Luther Kirche

So I realize that you're all anxiously awaiting some sort of fascinating news. Sorry. However, I have to tell you that I absolutely love Berlin and I love internship. The trick will be getting me to leave next August. I can't tell you how much fun it is to be in a place where every day I'm working with people from all over the world, who have come here for various reasons. Plus, my German is getting significantly better. I can now actually start having conversations (albeit small and short ones) with the people at Laib und Seele (our food distribution program). This especially includes the many volunteers, most of whom don't speak English.

Beyond that, my life has been filled with preparing the occasional sermon; teaching 3-5 year-olds in Sunday School; leading a Saturday afternoon confirmation class; getting the young adult group started; staff, committee, and council meetings; visiting congregation members; and preparing for a youth trip to Paris at the end of this month. More than enough to keep me occupied. But of more immediate interest, today was clean-up day at the church. I got there a bit early and took some pictures. I thought you might like to see them. As a side note, the American Church in Berlin worships at this church. The church building is known as Luther Church in the Berlin community. The word "church" shows up more often than needed in this paragraph.

From the nearby U-Bahn station

Front of the church; the missing top of the right tower is because of bombing in WWII.

There are also alcoves on the right and left sides near the nave. This makes the sanctuary in a cross form.

Currently up in the church: truly a congregational project! For the retreat, I came up with the design, drew lines on these 64 sheets of paper, and color-coded them. Then the retreat-goers colored them (mainly the adults!), and the 9th grade confirmation class pinned them to this board.

The office building. We, along with the pastor's apartment, occupy the 4th floor.

I hope you've enjoyed the many pictures. If you're interested in others, let me know. I hope your lives are going well; let me know how you are! Guten Abend, meine Freundin.

Numbers

So. Here is my life in numbers.

68. There are 68 steps from the front door of the "SpenerHaus" - the building that the church office is in - to the door of the actual office. There is no elevator, so I am coming to love these maroon-carpeted blocks of cement.

41. Similarly, there are 41 steps up to my apartment. Unfortunately, there is no fun carpeting. There is, however, an elevator that stops in-between floors. So I can stop at "floor" 1+2, 2+3, 3+4, etc.

32+ ([TCelsius] x 9/5) - the conversion of degrees Celsius to degrees Fahrenheit.

30 - 45. The number of minutes it takes for me to get to the church office. It all depends on how well I time the buses. I walk to the first stop, take the bus to the U-Bahn and ride that for awhile, take another bus, and then maybe walk some more. So depending on which bus comes when, and whether I decide to walk more rather than less...

20. Days on the job.

16. The average temperature (Celsius) that it's been here for the past 3 weeks. Apparently, this is abnormally cold for this time of year. See conversion rate above for those of you who are non-literate in the measurements of the rest of the world.

15. Minutes it does take to walk from the church office to the church building. This is my favorite walk - complete with 2 bridges, a children's playground, and a mainly Islamic market-place on Saturdays and Wednesdays.

13. The approximate number of rows I knitted together to form a hoop instead of a scarf. I have needles that are connected...I didn't turn them over when I finished a row and just kept going. The result was a fully connected circle. I thought this was odd, but that it was ok...the prayer shawl group laughed "with" me, of course...and got me straigtened out. Literally.

7. Hours of time difference between Berlin and Central Standard Time. I have two clocks in my living room. One is my time, the other is CST (see in the picture below).

4 +1. Number of rooms in my apartment. Plus a balcony. For now I will show you the Wohnzimmer, or the living room:

4. The number of coffee pots full of water that it takes for me to water all my newly acquired plants. (1. The number of times I have actually taken the time to fill up those four coffee pots of water.)

3. The "technical" floor that the church office is on. For people in the U.S., it's actually the 4th floor. But here, the ground floor is floor "zero".

2. Dryers! Many people I know are quite happy and content with just one washer and dryer. BUT, you have not truly lived until you own TWO. These technological wonders make all the difference in the world. Mine look exactly the same, however, and so I have included a picture of only one...

(I do, however, have a "real" washer. 2 hours for a "normal" cycle.)

1. Man who is stalking me. I believe I have taken care of this minor glitch in life, but we shall see. I am coming to find out that I somehow attract random, old, foreign men. Why, I do not know.

0.621371192. Number of miles that equal 1 kilometer. Again, this is for those of you who live in the only country in the world who has their own system of measurements. It shall remain nameless.

Schönes Wochenende.

Am Anfang - In the Beginning

I've been thinking for a few days about how to introduce the American Church in Berlin (ACB). Or even just Berlin in general. And I don't know how to do it. It is the church. It is Berlin.

That being said, this year is my third year of seminary in preparation for being a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). It's a year of internship, and since mine is an international one, I am technically considered mission personnel for the ELCA. For more information on the ELCA or Global Mission click on those words, or on the links in the sidebar.

ACB is a church that is made up of people from more than 30 different countries and 20 different denominations. It's an English-speaking church, but I would guess that about 1/3 of the members speak German much better than English, if they speak English at all. They were located in a building that was in the heart of Berlin, but it was destroyed in the bombings during WWII. They moved to another church, but 5 years ago they moved again to their current church, which is again in the middle of Berlin. It's a beautiful building, but it houses only the sanctuary, a small kitchen, and a sacristy. So the church offices are in a completely different building 10 minutes away, and even Sunday school is held across the street.

The church has provided me with an amazing apartment about half an hour away. It came fully furnished; complete with a plethora of plants that are unknowingly on their way to death. So far I haven't had anyone over, but the young adult group generally comes twice a month for a potluck dinner of fellowship and Bible study (yay for a young adult group; who has ever really seen one of those?!?!).

In just a week and a half there is already so much to tell, but here's a short rundown:

The church is part of a city-wide program called Laib und Seele (body/bread and soul). They provide fresh fruit/vegetables and bread for people in the area who are unemployed. This happens every Friday and is COMPLETELY run by the laity. The pastors show up for the actual distribution, but there are many, many people who show up at 8:00AM to get ready to give out food at 5:00PM.

I am now part of the church's collection of women who knit prayer shawls. I haven't knitted anything in many years, and what I have done has accumulated only to piles of half-finished projects. But maybe this will keep me on track. Plus, it's fun to just be with this rather diverse group of women - as far as age, heritage, profession, etc.

Every Thursday night there is a group of us who go to watch a movie. There's an English-language theater that plays a sneak preview on Thursdays. So they show a movie that will come out soon, but they never tell you what it is ahead of time. And, for those of you movie-goers in the States - you are missing out. They sell beer and ice cream at the theaters here. :)

Prayer and Praise happens on Saturday mornings. There is a semi-continuous group of people who meet to read and reflect on the lectionary texts for the next day. There are always some fascinating thoughts that come up, and it's also a great way to come to know where the people in the congregation are in terms of their faith and theology and life understanding.

Well, I suppose this is more than enough for you for now. Bis dann.