Conversating

guten tag,

So tomorrow is a day trip to Cologne (Köln), a city of 1 millions people, a big upgrade from Osnabrück’s 160,000. Should be cool. Maybe I’ll have pictures.

So there are about 100 exchange students here at the University (including a 50 year old man from Pittsburgh? what are the chances?) We spend the days going through boring but useful orientation information and then hang out at restaurants and the like afterwards and explore the city.

Yesterday was a group of about 20 of us in a room together. We had ridiculous conversations that switched from German to English to italian to spanish to french all really loud and at the same time. Kind of hard to follow but definitely a good learning experience. I found out that in Osnabrück (and in most of Germany for that matter) people aren’t scared of dark alleys. They said because of the high taxes and redistribution of wealth there are less muggings etc. They blame the extreme wealth next to extreme poverty in the US for that being an issue in our country. I don’t really have an opinion on that but it was interesting to hear.

There are a group of 4 french students I’ve been spending most of my time with. Last night we hung out till late just talking (German, English, French) around the dinner table eating off-brand Pringles from Aldi. We talked everything from drop test machines at Vocollect, to French cartoons, to girls being obsessed with chocolate in whatever country you are in. (side story, when the girls found out I had never had “Kinder” chocolate which is a particular brand they immediately bought me some “for my birthday in February” and took a picture of my first bite. It was actually really amazing. So side story is over and back to the dinner table now) The girl who lives on my hall, Charlène, asked if I made the bracelet I was wearing. It was the wordless book bracelet from YWAM. I got to explain all the colors in short (each color represents a different part of the gospel). I didn’t want to get on a pulpit without being asked to, but after I finished explaining I was asked. Alicia asked if I knew the difference between the Protestant and Catholic churches so I got to lay out more clearly what salvation is and how it is received. They were all surprised to find I’d read the entire Bible. I had already talked with Pierre about differences between church in the states versus Europe and contemporary versus traditional, but here I got to go through it again. We talked about worship. I think sometime soon we may listen to worship music together. We wondered together about how we could bring American church to Europe, but without really getting anywhere (I also smote the myth that all American’s are Christians). They wanted to know what I would do about church while I’m here so I got to mention the christian group on campus I wanted to check out which lead to a conversation on InterVarsity which they were also intrigued by. That turned out to be a very satisfying evening but also sad. I realized how hard it would be to be a Christian in a society where the church has turned into a ritual for old people and nothing more. I can’t imagine what it would take to convince someone to join that at the age of 20 with absolutely 0 connections to it. I feel like if I brought those four friends (Quentin is the fourth but he’s very quiet) to the states they would come to church and be ok with it, but how do you get people to join a church perceived dead, and grow in it. I think I have some research to do on what’s available here. Also it’s one thing to intrigue people with stories of America, and it’s another to have them turn their lives around. I guess it’s good to know that I need God for all this. I’m quite glad God is giving me chances to speak though. Having now spoken, that also adds more accountability. Now I have to practice what I preach.

Below are some pictures of one of the churches in Osnabrück. It’s the one I mentioned in last entry that has one tower bigger than the other.

I need to start asking some questions about family life and working life in Germany (or any place in Europe for that matter.

So there’s lots more happening but I have to pick and choose what I put up here. If you have any questions be sure to ask. Miss you guys,

Tschüss,