"Ostdeutschland bleibt Deutsch"

You know, "they" say a picture is worth a thousand words.......Well, as Rachel and I strolled through the Checkpoint Charlie museum, an enlarged photograph grabbed my attention and spoke volumes to me.

Our family is part of a traditional German Baptist Church. The Sindelfingen Friedenskirche (Peace Church) was started in the 1940s. The congregation still has members who are in their mid 70s and older, as well as a growing youth and children's ministry.

People are generally creatures of habit. Older people are particularly comfortable "keeping things the way they have always been." We recently experienced a meeting at our church that the older generation called for in a petition titled, "We want our church back." You see, as the teenagers have learned more about God and more about worship, they have learned many things in English....from the few Americans they know or from churches in England and Australia. The teens are comfortable with teaching and worship in English and in German. However, our older members are not, and they wanted to express that.

When the meeting began, an old gentleman in his 80s took the church charter up to the front and said, (translated) "We are a Deutsche Baptist Church, and we will stay a Deutsche Baptist Church." From that point, this meeting went to for hours, mostly discussing the fact that English...nor Americans....are needed, or really wanted. They want their church back.

Heartbreaking really! What I wanted to hear that night was something about Jesus' church....He died for us, He asks us to live for Him...not English or Deutsch or anything else. I was confused and heartbroken and mostly felt very, very sorry for these older people. I was later told that one of men in his 50s who grew up with the older people as his leaders said to them, "Listen, I know the Americans occupied our country, but that was kind of our fault....World War II is over."

Yes, in many ways, World War II was yesterday if you live in Germany....especially if you lived during that time. Even that night, I began to realize that we do not know these men's or women's stories. We do not know what happened to their families, or if Americans treated them well, or if they lived in Eastern Europe before they came here. We just don't know. They do not know our stories either......

Then, I went to Checkpoint Charlie and saw that picture...."Ostdeutschland bleibt Deutsch!" East Germany stays German! Do the people in our church think we want them to be something other than German? Someone in there mind, do they think we want to "occupy" them again? Do they think we are trying to change things because they are not doing it well? Do they not understand that as Christians, we really just want to worship and live a life of faith with other Christians? What can we do to change their perspective? I think the first step is to learn their stories......and share ours.