Tuesday June 15

June 15, 8 pm

From yesterday:
I just completed my first work day! What fun! I am lucky enough to have been assigned to work with the kindergarten. It is a pre-school for children up to 6 years old when they begin regular school. I worked with 3-6 year olds from Turkey, Afghanistan, Albania, Africa and Arabia that I know of. They all speak German, I do not, but we had a great time. They chattered and I attempted to respond with appropriate words and nods. We counted to 20 in English. By the end of the day, two of them were vying for my attention with picture books. I attempted to read one or two in German – no one walked away so it must have been OK. I pointed to some pictures and said, “Was ist das?” So I learned some German words from them. Who knows what I will learn by the time we leave! God has planted me here to grow.

Nancy Hoelzer

From today:
Today we got a good start on painting the entry way of the church. Rich Keil on the ladder, me on the scaffold and Linda on the floor. After a good day of work we are about 70% done and the narthex looks great. Just before Mittagessen (lunch), a man wandered into the church. Turns out he is from New Zealand. He saw the church from the U-Bahn and wanted to check it out. Peter stayed for lunch and we had great conversation. He is a train enthusiast at was trying to check out all the trains and streetcars in Berlin – a big job. He is also a passionate Christian and member of the Vineyard Church in NZ. Later a cashier in the neighborhood supermarket wanted to know what we are doing so we had the chance to witness a bit. Most of the group is off tonight to the Reichstag but Linda and I decided to have a quiet evening – dinner at the local Turkish restaurant and then relaxation.

Jeff Silvernail