Italian Stories

      So last Thursday Natalie and I went out to do outreach, and we decided to to surveys on the street instead of door to door. We walked over to the main street here in our part of the city, and we asked a few people to fill out the survey. A few people complied, but they didn't want to give their name and address. Then I saw a short little man up ahead and suggested that Natalie ask him, because he didn't seem to be in too much of a hurry. So she asked if he would take the survey, and he said yes. Therefore she proceeded to ask the first question on the survey, and just like that he opened up faster than a cork flying off a champagne bottle.

      I never knew that one question could spark such a fountain of words! All of a sudden this man starts telling us all about all the surgeries that he has had, and how he has cancer, and then just tells us about all the bad things that have happened in his life. He is 76, and he had a former wife steal a lot of money from him. His car got struck by lightning on the Autobahn once or twice. He basically told us everything bad that ever happened to him.

          Unlike the Turkish guy we talked with a few weeks ago though, this Italian man, seemed to have a positive outlook on life. He was very happy talking with us (or to us), as if nobody had talked with him for years. He even invited Natalie and I to come and stay with him at his small castle in Sicily! Basically though he wanted to know why all these bad things happened to him, if God is a loving god.

          Now all this time this man is speaking in German to Natalie, and I am just praying and trying to understand at least a little bit of what he is saying. (I got the jist of it) Anyways, I was praying for a bit that Natalie would ask the man if we could pray for him right there on the street. And she asked him! And he agreed to it! Then, greatly encouraged by this, I started praying that God would open up this man to be interested in studying the Bible. And he was! He wanted a Bible and was open to Natalie suggesting that we study what God has promised in His word.

         He had us write down his Name, address, and telephone number so that we could get in contact with him! Natalie was also able to give him a book in German about the Promises of God. We ended up talking with (or listening to) this man for about 40 minutes! It was just another confirmation that people all over the world just want someone to listen to them and be their friend. Please pray for Natalie and I as we go to visit this man Gioacchimo this week.

The Quest!

        We had quite an eventful evening here in Germany. Two of the AFCOE Students, Anna and Natalie, were just getting back to the AFCOE Center when they found an injured bird in the driveway, and they were trying to catch it. A few of us went outside when we saw the two sisters scrambling around in the garden after the little fellow. Finally, after a few frantic minutes, Anna succeeded in capturing the poor little guy. But what does one do for a little bird with a broken wing? Well unbeknownst to me, Germany has an Animal Emergency number to call for injured animals. So the sisters called the number and found out where to take the bird. (The bird was just a small one, and looked kind of like a Chickadee)

       So we found the address, and made a nice box for the bird so that he would be safe and somewhat comfortable. Then 5 of us (Natalie, Anna, Che, Adina, and I) loaded up in the AFCOE Car to bring our little patient to the Bird Hospital. It was probably a 20 minute drive to where we needed to go, and we were using my GPS, which was quite amusing, because it was in Miles and Yards, and was quite confusing to my European friends. (I finally changed it to Metric)

      Then we made it to the address that had been written down, and it was just a residential home... But, undeterred Anna and Natalie rang the doorbell. (They were really on a mission to save this bird!) It turned out to not be the right place, but the lady gave us directions as to where the people were who took in injured animals were. I guess the directions were misunderstood, and so we started walking up and down streets looking for any place that looked anything like an Animal Rescue place. It was a nice evening stroll through the neighborhood. Then we found a house with lots of birds on it, and so the sisters went up and knocked on the door thinking that maybe it was the place, but alas it 'twas not.    
                      -Side note: This is all happening at like 9 o'clock at night, just randomly asking people at their door if they were an Animal Rescue Home. (But I think that Anna and Natalie would have knocked on every door in the neighborhood if they needed to!) (Us Americans and Romanian, were just kind of along for the ride, and the adventure)

      Still undeterred in their quest to find this place the Sisters asked some people on the street if they knew where the place was, and surprisingly they did! So these people showed us the place, and we were able to give the little guy to a lady there who takes in the animals. She made some comment about how the Bird had almost as large an entourage as the President!

      So with the Bird safe and sound, we all headed back to the AFCOE Center. And we made it back in one piece!

       Just your average day at AFCOE-Europe and if you ever need an Animal Krankenwagen (Ambulance) just call us and we'll get the job done!

       Oh and we never did the give the Bird a name unfortunately...

Erfurt

      Erfurt was such a beautiful city!!! This is the city where Martin Luther was a monk, and where he first read the Bible.

This a bridge where lovers "Lock" themselves together symbolically with these padlocks.

Just some small church in Erfurt.

The Monastery Church where Martin Luther was a monk! 

This is the Cell where Martin Luther stayed as a Monk.

The Monastery Inner Courtyard.

SPRING!!!!

The Domplatz (Cathedral Place) in Erfurt. And yes those are two giant churches right next to each other!

These are both Catholic Churches by the way.

This is on the door of the church. Interesting...

The inside!!!

Such a humble little place they have... 

Only 5 Euros and you can have your prayers heard! What a bargain!

The entrance to the Church.

The other church wasn't quite as impressive, except for its Organ was beautiful!!!! Like wow! (It was still an impressive church)

Erfurt

One more picture of the Domplatz!

Eisleben and Mansfeld

       Last Thursday we visited Eisleben and Mansfeld. Eisleben was was the city/town where Martin Luther was born and where he died. And Mansfeld was the main city in which Luther grew up in.

This was the main Church in Eisleben. (and obviously a statue of Martin Luther)

Just Some Graffiti that I thought was kind of interesting.

Man I love German Churches.... 

This was a pretty scary face on the church.

The main church in Mansfeld.

The Monastery in Mansfeld that was up on the hill. 

I don't know who this guy is, but he looked pretty cool, So I took a picture of him. (If you look closely you can see that he is fighting some sort of winged serpent or dragon)

      Some of these old German cities are soo beautiful!   

Where it all began... Wittenburg

      The second place we visited on our Reformation Trip was Wittenburg. This was the city that we spent the most time in, and it was kind of our home base for visiting all the other cities. We stayed in a Youth Hostel there. A Youth Hostel is kind of an inexpensive hotel for youth groups and such, and they are more like dormitories than a hotel. 

      The unfortunate thing about our visit to Wittenburg was that the two big churches in the city were covered with scaffolding and plastic, since they are restoring the buildings there for the 2017 Celebration of the Reformation, marking 500 years since Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle-Church in Wittenburg.

      Other than that Wittenburg was a very nice and quaint little city/town with beautiful architecture!And it was amazing to be in the place where Martin Luther was. An amazing thing was that most of the cobblestones on the streets were from the period when Martin Luther was actually alive!!! So it could actually be possible that I walked on the same stones as him! (Not that it's that big a deal or anything)

    But now here's some pictures, which you would probably rather see, than hear me talk about stones.

This was very disappointing... This was the inside of the Castle-Church, they had everything covered with plastic, scaffolding and plywood. They had these pictures of it, but it's a poor substitute.

This is the old Rathaus (Town Hall Building). 

Martin Luther

The other large church in Wittenburg, also covered with Scaffolding.... :P

The Castle-Church from a distance.

I just love the Streets in Wittenburg!

Man there's just sooo many interesting faces on churches and buildings here in Germany! You are always being watched by Stony Eyes!

This was a painting in the Lutherhaus depicting the 10 Commandments. Because many people didn't know how to read back then pictures were often the best way to communicate a point.

Oh and this was just something that is soo strange about Germany, all their tractor-trailer trucks, and dump-trucks even are Mercedes-Benz!!! Just something that is kinda funny.

Oh, and over here in Europe they call a projector a Beamer. When they say "Beamer," my mind immediately thinks of the car the BMW!