On tulips and war

In the 16- and 1700s, eight windmills were built as part of Bremen’s inner fortification wall. The rest of the wall was demolished in 1802, but this mill was left and actually continued functioning until 1950. Since it stands between the main train station and the market area with the cathedral and medieval town hall, the mill is one of Bremen’s tourist attractions. It also happens to be down the street from where my German class meets, so I go past it every time I take the bus to class.

One day last week I happened to notice the beautiful red and yellow tulips at the base of the mill. So, after class, I walked down the street to take a picture of the flowers. As I headed down the path, I watched a woman ride by on her bicycle, stop near the tulips, stoop down and touch the flowers, and then get back on her bike. She rode past me and I noticed two yellow tulips in the basket on her bicycle.

I walked closer to take my picture only to have another woman on a bicycle come up behind me and start complaining about people picking the tulips. “If everyone picks the flowers, we won’t have any more!” she kept saying. She noted that someone had donated the tulip bulbs to the city to be planted by the mill, and it was terrible that people were picking them. I assured her I only wanted to look and agreed that, yes, it was terrible for people to disturb the tulips.

We chatted for a few minutes about the flowers, and the woman, who was probably around 70, complimented me on my German and asked, "Are you from England or Australia?" When I answered that I was from the U.S., she eyed me skeptically and said," Hmmm. I'm a bit sour with the Americans right now." She proceeded to enter into a tirade against President Bush, the war in Iraq, and general U.S. foreign policy. She punctuated her argument with: "America makes the whole world broken. I just hope they don't start something with Iran." She wished me a good day and rode away on her bike.

During this time, all I could think to say was, "Yes, war is terrible for everyone." I'm really not sure how the woman expected me to respond to her rant. As she rode away, I stared after her, not understanding how a conversation about flowers could morph into one about war and politics, and tried to figure out how to react to her statements. How exactly is a person supposed to respond when a person from another culture lambasts her homeland?

I finally came to several realizations:

1. If I don't react and just let the person vent their frustrations, the complaints rest primarily on my country and not on me. The woman didn't once blame me for the actions of the U.S. government. She even smiled at me before leaving. By not countering the argument, I maintain some sort of separation from the target of her frustrations.
2. 1 Peter 2:11. If I'm an alien in this world and my true citizenship is in the Kingdom of God, then it really doesn't matter what anyone says about the United States because it doesn't affect me.
   
3. The German woman could argue her opinions, but she couldn't stop me from enjoying the tulips.
   

And yes, the sky really was that blue. :-)

Back to work....

Now that Easter is over, life in Bremen is starting to get back to its normal routine.

Here are a few of the happenings from this week:

• After having 2 and a half weeks off for "Easter vacation," my German class has reconvened. It was really good to see the other students again. We've started to form some friendships, and it was really interesting to hear what other people did over the break. We heard stories of trips to Paris, various cities in Italy, the Ukraine, and Spain. One woman is still in China visiting family. Today we were given a new assignment: preparing and presenting a report to the class. This is something Karen has had to do several times in her German classes, but I haven't yet had the pleasure (I hope you hear my sarcasm there) of this experience. Thankfully we can work in groups, and our topic is "old folks homes." The German word refers only to assisted-living homes and not to nursing homes, and we have to share and support our opinions and describe what elderly people in our home countries do when they can no longer live alone. It should be an interesting project, to say the least.
• I haven't worked in Jim's library in a couple of weeks because of vacation, but I have received a new task from Mimi. She's asked me to try to repair some of the children's books from the church building. As the children's classrooms were being organized for the pending move, tattered books were set aside, and if they can't be fixed, they'll be thrown away. Enter Alicia, the Protector and Keeper of Books. Just another example of how my library skills are being put to good use in Germany.
• Tomorrow is a big work day in the new church building. They plan to do more painting and want to try to remove some tile from the walls. I think I'll leave the tile removal to someone who is strong enough to swing a sledgehammer, but I can paint with the best of them. Whatever job I'm assigned, I plan to take my camera along and take some pictures of the progress being made.
• This evening I babysat for Mimi and Rüdi, and Rebecca once again surprised me. Tonight she was brushing her teeth and getting ready for bed when she suddenly picked up a toy fish that was in the bathroom and wanted to play "baptism." She said I should ask the fish if he believed in Jesus so that he could be baptized. When Mimi and Rüdi came home I asked them about this and they said it's something new she started recently. I don't know if Jasmin's baptism last Friday had anything to do with it, but I thought it was a little odd for a 3-year old to be creating a game like that.
• Something I can never get over is the near-hysteria produced by soccer games here. Yesterday Bremen played the team from Alkmaar (in the Netherlands), and even though the game didn't begin until 8:00 in the evening, police were out in full-force complete with riot gear before 2:00. Due to soccer-related violence elsewhere in Germany and in Italy over the past couple months, the police don't want to take any chances. Since I live about a 10-minute walk from the stadium, I've learned that it's best to just stay home when there's a game. Especially on days like yesterday when there are 35,000 people trying to get to the stadium at the same time. Here are a couple pictures I took back in February when Bremen played Amsterdam. You should be able to click on them to enlarge them. The only real difference yesterday was the Dutch fans wore red shirts instead of navy blue. And by the way, these pictures were taken a good 30 minutes from the stadium.
  

• The weather in Bremen has been beautiful for the past few days, and it's supposed to get even better. The high temperature for tomorrow is 77 (Fahrenheit). Yes, that's right. In the 70s...in April...in Bremen, which happens to be at approximately the same latitude as Calgary, Canada. I'm not sure why we're getting lots of sunshine when the U.S. is dealing with snow and colder than average temperatures right now, but I think I should just enjoy the sun while it's here.
  
• Along with the warmer weather has come longer days. In mid-December we had about 7.5 hours of daylight each day (sunrise at 8:30 AM, sunset at about 4:00 PM). Now we have closer to 14 hours of daylight each day, and it's not even summer yet. From what I remember from the campaign 4 years ago, in June the sun came up around 4 AM and set around 10 PM. That's a long day. Though I guess there are places in Finland and Alaska where the sun never actually sets during the summer.
  

I leave you with a recent sunset in Bremen. I took the picture from my living room window. The big shadow in the middle is the Lutheran church across the street.


Have a good weekend, and may you also enjoy beautiful springtime weather!

Frohe Ostern!

In case you're wondering, that's a chocolate-covered marzipan bunny.

Similar to the U.S. this time of year, for the past several weeks stores have been bringing out various seasonal goodies, most of which fall somewhere into the "chocolate" category. Chocolate Easter eggs here, though, aren't as innocent as those in the States. Many are filled with champagne, rum, or even vodka. You learn quickly to be cautious before biting into one of those little treats; you never know what sort of surprise awaits you otherwise.

Marzipan is a favorite of Germans, and while they sell it all year, at holidays bakers get especially creative. At New Year, for example, marzipan pigs with 4-leaf clovers in their mouths are abundant, as they are thought to bring good luck for the coming year. Easter has brought even more ingenuity. From simple chocolate eggs filled with marzipan to molded marzipan in the shapes of bunnies and chickens sitting on nests of eggs, the almond paste treat is sold in one shape or another by almost every grocer, department store, and confectioner's shop.

When I was growing up, my family spent Easters at my grandparents' house. We would have a big dinner with ham, mashed potatoes, various vegetables, and assorted desserts, including Mamaw's classic strawberry Jello with bananas. After the meal all the grandchildren would be sent to the basement while the dads and uncles hid plastic Easter eggs outside around my grandparents' property. We waited impatiently, eagerly anticipating the ensuing madness of the egg hunt.

At some point during the years, my mom had the idea of having a special egg for each of us that, when found, could only be taken by the person whose name was written on it. I'll never forget the year someone got the idea to hide my sister's brother's egg on the collar of my aunt and uncle's golden retriever, Dreyfus. As can be expected, that egg was the last to be found, and the "hot or cold" game that was needed to help Amanda Jacob discover the egg provided great amusement for all.

However you celebrate Easter today, I hope it's a good one for you. And if you get a chance, eat some jelly beans for me. Germans apparently haven't found room yet for them among all the Easter marzipan.

And it only gets better....

April continues to get even better.

Monday I had an appointment at the Foreigners' Office. I had been dreading this meeting since I waited in line three hours more than a month ago to make the appointment. I first went to the Foreigner's Office three days after I arrived in Bremen to arrange the first appointment. When I went back in November for the appointment, the woman got very upset with me because I did not have the paperwork I needed, though there really was no way for me to know ahead of time what to bring. The Abercrombies have gone several times over the past couple of months and have had quite a few problems. Last week we learned that the Church Office has been holding Mark and Karen's paperwork as they try to decide whether or not the Gemeinde Christi (Germany's version of church of Christ) is a sect. So, needless to say, I would have rather done almost anything than go back there to be berated again.

This time, however, I met with a different woman who was much nicer. I gave her all of the paperwork I had brought with me, including my police registration, a letter from the Springers detailing my work here, and a letter from Wolfgang with a copy of a description of the Gemeinde Christi that was originally published by the Lutheran church. When I gave her the letter about the GC, I explained that my friends had been having some trouble...and she actually laughed. She read the letter and rolled her eyes, saying she recognized the Gemeinde Christi, knew it wasn't a sect, and didn't know why the Church Office would be so concerned.

Two hours later, after more waiting and then paying my 60 Euro fee, I walked out with my residency permit in my passport. Since I don't have a set date for leaving Bremen, in my application I wrote that I would be here until November of 2008, so she was kind enough to give my permit an expiration of December 1, 2008. I was so happy I almost floated to the bus stop. It's a wonderful feeling to know I have permission from the government to be in Germany, and they can't deport me for being here illegally. :-)

Also on Monday we finally got permission from the Building Authority to begin renovations on the new church building. We've been waiting for this for close to a month, and lots of things had to be put on hold until we got the permission. The time was beginning to worry us. Our tentative moving day is May 10th, and if we don't have everything out of the old building by the end of May, the rent we're paying to stay there will double. Now we can finally begin the work. Today Mark and Ingrid spent some time painting a few rooms, and Mimi and Rüdi met with the contractor to discuss some things. Soon a couple of walls should be coming down and the real work will begin.

Since Mimi and Rüdi are very involved in the work for the new building and because things have quickly been coming together this week, I have babysat 4 times for them so they could attend various meetings. While I still really believe this is one of the biggest ministries I can offer to the other Christians here, it's also been really good for me. In some ways I feel like I've become an extended member of the family. I stayed with the kids today while Mimi and Rüdi met with the contractor, and when I rang their doorbell, I heard 3 1/2-year old Rebecca call from inside, "Alicia!" When Rebecca opened the door, 22-month old Johannes was coming down the stairs, and he smiled and greeted me with an excited "Yisha!" It's nice to feel welcomed, especially when it comes from young children.

Yesterday was an exciting day in the congregation: Jasmin, Yek-Len's daughter, was baptized. Yek-Len has been the sole Christian in her family for many years. Her husband is not a Christian and does not come to church, and her older daughter stopped coming to church a few years ago. Many people have been praying for the family for many years, so Jasmin's decision to commit her life to the Lord was an answer to prayers.

The occasion also gave me a chance to have a rather interesting discussion with Soyoung. Before the baptism I translated and explained what Florian was saying, and then while we were waiting around the baptistry for Jasmin to come, Soyoung was quite curious about the whole process and asked me what would happen. Afterwards most of us stayed for cake and coffee, and while we were eating Soyoung suddenly turned to me and asked if I'd been baptized too. She was surprised to hear that I was 12 when I was baptized, saying that that sounded kind of young. In response to her questions I told her that people are baptized whenever they understand and believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He lived and died for our sins, whether they are 10 or 100 or anywhere in between when they confess that belief. We ended up looking at Isaiah 53 and Romans 6:1-7, and I think the wheels are turning in her mind trying to process all of it. Please continue to pray for Soyoung that her curiosity and new belief in God might continue to grow.

To finish off a week of blessings, today a wonderful opportunity presented itself to me. This afternoon as I walked home from the grocery store, I passed an older man sitting on the sidewalk outside a store eating a piece of bread. He looked a bit scraggly and had a hat or something on the sidewalk in front of him with a few coins in it. Seeing a beggar on the street is not unusual here, but something struck me differently about this man. After I passed by him, I got this pang in my heart, and after about 30 feet or so I turned around. I walked back to him; set beside him a package of sliced fresh fruit I had just bought; said in German "For you. Happy Easter;" and turned and walked back in the direction from which I'd come. A smile replaced the pang in my heart.

Throughout the past week I have seen one blessing after another. I thank God for those blessings and for that chance today to give a small blessing back to someone else. As the world celebrates Christ's sacrifice and resurrection this weekend, may we all see the everyday blessings we have been given and share those blessings with others. I hope that we will seek to treat others like Christ would have treated them and to love them with the same love that Christ so graciously showers upon us. Most of all I pray that we will not take Christ's sacrifice for granted and that we'll never be ashamed to proclaim it to the world, whether through preaching, teaching, or feeding the hungry man begging on the sidewalk.

A good start to April

Yesterday was a really good day.

It was the first time in a few weeks that I actually looked forward to going to church and studying the Bible in and speaking in German. I understood most of Jim's sermon and didn't have problems communicating with people during the breaks. Then, in Bible class, I had my "Big Breakthrough."

For the past several months I've been going to Jim's Bible class on Sundays because it's easier for me to understand him than the other adult class teacher. We're part way through a study of Acts, and so far it's been a good class. Yesterday Jim wanted to talk about Saul's encounter with the voice of Jesus on the road to Damascus and his subsequent conversion. He asked someone to tell the story, and Otto, who is always eager to participate, raised his hand. Jim said, "Otto knows. Does anyone else know?"

Karen and I looked at each other, both having felt frustrated lately with not being able to contribute to class. She told the class that she knew the story in English but didn't know if she could tell it in German. Sylvia told her to try her best, but Karen still looked hesitant, so I said I would try. The next thing I knew, I heard myself telling about how Saul had hunted and killed Christians, how he saw a bright light on the road to Damascus, and how Jesus spoke to him through that light. About the time I was telling about Saul being blind for 3 days, I felt my face getting red. Everyone was watching me, and I suddenly got embarrassed and couldn't find any more words. If I had been Peter stepping out of the boat and walking to Jesus on the water, that's when I would have started to sink.

Karen, though, jumped in where I left off and added more to the story. When she finished Jim filled in a few of the holes to complete the story, and the class went on to discuss it. All I could think about, though, was the elation I was feeling at having bulldozed the hurdle of speaking in class, even if I didn't say all that I had wanted to. To make it even better, Karen had done the same thing. If she had not spoken up and said that she wanted to tell the story but didn't know how, I don't know that I would have said anything. If I had not made the effort to say what I did, I don't think Karen would have contributed either. It was a nice feeling to know we had helped each other make progress.

Since yesterday was the first Sunday of the month, it was our day to travel to Braunschweig and worship with the congregation there in the evening. While these trips always make the day very long, they are always worth it. The congregation in Braunschweig only has 9 members, and they love having us come. To add to the great things about the trip, Soyoung decided to go with us. If you remember from my other posts recently, she's a Korean exchange student at the University of Bremen. She's been coming to church services for the past 5 weeks now and I've been studying the Bible with her, and I thought it was wonderful that she wanted to come along. I was able to translate and explain most of the sermon for her, and she seemed to enjoy the day. Please pray for Soyoung's young belief in God that she may see what this is all about and realize that Jesus loves her and died for her. She's eager to study and not afraid to ask questions, and it's exciting to watch her grow.

Hopefully the rest of April will be as good as the first day was.

Next up....

***Note: I really wanted to post something on this topic about 2 weeks ago. It's been a process of nailing down my thoughts and then deciding why they're there. I'm glad, however, that I haven't posted it until now because I've had a chance to step back a bit and look at it differently.***

In the life of every person who relocates to a new culture, there comes a day when he or she unwittingly crosses an invisible barrier into a heretofore unknown territory. Social scientists term this new realm "culture shock."

I suppose it could be said that I've made the transition into the big "CS."

From what I can figure this has been a gradual development. Over the past month and a half or so I've occasionally had involuntary thoughts similar to these: What, exactly, am I doing here? Am I accomplishing anything? Did I really think God sent me here? How many days left until I go back to the States? The German bureaucracy is out to get me, I know it is.

I don't feel depressed. I don't feel sad. I like Bremen and I enjoy the work I'm doing. Perhaps a bit of it is homesickness, but I think I had my main battle with that at Christmas. I can't really explain the new thing. It's weird.

Perhaps a contributing factor to all of this is my language progress. A while back I wrote about my increasing ability to think in and understand German. This has been wonderful for me. It's nice to be able to know what someone just asked you, to be able to glean something from the sermons at church, and to understand instructions enough to follow them.

My new developments, though, have ushered in a new barrier to overcome: communicating fluidly. Just because I can understand a question someone has asked me does not mean I can answer it accurately. There's always a little part of me that wonders if I really do understand correctly. Even if I'm positive I understand everything, I don't have the right words to formulate what I'm thinking. As Karen says, we know just enough to be dangerous, and I think she's right. There's great potential to really screw up something when you understand the basics but don't yet grasp the details.

It's extremely frustrating not to be able (or at least feel able) to completely participate or express yourself. The most painful times are in Bible classes at church. I can understand the basics of what we're studying, but the discussions are difficult for me to follow, and when I do pick up something, I have no idea how to comment on it because I don't know how it fit into the rest of the conversation.

I learned that we would have about 2 and half weeks of "Easter vacation" from German class, and I decided that maybe I needed a vacation from more than just language learning. I discussed my thoughts with Jim and Elsa, and they agreed that a break would do me good. They even suggested that I take a trip somewhere outside of Bremen, citing the benefits of a "change of scenery."

So, last week was my "vacation week." I already had an appointment to study with Horst on Monday afternoon and had told Mimi and Rüdi that I would babysit for them that evening, so those were the only appointments I had for the week. I spent the other days getting caught up on some business around town, relaxing, and reading. Tuesday I visited Yek Len, who has been wanting me to come to her home for a while now. (Yes, she is the same woman I visited the day of the infamous bicycle incident. Suffice it to say that I now know exactly where she lives.)

Then Friday morning I took Jim and Elsa's advice and hopped on a train to Lübeck. Including a short stop in Hamburg to change trains, the trip each way was close to 2 and a half hours, so it was far enough for me to feel like I was getting out of Bremen but still close enough for me to make the trip in one day. I'm really glad that I went. It was a great day with beautiful weather (not all that common for northern Germany), and I saw lots of interesting things, including medieval architecture, a political protest, and a judo match. I'll try to post some pictures in the next day or so.

I think I really needed the time off, and the day away from Bremen was especially beneficial. Though I don't believe the battle against culture shock ever truly ends (Jim and Elsa have been here almost 35 years and they still have their moments of struggle), I'm at a more peaceful place now. I've had my initial mental and emotional skirmishes, and I'm ready to tackle the next stage.

So, as Buzz Lightyear might say if he was in my shoes: To culture shock...and hopefully beyond.