Pirna and Radeburg

Our team spent Wednesday visiting with church plsnts in these two communities near Dresden.  Uli Mann, the pastor of the Golden Lamb church in Dresden, is responsible for these two church plants.

Pirna is a few kilometers north of Dresden on the Elbe River.  The church is actually in a neighborhood, called Sonnenstein, that sits on the bluffs above Pirna.  Sonnenstein has a dark history–it is where Hitler developed the genocide techniques he used in concentration camps.  In Sonnenstein, he had 14000 handicapped people gassed and cremated.  Today, on the site of that atrocity there is a facility where handicapped persons work and receive help.  In the neighborhood of this site is a centuries old Schloss (palace).  A park that is part of the castle grounds has been used by the church for community worship services.  This past June, they held a “Service of Life” with many of the Jewish community.  Following is a picture of a church in this park where the local church plant holds monthly worship services for the community.

Radeburg is a bedroom community for Dresden, but almost everyone who lives in Radeburg has lived there all their lives, and their families have lived there for generations.  Radeburger Beer is famous throughout Europe.  The young couple who pastor this church, Tim and Rahel, have been there for two years.  The church owns the building a an adjacent building and carport.  They are able to rent out parts of the buildings and carport to pay for the facility.

Chemnitz to Dresden – Two Very Different Cities

Yesterday (Tuesday) we awoke in Chemnitz to a rainbow over the city.

After breakfast with Pastor Bernard and his wife, Ulrike, we took a train from Chemnitz to Dresden. Dresden is a the capital of the German state of Saxony.  It is home to one of Germany’s most prominent universities.  There is a lively arts and music scene in Dresden.  Behind all that is the history of the city and the almost unbelievable restoration effort that has been done on it’s historic buildings, which were all destroyed in WWII.  See my earlier post on Dresden (from last year) for pictures and more details.

Here in Dresden, we are meeting with Pastor Uli Mann and his staff from Golden Lamb church.  Yesterday, we took a boat tour of the city and prayed with staff members.  Today we will visit one of the churches Golden Lamb has planted.

I’m having trouble uploading pictures, so let me leave you with two images from the boat tour yesterday–one is of one of the steepest vineyards I’ve seen, and the other is of our hard-working team on the riverboat tour. (Again, see my earlier post for much more about Dresden)

A picture perfect day

Another beautiful sunny day in southeastern Germany.  We attended two events.  First was the worship service at FEG-Chemnitz, where Arthur Ellison from our team spoke about hearing God’s voice.  Here’s a picture of Arthur in the pulpit with his translator, Julia, a local pharmacist.

In the afternoon, we visited Die Arche (The Ark), a youth center that is housed in a converted theater.  The youth center is run by a non-profit corporation that bought the theater in 2000, then spent 8 years and 1.5 million euros completely renovating it and bringing it up to code.  Although they have been open for two years, they were holding an “Open Door” today.  Following are a couple pictures from the action outside the theater.

  

Chemnitz du himmelblaue Stadt…

The Chemnitz song refers to the city as a “himmelblaue stadt” (sky blue city).  So here’s a photo that tries to capture that image.

We participated in the “Offnen Tür” (open door, or open house) at FEG-Chemnitz today.  The whole church showed up to celebrate the remodeling and re-painting of the building.  We’ll get a report tomorrow on how many folks from the neighborhood also showed up.

Changin’ cars in Leipzig, Germany

With apologies to Arlo Guthrie (whose car change was in Memphis, TN).

We did indeed change cars (trains, actually) in Leipzig on our way from Berln to Chemnitz.  Along with cars, we changed technology–going from a sleek 200 kph bullet to a clanky diesel train that sounded like it had a bad wheel bearing around every curve.  Here’s a scene from inside one of the packed second-class cars.

I should probably note that our team for today was smaller than expected because most of the Knoxville contingent was stuck in K-town due to mechanical problems with their plane.  Hopefully they will arrive in Chemnitz tomorrow afternoon.

The rest of us arrived in Chemnitz about 5:30 PM and took a cab to the Hotel Mercure.  Bernard Millard, the pastor at FEG-Chemnitz, met us at the hotel and explained the schedule for the next three days.  We also had a good prayer time with Bernard.

Few folks in the USA know much about Chemnitz, but it has an interesting, if rather dark, history.  During the infamous 30-years war that followed the Reformation, the population of Chemnitz was reduced by 80%.  That is, 4 out of 5 people either fled or were killed.  During the days of communist east Germany (from 1953 to 1990), Chemnitz was officially called Karl Marx Stadt (Karl Marx City), and there is still a large (black) stone bust of Marx in the heart of the city.  Like most of Saxony, witchcraft has been practiced for years in Chemnitz with an annual celebration on the eve of May Day.  Historically this celebration involved a number of large bonfires.  In the three years since several local churches began praying and holding their own May Day Eve celebration, the number of fires has dropped from 350 to fewer than 20.

Here is a nighttime picture of Chemnitz.

Trains, prayers, and automobiles

Bonnie on the S-3 train to Friedrichstrasse.

It was a gray day and had the audacity to sprinkle rain on us from time to time.  Here, during a pause in the rain, Bonnie stands at the entrance to FEG-Pankow church.  The church currently occupies the top floor of what used to be a commercial building along the parade route for communist dignitaries visiting east Germany.

We had a pleasant meeting and prayer session with Timo Heimlich, the pastor, followed by lunch in a Chinese restaurant also in this building.  The church is considering moving to the first floor in order to be more visible and easier to access.  They are also considering a partnership with other organizations to establish a community center in this building.

Later in the evening, we attended a home group meeting in the Tiergarten area with Steve and Karen Mack from Berlin International Church.  Many of those at the meeting were familiar to us, but we also made some new friends.  A great time of fellowship, worship, and prayer…and food, of course.

Now we’re packing our suitcases, getting ready for tomorrow’s train ride to Chemnitz in the southeast German state of Saxony.  We’ll be joined on this adventure by a team of folks from Two Rivers Church, our home church in Knoxville.

Back in Berlin

Our hotel is in the vicinity of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.  This church was destroyed (along with most of central Berlin) during the WWII bombing raids.  The Germans decided to leave the skeleton of the building as a reminder of the war and a memorial to those who died.

It feels good to be back in Berlin–a little like coming home.  We had lunch today with Steve and Karen Mack, senior pastors at Berlin International Church.  Then we spent some time talking and praying with Beatrice, one of our dear friends here.  Tomorrow we’ll do a little sightseeing and visit with Timo Heimlich, the pastor at FEG-Pankow.  While we’re there, we’ll also pick up the train tickets for the 2RC visit to Chemnitz and Dresden.

Getting setup with cell phone service and internet service, which took me nearly a week to get in November, took only about an hour today.  And we have been able to negotiate virtually all our interactions in German.  Pretty basic stuff, but it’s a huge improvement over last year.

Weather here is cool.  The temps are in the 60s during the day, but throw in a 15 knot breeze, and it feels chilly.  Evenings drop into the 50s.

Telling the Story

It has been just about a month since Bonnie and I got home from Germany…or as Mike Edwards astutely pointed out, “since we returned to Tennessee.”  If home is where the heart is, our hearts now have multiple homes in this world.

Whether or not you are a Christian, Berlin is an exciting place, and exciting things are happening there.  Much of the population is young, professional, non-German, and transient.  Change is constant.

But Bonnie and I believe that the best is yet to come–that what we saw this winter was just the first hint of dawn in a city where the coming day will be absolutely brilliant.  We want to share what we saw, not that we know a lot, but because the little we saw was compelling.  It’s just possible that some of you may be interested in playing a part in what is about to happen.

So if you’re in a group, we’d like to come talk to your group about our adventure.  We have a 30-minute presentation that we’ve already given a couple times.  Give us a call and we’ll be glad to schedule a time.

E-mail notifications and a simple truth in German

Did you know that you can sign up for e-mail notification when a new post appears on this blog?  Just click on the Subscription link in the left sidebar on this page.  Some of you have already done this.  The reason I mention it is that the pace of new posts will slow.  We are committed to chronicling our thoughts as we process what we experienced, but we are also committed to doing that over a period of a few weeks.  Signing up for an e-mail subscription lets you know as soon as a new post is added without you having to check the blog every day.

Here’s a photographic thought for the day, courtesy of a Berlin sign.  The translation follows the photo.

The inscription across the top translates to: “Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.”  It’s a familiar phrase, but I love the sound of it in German.  Tschuβ.

Home again!

Thanks to all of you who prayed us through the drawn out journey home. And thanks to all of you who did lots of wonderful things for us while we were gone. Although we had a wonderful trip, I can’t tell you how good it feels to be home.

We will be exploring ways besides this blog to share our story with you as we sort through things in our hearts and minds.

Thanks again and know that your prayers and kind acts were a pleasing aroma to God.