Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Last night we had yummy spaghetti Kristen made & we played with the noodles making
fun mustaches. Then today...After a yummy frustruck (breakfast) and a leisurely start to the day we took the train to Kurfersterdam (sp?) which is the chic shopping district in Berlin. We passed a cool sand castle building competition while on the train. Berlin has so much going on, all the time! We were on a hunt for some Swiss chocolate that the lady in Switzerland promised us was in Berlin. We wandered the street to no 
avail. So we went to visit the Memorial Hall in the Emperor Wilhem Memorial Church almost completely destroyed in WWII. Only a portion of the tower & hall remain. It has been purposely left like this to serve as a reminder that "This site is both an admonition against war and destruction, and a call to reconciliation in Jesus Christ." Now that's powerful. The church hall had amazing mosaics on the floors & celings. I really liked the nail cross desplayed. I just reminded me of all that a couple of nails (just comon elements) can remind me of and the overwhelming gratefulness at how undeserving I am of God's grace. There is a new scantuary & chapel built on the site and all the stained glass windows are made from fragements of glass recovered from the old church. So amazing! The sanctuary is kind of ugly from the outside but the color from the inside is amazing! It caused me to think of how the Lord looks at the heart not the physical apperance and that James 2 passage about the least & the greatest being the same in God's eyes. We sat inside the sanctuary and listened to the organist play while looking at the beautiful windows!!! Well we went down to Alexanderplatz to go to the Kaufhof Galleria department store to buy me a new purse!!! :) and to see if the chocolate was there. NO it wasn't but my purse is super cool! So we asked someone there if they knew where this super duper special chocolate was and they said in KaDeWe (ULTRA CHIC SHOPPING, think Sak's 5th Ave) So we eventually found KaDeWe in Wittenberg Platz (even the U-Bahn station was super beautiful)! We bought LOTS of chocolate and other fun little things to bring home. We didn't even tempt ourselves by looking at clothes we couldn't afford! Back to J & K's to get the car & K drove us out to Tegel Airport to pickup John's sister, who we had breakfast with in Efurt, Stephanie, returning from CA. The traffic is crazy & the taxis are insane!!! Kristen totally kept her cool, I was yelling at other drivers from the back seat but Kristen was totally cool. We headed out to the Students for Christ meeting, John & Kristen's weekly meeting with their students. It was soooooo cool! We got to eat a light dinner, spend time worshiping in song & then J & K's pastor Paul preached to the group and another John helped translate. It was so amazing to meet some of the girls that Kristen does Bible study with and great to see the group worshiping and so committed to the Lord. How exciting! One of the girls (who helps Kristen lead Bible Study), Rike, was making Kristen translate everything back & forth into German & English for practice even though she speaks perfect English. Kristen's a rock star at her German, I'm so proud of her! We were laughing because Amy had her hair in pigtials and Rike said, "Like Pipi long-stockings" How could she know that we love Pip? Awesome! Also she was cracking us up because the reasons we are "Not Normal" Americans are tri-fold, 1) We have traveled abroad a lot, 2) We are 27/28 and not married. (According to her, normal for Germans, NOT Americans. She said she'll be in Ohio in December & shel'll round up some German husbands for us by then, he he. I told her I was doing okay with my man. She gave me a skeptical look) 3) we are thin (Oh...bless her heart!!!!) Love that girl! Hopefuly when she moves to Louisiana next year she'll come visit Amy & me! Yesterday we went North to the Baltic Sea town of Stralsund. More on that later.
fun mustaches. Then today...After a yummy frustruck (breakfast) and a leisurely start to the day we took the train to Kurfersterdam (sp?) which is the chic shopping district in Berlin. We passed a cool sand castle building competition while on the train. Berlin has so much going on, all the time! We were on a hunt for some Swiss chocolate that the lady in Switzerland promised us was in Berlin. We wandered the street to no 
avail. So we went to visit the Memorial Hall in the Emperor Wilhem Memorial Church almost completely destroyed in WWII. Only a portion of the tower & hall remain. It has been purposely left like this to serve as a reminder that "This site is both an admonition against war and destruction, and a call to reconciliation in Jesus Christ." Now that's powerful. The church hall had amazing mosaics on the floors & celings. I really liked the nail cross desplayed. I just reminded me of all that a couple of nails (just comon elements) can remind me of and the overwhelming gratefulness at how undeserving I am of God's grace. There is a new scantuary & chapel built on the site and all the stained glass windows are made from fragements of glass recovered from the old church. So amazing! The sanctuary is kind of ugly from the outside but the color from the inside is amazing! It caused me to think of how the Lord looks at the heart not the physical apperance and that James 2 passage about the least & the greatest being the same in God's eyes. We sat inside the sanctuary and listened to the organist play while looking at the beautiful windows!!! Well we went down to Alexanderplatz to go to the Kaufhof Galleria department store to buy me a new purse!!! :) and to see if the chocolate was there. NO it wasn't but my purse is super cool! So we asked someone there if they knew where this super duper special chocolate was and they said in KaDeWe (ULTRA CHIC SHOPPING, think Sak's 5th Ave) So we eventually found KaDeWe in Wittenberg Platz (even the U-Bahn station was super beautiful)! We bought LOTS of chocolate and other fun little things to bring home. We didn't even tempt ourselves by looking at clothes we couldn't afford! Back to J & K's to get the car & K drove us out to Tegel Airport to pickup John's sister, who we had breakfast with in Efurt, Stephanie, returning from CA. The traffic is crazy & the taxis are insane!!! Kristen totally kept her cool, I was yelling at other drivers from the back seat but Kristen was totally cool. We headed out to the Students for Christ meeting, John & Kristen's weekly meeting with their students. It was soooooo cool! We got to eat a light dinner, spend time worshiping in song & then J & K's pastor Paul preached to the group and another John helped translate. It was so amazing to meet some of the girls that Kristen does Bible study with and great to see the group worshiping and so committed to the Lord. How exciting! One of the girls (who helps Kristen lead Bible Study), Rike, was making Kristen translate everything back & forth into German & English for practice even though she speaks perfect English. Kristen's a rock star at her German, I'm so proud of her! We were laughing because Amy had her hair in pigtials and Rike said, "Like Pipi long-stockings" How could she know that we love Pip? Awesome! Also she was cracking us up because the reasons we are "Not Normal" Americans are tri-fold, 1) We have traveled abroad a lot, 2) We are 27/28 and not married. (According to her, normal for Germans, NOT Americans. She said she'll be in Ohio in December & shel'll round up some German husbands for us by then, he he. I told her I was doing okay with my man. She gave me a skeptical look) 3) we are thin (Oh...bless her heart!!!!) Love that girl! Hopefuly when she moves to Louisiana next year she'll come visit Amy & me! Yesterday we went North to the Baltic Sea town of Stralsund. More on that later.
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