Day 26 & 27
Hey everyone!
Right now I’m FINALLY residing in Herrnhut, Germany at the YWAM base! I’ve waited for almost 2 years to get here and I’m finally here and I can already see how God is working in me, my roommates, the staff here and just seeing Him in the huge forests and hills around the village.
1ST DAY : (Sept 4th)
My friend Benjamin (from Africa) and I took the train from Hamburg to Herrnhut in one day. It was a 6 hour trip and a great one at that. Benjamin shared a lot about his life to me and how he found God. Amazing story from a humble man. It’s so great to hear people’s stories, from different cultures, and how they were brought up differently, and how they all found God at one point or another.
We arrived in Herrnhut on Sept 4th at 4pm. Walking out of the train station I see a girl sitting with 2 huge luggages, and automatically knew that she was a YWAM-er, waiting for a ride. I introduced myself to her quickly and she was so happy to meet another YWAM-er waiting for a ride. Her name was Amy, from Canada, and she’s been waiting for an hour!
When some staff got to the station we loaded up all our gear, Benji’s, Amy’s and I luggage all in one small car. Wow, we had no room to see or barely sit. It was like 10 clowns in a small car.
When arriving to the base, I was soooooooo excited. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, knowing that I’m going to live here for 4 months. We drove up to the castle, and there were HUGE hills, AMAZING forests surrounding the base. I was freaking out just on the site of seeing my school, my new home!
I went up to the guy side house, since guys live separately from girls. And unloaded all my crap in my room. So far, it was just me and 2 other guys there, since we were 2 days early before the school starts. After getting situated I walked to the castle and met the staff and the students so far that were there. My roommates so far are Paul and Brad. They are both from B.C., Canada. Paul is 18 and Brad is 22. I was stoked to meet 2 rad dudes off the bat on my first hour there.
Around 6pm the students who were there all gathered at the front of the castle and the guy staff leaders led us through the forest, leading to the village of Herrnhut, to the girls staff leaders apartment. Once arriving, we all had spaghetti and garlic bread ready for us! Amazing hospitality by these staff members, loved it!
We were all able to eat, hang out, play fun games, and just chill for a few hours, getting to know each other more.
We lefted the girl leader apartment around 9pm since we were all tired, because most of the people there flew in that day to get to Germany, and were dead from jetlag.
We walked back to the base in the dark forests around 9:30pm.
When arriving back there were some new students there who just got off the plane. Brad, Paul and I met 2 new guy students - Tom (Gandalf) and Gabe. Tom(27) is from Switzerland and Gabe(22) is from Colorado. These were the last 2 guy students for the school. 5 guy students, and 35 girl students. WOW! I honestly don’t mind. Now we are able to become super tight and not have to worry abot a huge group of guys. :-D
AMAZING FIRST DAY! I felt like I was in Lord of the Rings, behind around huge hills and intense forests everywhere.
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2nd Day : (Sept 5th)
All the guys woke up, we planned on going to Prague in Czech Republic to hang out for the day since we had nothing to do and it was 6 euros ($8) and 2 hours away from Herrnhut. Today was a free day since it was the last day before school actually started.
Since we weren’t able to go to Prague (because we needed someone to drive us to a train station and no one had time to do so) we decided to walk into town and get a Doner :-D, and go to the post office to get some envelopes.
This trip was a great time to connect and be on the same page spiritually and to get to know each other more deeply.
After getting a Doner and stopping by some places we walked back to the base and decided to go on a photo journey in the forest. So, we all got out our gear, split up, and then we met back up in an hour and compared photos. Quite fun to compare and all see what we got from sap on tree, spiders, to frogs.
After finishing up that, we all headed back to our rooms and we decided to all share testimonies. This was probably my favorite part of the whole day. Us 5 guys were all able to listen, be compassionate, and honest with each other and share our lives and how we found God in all of it. How our stories were similar to others, but also worlds away from it. How they consisted of hell, and then, in the end of it all, we found the Light, the Truth. I couldn’t believe how God placed us in our lives for a reason. How our stories all mean something amazing to us. How we all have similarities in our stories so we can relate to each other deeper and more passionate than we once knew each other before. Hearing Tom’s story was probably the most touching testimony I’ve heard. I could see tears forming at his eyes talking about his life and how he almost just let go of it. I was so blessed to hear these things, and just thanked Tom so much and God, for him sticking to life, fighting the good fight, and just for him being here now sharing with me his story. I was so blessed and thankful to hear him share all these things, as well as others sharing their stories.
I’m so blessed to see already how God is using us to share our hearts, drawing us so close together, being bonded in Spirit and one in body at the same time. It’s only the 2nd day, and we already have confidence in this group of 5 amazing men doing God’s work and becoming brothers.
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Now it’s the 3rd day, and official 1st day of school. We have a BBQ Welcome party tonight at 6pm to get to meet all the students, for sure, since today is the last day that students should arrive at the school. I’m stoked to see how more God will use us as a body, and keep drawing us closer to each other and Him.
Give me your thoughts.
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BAC, SLOVAKIA :
This is Csaba (cha-buh). A friend of Adam’s in Slovakia. He is a hilarious, outgoing character. Loved him!
