Sunday, August 3, 2008

Buchenwold and last day

Here we are waiting for the movie to begin that will give us the visual history of the Buchenwald Concentration camp. I have plenty more pictures of the different areas. This is just a selection.Here is the Memorial to the Roma people and the Sintos. Each of the pillars around the edge represent one of the concentration camps where this people group was held and murdered. People have come and put smaller rocks on top of the pillars, presumably representing family members they have lost. Below are close ups of some of the pillars with dedicatory rocks placed on them.After the concentration camp we loaded back on the bus and headed the two hours back to downtown Leipzig where our students sang right outside St. Niklous Church. We even had a guest percussionist join us for some of our songs!

Patrick, Michelle, Katie, Cal, and Becca made some friends in their family groups. They found each other on the square and were given gifts by their new German friends.
Not really sure what was going on here, but Jan certainly had these guys attention! This may be my first picture of Sean. I just wanted to make sure that I got one of him on the blog. Also pictured, Ed Pollock's nose and Will Crews' (I think) hat.
And last but not least I finally got a clear picture of Samantha's "Stained'glass toes!" This was a very appropriate pain job for this trip given the churches that we visited. We have truly had a great trip! On behalf of the students I want to thank the Church for allowing us this opportunity. Our eyes were opened as we were able to meet and worship with people form all over the world. Our students' world has gotten bigger. I believe God has gotten bigger for our students. No longer is this the land across the sea. Europe, Germany, and the Czech Republic are now places that we have been. Pieces of the Holocaust are something that we have experienced first hand. Hopefully, our students and this generation will not forget that horible tragedy so that it will not happen again! On two occassions during worship we were asked to speak out loud the Lord's Prayer in our own language. So, there we are in the midst of 6,000+ people from 89 countries speaking more than 100 languages simultaneously all the while recognizing that God (Gott) understands each and every one of us perfectly. Even as a thirty year old that is pretty mind-blowing. We serve a great big God! I look forward to this year as we seek after the heart of God to figure out what we can do to "seek justice" in our world today. The theme for the conference has been Dive Deeper. We have been asked to dive deeper in our relationship with God. We have been asked to dive deeper in the way we approach our world and those around us. I have placed the bar high for our students this year. I am asking them to come up with a way that we can tackle the big problems of our world. Look out world! Here we come!




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