofen. I've never ridden the German Train system, so we'll see how simple it is to figure out.
It was nice to see London, but I'm ready to get back to work, ready to get back to Germany, and ready to keep speaking German! Bring it on! Let's do this!
May 31, 2010
Going on a Jet Plane
Today is the day! I'm sitting in the Frankfurt airport awaiting my flight to London. I have about an hour's time left to wait, so I'm getting my computer fully charged and writing a little update diddy. I bought a Dr. Pepper, my first one in about five months--it's crazy to me how some things are so global, and some things aren't. The marketing system in Lithuania was not completely westernized yet, so Dr. Pepper was nowhere to be found. It's crazy just how much our world is globalized--that I can buy the same drink 7000 kilometers away from home. In other news, there are a few things that really stuck out to me today. The first was my drive here. I drove with Manuela, she dropped me off. I had never really had a conversation with Manuela before, but i9t was really cool, she told me about her three boys and how she became a Christian, etc. It is really neat for me to start being able to have these meaningful conversations (or at least, mostly listening) in German. I'm getting to a point where these things are somewhat normal and having to spend thirty minutes with a German I don't really know isn't as intimidating as it was at first.
The second things that struck me was being back in Terminal 1. This was the same Terminal into which I arrived five months ago as I was travelling to Lithuania. When I arrived that time, I was completely lost and I had to hurry in order to make sure that I caught my flight. It was a very stressful time because my plane had arrived later than expected and I didn't have a long time to pick up my baggage and re-check in. This time, it was very simple and chill and it was not a problem. Also, last time I came here, I understood almost nothing that was happening or being said. Now, I could take care of it all myself in German and understand everything that's going on.
The third thing is that I got to walk by the exact same gate (Gate 10) that I had sat at as I awaited my flight to Sweden. I didn't know that I'd be passing through there again, so it was kind of cool to see part of the same world that I had experienced five months ago, just from a different perspective.
I have another perspective now, being here and being able to have a grasp on German. A lot of the American tourists that I've seen are completely clueless as to what's going on, what things cost, and it's nice to be able to have some comfort (even if it's only a little) with the language.
I'm excited to spend some time in a country that speaks my language--where I don't have to second guess if I heard everything correctly. It's going to be a shocker I'm sure, and as soon as I can fully appreciate it, I'll be heading back to Germany, but such is life.
My game plan for the day is (1) Find the right busses going to Feldham, (2) arrive safely at the hostel, (3) Skype, and (4) plot out my trip tomorrow into London proper. I need to figure out what all I want to see and where everything is so that I can take the tube in or the train and see everything. I'm also looking forward to skyping tons of people and hearing from friends that I haven't had the privilege of speaking with recently.
I'm bummed to do London alone, but that just gives me reason to go back again with friends and/or family. Also, my mother expects some wonderful souvenir from London, so I got to keep my eyes peeled!
The second things that struck me was being back in Terminal 1. This was the same Terminal into which I arrived five months ago as I was travelling to Lithuania. When I arrived that time, I was completely lost and I had to hurry in order to make sure that I caught my flight. It was a very stressful time because my plane had arrived later than expected and I didn't have a long time to pick up my baggage and re-check in. This time, it was very simple and chill and it was not a problem. Also, last time I came here, I understood almost nothing that was happening or being said. Now, I could take care of it all myself in German and understand everything that's going on.
The third thing is that I got to walk by the exact same gate (Gate 10) that I had sat at as I awaited my flight to Sweden. I didn't know that I'd be passing through there again, so it was kind of cool to see part of the same world that I had experienced five months ago, just from a different perspective.
I have another perspective now, being here and being able to have a grasp on German. A lot of the American tourists that I've seen are completely clueless as to what's going on, what things cost, and it's nice to be able to have some comfort (even if it's only a little) with the language.
I'm excited to spend some time in a country that speaks my language--where I don't have to second guess if I heard everything correctly. It's going to be a shocker I'm sure, and as soon as I can fully appreciate it, I'll be heading back to Germany, but such is life.
My game plan for the day is (1) Find the right busses going to Feldham, (2) arrive safely at the hostel, (3) Skype, and (4) plot out my trip tomorrow into London proper. I need to figure out what all I want to see and where everything is so that I can take the tube in or the train and see everything. I'm also looking forward to skyping tons of people and hearing from friends that I haven't had the privilege of speaking with recently.
I'm bummed to do London alone, but that just gives me reason to go back again with friends and/or family. Also, my mother expects some wonderful souvenir from London, so I got to keep my eyes peeled!
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