If you had the opportunity to travel to another country, what would you do? Would you plan every moment? Would you see where the wind takes you? Try every bakery and café?
It's hard for me to describe Germany and there are so many things I wish I would have done.
In July 2015, I met a friend while I was in Brazil on a mission trip. During the first semester of university, I sent him a message to see how he was doing since I hadn't heard from him for a few months. He called me and we began to chat. Suddenly, I had an invite to Germany with a place to stay.
And so, in the summer of 2017, I travelled to the region of Saxony, Germany to visit my friend and spend two weeks on the side of the world I had never seen before.
This is my friend, Alexandre. Born and raised in Brazil, he is following the leading of God and, currently and at the time, that meant working with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) in a small town in Saxony.
I went with almost nothing planned. All I knew was that I would be visiting a friend I hadn't seen in two years, a friend I didn't know very well, in a part of the world where I knew no one. You could say it went pretty well.
I had no idea what was waiting for me, and I don't know if I can say anything extremely exciting happened. What was exciting, was how important Germany became to me.
In 10 days, I saw the city of Dresden and Berlin, and I stayed in an old castle in the small village of Herrnhut. I sat in on a class for a week taught by Carl Tinnion from YWAM Newcastle. I was able to grow in friendships and meet different people. I struggled with a language and I learned how important a simple smile can be.
And, everyday I long to go back.
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It was the little things that stood out to me. I saw how important flowers were, but I didn't get to ask why.
There were flowers and gardens everywhere. If you didn't have enough space for a garden, you had window flower boxes. It seemed like every street in Berlin had a flower shop.
All the wind turbines throughout the countryside surprised me. There were so many!
Germans separate their waste like nothing I have seen before! They have five different bins they separate their waste in: bio-organic, paper, plastic, metal, and then what's left that doesn't fit those four categories. In Berlin, people would walk around looking for plastic out of trash bins to recycle and possibly sell.
The architecture; it seemed the main materials were wood and stone, but not like the stone in Ohio. The homes were sort of box-like with a mixture of dark wood and the stone material.
Different, but familiar. It always seems that wherever I go, that is the concluded phrase I come to: "different... yet, familiar."
I had the wonderful opportunity to join a class and listen to this guy talk for five days. His name is Carl Tinnion.
I sat and listened to Carl speak on the Kingdom of God and missions. He told a story I've heard so many times before, but in such a new way. A side to God that was always there. He broke the legalism of right and wrong down to the fundamental question of, "Does it match God's character?" Everything came down to God's character and who God is. If you know God's character, you know what he will say, you know how he will react, and you know what he wants. It was such a wonderful image that was being given to me, and it has stuck with me.
