Culture Shock

Hello all, this is Brandon this time. I've been thinking a little about culture lately, the differences, similarities and what it all means to feel like an alien and stranger in a foreign land. So I thought that would make good fodder for a blog post. Let me preface this whole conversation with this little note: we have thoroughly enjoyed our time here and look forward to what the next two weeks holds and the proceding is just a way of understanding the inevitable experience of alienation being in a different place.

Many of you have perhaps had the great experience of talking about what it will be like in a new place. Some well-meaning and more-experienced person might explain, for instance, how Germans (as a whole) view this or that cultural thing that may be quite normal in America. So we listen because its interesting and we certainly don't want to offend anyone. But upon arriving in the new area we find that these little rules hardly apply. For instance, some travel guide said that German people, women in particular, rarely ever wear short shorts like they do in America...quite untrue. We have seen a fair share of women (and men, sadly) wearing the same kind of short shorts that they do back home.

So, like many of you travelers have already discovered, culture these days is quite a relative term. What is German? American? French? As far as I can discern with any accuracy, there is little about behavior that is drastically different between these places. For a long time America was considered a "melting pot" but Germany seems just as varied as far as different cultures. There are a ton of Persian (Iranian) people here, as well as Russian and Ukranians living here. Italian or Mediterranean people (and their obligatory restaurants) are quite common, and, of course, many different Asian peoples and their delicious food as well can be found frequently.

Of course, this is not to say that there are particular differences. But these differences are rarely universal or exceedingly common to all people here, as much as they are just a different way of doing things that seem perfectly reasonable given the environment. So all this goes to say that its been pretty hard to say one thing confidently and universally about Germans or Germany. Germans are nice, polite, calm, easy-going, but some are also rude, busy, stressed-out, duplicitous, just like Americans. Some foods are more common here like schnitzel and a variety of breads, but its not like Germans have dynamically different taste-buds--these things taste just fine to Americans too! Even concerning popular culture, Germany is heavily influenced by America and Japan, so that most of the kids we've met love hip-hop/rap and read mangas all day long. If there's one huge difference that stands out to me its that whereas football and/or basketball is king in American sport mentality, it is of course soccer (foosball) here that dominates everyone's sports entertainment. Whereas on espn in America we're lucky if we get the occasional soccer highlight, that's practically all there is on their sports networks.

But why do I feel so alien here? Why is it that the longer I am here the more I miss home, the more I feel uncomfortable, like an outsider--even though I'm starting to speak and understand their language with a little proficiency? Even though teenagers experience and like the same things I experienced and liked? Video games, sports, high school dramatics, etc... Why is it so uncomfortable here? There does indeed exist something different here, foreign to myself and my native land. And this something is precisely where culture exists.

To me, it seems that this "something" is the land itself. I find myself talking to people about "Texas" all the time: telling them about what its like in Texas, what Texans are like, etc... Of course I'm talking in general terms and about my idealized view of what a Texan is/should be like, but there is something about Texas that I identify with, that makes me comfortable, that I feel like I know things there and am very savvy. I can understand the sub-text behind people's language there much better, whereas here the goal is simply to pragmatically communicate.

It is not just a foreign language, it is a people used to doing slightly different things for their entire lifetimes, to the point that when people living in Germany do this thing or say that thing I can understand maybe what's happening on the outside, or what is literally being said, but I lack the ability to see nuance, to see those subtle little things that are so important to the ways human beings live. I have to emphasize that the alienation goes beyond language, but language is often the biggest barrier so let me give a short illustration and then move on.

I wrote a small 10 minute speech for the Lord's Supper out here in English first, then had to suffer the painful process of translating it into German. Bill, the missionary out here, helped me tremendously, but I ended up saying something in German quite different than how I said it English. I certainly communicated the same basic ideas, but the way in which they were said in German was very elementary and lacked subtltety and nuance, quite opposite to the way I like to write things in English. My English version had this subtlety, this flow and beauty that was ripped away when translated. This is not to say one cannot write beautifully in German, but instead that its impossible to say something that is beautifully in English in the German language to German people. So to summarize, existence for a person at home is "loaded." It is filled with much more than words and actions, it has understand and recognition, it relates itself far more than in a simple pragmatic way, but rather it relates itself to our identity. Whereas in a foreign place, existence is (until we have really integrated) not "loaded" or "unloaded" it is rather empty and basic.

And this is the kind of feeling I think the psalmist was experiencing when he wrote:

¹ By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.

² There on the poplars
we hung our harps,

³ for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"

⁴ How can we sing the songs of the LORD
while in a foreign land?

I look forward to the times when I can live a more "loaded" life among people who I understand a bit more, and in a land which I feel much more comfortable in, but I also think there is much to be said and gained about really experiencing this kind of exile. It would be enough if it helps us to realize just how alien we actually are in our own land, just how separated we are from the great moral pillars we imagine ourselves to be. Just how deeply the God-relationship gives meaning and fullness to life when we confess our emptiness.

Oh what a day

Hey everyone,
Well, I thought I would update you all again while Brandon is out for the afternoon with some of the guys. He can update you all about that later.

So Sunday I met this 18 year old girl at church who speaks English very fluently and who is visiting her dad here in Koln for a few weeks. Anyway, she's a really sweet girl who said she'd like to hang out this week cause she's bored. So of course I jumped at the opportunity. You see Sunday was the first time she's ever been to church. Her Dad is a friend of Bills (not a believer either) and Bill just happened to tell them that there were foreigners at Church so they decided to some check us out.

I got home looked her up on facebook and set a date to hang out with her on Tuesday, you know have lunch window shop etc... Well we had lunch yesterday and I was just trying to befriend her, get to know her and praying that if God wanted he would give me opportunities to talk about him. He did, she's really very open, not just to Christianity of course but to hearing and weighing what I was saying. I asked if she believes in God and she said she doesn't know. She thinks there is probably something out there bigger than ourselves but, she is not sure what that is yet. She said that right now she is young and wants to be open and listen to every ones ideas (i mean everyone, Buddhist, christian, Hindu, Jewish you name it) and then when she is older she will decide. So we talked

She asked me if I believe in heaven and hell. And I spoke honestly with her about it. I told her that as a Christian I believe very strongly that what the Bible says is true and it does speak of a heaven and a hell. I told her that I really do believe that Jesus came to save us not just from Hell but also to save us from an unfulfiling life, he came to show us how to live life so that we will have joy, contentment and peace that comes from knowing God. We spoke about a lot of things, like how God is also gracious and merciful etc... It was really an interesting day. She of course says like the majority of people out here that "what is true for her is not necessarily true for others about God and vica versa" so I don't know what will happen but I do know that God provided opportunities for me to speak about him in a way that I never have before.

After hanging out for a while we went back to the church to make some cookies. She noticed all the Bibles around and started asking if I had ever read the Bible and I asked if she had, she said no so I gave her a new testament and then before the day was over asked her if she wanted to read some of it before we hang out next time because I told her that I would really love to hear what she thinks about it. She was excited and said yeah, she would love to read it and then we could discuss it together. I will see her again in a week when she gets back from holiday so really really pray for God to work in her heart as she reads his story for the first time in her life. Please Please pray for this!

I seriously was amazed yesterday. I mean I have never really been in a position before to speak with someone who has never read the Bible, or doesn't know if they believe in God. the culture is so completely different here where people don't even actually know why they get the "Easter" holiday off. I mean really how often do we come across people like this. I always assumed growing up that they were only in Africa and South America, third world non-Christian nations. But, it turns out that they are here right in front of me. I was really encouraged by how God works yesterday and am sad that our time here is coming to a close. It's like we a finally learning how to work here and finally finding our place and what we can be doing and we're just about to leave. Hopefully some of the church members will be able to carry on.

Also yesterday I had an LST appointment with a 18 year old girl named Muna. She showed up and brought her 21 year old friend named Nadeje who is 21, Muna is from Ethiopia, has been in Koln for 3 years and is a member of the church here. Her friend Nadeje is from the Congo, has been here for 6 years and is not a member of the church although she grew up Christian. I also got to have a really great talk with them yesterday. Nadeje has a boyfriend and has also decided that what is true for others in relation to what it means to be a Christian is not really true for her. So you can be praying for her heart too. We talked about the importance of marrying someone who also believes in God, and that the rules God gives shouldn't be viewed as rules but again as the way to live the most fulfilling, joyful and content life you can. She talked about how she doesn't go to church anymore because when she grew up Christians wouldn't actually act like Christians after church . So we talked about making your faith your own and how we too fall into that category so we pray that God will help us and others who don't live the Christian life how we should and also that non-Christians (like her boyfriend) who are good people would get to experience the love and joy of God.

They are coming back on Thursday and will bring another friend of theirs from school. On Saturday the 15th, after Julia gets back from Holiday. I am going to try to have a dinner at the church for all of these young women and so you can pray that they will all be able to come and that some of the young married women from the church will come too so that when I leave these girls aren't just left in the dark. Man, in some ways I am so ready to come home but after yesterday I really wish we were here for longer. I finally really found my niche here.

Anyway, please continue to pray for us, Pray for Brandon too as he is trying to find a way to talk about religion with Bijan one of the Islamic boys. Pray that God will use us while we are here, giving us opportunities to speak and also the right words to say because honestly this is new and exciting but also really scary! Hope you all are doing well. We will update you again really soon because tomorrow I am scheduled to go to dinner and a sheesha bar with a couple of the Persian Christian teens from the church. This will be interesting!

pizza and a movie

Hey everyone,
Well, I just thought I would give you all a quick update about how the Pizza and movie night went. It was, to our surprise, good. We had 4 kids show up (there are only 6 in town right now) so we were pretty pleased and, they all got along!! Yay, the new kids and the kids who know each other all talked and hit it off so it was really encouraging. And we really needed that. It's weird because in the US we could plan events all day long and know they would turn out great but here you have to completely re-learn how to do everything. Even things as simple as baking chocolate chip cookies can become a disaster when you can't figure out which of the ten possible heat settings to use or exactly how many degrees Celsius 350 farenheit is. Anyway, last night was a sigh of relief.

I made pizza, its way cheeper than buying it. And I thought I made way too much, we only were having four teenager but, they just kept eating. I was once again amazed at the empty stomachs of teenage kids! I made 3 giant pizzas and they ate almost all of them. Like 3 pieces left! Anyway, it was crazy. I was glad the pizza turned out too because you know, cooking is different here. They don't really put mozerella on their pizza, they use gouda. Man these germans eat a lot of gouda!

Anyway, so we made the pizza and then played the game "Have you ever?" while we waited for it to finish. Then we ate and watched a movie and the kids left at about 10pm. They were there about 4 hours. It was fun.

One of my girls left today for Switzerland for summer camp. She will be gone two weeks and Im really bummed because I really liked hanging out with Pegah but, she will be back before we leave. Crazy that we only have about 3 weeks left! Seriously weird.

Tonight we had an LST party which was good, the church members seemed to enjoy it. It was kinda of funny but there were no readers there only members tonight. But they all really enjoy getting together and the new LST team did a pretty good job throwing it although they were really nervous and poor Barbara, one of the members who helps LST, ended up having to do a lot of the planning and preparing herself.

Also, today we read with our younger kids again. It's really hard because LST isn't designed for kids and the biblical translation used is way above their cognitive level. I worked on creating an easier translation and activity for them to do today and I think it went better. The kids definately felt more successful and hopefully were learning vocab that was more appropriate for their age level. I mean seriously, who wants to teach an 8 year old what a virgin is?? Not really an LST workers job!

Well, that pretty much covers it. We have a Bible study we will go to with Bill tomorrow, as well as a german lesson. Brandon may see Bijan, Pegah's brother and we plan on gonig to the Christian bookstore to see if we can't find an NICV (New International Children's Version) of the Bible and maybe some beginning German workbooks for me. Im not quite as quick as Brandon. Also, Uli, the church member who took us around before kind of wants to do something on Sunday so we will see.

Again thank you all for your prayers, love and support. We can't wait to see you all when we get back!

Que Paso Mumbaso?

Well folks, its been a while and we're sorry to keep you waiting on the edge of your computer chair (or recliners for you laptop folks) for another post. We've been kind of busy though, and most nights we feel exhausted from the days events.

We're getting to be locals here in Koln, Deutschland. We walk everywhere we need to and I (Brandon) often go out to local cafes to get reading and writing done. Sierra also had what we call a "flare-up" of her disease last week, requiring her to spend a lot of time resting and being bored to death. But...we have made it through it all and look forward to some better times in the four weeks we have ahead of us.

Our work here has been...interesting. I have no shame in saying that whatever we've planned to do with what teenagers are still around have been what the younger generation likes to call "epic fails." Most recently we planned to cook some hamburgers in the nearby park. We talked to 8 kids, 4 actually ended up coming. When we set out we didn't have a car so we piled all the groceries in bags and Brandon had to carry the grill about a mile to the park. When we got there we realized we had no lighters fluid so Brandon ran to get what they use here for lighter fluid--highly flammable cubes of some kind of chemical. But they did not seem to be working very efficiently at all. So after about 45 minutes of attempting to cook while the four kids looked on and had a good time laughing at their new American friends, I took the kids to McDonalds (seriously, one of their favorite places to eat). We got them food there and then I returned to fetch the grill, which had since actually lit up and Sierra cooked the remainder of the hamburgers. So...I really wanted to just get back home so I tried to wheel the very hot grill back, about a mile, home. I ended up leaving a nice trail of charcoal bits and ashes all the way and was likely laughed at by not a few German folk.

But despite our awkward attempt at a fun event for teenagers I think we made memories and bonded with the kids that did show up and they promised they'd be back for a more modest time this coming wednesday eating pizza and watching a movie.

I like to think I've been reasonably succesful at what I really try to do, and I like to think most people are like me in that respect. But you often hear people who are succesful at things try to expound the wisdom of II Corinthians where Paul boasts about Christ's strength in our weakness. And to me...well its just awkward, because when we are succesful we do not seem weak at all. This last two weeks in Koln (the German spelling of Cologne) has been wildly unsuccesful in respect to what we attempt to do, but I know some good is coming of it: we're beginning to form relationships with the kids being one. So it seems that Christ is working despite ourselves, and hopefully in the future the wisdom we gain from failing will help us to be more savvy in our activity planning.

We've included a few pictures of our recent activities here, including the park bbq episode and a very nice day out on the town with our new good friends Bob and Diane Smith on our day off. They are really a wonderful couple and we are so happy to have had them out here for two weeks. They live just outside of Longview, TX and we got to partner with them while they took the bulk of the LST duties. We genuinely enjoyed having them around, they are the epitome of good old Texas folk. We are also looking forward to the arrival of the next LST group, three students from Harding (I think the Graduate school of theology there, but not 100% sure). They will be arriving Tuesday morning and as a testament to our integration into Koln, they have asked us to give them the tour.

Another noteworthy event to mention is that I was asked to conduct the Lord's Supper today (Sunday) for the congregation. I am happy to say that I stumbled over the German translation of the English thought I had written down and people (in general) understood what I said! Bill helped me tremendously to translate and I had to practice many times so I didn't sound absolutely crazy, but people say our German is very good. They often ask how many years we studied German in school only to be surprised that we have only been learning for a little over 4 weeks now. Perhaps I will post what I had written (in German, of course) in a few days. You can use an online translator if you want.

That's all to report for now. We're continuing to develop relationships with some really sweet and interesting kids out here. Bijan, one of the students, is a very skilled breakdancer and actually competes in battles, he just won one apparently a few nights ago. Wednesday we will relax with them, eat some pizza, and watch a movie, in addition to our daily English lessons with them via LST. We always enjoy hearing encouraging remarks on here on via e-mail or facebook, so thank you and please continue to pray for us. Add us as friends on facebook to see a lot more pictures (it's difficult to post a lot of pictures here so we have to be selective).

We'd also like you to pray for our young friend Paul. He is a serious soccer-player, on a top ranked club team out here--one of the top teams in the state (Germany has states too) and he has the potential to go pro one day. A few days ago he tore a muscle in his hip by shooting on the goal and is out for 2-3 months. A big bummer for him, he always seems very positive and reasonable, but there's no way this isn't tearing him up. Soccer is a huge part of his life. He's pictured below in the blonde hair (with the slightly unorthodox hairstyle...). Perhaps something good can come of this.

Peace,
Brandon & Sierra

(Pictures Below)

Peanut Butter and Jelly is one of the Best dinners ever

Hello everyone,
Well, we haven't kept you guys up to date very well since we've gotten to Koln. Okay for starters, it's a great city, we walk absolutely everywhere that means we could walk 10 or more miles a day depending on what the day holds. Also, there are tons of bakery's and tons of drug stores. It's been pretty fun though so far and we still have 5 more weeks left. Time feels like it's going by really fast though.

So we've really begun doing the bulk of our job this summer which, Bill decided, is for us to create a youth group. The church is associated with about 8-10 kids who are both members there or else have done or currently do LST stuff. So after working at camp and because there is both Brandon and I, he decided that this would be a good opportunity to do something with these kids. They are all really great, sweet kids too and Brandon and I really enjoy being around them.

There's a few things that go along with this. Firstly it is there summer break so it's a great time for us to be here. There summer break is only 6 weeks long (they get a lot of other breaks throughout the year too). This is both good and bad, the good is that they are mostly free to come do stuff with us, the bad is that almost all of them actually take long 2 week vacations with there families. They go to Holland to the beach, or Switzerland to the mountains. Adults in Germany get much more time off than in America. They get a base of 6 weeks off a year, that's like unheard of in the US.

Anyways, Brandon and I do LST reading with all of the students (3 of the boys are still out of town but have scheduled studies when they get back). So right now we have 3 girls (whom I study with about 3 times a week each) and 2 boys who Brandon studies with as often as they are free. Our studies include Bible reading, and then comprehension type questions followed by us just chatting with them for the remainder of the hour or so. The kids have been great so far. Really eager to learn and very accepting of us and willing to hang out with us.

We have also planned other activities with the kids throughout the summer. Today we had lunch with a couple of them (the others were at work) and after lunch we went down to the downtown area to where the cathedral is. The kids thought it would be a good idea to climb all the way to the top of the Dom. I would venture to say this was not a good idea. It was something over 500 steps to the top and ridiculous!! I only made it to the bell tower before I got too sick and had to go down. Brandon got to the top with them and pretty much wanted to die. Although Paul, one of the kids, is a soccer player, a really good one and he was like ready to do it again, practically jogging to the top.

We had a good day with them and even though there were only two of them we felt it went well. Bill said he thought it was great, two is a start and with there not being a youth group at the church or really any of the other churches either, it is an uphill climb but will be good. Next week is a new week full of promise too.

Monday I meet with all three girls for study and Brandon meets with this lady who wants to discuss philosophy. Then he has his boys later on. Wednesday night we will have a teen devotional. *they do not have Wednesday night church). It should be interesting, I wonder how many will come or if the Muslim kids will come too?

Thursday night is another LST party, there is one every Thursday. We had a "Texas" party last night, thrown by Bob and Dianne an older couple from Long view, TX who are here to do LST for 2 weeks. It was really fun, none of the teens came but there were still about 20 people there total.

Then on Saturday we are having a big BBQ at one of the parks. All of the kids have said they will come so far and several are supposed to bring friends, so, if everything goes as planned it should be a good event and hopefully some of the visiting kids will get signed up to do LST.

It is an interesting field. atheism is the norm, belief in God is weird, and Islam is also highly potent. Pray for us as we work with these kids, we are trying to figure out how to love these kids correctly. We can not just Bible bang on them or assume that they know anything about Christianity also, with some of them being Muslim and not actually searching we are in a sticky place. The Lord works in mysterious ways though and hopefully he will plant a seed in these kids that will make them desire to know him more because most of them are so distracted by everything else they don't know what they are missing yet. We are currently just trying to establish a friendship and a trust with them and hoping God will work through that. We are really sad that we aren't here more permanently but, I still feel that our time here will be beneficial at least in mixing the non-Christian kids with the church kids and tying them more deeply to the church.

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers and please really do pray for us over hear. Pray for our kids too, we've never worked with Muslim kids before and it's really a new thing.

Simple things you may already know

As stated earlier I will take this blog-post as an opportunity to express summarily the lessons we gave to the young people at camp Gemunden. So without further ado...

Let me begin with a little allegory you may find helpful. The phrase "You are your father's (mother's) son (daughter)" means very plainly that you act like your parents. But more importantly gives a sense of meaning to what we do. It means that I'm not just doing what I think is universally "right" or "good", but that I'm doing things that make me a part of something particular, in this case my family. For me, to act like my father or mother is to make myself a Pierce, and for you it is to make yourself a part of your family. Now let's broaden this perspective out a bit.

Often we try to justify the specifically "Christian" kinds of things by taking a universal perspective and attempting to display via our infinite philosophical wisdom that what we are doing is THE right thing to do. This is all well and good and I have no abstract disagreement with the idea, but I do often find it difficult to "prove" this other than on faith. What I can say, however, is that the things that we do, or that we are called to do, form is into a very particular kind of human being--a Christian. We certainly believe that what we do is what all people should do (in a perfect world), but this is not the kind of perspective that God seems to have, or that the Bible seems to convey.

Very early on, beginning with Abraham, God seems to be taking a different approach to things. Instead of commanding all people's on the earth to follow his will directly, he wants to call out a single person to form a community through his offspring to "be a blessing to all people." And this kind of thinking persists in the Bible under the general label of "God's people." Wouldn't it be great if all people would hold up the virtues of love, self-sacrifice, and humility as the highest (as we should be doing), but a simple observer of the world can notice very quickly this is not the case. So God has ordained a small portion of the world, first in the form of the Jews, now open to Gentiles but still only as "ingrafted branches" as Paul describes it. And God has ordained the "chosen" to demonstrate godliness in the world in the form of the imitation of Christ. He has set us apart to be beautiful in an ugly world and all of the commandments are ways of expressing the everlasting beauty of God with a very contrasting backdrop. Light out of darkness, resurrection out of death, order out of chaos--these are themes that are constant in the Bible and are realized deeply in our expression of Godliness, of beauty, of Christianity.

So to bring this back home a bit, the moral commands that we have been given in the Bible are not just rules to follow lest we burn in hell. They are guidelines to expressing the beauty of God in a world dominated by the ugliness of selfishness. The commandments set us apart and make us holy. In Romans 12 Paul conveys this very profoundly in the contrasting transformed spirit of Christ. His commands demonstrate a severe counter-worldly attitude that are meant to be refreshing to the world.

In this sense we may note Jesus' comment that his followers are the "salt of the earth" meant to flavor and to preserve the world. The call of Christianity is a unique call that allows our actions of humility, self-sacrifice, and love to demonstrate the possibility for something more than death and decay, something more than nihilism and self-interest, but rather a deep and abiding joy in the life of Christ shown through us.

So let us perhaps reconsider the ways in which we think about our moral life. To me it seems less about fulfilling a to-do list for entrance into heaven, and more about experiencing the fullness of human life, and in-turn expressing that fulness in love and self-sacrifice. And to express it in such a way that everyone looking on can only describe as beautiful.

And we arrive in Koln

We have officially arrived in Cologne (pronounced: koeln) after nearly 2 weeks at the Gemunden camp. We are thoroughly exhausted and looking forward to a few days of rest with not a whole lot to do. Tomorrow a couple from Longview, TX is supposed to arrive and we will be working with them to facilitate a Let's Start Talking session for the following weeks.

We saw an advertisement for our session in Cologne while we were walking around today. It said: "learn conversational English from native speakers!" That's right...I'm a native speaker. Sudden realization. Another funny thing is that at least in Germany they use comma's instead of periods for their numeric separations so... 600.00 is 600,00. This makes it a little stressful to withdraw money from the bank because you're pretty sure you're still only withdrawing 20 euros but you think there's a slight chance you're withdrawing 20,000 euros (because it looks like 20,00).

Back to talking about camp Gemunden. We had a whole new group come in, many adults and about 9 teenagers at the peak. They were all pretty wonderful kids. They said it was "english week" so during our lessons we would read bible stories first in German (which was fun for them to laugh at our pathetic attempts) and then in English (we did not laugh at them of course). Our lessons involved various activities that sometimes served as object lessons, sometimes just for funzies. They also liked to sing a lot of old school songs like: "Pharaoh, Pharaoh" and "Walking down Heaven's Road." We must have sang the same 7 songs each time which consisted of the same kind of stuff. It was neat to see their enthusiasm for what most American teenagers would consider "cheesy." Overall it was a good week and we have since become facebook friends with many of them! (We're learning the great utility of facebook for ministry and/or short term missions). On a later post I want to post a kind of summary of the lessons we taught them.

That's all for now, the pictures below are a sampling of the second week at camp Gemunden. Enjoy.

Peace,
Brandon and Sierra