Family Fest in Germany & Lovely Weekend

Andrea and I went twice to a Family Fest started by the missionaries here (once on Thursday and once on Saturday). It was quite fun!



We went to the Fest with the Heymanns on Thursday, and we had to leave early because Mariel and Henrike are part of a Catholic choir and they had a concert. As we were leaving, the girls were fighting over who would wear which shirt which caused Britta to back up into another car! So, the T-shirt quarrel could be a costly event. It seems that things are working out, and they found out that the car was an old one with problems anyway and the people were nice. They don’t know yet how much they have to pay. Anyway, because it is customary in Germany to stay at the scene of the accident and talk to the police, Britta put us in charge of taking the girls home from the choir. So, here are some photos of the choir:


The concert took place at Bebel Platz, where the book burning was during WW II took place and right across from the Humbolt University where Einstein was a teacher.

The Newbranders (a missionary family also with MTW) had invited Andrea and me to spend the night Saturday night, so after the fest on Saturday, Andrea and I helped clean up and had supper with the workers of the fest. This took place in the new location of the Familiezentrum (the family center, which is something the missionaries started). We had a nice evening. Sunday morning we went early with the Newbranders to pick up their son from the aiport (Andrea and I went/go to school with him at Covenant College). Then we had Sunday worship with them, which they call “Brunch with God.” So, we ate and then sang, and then their was a sermon from their new pastor, then we sang some more, hung around, had ice cream at a new, nearby, organic ice cream shop and then went back to the Newbranders and chit-chatted for a few hours. We had a superb time!

Here we are in the family center having “Brunch with God”:

Here is Lyn Newbrander:

On the far left you see Michael, the new pastor. In the middle is Werner, who came with his family to the service on account of the fest (so I understand)! On the far right is Phil, a missionary on the Berlin Team.

Here is Andrea with Elisama, a Columbian exchange student living with the Newbranders

Here I am with Leya, the daughter of a lady who came to know Christ through a previous family fest

This is Tim Newbrander talking with Andrea

Having ice cream after “Brunch with God”:

Here we are chit-chatting with the Newbranders at their house:

We went back to the Heymann’s around 4:30 pm, and we just kind of relaxed, had dinner and then Andrea and I went to our room and relaxed, writing in our journals and such: