Groundwork Ministries Mission Team Trip

Since June 30, we have been with Groundwork Ministries Mission Team - 5 youth from AZ, 1 from MN and our daughter, Robin - doing various activities around Germany. They arrived in Frankfurt and stayed with 4 host families from June 30 until July 4. On July 1 we all went to Vogelsberg and rode on the Sommer Rodelbahn (sleds on a track down a hill), toured the town of Kronberg and had French Flammkuchen and salads followed by our daily devotion in a city park.

Early (6:30 a.m.) on July 2 we helped serve breakfast at a downtown Frankfurt "soup kitchen" and also helped them stuff envelopes for a mailing. We gave the group a quick tour of the center of Frankfurt. The team then met some youth and advisers from our church here, played games, went for pizza and then out on the town in Frankfurt.

Saturday, July 3 we spent time in the morning with our host families and then joined some young people from our Frankfurt church at an Irish Pub to watch Germany play in the World Cup (beat Argentina). In the evening one of the host families hosted all of the families and kids for a BBQ at their house. Thanks Petersons.

Sunday, July 4 the team led the children's message in our worship service and then took about 10-15 kids out for a time of singing, kid's worship and crafts. After a nice coffee time following worship we all boarded a train to Wittenberg in eastern Germany. Our train was delayed for about an hour due to a car which had rolled over onto the other set of tracks. Since we happened upon this accident first, we had to stop while police and Deutsche Bahn officials investigated. Thankfully no one was hurt. After arriving in Wittenberg we checked into the youth hostel and then headed immediately to our favorite restaurant, the Kartoffelhaus (a place frequented by Martin Luther himself)followed by some Eis (ice cream). Since it was July 4, we celebrated a little with sparklers on the street in front of the Castle Church, while trying to avoid being eaten alive by mosquitoes!

Monday, July 5 we toured Wittenberg and did a little souvenir and take-home gift shopping before boarding the train for Berlin. We had another "train incident", this time a delay in leaving due to a medical emergency with one of the passengers. We checked into our wonderfully air-conditioned hotel and then headed to dinner and a stop at a wonderful Chocolate Shop.

Tuesday, July 6 we met up with an American pastoral intern at the American Church of Berlin (ELCA) who took us on a wonderful tour of Berlin - the "bombed out church", a portion of the wall, Brandenberg Gate, and Checkpoint Charlie. For the 3rd day in a row we had a train issue - this time we missed our train (by about 15 seconds!!) due to the bus taking us to the train station being 15 minutes late!! Therefore we arrived at our Kindercamp destination of Verden (south of Bremen) about an hour and a half late. They had a bonfire with roasted marshmallows, roasted bread and other snacks waiting for us when we finally arrived at the church.

Wednesday, July 7 was planning day with the German team for the 3 day Kindercamp in Rotenberg (Wumme). What an awesome experience it was to see how the two groups, from two countries with different languages, worked so well together - all in Christ's name. Their youth and host families were amazing as far as hospitality and having fun (cherry pit spitting contest)and working together. In the afternoon we had a tour of Verden and then a "Kaffee and Kuchen" picnic on the banks of the Aller River in Verden. That evening the American youth went with some German youth to the public viewing of the World Cup match which Germany lost to Spain. They had an awesome time, though. The 3 "old-people" on the team watched the game in the quiet living room of the pastor's home!!

Thursday, July 8 Kindercamp started with 24 kids (none from the church - what an amazing outreach!) at 10:00 a.m. and ran until 3:30 p.m. In the morning we had a lesson based on the parable of the Hidden Treasure, skits, songs (German and English), games, and snacks (fruits and vegetables, not sweets). After a delicious lunch we played more games, did some teaching of English with games, and also had a baseball clinic - teaching the basics of catching, fielding and hitting. The kids loved the baseball!! That evening we went by train to Bremen where we got a tour of the city and had a great German meal of brats or Flammkuchen at an outside eating area.

Friday, July 9 was another day of Kindercamp, this time with the theme of the Lost Sheep. All the while we were in Verden/Rotenberg the temperatures were well into the 90's and the humidity must have been around 60% - unusually hot for them. They don't have air conditioning so needless to say, everyone was very worn out from both the activities and the heat. Friday evening we went canoeing on the Aller River - went about 12-14 km (about 8 miles) - stopping mid-way for a sandwich-and-apple dinner on the shore. We had 3 canoes for the 23 of us and had lots of fun singing Christmas songs, English songs, German songs - and of course, splashing each other.

Saturday, July 10 dawned another bright sunny day (we were praying for clouds!). The theme for this day was the Prodigal Son. Skits and mime skits were done by the Germans and Americans to reinforce the story. The kids fell in love with the "Woot, woot" song (Blessed Be), "Stand up, Sit down", and another silly song with lots of actions. In the afternoon we went to the school a few blocks away and played a little baseball "scrimmage". We modified the rules quite a bit to allow all the kids the opportunity to bat, run bases and field. Some of them caught on real quickly (like Pastor Christoph who got 2 home runs!!) and some will need some more practice. Sunday evening we had a great BBQ at the church, breaking up in plenty of time to get back to Verden so the youth could go to the public viewing of the World Cup 3rd place game which Germany won.

Finally on Sunday morning we got our clouds - and a little sprinkling of rain!! Pastor Christoph was totally astounded at the number of people (70) who attended the worship service, including 10 kids from the Kindercamp and their families! It was an inspiring bi-lingual worship service with the kids participating in various ways - singing, mimes, and reading lessons. After worship was the first of several "meals" shared that day - lunch at church, waffles with powdered sugar after our evaluation meeting, pasta salad and vegetable-topped bread for dinner. The youth then went en-mass again to an older pub to watch the finals of the World Cup. What an experience they had watching 5 of the World Cup matches with their new German friends!!

Monday, July 12 we boarded our last trains to head back to Frankfurt where we had our final devotion and a snack as a group in our apartment before heading out to host family homes for one last night. The group then flew out on Tuesday morning, all arriving home safely and pretty well on time. As many of them wrote, it was a bittersweet ending to a God-inspired time together. We hope many seeds were planted and we now let the Holy Spirit do his work in the hearts and souls of all those we touched these past 2 weeks.

Picture captions (top to bottom, or right to left and then down - depending on your browser)
Sledding; Devotions in the park; Elsa, Karina, Kat serving breakfast; Frankfurt host families; Waiting at the train station in Frankfurt; Dinner at the Kartoffelhaus in Wittenberg; Standing in front of the Castle Church door with Luther's 95 Theses in Wittenberg; Brandenburg gate in Berlin; Kindercamp snacks; Planning Kindercamp; Cherry pit spitting; A house in Verden; Kaffee & Kuchen on Aller River banks; The team ready for the World Cup match; Kindercamp; Sponge-passing game; Singing; Baseball; Cooling off with feet in cool water; Worship in Rotenberg; Rotenberg church; Verden/Rotenberg host families