berliners for a weekend

(note! pictures to come very soon! tomorrow, i hope.)

helloooo!

family and friends, what a weekend it was. so good, so blessed, so awesome.

this past weekend brady and i were blessed to spend time with ben and melissa, a missionary couple in berlin with mbmission. neither brady nor i had ever met ben or melissa (our connection was through jonas, as he is close friends with ben), but they were generous with their time, resources, and love. they welcomed us into their lovely home in the former west berlin, and took us to various sights around the city and also gave us directions to places we wanted to see if they were unable to make.

honestly, one of the nicest parts of the weekend was the ability to stay more than one night in one place (something we hadn't done since arriving in europe). arriving on friday and leaving on monday, the consistency of a home was comforting; eating supper with others as a sort of family was also well appreciated.

ALSO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! major highlight. i experienced my first european soccer game!!!!!!!!!!! AMAZING. seriously SO exciting! it was crazy. berlin played frankfurt (final score: 6-1) and it was the loudest, most hyped up and most awesome event i've been to, hands down. there were also approximately 54 378 people there, so that was pretty sweet too. thoroughly enjoyed that. if you are ever in europe, go to a soccer game. SO worth it. a totally new and awesome cultural experience. :) this girl is happy for sure. another check off the bucket list! :)

over the weekend we did so many new and interesting things, but blogging about this would take me until next year, so i'll give you a list of our stops (sorry for the lack of pictures!) and add some of my thoughts and feelings at the end.

some of the places we visited/saw:
- holocaust memorial (also known as the "memorial to the murdered jews of europe")
- berlin wall, accompanied by "topography of terror", which is an informational exhibit/small museum that describes in great detail the rise to power of the nazis and what life during their reign was like
- checkpoint charlie
- berliner dom
- the site of hitler's bunker
- former luftwaffe headquarters
- alexander platz (a square in berlin that has a lot going on - fun to go see and be a part of! nothing of particular historical significance that i was informed of)
- mauer park (there was a flea market there as well as some karaoke going on - at least 300 people were there for the karaoke, watching and singing!!)
- ben and melissa's church
- soviet memorial (a memorial for the soldiers who died in the battle of berlin in april/may 1945)

that list is only part of what we saw, most likely! there were so many new sights and sounds to take in during our too-short stay in berlin. all of it was really awesome! a definite highlight of mine thus far for sure.

one of the best experiences for me this past weekend was the berliner dom. if you follow the link, you will see that the dom is an enormous and extravagant cathedral on berlin's museum island. the inside was SO beautiful, decorated to the highest degree, and felt almost cavernous as the sanctuary was so, so big. i was actually breathless as i stared up at the ceiling of the sanctuary and reflected on how little this splendour didn't even come close to mirroring the glory of God. i also thought about how humble my church seems compared to this, and whether that was good or bad. i actually haven't come to any solid conclusion on that thought (or question, i suppose) - so please feel free to email me your thoughts if you would like to discuss this! i would love to hear from you.

another highlight for me, as somber as it was, was realizing that nazis and even hitler himself walked the very streets i was walking. i have been interested in  the holocaust for as long as i can remember, and it was really amazing to see some part of those years in real life. berlin was a very important centre for the nazis and so many decisions were made there that changed forever the course of history. it makes me grateful for the freedom in which i live and the comforts i enjoy - i honestly cannot even IMAGINE living in a time when persecution is to the absolute extreme like it was during WWII. there is much to think about there, and i certainly hope that as people remember that horrific time, we will learn from our mistakes and do our best as a human population to stop those kinds of atrocities from happening again. i know that the world isn't perfect and that racial wars/oppression/etc happen, but i do hope that humanity will learn from its mistakes.

enough of being depressing. the last highlight was DEFINITELY staying with ben and melissa. i know i said this in brief already, but their open home and open arms were so needed at that time. they were wonderful and loving, and i have 2 new friends now and know 2 of my brothers and sisters in Christ better. fellowship is awesome!

what a solid weekend. yesterday we arrived in bielefeld and have joined forces with david, another trek friend! today we headed out to buchenwald, one of the concentration camps in WWII, but i will blog about that when we are back in bielefeld.

lots of love,
tejal :)