Dresden

Monday, we took a day trip to Dresden. It is located in eastern Germany near the border with the Czech Republic. We had a personal tour guide. Rev. Joachim Zirkler now works for the Lutheran World Federation in Lutherstadt Wittenberg. He still lives in Dresden and commutes back and forth on the weekends. Joachim was the pastor at Kreuzkirche in Dresden for 12 years. He also grew up in Dresden so we got an incredibly personal tour of what Dresden was like during the Communist occupation. 

Kruezkirche means Cross Church. The original church in the 1100s was Roman Catholic and claimed to have a piece of the cross upon which Jesus was crucified. When the church burned during an attack, the piece of the cross burned. The church was converted to Protestant during the Reformation. The church was remained standing during the bombing of World War II, but the inside was burned out from the firebombs. 

The church hosts a world famous boys choir that draws huge crowds. The church can seat 3,500. 

Dresden has an incredible story and history. It has been conquered and rebuilt and conquered again. It is the site of one of the first peaceful protests to bring about the end of communism in 1989.

It is also the home of the palace and buildings of several princes and extravagant rulers.

The other fascinating place was Frauenkirche (Our Lady Church). Another former Roman Catholic/now Lutheran church. The church was completely destroyed in the bombing of WWII. The people of the city wanted to rebuild it after the fall of communist control. They used computer software and a lot of engineering to rebuild the stone dome church using as much of the rubble as they could.

The inside was a big surprise! As much as the Kreuzkirche was understated in its design, the Frauenkirche was over the top elaborate.

It was an amazing city with an awesome tour guide and my faithful son! 

Last day in Lutherstadt Wittenberg

We enjoyed a special service at the Stadtkirche this morning. The service was in German, but I didn't have to understand it to see how special it was as we witnessed the adult baptism of a young father. We also had the pleasure of hearing from a traveling choir and a trio of two trumpets and a saxophone. And I finally had the pleasure of meeting the pastor from the Stadtkirche, Pastor Kristin Jahn. 

The elaborate bronze baptismal font in the Stadtkirche was cast by Hermann Vischer in Nurnberg in 1457. On the legs are Peter, Paul, John and Andrew. It also contains a center drain to drain away all evil spirits, leaving only life as sent by God. During World War II, the font was buried so it would not be stolen or destroyed. Karl is standing beside the font to show its size. They bring in the platform behind it on baptism days.

Our former exchange student spent part of the day with us warming up with coffee in a local cafe and enjoying bockwurst and kuchen from the street vendors here for the Blumen Fest.

After Christian left Wittenberg by train, Karl and I walked out to the Elbe River, by the cookie factory (Wikana), and through the Luther Garden. It was a great way to spend our last day in this beautiful town.

I want to introduce a couple more friends from my time here...

Rev. Dr. Hanna Kasparick is the Director of the Evangelischen Predigerseminar (German Seminary) that is located here in Wittenberg. She has been at several of the events I attended in my time here. She is gracious and welcoming, and I am very glad that we are both in ministry even if it is on different continents! 

Dr. Kathryn (Kit) Kleinhans is another friend from my time here. Kit teaches at Wartburg College in Iowa. She attended many of our worship services. But more importantly, she knows enough German to answer all my crazy questions! I am thankful for Kit. I hope we see each other again soon, and we don't have to wait until we run into each other in Germany again!

Tomorrow we leave early by train for Dresden for the day. Tomorrow night will be our last sleep in Wittenberg. It has gone fast, and I am so grateful for this wonderful opportunity! I have learned so much about the town, the people, the history, and about myself. Thanks be to God.

My special visitors!

Look who showed up in Wittenberg today! My son Karl and our former foreign exchange student Christian came just after my final worship service tonight. I am so glad they are here. Christian will go back to Berlin tomorrow, but Karl will be with me until we fly back together at the end of the month. 

I can't believe tonight was my last worship service. It went well, and we had a wonderful organist in Dr. Christian Zschieschang (pictured with me below). 

I am so grateful to Beth (below on the right) for her partnership in ministry over the past 3 weeks. Tonight we were joined by Pastor Evelyn from Ontario, Canada.

I also wandered through the Mai Blumen Fest today. Germans sure love their gardens! I took a flower to our friend at the hospital. She was much more perky today. 

Tomorrow I will show Karl all I have learned about Wittenberg! But for now, he is already sleeping. Gute nacht!

Paul Gerhardt Hospital in Wittenberg...

Friends

Today was an interesting day. It didn't turn out anything like I expected! Beth and I were supposed to visit a local woman at her work because she teaches at the local daycare/kindergarten. When we got there, she wasn't there, and they told us she was sick. We had been getting quite concerned because she lives on the fourth floor and she has no family here and we had been trying to reach her for several days. So we were almost relieved when they told us she was in the hospital. 

We made a visit to the local hospital to see her. She will be there another few days, but at least the mystery was solved, and she is being well taken care of!

She and Beth have been friends for years so it was good to hear them talk about common interests! The patient had been taking pictures from her bathroom window of the stars and the sunsets. She was showing us her beautiful pictures.

Tonight at chapel, we had people from Texas, northern and southern and western Germany, Wisconsin and one other state that totally escapes me now. It was delightful to visit with them after worship. And I also got to meet the organist for tomorrow's worship in the Stadtkirche. So all is well! We finished off the night with an organ concert, some apple pie ice cream and  some really cheap Christmas wine! My friends, Beth and Kit, joined me for the wine and the ice cream. I can't believe I had my last chapel service today. I am going to miss my little community of people!

Beth Schnabel has been my deputy director for Wittenberg English Ministries. She is the detail person and maintains our town connections. She is also my dear friend now. Since we are both here without our husbands, we have been doing a lot together. She comes to Wittenberg from Medina, Ohio.

Karl is on his way from North Dakota to Germany. If all goes well, he should arrive in Wittenberg tomorrow evening. I am anxious to see him!

A couple of P.S. things ....

My friend Micheline helped me translate one of the gravestones I saw the other day. In fact, if you are reading my blog regularly, it was the stone with the haunting woman statue on it.

It said, "What you were to me I keep in holy silence. What you are to me stays in me."

Tomorrow is the local Blumen Festival. They were preparing for it today in the Marketplatz. More on the festival tomorrow!!!

Back to work

At 3:55 yesterday, my Deputy Director and I talked about how this might be the day where no one came to chapel service. At 4 pm we had 12 people from Florida, Illinois, British Columbia and Sweden. It has certainly been a joy to lead worship for people from all over the world!

Tuesday and Wednesday were quiet days. I worked on some artwork, prepared my message for chapel service, and wandered the local cemeteries. I admit that I may be a little weird. But it is really a holy place for me. The little statue (pictured above) was on one of the graves. I felt that she embodied a grief that was painful but still contained hope.

Each grave is maintained by the family. So as long as someone is attentive, they are each like little gardens. Unfortunately, when no one remains to tend the space, it gets overgrown.

And even more startling what happens if no one cares or pays anymore. I found this pile in the back of one cemetery. Some of those are gravestones! 

After chapel I caught a presentation at the Rathaus (old city hall). The school children had created artwork that is based in the work of Lucas Cranach (an artist and contemporary of Martin Luther). This little fourth grader created her lovely piece, and it was chosen to be displayed. It is wonderful to see how the local people are integrating the incredible history of this region into their own educational system.

What I've Learned...

I had several goals for this trip:

1.  Wish Warren Loberg a happy 91st birthday from the banks of the Elbe River

2.  Preach and lead worship in Luther's church

3.  Get to know some of the local Wittenberg residents

4.  Take some day trips to experience more of the area

5.  Learn more about Luther and others who played key roles in the Reformation

As I head into my last week here, all of these have been accomplished. I have three more chapel services and one more Saturday worship in the Town Church. I have one more Englische Stammtisch to see some of the local people and meet new visitors. My son will arrive on Saturday evening (provided he makes all flight and train connections)! 

All of that is well and good. But the reason I am writing this post today is because of the things I have learned that were unexpected and not on my goal list! Here it goes...

1.  I can bike 40 kilometers and still walk the next day! This was such an amazing adventure with my Deputy Director Beth. I spent the first portion of the trip praying that I would make it  back. Then my prayer became: "Please let me get to the point Beth wanted us to reach!" (At one point, I even talked to her about turning back early!) Then my prayer became: "Thank you, God, for this most amazing day!" Once I stopped worrying if I could do it, I began to live into the moment and notice the wonderful things around me. I smiled at the sound of the cuckoos who live in the trees along the Elbe River. (And in my head I was singing the song from the Sound of Music.) I greeted the people we met on our bikes. I noticed the different kinds of trees here. I felt the sun on my back and the breeze in my face, and for that moment, I couldn't imagine being anywhere else.

2.  It was about half way through the concert at the Stadtkirche St. Marien's (Town Church) on Friday night that I also realized that I was present in that moment and again, I couldn't imagine being anywhere else. The concert began with 30 minutes of speeches in German. I could not understand a word, and I didn't even try. And then another 30 minutes later, I realized something pretty unusual for me. I was simply present. I felt the music. I watched the incredible passion of the musicians. I sat in awe of their skill, but I also sat in awe of where I happened to be at that moment. I did not wish the moment away. I was not planning anything else. I was not making any kind of a to-do list. I was not holding (much) tension or stress in my shoulders. This is very unlike me! Usually, I have such a hard time being in the moment. My mind just whirls with all the mental things I am trying to juggle. I realized that this time in Wittenberg has renewed that sense of presence in me. 

3.  I watched a TED Talk recently by Jill Bolte Taylor. She is a neuroanatomist (brain researcher) who experienced a debilitating stroke. In her talk, she described what it was like to have the analytic, structured, linear side of her brain shut down by the stroke. As I listened, I realized that what I have been doing recently is living completely in that analytic, structured, linear side of my brain. And in the process, I have been missing any connection to the creative, artistic side of my brain. While I have been here in Wittenberg, I have been working with my limited supplies on hand to do something creative. Pinterest calls it Zendoodling. I call it praying with the creative side of my brain. I choose one word to draw and then let my mind rest in that as I create.

I was thinking that it has been such a gift to have the time to do this. But what I have learned is that I need to make the time to do this. The gift is the peace and time I have with God while I do it. 

4. The final thing I have learned (for today) is that laughter is universal. I was doing a little shopping this afternoon. I usually tune everyone out because I cannot understand the German anyway, but today when another woman in the store laughed, the first thing that popped in my mind was that I had heard English. Instead, I had just heard her laughter. It was familiar. It was lovely. It was universal. And it made my heart rest in that. 

I know I am never to old to learn. But I am still surprised at all that I have learned about myself on this trip. Thank you, God, for this most amazing time! 

A Cross, the Methodists and a Quartet

Today was my second Saturday of preaching in the Stadtkirche, so I spent most of the day polishing my sermon and doing some reading in my room. It started out sunny and beautiful today, but turned to thunderstorms tonight. The birds outside my window have been serenading me all day! The cross above is the one my dad wore for his ordination (1968). I also wore it for my ordination (June 30, 2013), and now I wore it to preach in the Stadtkirche St. Marien's in Wittenberg, Germany. It brings me a lot of peace to wear it! Tonight, we were missing our organist, but we had the beautiful voices of the Methodists who were here to plant a tree in the Luther Garden. The garden will eventually contain 500 trees from churches around the world. Below is a picture of the garden from the air. Check out their website to learn more!

Yesterday, I wandered around the Luther House Museum again. As I was going to the museum, I had the opportunity to peek into the Augusteum as they are doing the renovations. They were in the process of removing some scaffolding and doing some cleaning.

Two of the books I found in the museum have great significance for my time here in Wittenberg. Every English service ends with us singing "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." It was written in 1527, and the hymn was probably first sung in the Stadtkirche St. Marien's. Knowing all that makes the hymn even more fun to sing! The hymnbook below is a second edition of the first known publication containing the hymn. This is Joseph Klug's hymnbook published in 1533.

My second wonderful find yesterday was this:  the first complete copy of the Luther's bible translated into high German. The date is 1534. The book was published by Hans Lufft.

The Friday night concert at the Stadtkirche was in honor of the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII. The quartet performed Messaien's "Quartet for the End of Time." Messaien was composer serving as a French soldier during World War II. He was captured and held prisoner in Stalag VIII-A. The quartet consists of a clarinet, a violin, a cello and a piano because those were the instruments/performers available. The quartet was first performed in the rain on January 15, 1941. The music is haunting, grating, beautiful, and painful. Here is an online version if you want to check it out:  Quartet for the End of Time.

I am off to Berlin and Magdeburg Sunday and Monday. I will spend Mother's Day visiting the mother of our former foreign exchange student who lives in Berlin. You will hear about my Magdeburg mission if I am successful! Peace!