Let the Semester Begin Picnic
Berlin
Anita and I arrived in Berlin by air from Brussels Saturday afternoon. We took the city bus from the Tegel airport to Alexanderplatz. In photos from the East Germany history you might have seen the communications tower, which is a landmark from the Russian occupation of divided Germany. This tower can be seen from a lot of the city of Berlin and John and Kristen live nearby.
So we got off the bus at Alexanderplatz and walked three blocks to John and Kristen’s apartment but no one answered when we rang the bell to open the gate so we could walk in the inner courtyard [Innenhof] to their stairwell and then ring again to get the door unlocked. We kept ringing the bell by their name but no one answered. Finally someone came on the intercom in German, this wasn’t John and Kristen! So somehow, some way we got let into the courtyard when someone electronically unlocked the gate on the street.
Since no one answered their apartment doorbell, outside, we still aren’t in the building, we decided to call them on the cell phone. ‘Where are you guys??? We just flew in from Brussels as planned, where are you?’ They replied, ‘we are at a nearby park having a picnic/grill party with students! We will come and get you, want to join us? Sure!’ So we waited and waited and people came and went in the building and said, ‘are you waiting for a taxi or something?’ ‘No,’ we replied, we think our son forgot we were coming!
Eventually John arrived, he didn’t tell us he was going to walk back from the park! So we put our suitcases, full of baby items, in their apartment and walked to the park. The sidewalks were so jammed with people strolling and little sidewalk cafes that I walked on the street.
It was a wonderful sight to see around 40 students sitting on blankets at the picnic—many of them just peering into a Christian community for the first time. There were other picnic parties taking place within six feet of ours. The population density of Europe is so much greater than in other continents. We had a wonderful time with our 5 week old grandsons who were held by willing students. I stood on the edge of the crowd and prayed for them. How I would have loved to have gotten to know each person and hear their story. Then I would have loved to share my life’s story with them and tell them about God’s love and faithfulness to me all these years.
I hope a lot of the visitors make their way to the weekly Students for Christ meeting that will take place tomorrow night. So that’s how part of Saturday went for me, as you can tell this is John’s style of writing a blog.
Students at the picnic...peering into the community of believers and enjoying the fellowship.