Church and Reflection

Yesterday, I made it back to the Geminde Christ (community in Christ) of Vienna for Sunday morning worship. I just love worshipping with them. They are all so encouraging and welcoming.  The songs were great. I just love the sound of two different languages singing the same song. It reminds me of the power of God and the universal nature of His love. Daniel and his friends sat behind me. I think about their lives and what they have been through. I think of how different our lives are and how we can both sit in the same building and worship God together. 

This experience has taught me so much about my faith. I have grown and matured as a person and as a Christian. I thank God for giving me this opportunity to learn more about his family and to realize that there are Christians just like me on the other side of the world. They face the same kinds of struggles as I do and strive to obey as I do. God is good. This is my last blog entry because I am coming home in 6 days! Thanks for keeping up with me and my adventures! Thank you most of all for your prayers. God bless!

Interview

Everyone in the group is working hard to get all of our homework done for our next ten day. One of our assignments for our Bible class was to have a discussion with a Christian from Austria about Christianity and culture. Michael, a high school student who was a refugee and now helps out a lot with the after-school program, offered his opinions. I asked him questions about his own personal testimony which had a lot to do with the missionaries that came from the States, specifically Reggy. We also talked about the difficulties that exist for a teenager to try to proclaim Christianity to his peers. He says it is a real struggle for him to resist the temptation of going against his moral standards and give into certain sins that are commonplace in Austrian culture such as using bad language. His life during his time living at the shelter was hard for him. He considers beginning to go to Church to be very helpful through that difficult time. Because people in Austria are very private people, they are not quick to listen to the gospel, so it is difficult to evangelize here. I know that Michael and his friends from church are doing a wonderful job ministering to the people around them, whether they know it or not. Christians are known by their love, and Michael certainly shows that. It is nice to know that despite oppositions, our young brothers and sisters in Austria are still trying to spread the Word and make a difference to those around them.

Mass at St. Peter's

I just got back from Italy! It was so great. The view was beautiful as well as the history. The most interesting thing to me in Italy was, of course, Rome! Growing up in the church, it sparked my interest to see Rome, the place where the gospel was spread and Christians were persecuted. I got to see Mamertime prison, a place where both Peter and Paul were imprisoned. There is a pillar that still stands where Peter was chained to. Also, an alter/monument thing is there with an upside down cross commemorating Peter's death. He chose to be crucified upside down because he thought himself unworthy of dying the same way his savior did.
I went to Mass at St. Peter's Basilica on Sunday! What a great experience! It was really fancy and traditional. The church was beautiful. I was kind of confused at the service though. It was very different from my typical Church of Christ service. First of all, it was in a different language, secondly, there were so many rituals that I didn't understand. Luckily, I got to talk to a member of the church after the service and he explained some things to me. They have these smoke things that they swing around throughout the service. He said it is to symbolize your prayers going up to God in Heaven. That is a neat idea i suppose. I am thankful that I know God hears me when I pray. I did learn a lot about the Catholic church from him. He was a nice man. I hope to attend other masses in the future!

Halloween Party

Last night the members of our group hosted a Halloween party for the Vienna missionaries' kids. There were about 15 children in attendence. It was so much fun! Everyone dressed up in makeshift costumes and showed the kids how the same kind of Halloween they used to celebrate in the States. They absolutely loved it! We had craft time where each child made their own Halloween bag, and then they went trick-or-treating down the halls of the rooms. The entire hall was decorated like a haunted house complete with a giant spider web, spooky candle light, and hanging bats. After that, we headed back downstairs for some more crafts. This included making ghosts out of lollipops and Kleenex. So cute! The kids were so eager to talk to the college students, and fought for our attention. Later on, the Swope family (the man who runs the Schloss Nuewaldegg, out "castle") put on a Halloween play just for us! We laughed and hooped and hollered for them and they were so encouraged. Their skit was adorable to say the least. My favorite part was the cupcake decorating. Chocolate icing and pumpkin shaped candy!

I could really see that this party meant a lot to the missionaries here. They worked really hard to provide costumes for their kids (they aren't on every Wal-Mart rack like in the States). One of the moms even made her daughter a sweet little cat costume. It was nice to do something for the missionaries and their kids. After having talked to them breifly, I can tell that adjusting to a completely different culture can be difficult at times. It felt good to bring a small piece of their home culture to them, even if just for one night.

Chemnitz, Germany

This past weekend we had a great opportunity to meet the people of Chemnitz, Germany. Our train arrived and we were met by Clint and April Everhart. They are missionaries that graduates from Oklahoma Christian University. They were so accomodating to us and really enjoyed having us. We went to their church that was called Gemienda Christi, which means the "community of Christ." I think it is very fitting. We gather in the church building to have an English Bible study. It seems to me that the people were very eager to practice their English. This can create endless opportunities to minister and get the word of God out there and having people actually speaking it out loud and to spark curiosity into their minds and get them asking questions. It is so exciting. One of the OC students that went with us led a devotional in English and then we sang some songs. They taught us some English songs that even we didn't know, and vice versa. It was a great time of pure worship and praise. I know they were encouraged to hear that many voices all together praising the Lord.
The next morning, Clint had rented a gym for us to have some fun fellowship time with the members of the church. We organized a volleyball tournament and had a lot of laughs. It was nice to spend time with them. After that, we attended an all German area-wide singing. It was so hard to follow along! They really appreciated us trying so hard though! They made us goodies so we ate together afterward got to meet some of the surrounding area church members.
That night, our host, a twenty-six year old woman who is not a Christian, took Mary and I out to eat. She was so great. She loves having students stay with her. She has post cards from Oklahoma all over her bulliten board and is even planning a visit. We talked to her about the church here and she had such good things to say about the Everharts and the other members. Hopefully she was encouraged by our time together.
Sunday morning we attended their church service and they again welcomed us with open arms. They thanked us for our visit, and just loved on us. It reminded me of how important it to to have a "Gemienda" of believers surrounding you. We are called to be different and show others the way by our love. I was truly reminded of this as were the church members at Chemnitz.

Zagrab, Croatia

This past weekend a small group of us went to Zagrab, Croatia for a short missions trip to visit the Kunslanova church. We were met by a man named Mislav who was the associate minister for the church. He took great care of our group of eight. We were housed in an apartment above the church building. The first day we woke up bright and early to do some street evangelism. Someone had donated a bunch of bound copies of the gospel of John and also of the whole New Testament, so our team stuffed our backpacks full and headed out! We also had these awesome youth newspapers called "The Good News," (in Croatian of course) that had articles about issues young people deal with. Several testimonies were featured including stories of how God came into their lives in those tough situations. It was neat. So, we walked up and down a street near the university and handed them out. Then we parked in front of the high schools and waited until they were let out for their morning break (for most, it was a smoke break). The people were generally glad to take one. Ohers, we found in the nearest trash can. However, if it got into the hands of one person who took something from it, then that day was all worht it. We even saw some reading them on park benches. That was very encouraging. I noticed that the high school kids got really excited that we were from America! They bombarded us trying to impress us with their English. I invited them to the church later to hang out, but they never showed.
That night we were invited to the minister's house where his wife cooked us a huge meal! Stuffed red peppers and some sort of delicious meat! She was very sweet so we sat around the table and sang songs to her for about two hours. We may have gotten carried away, but she really enjoyed it.
The next morning we put on a VBS for the young kids at the church. We played some games and sang some songs. Then we had them do a craft and then let them tell us the story of the birth of Jesus. They were precious! Later that evening, we had a little gathering with some of the teenagers of the church. We discussed their hobbies and what they thought about Americans. We also discussed how it was to be a Christian in Croatia. They seemed to be facing the same struggles as I did as a high school student. I think we were an encouragement to them.
The next morning we went to church at Kunslanova. We led some songs in English and even made up a power point for them to follow along. Then at the end, they had us stand and they prayed over us. Since we were standing up there, they asked us to sing them one last song. They said we sounded like professionals. haha! I had a really great experience and learned a lot from this precious church. The members were very strong in their faith, and worked really hard to be a light to their community. It was an encouragment to me to be around Christian love. They really embraced us and loved on us the whole weekend. I hope to go back soon!

After-School program

A few days ago I went with a few other students to the refugee shelter. The shelter is basically a place where one of the missionaries holds an after school program for children and teenagers who are refugees fro all over Europe and even Africa. While we were there we basically just interacted with the kids there. I will admit, I am not very good with kids. I tried to help a little girl with her homework and she blew me off. She was cute though and spoke a little English. I think she was just showing off. A lady missionary named Reggy works so hard to put this thing together. She is from Texas so the whole place has Texas Longhorn memorabilia on the walls. She has taken a few of these kids to live with her in her own home. I think that is such a demonstration of God's compassion through her. The rest of the time we played cards with some of the older kids. They spoke great English and were excited to be around us. It is so great how these kids can be separating themselves from the secular Europe and engross themselves in Christian fellowship. I dont know if they have a choice in the matter whether or not to come to the program, but I did catch a glimpes of one of the teenager's ipod and it was full of Christian music. That lifted my spirits. I never thought I would see that in Europe. We barely see that in the Bible Belt. When I left I was talking to a friend of mine about how I would much rather be doing Bible studies rather than fellowship with kids. She told me a story of how her favorite childhood memories were the VBS's the American missionaries put on (she is from Canada). She said they are the reason she even came to a Christian College. I was struck by that and began to think about the Christian influences I received as a kid and I give them a lot of credit to my adult Christianity. I no longer feel that fellowship is a "waste." I really felt like we did some good that day.

Church in Wien

This morning we went to the church where a team from Memorial Road Church of Christ is working. The service was nice because many parts of it were in English inclduing the sermon. It was translated to German for the members. The worship songs were recognizable so there were two languages singing the same tune. It reminded me immediately of the Tower of Babel. I usually always come back to that when I hear a foreign language. It is very fascinating to me. That God would confuse the languages of people to humble them. It does make it very hard now in the mission field, however. After the service, I was talking with a few of my friends to Amanda who is a member of the MRCC team. We began the conversation talking about the German language and how hard it is to learn. We were curious if it gets easier after time. The team has been there just over a year and she just recently understood her first full sermon, (most of it anyway). They had tried to prepare themselves before they came with an intensive German course that lasted 3 hours a day, 4 days a week, 2 hours of practice, and 2 hours travel time. With kids, she said, it was hard to accomodate. Her husband, Scott, led a few songs and his German seemed to be coming along, but you could tell he still struggled a bit.
Another aspect of life for a foreign missionary was transportation. This couple purchased a Jeep from a previous missionary because public transportation was wasting too much time.
All in all the couple seemed to be adjusting okay, but when asked how she liked it, she seemed to have a few doubts still. Though optimistic about the future, she said the culture shock was hard to adjust to.
I asked her about other mission efforts they are involved in and she said they have strategy meetings and German prep services and they attend the church one Sunday a month. Other Sundays are for the German prep and English services. The prep is to get them used to leading in the German language without ebarassing themselves at the beginning. Their ultimate goal to to plant a church, which should happen in the next 5 years.
This gets me more excited to visit with other missionaries during the upcoming mission trips we have. I wonder if I could or would ever be so willing and dedicated as to one day be a foreign missionary long-term.

Evensong

On our second official day in Europe, our group attended an Evensong service at St. Paul's Cathedral. I had never really heard of Evensong until I saw it on our itinerary. Evensong was very interesting to me, though. It was my first experience at a church in Europe, and also my very first encounter with the Anglican church. St. Paul's was actually the first cathedral built for the Church of England. It is breathtaking. There is a dome at the top, which is unusual for any church other than Catholic. Christopher Wren, the architect, wanted a dome all along, but skeptics did not want it to took anything close to Catholic. The dome was added after Wren's death.
So many things were different about Evensong service than what I have been exposed to. The service started at 15:15 on Sunday and began with the entrance of a boys choir. They entered in a line with their hands folded in front of them. Such discipline. I have never seen 10 and 11- year-old boys act with such poise. It is no wonder since they rehearse over 20 hours a week I learned. Most of the boys go on to recieve music scholarships and become professionals. THey wore the cutest robes too! They sounded like women. Like women with beautiful voices singing higher than I can by far. One helpful aspect was a program that had instructions on when to stand, sit, kneel, respond, or sing along. The first song we sang with the choir and only one person I could see actually knew what he was doing. He knew the tune and sang with enthusiasm. Seeing this man made me curious. How many people were "regulars?" Did they have members? or were we all tourists just desperate for a closer look at the sanctuary without having to pay the entrance fee and a tour guide? This is when it got awkward.
The reverand, an older man, got up to give a welcome. He prayed first, and then had an announcement. "This will be my last service in this cathedral," he said. He was taking his wife to Christ's Church someonwhere else. I looked around the "audience" for some sad sighs or any sign of sorrow. None. That answered my question. We were all tourists. No one knew this man who had dedicated his life to this cathedral for 40+ years. No potluck dinner. No slideshow. No farewell party.
Is this how God intended his church to function? An extravegant cathedral with open doors, welcoming in strangers. I can understand that. Reaching out to the curious, hoping to attract lost souls who are lured in by the lavish outlay. But the church. The congregation. The community was not there. Maybe that is how this particular service is. Maybe other gatherings are more personal. Maybe not. I feel sympathy for them though. To not have a family to rely on. I thought the U.S. was individualistic, which is true, but London is as well, and there aren't many strong communities of believers there. Sad.
I did enjoy Evensong. I was uplifted and encouraged by the reverand's words and by the beautiful repsonses (repeating praises) and songs. Maybe that is a ministry in itself. I know it is a good effort, but there just didn't seem to be any that stick around to see what its all about.