April
April has been a bittersweet month for me. The church hosted a dance evening, the Notübernachtung closed down for the summer, the Cohort went to Lithuania, and Ima and Abba came to Berlin to visit me.
Dance Evening
This month, Kevin and Anastasia asked different people in the church if they would help to host a dance evening at the church, and people came prepared with their cultural dances.
We were taught a Ukrainian dance, an Arabic dance, a Belarusian dance, a Greek dance, and the tango. One man was thrilled to teach us a traditional wedding dance from his country.
When the evening ended, everyone was asking, "When is this happening again?".
It was amazing to celebrate so many different cultures.
Notübernachtung
The shelter closed for the summer on April 15th. As it is an emergency shelter, it is only funded for the colder months of the year. We said goodbye to our guests, and many of our guests thanked us for our work over the winter.
On the last night working there, my coworker took a photo of a shopping cart outside the shelter. When I asked her what she was doing, she replied, "taking a photo for Instagram of something that looks forgotten, because when we close this shelter for the summer, it's like our guests are forgotten".
From November 1st to April 15th, we had over 2,000 different people come through the shelter. We had around 130 guests most nights. Some people came every night, while others came only once. Regardless, I hope they know they are not forgotten.
I will begin working at another shelter that is open during the summer.
At the beginning of May, the Cohort traveled to Lithuania. We visited Vilnius and Klaipeda, two cities on opposite sides of the country. We were able to learn about Lithuania's history and culture. Resonate has many people working in Klaipeda, including Caroline from the Cohort, at LCC University in Klaipeda. We were able to see the work they do there, see how they had integrated into the culture, and the impact they were making within the university.
We arrived in Vilnius, Lithuania's capital city, and got a tour of the city from one of Resonate's missionaries in Lithuania, where we learned about the country's history. It was interesting to learn about how Germany and Russia had such a large impact on the country's history, with lasting impacts to this day, including how concerned they are with the war in Ukraine.
(Side note: while we were there, it was when four American soldiers died in a training accident, and their vehicle was recovered in a swamp. So while we were there, we saw many American flags at half mast in honor of the soldiers.)
Lithuania was the last Pagan State in Europe; it became a Catholic state in 1387. Through the years, it has changed its religion multiple times, depending on political circumstances. We visited a church that was a representation of this. It had changed what it stood for every time the country changed its belief system. It was built as a Catholic church, changed to Orthodox, and under the Soviet Union was a shrine to Atheism. Today, it has been returned to the Catholic church.
On this tour, we also visited a part of the city that was a Ghetto during the Second World War. There had been around 208,000 Jews in Lithuania before the Second World War. Lithuania had, for much of its history, been a safe place for Jews, which is why there had been such a large Jewish population there. I believe that after the war, he stated, there were 3,000 left. The majority had been killed.
In Klaipeda, on the other side of the country, we got a tour of the city from a local. Her family had been sent to Siberia when the Soviets had taken over the country, and she told us her family's story and how they eventually worked their way back to their city.
There is a monument in Klaipeda of a little girl. At one point during World War II, Hitler came to Klaipeda and gave a speech. When he went to see where he was giving a speech, he saw that the statue had its back to him, and he had it removed. It was rebuilt (a little smaller) a few years later, and is known as the girl who turned her back on Hitler.
Lithuania is located along the Baltic Sea and is one of the three Baltic States, along with Estonia and Latvia. These Baltic States have an example of one of the largest and most successful peaceful revolutions. On August 23, 1989, two million people joined hands from Vilnius in Lithuania, Tallinn in Estonia, and Riga in Latvia, becoming known as "The Baltic Way". One-third of all three countries' populations helped to create this human chain. A show of peaceful resistance against the crumbling Soviet Union, showing that they could organize. Six months later, Lithuania declared its independence.
It was incredible to be able to visit a country and learn able it and its history from people who are so deeply invested in the culture there, whose families experienced the hardships of its history, of a university that is reaching out to people from around the world in a small city there, to visit churches that speak a language I can not understand, but in which we worships the same God.
Ima and Abba
Ima and Abba came to Berlin to visit me. I showed them around Berlin, during which time I learned that I have not been using public transportation enough, as I got them lost getting home from the airport. It was great to see my parents and show them my home here, even if we often took the long way round.
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