Freitag, 31. August 2018

168 hours

One week has passed by since I left the community.
One week filled with life and noise in holiday care.
One week and many words getting over the distance between countries in milliseconds.
One week and about a thousand thougts and feelings.

Time flies and soon it´ll be much more than less than 200 hours. But all the time, already passed by, made me remember all the moments of our time again and again. Telling the other people of my life about our time and my experiences and thoughts. Different people require different depth and thats okay- as long as I can remember everything and all the feelings and thoughts in particular!

-Sophia. x

Freitag, 24. August 2018

In prayer

Making a prayer on your own in a train is fairly difficult (I didn't manage to try it). However at 6.30pm I was at home and it felt just wrong not to have the evening prayer - even if it was just me. So I upgraded my livingroom-chapel and sat down for prayer. Then I realised.

In prayer, we are still connected together, even if we cannot hear the other voices being sung.

In prayer, we are all united with God, no matter where we are, no matter the distance.

In prayer, from the very beginning we connected, without requiring any direct contact.

In prayer, we laid the foundation of our community life, and when things got rough, they could be healed in prayer.

In prayer, we found each other, despite our differences, despite our likenesses.

In prayer, we received the strength and love to reach out and welcome others to prayer.

In prayer, we connected even with people unknown, who would come to us afterwards and tell us what moved them deeply and personally.

In prayer, we encountered God, we encountered one another, we encountered others still, we encountered ourself.

In prayer, a shared silence could express a thousand warm feelings. It could give me love, peace, joy, liberation; all without a single word, a single movement.

In prayer, we are still connected.
And I am incredibly thankful for that.



(Kristien)

Zurück (2)

How do you get back into the rythm of the everyday life when everything seems the same yet different?
Deep gratitude and loss are intertwining, impossible to seperate one from the other.
Who would've thought the biggest challenge comes only after the experience, in trying to find a new way, expressing and incorporating somehow in my daily life the changes deep within me, seeing with new eyes, with a new heart?
(Kristien)

Zurück

A few hours ago I arrived back home. 

Back in my apartment, in the room I left five weeks ago without knowing anything. 
Without any expactation about this month, the people I met or the work I did.

And now, just a few weeks later, it feels like it has completely changed. 
Well, not entirely, but something has changed within me. 
I can´t name it yet. 
I have no idea, what is growing inside me- but I am quite sure, that it will be something good. 
What or when? 

Maybe it´s nothing that matters, because I can trust in myself and in him, that it will be good.

- Sophia

Sonntag, 19. August 2018

thoughts about communities


We are three very different persons – and yet we care about one another, we try to be as considerate with one another as possible. Even though we don’t always understand the other’s opinion we still find each other again – could be in the next prayer, maybe during the next song, or even just when we start washing the dishes.

Thinking about this I experience a deep affirmation. I can be just as I am: I can have my opinion, my strenghts and weaknesses, my background, my biography, my wounds and problems, my beauty and my victories. And I’m welcome, just the way I am. It’s not necessary to change something or to be completely understood; completely accepted is enough.

All in all I experience a light-hearted giving and taking, both parts so interwined with one another that self love and the love to the other person can feel indistinguishable at times.

(Miriam)

Donnerstag, 16. August 2018

A provisional song

There are already a few words
of this song
- our song.
What does a provisional community
 need more,
than a provisional song,
which fits perfectly in the feeling.

Not just the feeling
during the time,
but also those
before
and probably
also afterwards.

No one
knows
or can tell,
what this month
will be like.
If someone has told me,
it will be this way...
I don't know,
if I could have imagined
this.

The way it is
right now
is definitely
very special.

Small provisional community
is turning into
the feeling of
deep friendship.

And just
because
we three
trust in Him.

(Sophia)

Dienstag, 14. August 2018

Many Encounters


Last week a small Ukrainian group joined us. They’re staying in the house we’re living in, too. The group consists largely of teenagers who were affected in some way by the conflict between Russia and the Ukraine. The reason why they’re here is a seminar about nonviolent communication .

We were all quite excited beforehand: How will it be, having even more people with a different background staying with us? Will we get along, despite these differences? And what about all the generations meeting each other? We, in our 20s, the people from the Laurentiuskonvent, themselves parents or even grandparents, and the teenagers? In the end such encounters can be hard, can be beautiful, can be both.

Now they are here and what can I say? In enjoy having them here so much. They fill this house with their presence, with their songs, with their laughter. Silently they also fill this house with everything painful they experienced. But as this belongs to them, too, and as I’m happy to share now these ten days they are staying with us, I find it important to feel this pain, too, at least a fraction of it.

(Miriam)

Montag, 13. August 2018

Herre, visa mig vägen

A provisional song sounds fitting for a provisional community. Although the song should definitely be upgraded to an official one. We expect this one to be in the song books next year!!


Prayer surprises

It´s awesome to have such a variation in prayers.

As we are often not in Laufdorf during the midday, we have been organizing prayers in different locations.
- While visiting Marburg we held the midday prayer in one of the local churches. Some other people where sitting there and one of them came to us after the prayer, thanking us, telling us how important it was that we pray and telling us a bit about his life story, as well. It was very touching.
- Friday we again organized the prayer in the middle of the Dom in Wetzlar, however to our surprise quite some people showed up to join our prayer. Having brought only one songbook ourselves, we dug up some old songbooks from the Dom and then altered our prayer somewhat to agree with these books and the visitors.
- While visiting Herborn on Saturday, we found that both the catholic and the evangelical church were locked. In front of the catholic one was a cross with some flowers and we sat down on the ground in front of this cross to make our prayer in open air. To me, this was very powerful.
- On Sunday in the late afternoon, we had our weekly provisional community meeting in which we were able to discuss a lot of things we found important for our community life. Possibly thence, the evening prayer which followed immediately after this meeting was one of the most intimate prayers I've so far experienced. After dinner that night, we went for a walk, sat down in the middle of nature and sang Bless the Lord while watching the sunset - another beautiful (though short) prayer.
(Kristien)

Mittwoch, 8. August 2018

When you feel really small

Today we planed the midday prayer in the Dom of Wetzlar. But not as usual in the small Chappel, but in the center of the cathedral. And because one of our hosts in the community is the Sacriston, we were allowed to ring the bells. And this was a great feeling- to know that the bells ring just for the four of us.
I felt very small in the middle of this big church- but very comfortable!

Sophia.

Dienstag, 7. August 2018

Some Impressions

the house we're living in (Gemeinschaftshaus)
 

view from our balcony
 
 making new friends


 midday prayer/day trip to Marburg
 view over Marburg from the castle

the Lahn, with Marburg in the background

with the community at the Landesgartenschau in Bad Schwalbach

spilled thoughts

God wants to shine in us - in us, just as we are, with our strengths and weaknesses, with all that is whole and all that is broken. "In my love your soul finds rest", he reassures us.

We feel cornered but we are not afraid.
We are worried but we do not despair.
We feel abandoned but we are not alone.
Our heart is heavy but it does not break.

When we realize that we do not need to be perfect for God to stay with us, new life will break through.

meditation to 2 Cor 4, 7 - 10

(Miriam)

Sonntag, 5. August 2018

Lebenshilfe zoo visit

Today we visited the zoo in Herborn together with a small group of people with a mental disability. Each and every one of these people is beautiful in their own way and I was surprised to find that - having never worked with disabled people before - spending quality time together was quite straightforward, once I accepted and respected them as they were. Big lesson to be learned in my encounters with people in daily life as well, I think.

One of the them left a particularly deep impression on me. Unable to communicate through spoken language, he got our attention nonetheless by gently nudging, pointing and very limited sign language. All day long he looked very content and smiling and he found enormous joy in very small interactions. I really admire his spirit!
(Kristien)

Mittwoch, 1. August 2018

It feels a little bit like daily life

This evening we knew each other for one week. A Strange feeling in every way. Not just This Mixtur betreten knowing and not knowing, but also to know what deep topics we already discussed without and with knowing each other.
But we gained some
Experience in the topics of our daily life- or on what our daily life will ne for the next weeks. We started different kinds of helping other people in completely different ways. For example:

  • Helping in the 2nd Hand store
  • Gardening in the community gardens
  • Playing with a wild little refugee girl
  • Teaching her mother the german language
  • Talking and spending time together with a family from Syria
  • And probably lots of more stuff to try…

Exept working we strarted in this afternoon to see the place we're living and visited the next city. One of our hosts works in the cathedral and knows a lot about the citys history and we took a long and interesting walk.

 

What will be tomorrow? We will see!

(Now I'll start my daily hunt after mosquitos!)