Sorry that I have not updated this since last year…

Boy this is gonna get long.

Ok. So I think I last told you a little about Lobau. Well, a lot has happened since then. We’ve changed cities 3 times and are about to move again next week. Here is where we have been. Lobau, Dresden, Stuttgart, and Magdeburg. Yeah. Now I feel really bad that I haven’t told you much of anything about any of these places. Lets start with Dresden.

We were in Dresden from December 16^th to the 25^th, just over one week. We decided to go to Dresden because Stefan had a doctor appointment there. We didn’t really have any contacts there except for a few places that some people from our school stayed at during the Faith Walk. One was called Pot 81…yup. I’m not sure which is better, to explain what it is or just leave it at that. Anyway. We spent the weekend there, because it is a totally free place for college students or anyone else who knows about it to stay at. We talked a lot to the people who kinda head it up. But I doubt that anyone was actually “In Charge”. The goal at Pot 81 is for everyone to be equal. It’s very socialistic. That Sunday we went to church, which made my day- even if it was a traditional, pipe organ, no-English-translation type of church. Monday, we set out from Pot 81 to find an organization that we could partner up with to serve the community. We knew of another place that some people stayed at called Stoff-wechsel. What is Stoff-wechsel? It originally was a café started by Sabine Ball, a German who moved to America and married a Millionaire. Then after years of searching for the meaning of life, found God, moved back to Germany, and started Stoff-wechsel. Now the Stoff-wechsel project has turned into clubs and other activities for all ages. In case you haven’t guesses yet, our team fell in love with this project, and it wasn’t even open while we were there. We got there Monday afternoon only to find out it was closed on Mondays. Then on accident, I found the actual office for all the projects, which was open. We went there and asked if there was anything we could do to help the project, but the secretary told us that all the Stoffi(nickname for Stoff-wechsel) projects were closed for Christmas and New years. As we were leaving we ran into some interns from Stoffi who invited us to go to the Christmas market with them. Which lead to us meeting one of the heads of Stoffi. Who then said that since the Stoff-wechsel was closed we could stay in the café. We also learned that of Christmas Eve there would be a Christmas party for people from the area that didn’t have anyone to spend Christmas with. We decided to stay until that Christmas party in hopes of serving there. We ended up serving at a different party because that one already had enough volunteers. Throughout the week we got to know Matthias(one of the heads of Stoffi) and his family better. And we got to bless the project by praying for it even though it wasn’t open. Ok. So then on Christmas Eve, like I said, we helped at a Christmas party for people who didn’t necessarily have anywhere else to go. However, like I also said, it wasn’t the Stoffi party, this one was run by the Salvation Army. Pretty cool. Yup, then on Christmas day we left Dresden. Just so you know, in Germany Christmas eve is a bigger deal than Christmas day. I think.

So on Christmas we took a series of trains to Stuttgart. It was eight hours of travel. We knew of even less opportunities in Stuttgart than we did in Dresden. When we got there and decided that it would probably be best to find a Hostel, and after much walking and asking of directions we found one. The most important thing to be noted about our time in Stuttgart is we were there for five days and every day was partially spent at Starbucks and every night we stayed with someone different. Another thing to be noted, is that THERE ARE NO CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATIONS/CHURCHS OPEN IN GERMANY THE WEEK AFTER CHRISTMAS! And from this day forward I am celebrating Christmas on Three Kings Day, which is a week after Christmas, that way I can volunteer at homeless shelters or something like it on Christmas day. Yeah, that was my Stuttgart story.

From Stuttgart we came here to Magdeburg, the hometown of Stefan. His pastor had been praying that we would come. So for the past two weeks we have had our own apartment and many many many open doors for ministry. We have done everything from one-on-one meetings with people from the congregation, to hosting prayer meeting, and street evangelism to babysitting. I really haven’t had enough time to process everything we have done here for me to write a whole lot. But I can say that I have absolutely loved being here. I think it reminds me of DOVE-E. I know that God wants to move in this church.

Um, so if you have any question, email me. I’m gonna quote from John now.

[We] did many other things. If they were all written [on blogs], I don’t suppose there would be room enough in the whole [wide web] for all the [blogs]. John 21:25 (CEV with a little creative freedom by BJG)

~Bethany Graybill