I'm leaving for Germany in a week from today! The trip was somewhat spontaneous but has been booked for about 6 months now. My grandma (my dad's mom), who is German, has several relatives living there. She has traveled to visit them many times over her lifetime and wanted to make one last trip before she wasn't able to.
Half for fun and half desiring to bring family along with her, she asked my parents if they would accompany her. Voicing a lot of interest myself I was later asked if I wanted to go too! Much to my surprise my grandma was very generous and even offered to pay for three quarters of my plane ticket! Obviously not wanting to pass up the opportunity I said yes and am now looking forward to a two week trip in Germany with my parents and our very own tour guide/interpreter . . . my grandma!
I would love to tell you all about the itinerary but I'm not all too sure of it myself. I know we land in Hamburg where we are picked up by relatives who live in Gifhorn. We'll be staying in Gifhorn for a couple of days before we make an 8 hour drive to the border of Germany and Italy where we'll be staying in a Bed and Breakfast and catching some grand sights! Other than that, I believe we'll be making a trip to Berlin and seeing some castles along the way.
All in all it should be a great trip, rich in history, with lots of pictures to prove for it!
On a side note, as I have been preparing for this trip it has come along with several interesting happenings. As I've sat back I've noticed that there have been several either coincidences or just strange occurrences, like . . . researching and writing a paper on Bonhoeffer this last school term, watching several movies with the Holocaust theme . . . first Defiance, then The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and then Valkyrie (all great movies by the way!). With each incident it has made me think deeply about the atrocities of Hitler and his Nazis regiment. Now, here I am, going to the very country where it all began . . . my thoughts have been, as they usually are whenever a certain theme keeps popping up, . . . what are you trying to either say to me or make me aware of God?
It has been my experience that whenever God is trying to tell me something He continually brings a theme to my attention until I either take notice or understand a new revelation.
Even before I started writing this post I was extremely curious if any concentration camp sites would be in our midst. In my curious state I was brought to this website: www.ushmm.org where I've now spent a total of two hours reading about concentration camps (Sachsenhausen, Dachau, Auschwitz), ghettos, medical experiments, Kristallnacht, pogroms (Russian word meaning “to wreak havoc, to demolish violently”), Herschel Grynszpan, and the list continues.
What gets me is the evil and darkness I feel whenever I read, study, or watch anything related to the Holocaust . . . how could such evil be dreamt up? What's more is how could someone do these terrible, nightmarish things to another and think it was alright? Perhaps my struggle has been with wondering where God was in all of it? I know that He is everywhere, but what was He thinking, where was He moving, what was He touching . . . . ? I guess I wonder what the bigger picture was in it all?
One thing is for sure, I will not be impressed with what the devil can do, because I know a God who is even BIGGER than any evil that can be dreamt up and acted out. For this reason, I will press even deeper into the depths of God, searching out His heart and His face, seeing the purity and love that is in His eyes . . . yeah, that's where I want to be.
Anyways, as I'm about to embark on a traveling journey, I pray that I will also be embarking upon a spiritual journey. One that will take me to new places and new heights! . . . I'll keep you posted!
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