Berlin - A Polarized History

Having known my whole life that my paternal grandfather and his family immigrated to the USA from Germany when he was a boy, and knowing that the Pennsylvania Dutch heritage of my father's side of our ancestry also has German roots, I've always had a great interest in visiting Germany.  To "visit" with purpose is even more meaningful!  You can read a summary of the trip's activities on the Ignite International website, so this blog will not focus so much on itinerary as on perspective and experiences that leave me once again changed forever.

Day 1 - Ministry Outreach #1 - Conversation with Raphael, a man 42-years old who had stopped by our first outreach with his two dogs.  As we talked, I began to ask questions about his belief system, assuming this would open the door for me to share with him about the love God has for him.  His response was telling and impactful.  "I believe in God......and I believe in Jesus and what He did.  The problem I have is with the church. They say they are about helping people, and yet (for example) when I was in the Philippines, I saw people starving to death....no home.....nowhere to sleep.....they had nothing.  Across the street was this huge, really beautiful church.  It was huge!!  And I saw the very well-dressed people go in and out of that church, after getting in and out of their nice cars.....and I just kept thinking to myself, 'if you really want to help people the way you say you want to help people, and the way I think Jesus would, then why don't you step over here and actually help them instead of giving all your money to ones who have so much?'"  He went on to say, "....the church, in my opinion, is the wealthiest company in all of the world...."  Unfortunately, I could not disagree.....

Day 2 - Christus Gemeinde Church Service - as we sang "How Great is OUR God", my mind wandered to Nicaragua and the many times I have been deeply touched by the unifying words of Chris Tomlin's song among some of my most favorite people in all the world.  OUR God - He is not the God of just one nation, He is OUR God.  The congregation sang in German, the team sang in English.......I heard it in my head in Spanish.  OUR God - How awesome is He?!

Day 3 - Bike Tour of Berlin - I was so impacted by the remains of the Wall that still stands in small doses throughout the city.  They serve as reminders of the cruelty of the government that built it, as well as the desperation for freedom that is innate to all of humanity.  I was equally impacted by the absolute destruction of pretty much all things Nazi - there are no memorials, there are not statues to honor "heroes".  There are empty parking lots covered with gravel.  Plazas and busy streets full of life, traffic and interaction among people who have rebuilt their society into one of the most precious people groups on the planet.  Playgrounds and beach volleyball complexes, parks and recreational facilities now reside where once oppression and bondage were king.  People long for freedom, plain and simple!! If you have breath in your body, you want to be free, and it made me humbly grateful that I have never lived a day in which I did not know I was free.  The ruins of the Gestapo headquarters, the Jewish Holocaust Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, the simple, rather generic sign that marks the place where Hitler's bunker had been and where he ended his own life, the majesty of the Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag......and then periodically a gold plate approximately 2" x 2" on the ground in the sidewalk with merely a name, date and concentration camp. 

Day 4 - Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp - there is something disgustingly hallowed about walking on the property of a place where 50,000 people lost their lives at the hand of someone else's cruelty.  Words could not possibly describe that feeling - it was like Beslan times 55 million.  Standing in the roll call area, a chill swept over me that is indescribable.  The Holocaust was real.......the housing units that were so overcrowded and overheated that people suffocated just because of the crowd were real......the gas chambers were real.......the crematories were real.......the horror of both the persecution of the Jews, followed by the torture of Germans once taken over by the Russians as a POW camp were real.  It's the ugliest part of human history, and yet......the God that created each of us, loved every single person involved in both sides of that horror.  His grace is amazing, and His love I'll never understand.

Day 5 - Wittenberg, home of Martin Luther - the polarizing reality of Germany.  One day we stood in one of the main concentration camps used by the Nazis to carry out their slaughter.  The next day we took a train 45 minutes from Berlin to the very church where Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses and the other church in which he preached on a weekly basis.  As horrible as the political events of this country's history have been remembered, I would hope that the entire Christian world will be forever grateful, as I am, to Germany for their native son whose impact on our modern faith is insurmountable.  Martin Luther took a stand to get us back to the Cross and the simplicity of what Jesus Christ did for us there - I, for one, am thankful....and I pray we never forget!

Day 7 - After our final game, one of the opposing athletes approached me with questions.  After sharing with her for awhile, with tears in her eyes she said something that I think sums up the people we met.  "I just don't believe like you believe.......I've been to the States, and I stayed with an evangelical family.  It's easy to believe in God there because you have always been taught this.  But it's hard when for 24 years you have been taught different.  I can't just change what I've been taught."  I could hear the angst in her voice as she sounded very similar to my new Gothic friend whom I had met earlier in the trip who told me, "I believe in God, I thnk He loves me........I'm so afraid of Him."

The hard reality is this - less than 2% of the people believe in God.  Some would even say less than 1%.  "How can they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?"  I am so thankful for people like our friends from European Initiative who have packed up their families and moved to Berlin to help people hear!!  It was our honor and privilege to link arms, and through the sport of volleyball and the natural bridge that sport competition builds, to reach a sector of Berlin that might otherwise never hear.  

What I know is this - we MUST go back......and we WILL go back!!!  We need teams of any sport to take in the future.  Volleyball is already established, and we need to build on this incredible week of impact.  I personally need to go back and continue to deepen the relationships that began within the athletic community, as well as water many seeds that were planted.

"How will they hear unless someone tells them?  And how can one tell them if they are not sent?" 

Please consider clicking to the right of this summary and planting a financial seed to help send us back to Berlin.  Taking mission trips to places where the biggest issue is poverty are WONDERFUL, and we will always be intentional about serving in these places......but if no one ever steps into the enemy's playground where Godlessness is the norm, how will the people of Berlin and its surrounding countries ever come to know the God who created and loves them?

Plain and simple.......they won't!!!!