Berlin

Our vacation begins in Berlin. We flew from Dulles to Munich and then to Berlin, arriving about 3 pm local time. By the time we got our rental car and navigated our way through Berlin, checked into our hotel, and got to our room, it was getting close to 6!

First thing to say: driving in Berlin in nuts! Between new street signs, construction, and just as many bikes on the road as cars, it was harrowing getting through town! So it took us a while, but we got here. 

No time to rest, though, as we had a reservation to see the Bundestag building at 7. So we dropped off our stuff and hoofed it downtown. 

At the top of the building is a dome to climb up and get views of the city.

After that, we began walking back to the hotel. On the way we stopped and saw the Brandenburg Gate and stopped for dinner at the Alt Berliner restaurant.

We got back to the hotel about 10 - exhausted! And fell asleep pretty quick. I didn’t post last night because I was just too tired.

This morning we had a very nice breakfast at the hotel and headed out to “Museum Island.” And yup, it is! Right in the middle of Berlin. We went to the Pergamon Museum first, which has lots of artifacts from BC Assyria! I took some pictures to use in Bible Class. Then we went to the Pergamon Diorama, which shows what life was like in Pergamum in the first century AD. Again, Bible Class fodder!

This is the gate to one of the old pagan temples in Pergamum! This is what Paul had to deal with in bringing the Gospel to the people there. We then also stopped at the Bode Museum, which had a lot of Medieval artifacts from Germany and France. 

Side note: street performers here are really talented! When we were driving to the hotel, there was a man who was juggling in the street for donations! Then today, we saw a man doing another really talented thing. Fun to watch!

OK, so after “Museum Island” we started back to the hotel for a little rest. But along the way we stopped to see Marienkirche - an old Roman church. Some cool stuff inside, but also Luther on the outside!

After a brief rest, it was off to see the Berlin Wall memorial. That was very interesting, to see the pieces that are still there, how it changed over the years, and the big security zone. 

After seeing that it was time to walk back to the hotel, and on the way we stopped for dinner at the Berlin Hofbrauhaus. Really good food, and live music!

Wiener schnitzel!

Tomorrow it’s off to Wittenberg. We may try to see a little more of Berlin in the morning. We’ll see. But a very full day and a little in Berlin! We’re off to a good start. 

Vacation!

Yes, the time has finally arrived! Two weeks of R&R. Taking the trip to Germany my congregation gave me for the 25th anniversary of my ordination (three years ago!). We had to wait out Covid, but now we're finally going. Two weeks to unplug. But I'll try to post some pictures and updates here each day so my most generous folks can keep up with how we're doing. ;-)

We are so grateful!

Higher Things - Day 5

Today is travel home day. Breakfast, then off to the airport. It's been a good week. Busy, very busy! But good. The staff who put on these conferences is amazing. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes that no one knows about - they just come and have a good time. 

One things that struck me this week was the prayer requests I received. Parents whose 8 year old son died suddenly. A woman who lost both her husband and son on the sam day! A boy who fell in a hiking accident and had to have 6 vertebrae fused. A boy with brain cancer that has doctors stumped. I don't think any of these were at the conference - but were known by people here. Yikes! What a broken, messed up world we live in. A good reminder how much people need to hear the Gospel!

I don't know if I'll ever get asked to be chaplain again, but I think I would if asked. But I think I would do it differently. I would attend one conference with my youth so I could spend more time with them, and then chaplain a different conference. For I wish I could have spent more time this week with my youth. They're good, trustworthy, and independent. I saw them around a lot. And did get to spend time with my daughter. But more would have been nice, too.

As far as how I did as chaplain, I'll let others decide that. I only flubbed a few times! My main confusion for the week was with the Sacrament at the Divine Services. At the first, we had waaaaay too much left at the end. At the second, we almost ran out of wine - even after I consecrated more! (And we didn't have any more in standby!) I think the pastors who distributed at the opening service gave sips from the chalice, while the pastors who distributed at the closing service gave gulps. But how do you know how that will be beforehand? I hate consecrating waaaay too much, but that's better than running out, right?

Finally, we had dinner and relaxation/decompression time last night. That was nice. One thing that happened was that one of our deaclets liked catching frogs around the campus, so she did and brought it in to show us. Then it got away from her, hopped onto the floor, and right under someone's chair that . . . well, yeah. RIP Mr. Frog.

Deaclet Anika before . . .

. . . and after!

(In the background are two of the HT Executives, Crysten Sanchez and Harrison Goodman. I also got to worked with Crysten a little synodically and she is on the Board for National Mission and we worked together on a joint subcommittee.)

Higher Things - Day 4

(I'm writing this post Saturday morning, but will pretend I am writing it yesterday for consistency!)

Today is the final day of the conference. We have breakfast, Morning Prayer, the final plenary, getting the youth ready to go, lunch, and then the closing Divine Service. That's the schedule. For me, a little different. Instead of plenary, I'll be in the chapel setting up for the closing Divine Service and helping to start organizing and packing up all the chapel supplies that are no longer needed. Then, after the final service, it all has to be packed up and loaded onto a truck. Then we get to relax for the evening. :-)

Yesterday, I taught my breakaway for the second time, which is always a bit smoother, though it still wasn't as good as it should have been. A little more time and work would have been good. But that's probably always true. With sermons, too. 

I got to spend a little time talking with an old friend today, John (picture below). I met him waaaay back when I was in college and did an internship in Austin back in 1984. He let me rent a room from him in his house and rented me one of his cars to use for the summer. 

Here's an interesting tidbit: San Antonio has a big feral cat population. So the University here has adopted their own feral cat "colony" - they take are of a group of cats (12-14 or so), they feed and water them, spay and neuter them, get the vet care, and have them live on campus. Why? Because cats are territorial and this group keeps them others off the campus! How 'bout that? (Some pictures below)

Pictures!

Caroline (former member at Purcellville Mission) with boyfriend Daniel.

I got to pick on them in my first breakaway a little!

Pastor and Headmaster Steve Kieser from Plano, TX.

Pastor Jeff Ware from Charlotte, NC.

The next three are "my" summer vicars. They are actually Higher Things' summer vicars, but they were mine for the week and they were great! Made my job 100% easier. I don't know what I would have done without them.

James Gramzow (Ft. Wayne Seminary)

Justin Chester (Ft. Wayne Seminary)

Ben Heinz (St. Louis Seminary)

Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller from Austin, TX, one of our plenary speakers. I caught a good amount of his first plenary (which was great), but sadly missed all the second one - chapel duties. But that's okay. This week is for the youth, not me. (Though I DO benefit, too!)

Deaconess Mary Moerbe, Athanasian, now in Houston, TX.

(Her husband had a picture on a previous post.)

This is Mina, the service dog that was around for the week, with her owner Paige, one of the chapel "deaclets" (summer deaconess interns) that help me at the chapel as well. We had two deaclets and they, too, were indispensable!

Devon Jackson, our onsite EMT and future pastor!

Below are two of the cats that are part of the campus colony.

(My daughter saw more than I did. I think maybe she saw most of them!)

My friend John from back in the day.

Tomorrow I get to go home. :-)

Higher Things - Day 3

Second full day of the conference. Still some folks I have run into here that I need to sit and catch up with (#MaryMoerbe!). Yesterday was a very full day and today will be the same. But things seemed to go a little smoother overall yesterday. The hardest part of the day yesterday was after dinner. I spent too long at dinner talking with some friends (BUT an important conversation, so glad I did!). So then I had to get to the building where I was teaching my breakaway, find my classroom, brush my teeth (so I could sing in chapel later!), teach, go over time (surprised? 45 minutes is not enough time!), hoof it quickly over to the chapel, arrive out of breath 5 minutes before Evening Prayer is to begin, vest, and go! The good part? One of my summer vicars was standing there with my cassock in his hands all ready to help me into! Wow! We had actually planned for this - we assigned one of the summer vicars all the chanting parts at the beginning of the liturgy to give me a chance to catch my breath. ;-)

My breakaway went pretty well. A little bumpy. I allowed a little too much time for the kids to answer questions and telling my (relevant, teaching) stories so that I ran short on time (see above). I'll tighten that up a little today. I teach right before dinner today, so that'll be easier. 

I did get a little downtime yesterday. As I mentioned, I did get to spend some time at dinner with some friends, and I got to go with my daughter to see some of the talent show last night. Wow! The kids were really good! I was impressed. I also got to see and spend a little time with my nephew and his family (picture below). It was their daughter Josephine's 4th birthday, so they couldn't stay too long - they had to go get birthday dinner and unicorn cake! :-)

Today is the second full day, so will be on the go all day again. I'll leave the dorm a little before 7 am and get back around midnight. But first, some pictures . . .

The bell tower by the chapel - an impressive structure!

Mollie Hemingway. She met our kids at BWI and brought them here for us!

Pastor Ned Moerbe. He picked up our kids at the San Antonio airport and brought them to the campus!

My nephew, Pastor Adam Douthwaite, and his family with Joanna and I.

Professor John Pless from our Ft. Wayne Seminary.

Pastor Steve Cholak

Pastor Gary Piepkorn

Outside chapel after Evening Prayer. (We're going to try to get another group photo inside, too.)

But right now, time for my shower!

Higher Things - Day 2

Got through Day 1! All the youth got here, safe and sound. But wow. Busy. Not much down time. The Opening Service was great. And I didn't flub anything! But it seems like I'm always running around, taking care of something. Either planning, set-up, take down, preparing, helping. These conferences take a lot more work than I imagined.

So today, in addition to all the services and chaplain stuff, I am scheduled to teach my first breakaway and also I think we will be making a video of a "teaching Divine Service" in the afternoon. That will be during the panel discussion time (which I really wanted to go to!). Oh well. My daughter will have to tell me about it.

Got to see some folks I haven't seen in a long time. I didn't get picture with them all yet, but I did take a couple yesterday:

Miss Natalie Ludwig, former member of our mission in Purcellville.

Jocelyn Benson, Head Teacher for Wittenberg Academy

Pastor Chris Rosebrough, one of our plenary speakers.

View looking into the chapel from behind the altar.

(The ugly parament belongs to the chapel. They didn't want us to take it off, so we just covered it up so it can't be seen by anywhere else but behind the altar!)

A gray fox we saw on campus yesterday!

I'm sure there's more to write, but I'll post this now and maybe add to it later. :-)

Higher Things - Day 1

Time for my annual chronicling of our trip to the Higher Things youth conference. This year we're in San Antonio, TX, at Trinity University. And yes, it's HOT!

The theme this year is Beyond Reasonable Doubt - an apologetics theme. 

This year is also a bit different for me as I am serving as the conference chaplain here. So lots more work for me to do! I'll also be teaching a breakaway session as usual.

So I arrived on Sunday night and Monday was unloading and set-up day. They have a whole truckload of stuff they bring! My responsibility is the chapel, so that's where I spent most of the day, trying to figure out how to use the space and get everything set up. Not just me - I have three summer vicars helping me, a couple of deaconess interns, and some CCVs - College Conference Volunteers. There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes. But we got it done, and last night had a service of Evening Prayer to dedicate the space and just take a breather to sit, sing, pray, and hear God's Word.

Today we start in earnest. I'll pray with the staff and then arrivals and registration begins at 9. Pastors will start arriving and bringing their vestments to the chapel. I need to finalize the schedule for the summer vicars with them this morning. At 1:00 I have to be at the Leaders Meeting to give them information on the chapel and how things will work there this week. Then the Opening Divine Service at 2:00 at which I am the celebrant. A little breather after that (I think!). Hopefully I'll get to hear some of the plenary speaker. Then after dinner there's Evening Prayer, followed by Private Absolution for those who want it (I have pastors who volunteered to do that), then Staff Compline at 10:00, and then Compline with my kids in the dorm at 11:00. A full day. ;-)

One of the biggest challenges this year was the travel! Since I had to come down early, I could not travel with the youth. So we linked up with the group from Immanuel, Alexandria. But they had already made all their travel plans! So we had to figure out how to link up with them. Each of our groups drove separately to the airport, so we had to make arrangements for them to find each other there - which they did! And pretty soon their plane will be off. Then, after they arrive in San Antonio, I have a pastor from Houston who is bringing his group in and then he will go up to the airport and get our kids! (Fortunately, the airport here is only about 10 minutes from the campus.) Then we the kids get here (hopefully not too late!), I se them to their dorms and get them settled in before I'm off to the Leaders Meeting. 

So yeah, it's going to be one of those weeks! Good, but tiring.