Guten Tag!

Guten Tag, friends!

Here I am living life at the country abode (sorta) of my friend Nele Grasshoff and her family in Appen, Germany (Hamburg.) If you're interested I'll send some thoughts your way from time to time. I hope the European email causes as much appreciation of life as the experiences do for me. Isn't it ironic the way an email looks the same no matter what country it came from?

My first German experience was the neuapostoliche church, directly from the airport. Though I hadn't been to choir practice, I did attempt to sing with Nele and her mother Marin, very quietly so as not to pronounce a German word completely incorrectly. It would be like singing "a-moo-zing grac-ee... how swite the sand..." Ah, the acappella sound in an echoey hall is a beautiful thing! Since then I've done a lot of singing in German! I practiced with the chamber choir, which will be doing a concert of classical music with ochestra in a couple months. This is also through the New Apostolic Church and Nele's father directs the choir with a strong bass voice. Later the family's circle of friends got together to practice a traditional Hambur song to be sung at the 25th wedding anniversary of another couple. The musical circle of friends got together to practice a traditional Hamburg song by Hans Albers, but they changed the words to personalize it to the couple, and I think it was amusing for everyone.

The next day, Berndt, who had the 25th wedding anniversary, took us on a speedboat up the river Elbe. We had a lovely cruise, passing enormous barges following the tide on their way upriver to the ocean. I saw sheep and thatched roofs on the German countryside. Lovely. We even had some entertainment to eat lunch with: a large man was driving a remote control speedboat zipping around the dock. Inevitably it wiped out and started no more. We chuckled and joked about it as he deliberated. Finally the large man jumped in and swam the 20 meters to retrieve his beloved.

I'm surprised how much English they Germans here understand compared to how much they actually use. Most apologize for their terrible English, but I can have a conversation with them. I guess it infiltrates music and movies, products, news, advertisements, and business names. But actually using it becomes either a hobby, or a skill learned traveling.

We've seen many sights of Hamburg, but there's a lot to see. All around the Harbor are some beautiful areas to walk since things are exceedingly green here, and we even took a canoe all afternoon around the harbor and along houses only divided by the small channel of water. Nele says Hamburg has more bridges than Venice! We visited a Spice museum in Hafencity, which is the most modern part of town, and farthest out into the river. The contrast btwn these 21st century buildings and the huge 100-yr old architecture has been deliberately accentuated by strange angles, leaning walls and wave-shaped roofs. From the harbor we could see the Spire of St Nicolai, a cathedral from the mid 1800s that has clearly been burnt. From up close, an open square with parts of stone wall marks the bombed structure in July 1943. Only the spire is still able to stand, and we took a lift to the top at 75 meters.

The Reeperbahn is where the all-night action is, so Jana, Nele and I went out to dance and see all the people and places until night was nearly gone. It's an interesting part of the culture here, and I was happy to have someone who knew the ropes show me around.

The "countryside" where Nele lives begins only 20 km from Hamburg proper. It's like KS countryside with everything compressed to half-size: fields, cows, tractors, houses, quite charming. Since most of the structures are brick, Nele's house has an old brick barn connected to the house, and now not in use. It's 30 degrees Celcius here, calm, drizzly and smells good, though daylight lasts from 4:30 to 10:30! My sympathies to most of you for the 45 degrees Celcius temperatures of KS.

The New Apostolic Church in Germany is quiet and structured, although I learned that the pastorship is volunteer and they "speak from the heart" rather than prepare sermons. I think this propogates more reliance on the Holy spirit, but less delving into the bible. Nele has convinced her congregation to do a "reading the bible in 90 days" program. The new Apostolic Church has few young people and no contemporary worship music. I'm not sure which comes first, the chicken or the egg. Nele translated most of the sermon for me, and probably several old ladies pursed their lips and watched us the whole time. I love the experiences one cannot get as a tourist!

Today we went to the Neuengamme concentration camp southeast of Hamburg, which has extensive exhibits in the few remaining buildings. It opens my eyes in a new way to World War II History, and though it was rather depressing to Nele, I think we had an interesting discussion about life, politics, sociology, and where God is in the midst of atrocites... A society of independent individuals can appear so single-minded from the outside, yet be so complicated from the inside, and accomplish so much for either good or evil. That's one small conclusion, though putting the conversation into an organized series of logic in this email is nigh impossible. I'm so glad that space is preserved, though. If only we could remember everything God has shown us in our lives.

I attached a couple pictures, one of Nele's house, and one of us on the speedboat on the Elbe River. Proof! I really am here!

Thanx for reading and experiencing life in your own way. I pray that our experiences enrich our lives and others in the future. Until next time...

Seth Pro