Entries from August 2004 ↓

Our first full day in Berlin, Germany started with a German breakfast of oatmeal/granola type cereal that came in two flavors: healthy and chocolate. At 8:00, we headed off to church in the Green’s blue bus. The church is on the second story of a building that is big enough to house a bakery, salon, and tire store. We arrived before everyone else and slowly watched everyone come in. The first hour is Sunday School, in which they are going through The Second Coming by John MacArthur. Martin, a friend and colleague of Mr. Green, translated the whole class into English for us. It was a privilege to be able to sit under Mr. Green’s teaching and to worship with the Berlin believers.

In between services we had genuine German coffee and cookies. We were able to get to know some of the church members and here about their lives and where the come from. During the second service, we sang in German and listened to the whole message in German. Due to the language barrier, we struggled to pat attention and follow along, but God is faithful and his name was glorified despite the fact.

After church, we had a potluck in the same room, we just replaced the chairs with tables. The food was great and so was the fellowship. From the potluck, we went home and changed clothes. The other host families met at the Greenhouse and we left from there for Sachsenhausen, the WWII concentration camp.

This camp was history books coming alive. All of the stuff that we had read in school about the persecution and torment of prisoners could now be imagined in the place where it took place. It all came to life within a matter of hours.

Once we arrived home, we received a call saying that we left Josh at the concentration camp. Of course we all laughed, but could not believe that we had actually did that. We waited 20 minutes and received another call saying that there was just a mix up and he was not left behind.

The day ended with a good meal and some relaxed fellowship in the evening.

Our first day wasn’t a full 24 hour day because of the fight against time as we flew east. So I am beginning the second day when we woke up and experienced the sunrise on the flight about 3 hours away from Paris.

We woke up with tight muscles from the cramped or should I say upright sleeping positions we were privileged to be accommodated with. There were not many happy faces due to the circumstances, but all were doing their best to live with each other. Breakfast was served as the sun was coming up and few hours later, we landed in Paris. The Paris airport was nice, but unhelpful when it came to finding out where to go. This being the first place where everything was in a different language, we moved fairly slow until we arrived at the gate for our next flight. We then went on a mission to find food.

In order for this mission to be accomplished, we need to pass again through the medal detectors and scan the airport. We eventually found a Pizza Hut, McDonalds, and a café. Some of us just got something to drink while others bought whole meals. They accepted American dollars, but only paper, no coins. This stop was nice because it had a much longer layover than in Cincinnati and so we were able to rest before getting on the next flight.

The view from the French plane was great. As we were taking off, the Eiffel Tower was visible in the distance and the landscape was checkered with farmland and endless fields. The clouds were beautiful too. We were all pretty tired and almost all of us fell asleep after lunch. Something to note is the lunch we had, which was a little different than what we were used to. There was a croissant that had raw salmon in it, which I heard is a delicacy in France. Several of our team either spit out the first bite or almost lost it on the last bite.

Our landing in Berlin was warmly welcomed and we exited the plane quickly. We waited only fifteen minutes for the baggage to show up and then we readied ourselves for that which we had been dreading the whole trip: customs. We walked through a small gate with an airport guard motioning us on, and then we saw Cary Green and walked up and met him and his fellow Germans. As you may have noticed, we didn’t have to have our bags checked or questions asked. We went straight through. We praise God for being so easy, but were disappointed that neither in Paris nor in Berlin.

Mr. Cary introduced us to the fellow Berlin believers and who was staying in with who. We headed off with our host families, experiencing for the first time German roadways. At the Greenhouse, we were greeted with the entourage of children with smiles on the walkway to the house. Inside we met Mrs. Green and saw the sign that the children made for us that said “Welcome to Berlin.” We were blessed with a wonderful dinner prepared by Mrs. Green that was lovely relief from airline food. All were fairly tired and talked little before showering and heading off to bed. Bed at that point sounded simply splendid after sitting in airline chairs for many hours earlier.

Today marks the beginning of a journey so extraordinary that it is hard to explain. Nine unique individuals have chosen to embark on a historic trek to a country thousands of miles away. They are going sleep deprived and surviving on airline food for over 20 hours. Why? Because they are fanatics, fanatics about seeing the glory of God exalted as supreme all around the world.

Although, this journey began officially at 8:00 at Sea-Tac International Airport on Friday the 30th 2004, it has been anticipated for over a year. The families all arrived within five minutes of each other and almost all parked in the same section. The feelings in the airport were mixed with concern (moms) and excitement (students). Everything went extremely smooth as we all unpacked and re-packed the luggage that we were assigned to bring for the Greens. Spirits were high as last good-bye’s were given and moms released their children to cruelty our world’s airline travel.

Not more than five minutes into our adventure, we all made a pit-stop at Starbucks and loaded up on caffeine to counter-act the sleep deprivation. And so with that we boarded an airplane headed for Cincinnati, Ohio. A note must be made about the team’s flight experience. All had done some commercial flying with the exception of Jesse. So he began his air career on a positive note and flew 1900 miles in over 4 hours.

The view was amazing as soon as we broke above the cloud layer. The Cascade Mountain range provided great vistas of snowy peaks and a plethora of lakes. The flight was extraordinarily rough and bumpy, but all survived and were happy to land. All were hungry and rejoiced at the opportunity to eat something. But not long after we got our meals, they started boarding our next flight.

None of us were prepared for a trans-Atlantic flight overnight. This problem was the result of two specific reasons. 1) over the course of the flight, our bodies felt like it was 3pm-12am and so not until the end of the flight did we feel like sleeping, 2) even though our bodies were saying no, we tried to sleep, but that was all but possible with the lack of any room to move except for your feet a couple of inches. But God is gracious and sustained us through the whole flight.

Both flights had in-flight movies that were played. The first plane had a projector for each zone of seats and needed an upgrade desperately. The second flight came with complimentary headphones and personal screens for each passenger. There were several channels for movies and TV shows and several channels of radio.