I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and I'd like to remind everyone that the party continues for 12 more days! (Start singing the 12 days of Christmas!)
This was my first Christmas away from home, but it was still nice to spend it with various people in Germany. Between the two Christmas Eve services, I was invited to a seminarian's apartment with some others, and the food and wine were very delicious. I then skyped with my family a bit before going to bed; they opened the gifts that I had sent from Germany. Also, earlier in the day I got the book Broken by Jonathan Fisk in the mail (which I highly recommend to you), so I had to read at least a chapter that same evening. It's very well written and is in the same style as his video podcasts, Worldview Everlasting. I encourage you to check it out.
On Christmas Day, I played trumpet in the Brass Choir and went to two Christmas dinners, both of which were fantastic. The first one was at Prof. Barnbrock's house; we had typical German food and wine. The salmon was very delicious; it was wrapped in a pastry of some sort. That evening I went to Brent Smith's house with other Americans from the area, so I also got to eat some American food, which included ham and pumpkin pie. Afterwards it was nice to lounge around and digest the food. I talked with the adults some and played games with the Smith kids- Zachary, Katelyn, and Sophia. So it's been a good day spent with some very gracious people. Tomorrow is another service celebrating the Martyrdom of St. Stephan, then another on the 29th for the Holy Innocents.
Tomorrow I'm eating lunch with Pastor Wenz and his family, then heading with them to the "St. Paul" Oratorio by Mendelssohn in Bad Homburg. I'm really looking forward to it.
As promised, here's a photo from my visit to Berlin a few weeks ago for the baptism of Noemi Müller. Yes, my hair's longer than normal, but it's since been cut. From left to right, it's Marlon Hiestermann, Travis Berg, me, Noemi Müller, Simon Volkmar, Benjamin Müller, Sonja Müller, and Alex Rüst. All of us are or have been students at LThH, Oberursel.
Classes have been continuing much like they started; I'm getting better at German (certainly not as fast as I would like), but the professors are becoming more and more understandable. We have three more days of school before Christmas Break, which is two and a half weeks long. I'll be staying here for that time; I'm very grateful for various families who have invited me to dinners and events during that time.
Last weekend I got the chance to visit Berlin again for the baptism of Noemi Müller; if you will remember, I stayed with Benjamin and Sonja while studying German at the Goethe Institut in September. It was very nice to see them again, this time with their new daughter. She's quite a cuttie and is nicknamed "Sonjamin," which makes me chuckle every time I hear it.
I'll upload more pictures with me holding Noemi when I get them from the Müllers.
There were six of us that traveled to Berlin from Frankfurt on Friday; group tickets make everything cheaper, which I was thankful for. We got in Friday evening and talked and chatted a bit. Travis Berg had made the trip from Ft. Wayne to be the "Patenonkel" (godfather)- he was in Germany two years ago and still remembers the language; we were about at the same level, which was comforting. He filled me in on the goings on at Ft. Wayne, which I don't hear much about anymore. There was also a secular Catholic German; girl there; she was a grade school friend of Sonja and had traveled in our group. It was interesting to talk about various issues, in spite of my broken German. We broke the two rules of conversation with new acquaintances: don't talk about religion, and don't talk about politics. It was hard to understand everything she was saying, but it was interesting to hear Benjamin respond to her concerns, until he retired for the night. After that, it was just Travis and I, but I don't think we completely got our points across; oh well. The religious points were about the Pope, tradition, Sola Scriptura, and Law and Gospel; and the political points revolved around the War on Terror and why America needed to go to war.
The next day, Saturday, Travis and I visited Simon Volkmar in his apartment; he had studied at Fort Wayne last year, and I made it a point to see him again. We gave up all pretenses of speaking in German; English theological (and political) conversation ruled. To be honest, I was relieved and eager to discuss theology and understand everything that the other people are saying. It was a treat, and one I don't have often. When we returned to Ben and Sonja's apartment (where we were staying the night), the religious and political conversations revived.
On Sunday, we all traveled via bus to the SELK congregation in Marzahn. If you remember what I said about SELK people and ordination, you should see them with a baptism. There was excitement among the congregation, and one of them even turned to me and said, "I wish we would see more of these." They just don't have many young families in the congregation, so the baptism was quite a big deal. The service was a normal Gottesdienst from their hymnal, but the baptism was in the middle of the service instead of at the beginning, as I'm used to. I don't think that having it in the middle is normal here either.
Afterwards, we all went back to Ben and Sonja's, packed into their apartment, and ate delicious food, talked, and drank beer. It was quite a good time, one that lasted the rest of the day. That night, instead of getting into politics or religion, we talked about literature and accents, both of which topics the three of us could discuss with some proficiency in German (sometimes in English). We watched Youtube videos of various English accents, and then some German accents. I learned how to distinguish Hessish, with it's now annoying "sh" sounds. Isch möschte gern nicht Hesshisch zu hören. In researching a good example, I found a hilarious video. For those who don't know English, just listen to the German's "sh" sounds. They get annoying after a while. Germans, I think you've love this.
On the way back, we traveled through Wittenberg, so I took a quick picture of the skyline, with the two churches (one is behind some trees to the left).
Moving on, Germany is known for its Christmas Markets. The best approximation is to think of a county fair but with a Christmas theme. There's a lot of stalls selling food, drinks, and crafts. There were rides at the bigger ones like Berlin, but not at the small one at Oberursel. Nonetheless all were very festive, and I heard a lot of English Christmas music. I drank some Glühwein (mulled wine), which was very tasty and did have a warming effect. I bought Christmas presents for my family, which they'll hopefully get before Christmas.
And then...Bergfest! Bergfest, which took place last Friday, was a bit like Reformationfest at the seminary. There was music, food, beer, and a talent show. I didn't take part in the last, I assure you that. The theme was "The 70s," so you can also be assured that I didn't dress the part. There were some very classy costumes and haircuts, though. (Some of the Germans told me afterward that I could've gone to an Army Supply Store, bought a uniform for cheap, and dressed up as a veteran, which would've provided some contrast to the hippies that showed up.) All the professors had something to perform for laughs, whether it was singing songs from the 70s, or giving a presentation about the sports, culture, and religion of the 70s. I was just waiting for him to make a jest about Seminex, but thankfully that didn't happen...otherwise Aaron Uphoff would've popped up saying "Seminex? What about Seminex?" (Sorry, inside seminary joke there.) The talent show was very well done, and the moderator kept us laughing.
Finally, I have a picture of the seminary for you. I realize that I don't put up many picture of myself, so I'll try to do that more often. This was taken with Prof. da Silva's camera and put on the Hochschule's facebook page. I hope I have permission to post it.
Last year when I was considering coming to Oberursel, I found out that a good friend from Concordia University Wisconsin was also planning to study in Germany. I had met Matt Gerhardt when he transferred from St. Olaf's College in Minnesota to CUW, and we got to be friends as we helped in the prayer offices there and would talk about theology and church and university politics. He is a very talented organist and is studying at the Evangelical State Church Music Academy ("Hochschule") in Herford, Germany. It's fairly well known for its church music program, and he was accepted to study there this year. This past summer I attended his wedding to Rachel Karsten, and a few weeks later I flew to Berlin; they came in October, a few weeks before his classes began. We stayed in contact in October, and it worked out that I could visit at the end of October.
So I bought my train ticket, which would take me along the River Rhine before heading east through Cologne and Bielefeld to Herford. It was a bit slower and less expensive, but I had the time on Friday. I took some very beautiful pictures on my way; unfortunately some of them aren't in focus as much as I would like, no doubt due to the fact that I took them from a moving train.
Cool! A castle! (Can you see it?)
The River Rhine was very beautiful.
I got in mid-afternoon, and we talked a bit and caught up on how things are going. That evening, Matt asked if I would be interested in a presentation at his Hochschule about the theological implications of church music, given by a professor from the University of Tübingen. He was basically trying to say that it is only the Word of God that edifies the soul, in that it creates faith, so we should be concerned about which songs and hymns are played in church, but the musicians didn't receive it very well. A few were arguing that they wanted to sing the "Ave Maria" in their churches, even though it was blatantly Catholic, since for them the music is more important than what the words say. Others were pushing the notion that music edifies the soul by connecting one with God, but I didn't hear a very strong answer by the professor. Nonetheless, it was interesting to see and led to some discussions with Matt afterward.
The next morning I slept in a bit, since Matt needed to go into the Hochschule to practice organ, but we did a bit of sightseeing that afternoon. I took a nice picture of a river that we crossed.
There are three churches in Herford, and all have very beautiful organs. The first we visited was the closest, St. John's Church. It was pretty dark outside, but while we were inside, the rain started, and with it came some hail! So we just waited it out before continuing.
And finally, what you've been waiting for: a picture of me! with Matt! Yes, I know, I don't take many pictures of myself (or of my friends at Oberursel), but it's hard for me to give my iPad to a stranger just to take a picture of me. Furthermore, the reverse camera on the iPad is only good for close-up Skype calls, and not suited to catch backgrounds very well, otherwise I'd be taking more pics of myself. It was a bit cold, due to the storm that dumped hail on the city.
Next, we walked to the largest church in the middle of Herford, called the Münsterkirche. This is where Matt has his weekly organ lessons. We couldn't spend much time here, because they were preparing for a performance of some kind, but we snuck in when the practice ended.
I don't known why these double altars are popular, but I've seen them a lot in Germany.
From there we looked around the city center a bit and ended up at the train station. We said our good-byes, and I took a faster train back to Frankfurt, because it was already the evening. I got into Frankfurt at about 11, and made it back to Oberursel by midnight.
Hopefully we can see each other again soon; I know that Rachel is wanting to hear an English sermon, and both need communion, so hopefully they can make it to Oberursel sometime.
Finally, I made it to Mainz and Castle Frankenstein. There's really not much of a story with either, except that I missed the bus on my way down from Castle Frankenstein, and the next one wasn't going to leave for another 2 hours, so I walked 10 km to where the bus was going to be headed; it only took me 1 1/2 hrs (yes, it was a pretty brisk pace). That with the climbing up and down the hill meant that I was sore for a few days...
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