Sundays are always special to us as we enjoy meeting with the Lord's people to worship and remember our Lord Jesus Christ's death and resurrection and what he has done for us.
Our first Sunday in Germany was spent in Duesseldorf so we attended the assembly where Helmut's family had attended before they immigrated to Canada. It was 51.5 years since he had been there. It is called Evangelisch-Freikuechliche Gemeinde - Ackeerstrasse 79 is the street address. Helmut always calls it " The Ackerstrasse". His cousin, Ursula, regularly goes to a different church but graciously went along with us. We travelled by S bahn that day because of traffic problems in the city due to a marathon being run and also the expected parking problems. This was our first experience on the S bahn and it was good to have a guide with us.
We arrived nearly half an hour before meeting time so this gave us an opportunity of meeting some of the folks and visiting a little while. There were a few folks there from as long ago as when Helmut had been attending and they remembered some of the family or some other family connections (like Horst & Magdalena's family). Magdalena's sister-in-law actually is a member of this assembly but wasn't in attendance that day. One older lady remembered having visited in Winnipeg back in the early 70's and I recall when she & other family members visited at H's parent's home - we met them then.
I have lots of trouble understanding German but in ordinary conversation H. is usually there to give the translation or the gist of the idea. Many German people know a little more English than I know German and they enjoy trying it out. However, getting the idea in a meeting of what is being said is much more difficult. H. doesn't like to be interrupting by talking to me - nor can he translate as fast as the other person speaks. He would tell me the Bible references and I would follow along with the readings. Singing is another story - I can pronounce many German words (with practice I even get the 'ei' & 'ie' straight). So I was all prepared to sing along - then they hardly sang one song that I knew the tune and even most tunes were unfamiliar to Helmut. The pianist played very plainly and it was fairly easy to learn the new tunes by the second or third stanza.
On this particular day the speaker at the FBH or Ministry meeting (what ever it is called) was a missionary from the New Tribes Mission association. He told about the training of missionaries and the work in Papua New Guinea. A DVD that he showed after the lunch time was partly in English and partly in German - interesting. I think it had been made in English and only parts of it were translated.
Because of the missionary the assembly had a luncheon with plenty to eat and it was nice for us to get to visit several more people that we wouldn't have had time to talk much with on an ordinary Sun.
Later at Renate's, Ursula said she spent five hours at the Ackerstrasse as if this was a very long time for her. She also reported to Renate that the people were more friendly than at her church and that the singing was very good.
The remainder of the day was spent relaxing and writing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
It is really nice that you got to meet with other believers. You mentioned the NTM DVD that you saw. I am wondering if it is the one that Valerie and Dennis saw that impressed them so much. It was about a Mouk (sp?) tribe that was reached with the gospel. Valerie will probably pick up on this post. Anyway, I am sure the whole day that you describe, brought back wonderful memories for Helmut. Keep the story coming. Love, Pat
Yes, the DVD that we have is called "Ee-taow". But I think this was an individual's report on their work in Papua New Guinea, correct?
Val, I'm not quite sure about the man that we heard in Duesseldorf - (since I don't understand German) I know that he was representing NTM in Germany and I think at the moment living in Germany. The DVD told about the work of several people who went to PNG with NTM some of these were either from the UK or N.Am. or perhaps Aust. or NZ because they were talking in English and the German was recorded right over the English - thus the English was hard to understand. I'll ask U. H. what he understood about the man we heard.
Post a Comment