Radical Hospitality

Radical Hospitality

For most of my life I've been equating hospitality with good manners. Lately in church we've been talking about Radical Hospitality. I don't think I really understood this concept until I came to Germany.

I've experienced it personally. Families have given us food and shelter. In one case, I'm certain we were given the best beds in the house. Since we're travelling for 17 days, we have to ask our families to help us do our laundry. This is a lot to ask of a family even for a few days.

We see that Germany is actively practicing Radical Hospitality by agreeing to accept one million refuges. When we were in Kolkwitz, a town of about 400, we learned that they had taken in about 50 refugees from Syria and Afghanistan. The Mom in the family that hosted us that night voluntarily teaches English once a week to those refugees.

Many of the religious communities here are practicing Radical Hospitality as well. We visited the first Synagogue to return to the German state of Brandenburg since WWII. The building had originally been built as a church by Huguenot (protestant) refugees from France in the 1700s. It was used by several churches over time and was eventually decommissioned and sold to the Jewish Congregation in 2014 for well under the market value. The Christian decorations and furniture were all repurposed in other churches, except for an intracately carved chancel, which you can buy from the regional church organization if you need one! The old altar now serves as a table in the synagogue. Local artisans helped create a beautiful ark for their Torah.

And don't for a minute believe that hospitality is one sided. While I have often been on the host side of hospitality, I am now in the position to be on the receiving end. There is no other emotion to describe this experience other than humility. Though I am more than capable of feeding and sheltering myself, it is part of our exchange to be a guest in this travel. It is so humbling to put aside my American independence and have to rely on the generosity of others for my most basic care. I humbly had to ask one of my host families to wash my skivvies (turns out Dad does the laundry in that house). Did I mention that  most Germans don't have driers - so everything gets put out on the line to dry.

But I can't imagine what the refugees here must be experiencing. They are not allowed to work here until they are cleared by the government, a process that can take many years. They are completely reliant on the community for their survival in the meantime. I am told that most of them fully intend to return to their home countries once the ISIS invaders are gone, but who knows when or if they will have the means or opportunity to do this. And they must be wondering when they will be able to be in a position to help themselves in their new community.

The hospitality in the case of the synagogue might be considered something like reparations, but both parties have come to the situation with a more humble approach. Of course many modern Germans are welcoming to Jews returning to their communities. It's taken about 70 years, but it is happening. But the Jews have been humble in receiving the gift of the synagogue. While we were there we prayed a special prayer. It comes from the Coventry Church in England. After the bombing of that church in WWII, they found many nails. They made the nails into crosses and sold them. There had been a Coventry Cross in the building when it had  been a Christian Church. The cross is now in another church, but the prayer sums up the type of forgiveness that is required in a situation like this.

Coventry Prayer
The hatred which divides nation from nation, race from race, class from class,
Father, forgive.

The covetous desires of people and nations to posses what is not their own,
Father, forgive.

The greed which exploits the work of human hands and lays waste the earth,
Father, forgive.

Our envy of the welfare and happiness of others,
Father, forgive.

Our indifference to the plight of the imprisoned, the homeless, the refugee,
Father, forgive.

The lust which dishonours the bodies of men, women, and children,
Father, forgive.

The pride which leads us to trust in ourselves and not in God,
Father, forgive.

Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

The Apple Countess

On Friday we met "The Apple Countess". It seems that name might be a bit of an honorarium, but she wears it well for this century.

She is related to the family that last owned the castle we visited earlier in the day. Her husband was the son of the last owner of the castle. After World War II, the old aristocracy was kicked out. Many families were displaced as the lines were re-drawn between the nations. The father-in-law was forced to live far away from his homeland.

After the wall fell, many families chose to return to their homelands. The countess' husband wanted to do the same, though he had never lived there himself. They bought property near the castle and he set up his farm there.

She had been a bookseller, but this property was very rural and so there were few customers for books. She searched for something fulfilling to do. One day she drove over many apples in the road. She wondered why no one was using the apples. She realized that this was to be her passion.

She bought a machine that cleaned, pressed, and cooked the apples into cider. But she made the machine mobile so she could drive it around and help the people in the town use their own apples. Eventually she started her own apple farm and they now make many delicious and interesting products from the apples. We got to sample many of them when we were there. She has also created a bed-and-breakfast for people seeking relaxation.

She sees her apple farm as more than a business. It is a mission for her to employ people and help them to use their own resources. It is her mission. She is very up-front about this connection to her faith in her work.

Our best "concert" so far was a rehearsal in her apple barn. Her story, her care of others, and her hospitality was inspiring.

An inexperienced traveller!

So it appears that I'm not a very experienced traveller.

I forgot to take a drink out of my carry-on that I'd purchased on the way to the airport. When I went through security, I was pulled aside to have my bag searched and swabbed for bomb residue! Then when I handed my ticket to the attendant when we were boarding, I gave him the one to my connecting flight. He tore it, but said it wouldn't be an issue.

So of course I was looking at the wrong ticket when I went to my seat. I actually sat in someone else's seat during the flight. Luckily it was another person from our group so we just kind of traded for this flight.

I'd also forgotten how loud airplanes are. At home at the last minute, I traded my earbuds for the headphones I'd bought to save room in my carry-on. I gave up trying to hear my audiobook.

OK. Enough griping! I saw a beautiful sunset through the window across the aisle. Dinner was very good, too, though I dropped my knife on the floor about half-way through my chicken breast.

I tried several times to sleep, but I just kept tossing and turning. When we finally arrived at our host family's house, I was never so happy to see a bed!

I'm going to chalk it up to being nervous. I should be better on the ride home.

Trees

Something that has been so surprising to me is the amount of trees here. When we were flying into Berlin, we kept waiting for the trees to give way to more buildings. But they never really did. There are so many trees in the city! Kimberly told me it had something to do with when Berlin was split into East and West Germany. They planted trees in the West to separate them more from the East.

Everywhere we go the streets are lined with trees. It is very beautiful. Many of our rides are like driving through a forest. I'm told it is from the past when people rode in carriages - the trees provided shade to the horses and riders.

There is a sign you see many times along the road - a car crashing into a tree. Everyone drives so fast here, so the trees have become a bit of a hazard. In the US, if you miss a curve and leave the road, you just keep going into a field. Here on the other hand the first thing you encounter when you leave the road is a big tree.

Where will we be?

We leave one week from today on June 29. We'll hop on a bus coming from Sheboygan with other members of the group in Milwaukee and go to O'Hare in Chicago. Most of our group will be at O'Hare by 4:00 p.m. to go through security and then wait.  Hopefully our Swiss Air flight will take off on time at 7:15 p.m. On June 30 we'll first land in Zurich, Switzerland and then take off again after a 90 minute layover for Berlin, Germany where we will land (hopefully on time) at 2:10 p.m. (7:10 a.m. here)

The flight from Chicago to Zurich is just under 9 hours. The flight from Zurich to Berlin is about 90 minutes. Then we drive to Eberswald - I think about 2 hours.

I've been playing around in Google Earth to see where we'll be. Based on the information I currently have, it looks like we'll be primarily near the Eastern border between Berlin and Poland. I think there is an error with the town of Koppen because it is so far from the others, but there were a ton on places on Google Earth called Koppen. I'll edit it when I know more.

I've included a screen shot of the Google Earth map so you can see. I've also attached the Google Earth file that you can download and see more detail if you are curious (and if you have Google Earth). The map may be hard to read. Next to the name of the town, I've put a number which stands for the date or date range that we'll be in that town. If there is a C after the number, we are singing a concert there. If I put a W it means we are singing at a worship service there. If you look at the properties of each city in Google Earth, it gives the dates we are there and if we are doing something like a concert or tour.

Here We Go!

I'm visiting Germany for the first time in a few days. It will be my second time leaving the US and my first time in the Eastern Hemisphere.

I'll be practice blogging for a few days. The real thing will start on June 29.

Here we go ...