Home Sweet Home!

Well, we knew it would happen at some point, but our time in Germany had finally ended. We arrived at our last destination in Neuendettelsau on Friday. Sorry to all of you who have been waiting for a new update, we didn't have internet acess in Neuendettlesau! Our last four days there were fun and pretty packed. We met a man named Horst Becker, who was very proud of his German heritage and was an excellent guide for us. We learned about Wilhelm Loehe, the man who sent missionaries to North America, a move through which Wartburg College and Wartburg Seminaries were created. It was fun to learn about Loehe, he was an amazing man. He had also established a school to teach and train girls to become deaconesses because even though Martin Luther had made it clear that schools should be established for both boys and girls, that sentiment was no longer important at that time, so girls were not allowed to be educated. Loehe thought they should be educated, so he started this deaconess school, and when the girls were done with their training, he would send them to their home congregation and then they would work there. That was the plan anyway; what actually happened was that when the girls got to their churches, the churches didn't know what to do with them and wouldn't let them do what they were trained to do. They were hesitant to believe that there was any change in the girls. They sent them back to Loehe and Loehe developed a uniform for them to wear. He then sent them back to their home congregations with their uniforms, and the churches saw that they had some authority, and they were able to do what they were trained to do. It was interesting that a uniform seperating them from everyone else is finally what enabled these girls to be able to use their skills that Loehe taught them.
The last day we had a tour of some important places in Neuendettelsau. We visited a factory that employs mentally handicapped people. This was an amazing experience. The looks on their faces when we visited were so filled with joy and love; they are looks that I will never forget. They enjoyed what they were doing and it showed in their work. They were so thankful to have a job, which most people in the work force seem to take for granted. I was so happy to see them enjoying what they were doing, as most of the time handicapped people are viewed as nothing more but helpless charity cases. These people were being provided a service in which they can serve in return. It was awesome. This was one of my favorite things on the trip. The sight of them working and having fun was very heart-warming, and it made me realize that when I start seminary, I would love to do something with disabled people for my Clinical Pastoral Education, a program all MDiv people have to go through.

Overall, I saw an overall theme of service on this trip. We learned about Luther's service in starting the Common Chest for poor people and his beliefs in education for both boys and girls, St. Elizabeth's hospital for the poor and the sick,Jakob Fugger in Augsburg started a bank and housing units for poor Catholic people, and Wilhelm Loehe with his mission work in North America (which in turn started Wartburg College and Seminary :) ) All of these people were dedicated to challenging and nurturing people for lives of leadership and service as a spirited expression of their faith and learning. Does this statement ring a bell?? For those of you Wartburgers who have been reading my blogs, you know what this statement is. For those who are not Wartburgers, this statement is Wartburg College's mission statement. I saw this mission statement in so many of the places in Germany, and relating the statement to our learning in Germany was the theme for our final paper. I definately saw this theme present in the people we learned about on this trip. They all integrated faith and learning into their work through service while encouraging others to do the same. The mission statement is a statement that is heard again and again at Wartburg, but after seeing it firsthand through the service organizations we saw there, I understand fully why it is reiterated so much. It is such an awesome statement, and defiantely one I will use as a personal mission statement when I am ordained as a minister in the ELCA.

Thank you all for keeping up with my blogs throughout my trip in Germany! I appreciate your interest! I hope you learned a little about Luther and all things I saw in Germany. It was an amazing trip and I'm so glad I got the opportunity to share it with you along the way!!
+Grace and Peace+
God Bless!!!!
~Jenna~

Darmstadt

Hello again! Right now, we are staying in Darmstadt for two nights. We left Marburg yesterday and visited Worms today. It's a national holiday here in Germany, Ascension Day, the day when Christ ascended into heaven (found in Acts 1, I believe). Very few places are open today in cities as people honor this holiday, but it was still a good tour of the city!! (Another fun fact our tour guide told us was that today was also declared "Man Day" because Mother's Day was celebrated on Sunday, but fathers do not get a Father's Day. The guys on the trip have been having fun celebrating their Y chromosomes. ) Moving on....

For those of you who don't know, Worms is the place where Martin Luther made his famous statment at the Diet of Worms in 1521, "Here I Stand, I Can Do No Other, God Help Me, Amen," when he refused to recant his views against the Catholic Church. Emperor Charles V outlawed him and ordered that no one feed him, give him shelter, or read any of his books. His life was in serious danger, as anyone could have killed him and recieved no punishment for doing so. This is when Frederick the Wise took Luther to the Wartburg to hide him there. Worms has a huge Catolic Cathedral, called St. Peter's Cathedral, and it also has St. Magnus, a Reformation memorial church and was also the church that began preaching Luther's teachings as early as 1521, the same year as the Diet of Worms. Worms also has a Jewish Cemetary, which is the oldest preserved Jewish cemetary in all of Europe. I'm not sure if this is true for all Jewish cemetaries, but the gravestones in this cemetary had Hebrew writing on it, which I thought was cool. I haven't taken Hebrew yet, so I have no clue what it said, but I recognized that it was Hebrew writing! It was neat to see, and we were informed that that cemetary is no longer used to bury the dead, there is a new cemetary somewhere in town, but our guide said that there are usually no more than 1 or 2 burials a year in that cemetary. After our trip to Worms, we headed back to our hotel in Darmstadt, where we will spend tonight again. Tomorrow, we head on a 3 1/2 hour journey to Nuremburg for a tour, and then we will be staying in Neuendettelsau (I probably didn't spell that right, I dont have our schedule here with me to get accurate spelling, but I tried!). Neuendettelsau is our last destination of our trip. It's hard to believe how fast time has gone on this trip, but it's been so much fun it will be sad to see it end. Until then however, I will definately be enjoying the last remaining days of our time in Germany. Stay tuned!!
+Grace and Peace+

FYI

FYI...When I first arrived in Germany and was figuring out how to blog from here, I had written out this whole cool blog in Wittenburg, but being that I didn't understand the German words that were on the website, I couldn't figure out how to publish one of my blogs...I thought that it had been lost, but luckily while I was clicking on things to see what would happen, I had unknowingly saved it as a draft without knowing...so tonight I discovered this and finally published the Wittenburg blog, for your reading enjoyment, if you wish. If you rather not journey backwards, that's perfectly fine...just thought I would let you all know!!!! I'm also posting a few pictures, finally, as the hotel we are at has free wireless internet and my friend has been gracious enough to lend me her computer for awhile, so you might also want to check backwards and check out some pictures.

Marburg

Today we traveled to Marburg and got a 3 1/2 hour tour of the city, including the Church of St. Elizabeth, the saint that is best known for her work in helping the poor and sick. She was married at the age of 14, and established a hospital in Marburg for the sick and the poor, and she died at the age of 24. She was canonized and made a saint in 1235. A church was erected in her honor, and we visited that church today. Inside includes a painting of her showing her wearing a blue dress, often the color Mary, the mother of Jesus is wearing. This was to show that Elizabeth was so good that she was as close as anyone could get to St. Mary. We also saw the gravesite for St. Elizabeth, and learned that her "relics", or bones, were believed to contain the grace of God because Elizabeth recieved so much of God's grace, so they put the relics in a gold shrine within the church so people could touch the shrine and recieve grace from the relics. When Luther began writing his beliefs against the church and churches started changing from Catholic to Protestant, the need for relics was no longer necessary because Luther preached that grace was a gift from God and our works were not necessary to recieve this grace. It was fun learning about St. Elizabeth because I really don"t know much about many saints, but St. Elizabeth is definately one of my favorites. Her work reminds me of Martin Luther's establishment of the Common Chest. Both believed in helping those who need help, a concept that continues today in many churches and non-profit organizations. I'm not sure if this was their mindset in establishing these organizations, but I always remember the verse where Jesus says in Matthew 25:40, "The King will reply, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." I love this verse because it reminds us that we are all humans, and we all deserve to be treated in a kind manner, especially when we need help. St. Elizabeth and Luther understood this concept quite clearly.

We also got to see Philp of Hesse's castle today, which was the place where the Marburg Colloquy took place. The Marburg Colloquy was Philip's attempt to bring all the Reformers together so they could agree on specific arguments, including baptism, confession, forgiveness of sins...etc. There were 15 arguments, they agreed on all but 1: Eucharist. They could not agree on their beliefs on Eucharist and the presence of Christ in the bread and the wine. However, the fact that they were able to agree on the other 14 was quite remarkable!! The Castle was impressive (though definately not as cool as the Wartburg) and it was fun to see the sites where both Elizabeth and Luther are honored as important and heroic figures of religious history.

Tomorrow we travel to Mainz, where we will see the Gutenburg Museum, with the orignal Gutenburg Bible (which I will explain more about tomorrow). After Mainz, we continue to Darmstadt, where we will stay for 2 nights. Until then..
+Grace and Peace+

Later, Sis!!!

Today was our last day in Eisenach, thus the title for my blog...(Waverly, Eisenach, sister cities, for those of u who don't get it, or who know me well enough to know that I do not have a sister)

Saturday was a bit of a blur to me, I woke up with puffy eyes because my allergies decided to spark up on me. In an attempt to get the swelling down, I took two allergy pills, which made me really groggy all day. I know that we visited Smalkald, but other than that....well, unfortunately your guess is as good as mine. I was like a walking zombie through the city tour, but I do remember it being a very nice, cute little town!

Sunday morning we all got up to go to church at St. George's Church, (the church St. Elizabeth was married in at age 14), but since Sunday was the annual Kirchentag (church festival) happened to fall on one of our visiting day in Eisenach, they were holding a German Bible study instead of church. Since very few of us speak enough German to understand a Bible study in the language, we all left and went walking around to all the different booths that were set up in the market square outside the church. It was like a big flea market, with tons of booths set up along the street, and some music performances by various bands in the middle of the square. Further down the street, a motorcycle rally was also going on, which was fun and interesting to see. It was a very festive celebration, and at 2:00 in the church a musical about St. Elizabeth was performed by kids in the area. It was really cute and the music was great. It was all in German, so I did't understand a word, but it was fun to watch and listen to! We continued walking around and looking at all the different booths out on the market square. It was fun to see all the different items and people, and I definately got the feeling of community while walking around. People were so friendly, and it was like being at a big church benefit or something, or an insanely large fellowship/after- worship- coffee- hour, with MUCH more to offer than a styrofoam cup of coffee!!

Today we finally got to have a tour of the city of Eisenach, after having stayed here for 3 days. We visited the Luther house here in Eisenach, as well as the Bach house, which had tons of music and instruments inside. It was really neat to see!! We also got a quick tour of St. Geroge's, which (without the set of the St. Elizabeth musical) is the church Johann Sabestian Bach was baptized.
A few of us went inside the city hall and saw the quilt that some local Waverly women made for Eisenach. It's a beautiful quilt, with some landmarks of Waverly on it, so Waverly does have qute a beautiful place in Eisenach!!
After the tour, we got the whole afternoon to ourselves, and a few of us went with Dr. Kleinhans back up to see the Castle one last time before we left. It was a nice hike up there, it took about 45 minutes from our hotel, but it was a beautiful hike through the woods. I feel a bit beat up from the experience, realizing that I'm not as in shape as I would like to be, but the achy body pains are more of a sign of accomplishment, which I am definately grateful for!! I love the Castle, and just being there is an amazing feeling. Knowing that I was standing at a place of such historical importance (being that Martin Luther translated the Greek Bible into German so people could read and understand the Gospel, which was very central to anything Luther did) always sends a rush of adrenaline through me. I'm also a huge nerd when it comes to anything having to do with the Reformation (or Wartburg, for that matter), so obviously being at the Wartburg is a big deal for me!! I definately recommend seeing the Castle as a MUST to anyone who plans to visit Germany, even if you don't have a tie to Wartburg College, or Wartburg Seminary, or really anything that has the name Wartburg on it.

Tomorrow we travel to Marburg, so I will keep you updated on the last week of our journey!!
+Grace and Peace+

Wartburg Castle

Today we visited the Wartburg Castle in Waverly's sister city Eisenach.....it was amazing to be there! We took a tour of castle, including the room where Martin Luther studied and translated the Greek Bible into German. There is also a legend that Luther saw a vision of a devil in that room, and threw ink at it, hitting the wall instead. The legend has it that pilgrims visiting the room chipped away at the wall and took the pieces of wall that had the ink on it. However, Dr. Kleinhans told us the expression "threw ink at the devil" is an expression for writing all the works on faith that he wrote...as in throwing ink onto paper in spite of the devil. It was a long climb up there, and I definately realized how out of shape I am. It was well worth it though!! I also got an awesome momento at the gift store...They have replicas of Katarina Von Bora's wedding ring...which has a red colored stone in the middle, and Jesus on the cross beneath the stone. It was expensive but well worth it! Tomorrow we travel to Smalkalden, the city where the reformers gathered to further the Reformation, and then tomorrow night there is a special opportunity to go to a youth festival up at the Castle, where there will be music and a late night coffee house. It should be fun!! Until next time...
Grace and Peace

Erfurt and Buchenwald

This trip is going so fast, I can't believe we only have a week and a half left, but I've seen so much it feels like I've been here forever! Right now we're in Erfurt, the place where Martin Luther lived as a monk. Yesterday, we visited the kloster where Martin Luther was actually a monk We attended a short prayer service at a kloster where The Community Casteller Ring is a religious community of women in the Lutheran Church, living according to the rule of St. Benedict (think Lutheran nuns). At the prayer service, done in German, they read scripture, and when they have American visitors, they usually ask for a volunteer to read the scripture in Engilsh. I ended up getting the privilege of doing so, and it was a wonderful experience to read Scripture in the place where Martin Luther lived as a monk. Another cool thing about the Kloster was that part of the Luther movie with Joseph Finnes as Luther was filmed at this Kloster and is the only part of the movie where the original place in Germany was filmed as the set. We also went on a tour of Erfurt and saw many cool sites, including an impressive Catholic Cathedral.

Part of this trip is to focus on not only sites relevant to Luther, but historical sites important to Germany. Today we visited Buchenwald concentration camp, and it was a very powerful experience, to say the least. There was a road that we walked on called Karakho where the newcomers were ordered to run down the path and the guards would let bloodhounds rip them to shreds. This was very entertaining for the guards, and made me sick to my stomach just thinking about it. Next we walked into the camp through the main gate, and on the door of the gate, the prisoners could read a German phrase that was translated as To Each Their Own, which was a very sarcastic phrase, and had the implied meaning of You Get What You Deserve. I cannot imagine how the innocent prisoners felt reading this phrase from the inside, wondering what on earth it was that they could have done to deserve such horrible treatment. We also saw a small zoo (no animals now) that was kept as entertainment for the guards, and on the other side of the barbed wire fence, the prisoners could see the guards feeding the animals while they starved to death. After seeing this we went and saw a plaque in the ground that had all the nationalties of people that were impriosned at Buchenwald. Our tour guide told us to bend down and touch the faceplate, and as we did, we could feel warmth exuding from it. The tempterature of this memorial is kept at a constant 98.6 degrees to help us all remember that underneath our skin, hair color, eye color, nationality, sexual identity, religion, and any other identifier, we are all the same human creation, made by God. This was a powerful statement, and one that I wish everyone would realize. It baffles me to think how such an easy concept is so difficult for some people to comprehend and how some people can be the cause of so much pain to others. I will never understand it. On the tour of Buchenwald, we saw where the baracks had been located, and we went through the crematorium and saw the ovens where they burned the dead bodies. We also went down into the cellar where there were hooks hung up all along the wall where hangings took place. Then we went through a building that was a reconstruction of the horsestables that the guards took prisoners too in a very misleading trick. They would tell the prisoners they were going to get a medical examination, and when they stood up against the wall to get their height measured, someone was standing on the other side of the wall, and opened up a little hole and shot the prisoner in the back of the head. We often think of the immense power the Nazis had over all these people, but when I hear stuff like this, it makes me realize how incredibly cowardly they could be.

After reflecting on my experience at Buchenwald, I went back to the saying on the gate, 'To Each Their Own.' Back then, it was meant to be a Christian statement, signifying that all those people were imprisoned because of something that they did wrong whích certainly was not the case. When I think of the meaning that this statement must of held for them, I am saddened that they died thinking they were in the wrong. However, for me, this statement is missing two words at the end. Instead of 'To Each Their Own,' I would change it to mean 'To Each Their Own Eternal Life,' because in the end, as God's children, we are all entitled to eternal life through the saving grace of Christ, who died for ALL.

Tomorrow, we're on to Wartburg!! No, we don't come home tomorrow, we will be visiting our sister city, Eisenach, home of the Wartburg Castle. Until next time..
Grace and Peace