Sorry about the long delay in updates guys. I haven’t done such a great job with time management, but that’s my bad. The number of facebook posts I haven’t responded to has been the highest it’s ever been in quite some time.
I went to visit a good friend in Edinburgh over the weekend (we grew up together in the same church), and that was huge blessing. It was the first time in a while that I could talk to someone about spiritual stuff in person. I appreciate this blog and the correspondence I have with people through e-mail or facebook, but it is definitely different when there’s a physical person to talk to. One of the things we talked about was how we felt that Christianity in our cities, based on our respective experiences, was more like one’s cultural background. Yeah, some people go to church on Sundays or fellowship, but there doesn’t seem to be the kind of eagerness to learn/ engage/be challenged that I’m used to in IV. I personally haven’t been to a fellowship yet due to class and program conflicts, but my friend Vicky has, and she says that the people who go spend the first 3 hours eating and socializing before any discussion actually begins. My own experience with church on Sunday has been of very traditions-centered services with sermons that seem to only skim the surface. Although, I don’t know, maybe I’m not being humble enough. I’m not saying that this kind of Christianity is unique to European cities like Berlin and Edinburgh. Even my classmates in the program reflect this. We have a surprisingly “religious” group of kids here. There’s one atheist/Buddhist, one Quaker, three Catholics, one Mormon, and one other Protestant besides me (they are all self-declared to be these). The only one who seems to take what they’ve said of themselves seriously is the Mormon. But, wait, who am I to judge? Agh. I’m visiting another church tomorrow that was recommended to me by the lady who works for an IV-like organization here. I hope God will keep me humble and my heart open for what’s to be said.
In other news, I’ve been busy not finishing my reading assignments. XP We’ve had to read three books so far (The Sorrows of Young Werther, Tannhaeuser, and Faust). The amount of each book I’ve read decreased with each book, not that I read much of the first one. That’s only for my afternoon class though. The morning class is taking it’s toll on me. Those 3 hours in the morning seem to get longer each week. At least we get to do some cool stuff though. Like on Thursday, we went to one of the worst parts of Berlin and visited a museum to learn about the creation of the bezirk (it’s like a borough) and the history since we’re discussing stuff like crime and immigration at the moment. Another activity I liked was how we were split into two groups and had to create a crime story. We’re supposed to present our pieces on Monday. Should be exciting.
This is directed more towards Jason and Christina: I haven’t received the book yet, but I know you guys’ve had it for a while, so feel free to start without me. I have no idea when it should be arriving. Just let me know where you guys are at. If you’ve got time, please share what you’ve been reading and/or reactions to it. :)
I’m missing you all.
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8 comments:
I am currently talking with my Mormon friend over skype. I need prayer.
hey sabrina,
sorry to hear times have been hard. i'm praying for ya sis
praying for ya too :) how did your convo go?
that's so awesome you got in contact with your friend there! i agree, person-person talks are really great. I agree though with the whole culture influence. like in chapel hill, and the triangle, it's so college-y and liberal-ish, and the churches are much the same way. but at the marine lab it's so small town, chill. and i think the churches there are so much more traditional and kinda "slow" in the sense that it seems like not much is going on (small-towny) but maybe i havent been there long enough.
that's really interesting that your group comes from so many different backgrounds! i think growing up i never bothered to learn more about different sects and stuff like that. good luck with your new church though! that's exciting! keep us updated on that :)
btw, i just fb-messaged allison about the status of the book.. hopefully you can get it soon. maybe we can start after spring break
thanks for the prayers guys.
The convo was pretty uncomfortable for me esp. since it's the first time I've had this particular kind of convo. I guess it went alright. She's pretty set on believing in Joseph Smith and said each one of the things I brought up were unfortunately false information. I promised her I'd look at pro-mormon sites as well for information next time we talk.
So, good news is I think I like this new church that I visited. :) It's a little more like what I'm used to, but more importantly, the speaker seemed to have some meat in what he said. Not just ppl-pleasing stuff. I found out there's a home group pretty close to where I live that takes place on Friday nights, so that should work out most of the time. I hope nothing from the program pops up in between now and Friday.
I hope you all back home have a great spring break! Mine'll come soon enough. =)
what book are y'all doing?
ah, that's interesting. which sites are you gonna look at? were there stuff you both agreed on? i know nothing about mormonism :(
that's so awesome that you like your new church :) do they hold the service in german? i'm so excited for you! the home group sounds like a great experience for like a smaller group. do you know other people in it?
ben - we're doing "Is the Bible Intolerant" by Amy Orr-Ewing
I know what you mean, Sabrina. When I was in Europe, I felt like Christianity was such a cultural thing. The churches were massive and beautiful but an intimate relationship with God seemed like such a distant, foreign concept to people.
I'm glad to see you got to meet up with your friend in Edinburgh. How did you like Scotland?
No, we didn't agree on anything besides the fact that I should look at both mormon & non-mormon sites. I'll probably look at their main one and some sites put up by ex-mormons.
Haha, if the service was in German, I would unfortunately be unable to understand it. It's in english, but they're headsets and people translate the message into german for those who need it. I went to the home group on friday and it was better than I was expecting cuz I had felt a lil pessimistic. They were honest about not being faithful to God's word or having problems with a particular word in the text. I didn't know anyone beforehand because...well, I only know the people in my program and none of them come to this church.
And you said it so well Beka. This new church I attend is actually just a floor of a building. Strange isn't it?
I thought Scotland was awesome. :) It looked so nice and green as I was coming down on the plane. Nice hills and a quaint feel to it. What made it most enjoyable though was getting to be with my friend. X)
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