Visions, LSD, and Odd Things I've Heard

I haven't updated in a few days and I feel little bad about that.  I just haven't had a lot of time.  Tuesday after bible study, Doug, Patrick, and myself went to a tent by Victoria Park and watched the Dutch triumph over Uruguay.  Yesterday, I didn't have a great conversation but I did spend a lot of time in prayer and really loved it.  That night I watched Spain beat Germany.  A lot of people were really upset, I guess it's understandable I am in Germany.  The Netherlands are going to beat Spain.

Today, I had a pretty good quiet time.  I woke up really tired and had a sore neck.  I haven't been sleeping well the past couple of nights, but I only a few more days in the bed I'm in.  In-spite of that I spent a good hour with God, asking for Him to refresh me and keep me burning for Him.  On campus today, Alyssa and I went sharing.  The guy we sat down with at lunch didn't speak English, so we just talked between ourselves since I don't feel confident enough to share in German.  When we went back to the south part of campus, the first guy we spoke with was from South Carolina.  He grew up in the church but fell away when he saw how people, in this case priests, can use God to do bad things.  But before we could really share and let him know that we are not called to live like that, he had to leave.  The next person we talked with, was this girl Ulli.  She was really nice but had some traumatizing experiences.  She said that she lost her faith at age 10 when something horrible happened in her life and that she didn't think God was with her through it.  We tried to say that God was with you through that, and His heart broke when it happened and that He can heal you.  As we started to explain that, she moved into how God was neither good nor bad and that Allah, Buddha, Krisna, YHWH, etc are all the same god.  When we asked her about what she thought would happen in death, she said that she had vision where she was approaching death and her grandma said it wasn't time for her to die but when it was she would walk with her through a purgatory type of place seeing everyone she's ever met before deciding if she wants to move on to something else or relive life.  It was very odd.  She somehow moved into how Jesus is viewed the same in both Islam and Christianity.  We tried to discuss that with her but she had to leave for work.

The last guy we spoke with was very odd.  I'm not really sure what he believed other than helping the poor and communism.  He was very smart, just very odd.  He kept talking about LSD, I kind of think he was on some sort of drug.  He believed that people have auras and energy but that Christians have weaker auras than the rest of society because we spend so much time serving others and that we steal other people's energy.  It was all really weird.  I spent some of the time in prayer and then the rest trying to figure out a way we could get out of the conversation since it was moving no where and we were supposed to be back at the hostel at 4 but somehow Alyssa found a way to share the gospel with him.  She was like "ok, you know how you keep talking about how there is so much suffering in the world?  It's because of sin and then Jesus came and He is the way for us to get out of it.  He came so we can find redemption and hope.  He taught that we need a relationship with Him to heal ourselves and then we're supposed to help everyone else."  We ended up giving him one of our pages that have the churches we got on it with our emails.  I hope he emails us and goes to one of the churches and sees how much people care about this world because God cares about this world.

For dinner, Austin, Alyssa, Jenna, Kathy, Patrick Martin, Christina, and myself went to this Spanish place for dinner.  It was so good.  I forgot how much I like Paella.

The Weekend

Yesterday was a bit of a free day, where we could do whatever we wanted until 12:30 before we were going to Lake Schloctonse.  Kenny and I decided to go to Balzac coffee again for our quiet times.  It was good.  I really like enjoy the tea there and that it usually is quiet there.  We were there until about 11 before heading back to the hostel.  On our way to Schloctonse, we stopped off at Potsdam which is where the palaces are.  They are so beautiful.  I really like the beauty of the palaces.  Someone said they thought they were more beautiful than the Palace at Versailles.  One of the couple who are leading the trip have a 5 year old little girl who wanted me to carry her all over the palace.  I carried her most of the time until it was too hot.  After the palaces, we went back into Potsdam and looked around at the little shops.  I bought the one thing I really wanted to buy while I'm here, a German copy of the book Siddhartha.  When we reached the lake, I really didn't wanted to swim since I was afraid I wouldn't get back in time to watch the USA-Ghana game, so Alyssa and I left before everyone else since she wasn't feeling well.

This morning, I went to Berlin International Church.  It was nice, all in English and a pretty good sermon.  This morning's sermon was about forgiveness and the story of Joseph.  The pastor pointed out that Joseph wanted great blessings poured out on his brothers, even after they sold him into slavery.  The only thing I didn't care that much for was the worship music.  It was good, but I didn't know it so it was harder to prepare my heart for worship that way.

After church, we went to a biergarten to watch the Germany-England game.  I didn't stay long, I didn't sleep well and I had a hard time seeing the screen from where we were sitting.  At least Germany won.  Too bad the USA didn't.

Nord Mensa

Today we went to the North Mensa.  It's farther away from main campus, but a nicer cafeteria and better food.  Aaron, Patrick, and I went out sharing together again and we were only able to share the gospel once.  But thats ok, numbers aren't everything.  The time we shared it, the guy intellectually agreed with everything we said but when we said if he wanted salvation he would need to accept Christ, he said he didn't believe  in God and all everything became kind of moot.  Patrick did an awesome job sharing with this guy.  Ever argument he had against Christianity or God, God provided Patrick with an answer.  God provided all of us with answers, but really with Patrick.  It was really incredible.  At first I was slightly disappointed with our conversation with him, but looking back I don't feel so bad about it.  I think that God maybe just wanted us to break the soil of his heart a little bit and somewhere down the line he might be willing and ready to accept Christ.

After our time at the North Mensa, we went back to south campus and met up with the girls and talked about The Reason for God.  It's a really good book so far.  It has really helped me to know there are some strong arguments for when people act like Christopher Hitchens and think they know all of the answers.  Ultimately it comes down to if people are willing to let God work in them, or else these points become moot (much like with the guy we spoke with today).  We all really seem to like it.

This evening we went to the biergarten by the Berlin Zoo to watch the Germany-Ghana game.  It was pretty great.  On the way home, people were rioting and partying.  Some people were shaking an entire subway car before breaking out a window and lighting off fireworks in the station.  It was pretty cool, yet really scary to see the Germans go from being so calm and laid back to this intensity.  I don't think people in America are even this intense during OSU-UM week.

TU

Yesterday we went to church.  It was nice.  We broke up into small groups that we'll keep for when we go to the churches.  The group I was in, we went to Lukas Geiminde.  It was really nice.  We started off singing "Come, Now is the Time to Worship" in German.  It was really cool to sing songs that I knew in German.  The sermon was about being fruitful in the spirit of God.  They had a translator who we could listen to with headsets.  After church, we went to the American Cafe for lunch.  It was ok.  People must think that as Americans we're either New Yorkers or Californians.  After that we had a free day, so some of us went to the Tiergarten and played ultimate frisbee.  It was really a lot of fun and great bonding time.  We played for about an hour before we came back and went to dinner by our class.  The majority of the students on the trip are seniors so we broke up into 2 senior groups for dinner.  It was nice to be in a smaller group with people closer to my age.

This morning, I felt drained and tired.  I didn't sleep that well and didn't really get a chance to have a great quiet time this morning with people being noisy and me talking with Eric and Kenny, so I was running a little on empty.  On our way to TU, I spent some time in prayer and started to feel refreshed and better.  It's times like these that I remember how much God's spirit is the living water.  It also reminds of me how important it is to start off my day with Him, much like the intro to the dc Talk song "Day by Day".

Today after our quiet times and devotional, we went to our final campus which for me was Technice Universitaet.  TU is the big science university in Berlin, it has a lot of engineering students and math students.  Austin and I talked with a Muslim guy about faith for about 10 minutes.  He wasn't very confident in his english so he kept most of his answers short and simple.  He seemed content with staying Muslim and not learning more about Christ.  That was the closest we've come to sharing the gospel so far, but it's only been a week and I know God will do something with whatever it is that we do for Him.  I'm doing my best not to get discouraged.  I need to remember that my hope is in Him and His power not in how effective and beautiful my words are, because they're gifts He gave me and I can only show them His love for me; God's the one who ultimately does all the work, He just uses those of us willing to serve.

I started reading Tim Keller's The Reason For God.  It's really good.  It kind of reminds me of Case for a Creator except with more philosophical/theological arguments.  It's one of the books that Crusade has given us to read this summer.  I'm sure I won't finish it while I'm here since I'm also reading Fireseeds and The Road, but hopefully I continue reading when I come home.

The ref who called the USA-Slovenia game is no longer reffing any World Cup games.  That's probably smart.  He did a pretty poor job.

Free days

Yesterday we decided to not go to the third campus.  As a team we decided it was important for us to watch the Germany - Serbia game.  It was an ok game.  We went to a Biergarten and had a lot of fun.  We got there late so we didn't get good seats.  After the game a lot of people left and went exploring, while six of us stayed and watched the USA - Slovenia game.  It was great bonding time.  Michael Bradley was definitely the hero of the night.  I will say that I think the USA got robbed on having that goal called back.  But that's the last I'll say of that.

Today was another free day.  This morning, Kenny, Alyssa, Jenna, Christina and myself went to a Starbuck's like place for our quiet time and coffee.  It was really fun.  The place we went was kind of out of the way, but it was really enjoyable.  I did my devotionals and then read a little bit from "Fireseeds".  Its all about revival and I think it's an appropriate book for what we're doing.  I wasn't feeling drained when I read it this morning, but after reading a chapter from it I felt more energized about sharing my faith with German students..  After that, we went on a four hour walking tour of Berlin.  It was really awesome to see some of the sites and just hang out with the team.  We saw the Brandenburg Gate, the Bundestag, a couple of really old cathedrals.  One of the cathedrals was for the French Huguenots, one for the German Lutherans, and one for the German Catholic church.  It was really just so beautiful.  Prussian architecture is just wow.  For dinner, we ate a biergarten.  I had a pork knuckle and some non-alcoholic green beer.  The pork knuckle was really incredible.  I'm not sure how to describe it, but it was really great.  Its definitely a food Americans would like.

Tomorrow, we're going to three separate churches in the morning.