New Edition of Gateway Berlin Radio Now Up

Hey folks!  The latest broadcast (#2) of Gateway Berlin Radio is now online. GATEWAY BERLIN RADIO (EPISODE 2)

In this episode, host Patrick Nachtigall brings us a blast from the past.

Also:  Remembering Emmy Lou , checking out strange but true headline news from around the world in the “Around the Horn” segment.  In the In-Depth segment: we look at the city of Singapore with our guest co-host and summer intern Jael Tang. Finally, a World-Cup Roundup with Greg Dorr.

To Listen Go to the Gateway Berlin Radio page or the front page at three-worlds.com

GBR - EPISODE 2

In this episode, host Patrick Nachtigall brings us a blast from the past. Also:  Remembering Emmy Lou , checking out strange but true headline news from around the world in the “Around the Horn” segment.  In the In-Depth segment: we look at the city of Singapore with our guest co-host and summer intern Jael Tang. Finally, a World-Cup Roundup with Greg Dorr.

Right click to download the podcast: Gateway Berlin Radio / Ep. 2

Thanks!

We live close to a large lake named "Wansee."  It's big enough that ferries go across it and there are 6 hour boat tours offered of the lake.  Yesterday we took one of the ferries out and crossed the lake and walked along this path with our good friend Rod Stafford.  We've walked down some roads together---some pretty, like this one in Berlin, and others not so pretty.

We sure appreciate all of you that are supporting us here at Three Worlds.  Thanks.  Internet will be a bit hit-and-miss as we wait for installation in our new home.  But we will be up and running soon and it may not seem any different.  Hopefully the latest episode of Gateway Berlin Radio will be posted in the coming days.  Stay tuned.

The Return of "the Talker."

A photo of our new home in Berlin, Germany. There are 4 families in this building and we're on the second floor.

Some of you that know Marco, know that he is a talker.  If you've only seen the shy Marco, then you haven't spent enough time around him.  The other day Marco and I were running some errands the other day.  We had a lot of things to do and, as usual, Marco had a lot of things to say.  He talked and talked and talked.  In fact, he talked for 100 minutes straight without stopping.  I mean, there was barely a pause for breath the entire time.  It was amazing.  Sometimes I listened, at other times I observed as an outsider and was just kind of amazed, at other times I tuned out, and at other times I was laughing.  It was 100 minutes non-stop.

At one point he stopped and said, "wow, this mouth of mine doesn't stop."  But then he was immediately back into it.  Topics covered were Star Wars, of course, famous monsters, what his monster movie "the Return of the Creature of the Pacific Ocean" will be like, how the  make-up will be applied, and the differences between the Asian school system and the Western school system.

I love my boy.

Gods & Monsters

My little monster in front of the train station a couple of blocks from our new home.

If you had told when I was in Jr. High that in the year 2010 I would be flying in a jetson's-like spaceship and having robots doing my housekeeping I completely would have believed you.  If you had told me that in the year 2010, I would be living in Germany and watching the 1958 movie "the Blob" on my laptop computer with my 7 year old son---because HE WANTS TO WATCH "the Blob"----I never would have believed you.  Alas, things in the past are not that different from things in the future.

Marco has been really interested in monsters lately.  His problem is he doesn't want to see scary monsters which leads him to ask me to find monster movies from the 1930's, 40's, and 50's. So all of a sudden--out of nowhere---I'm becoming an expert on old Dracula films, Frankenstein, the Blob, and Jason and the Argonauts.  Man alive, kids throw such curve balls at you.

We watched Jason and the Argonauts the other day.  Ever since Marco was very young, I've shared with him other religions' myths.  This is a child that grew up walking past Buddhist statues, Hindu Temples, Muslims prostrating on the ground as they pray to Allah---and we have both always wanted him to understand the world around him---not run from it in fear.

Ever since he was young, he could identify key ideas in myths and link them to Christianity.  Whether its Star Wars or an ancient Greek myth, he finds the parallels and can contrast/critique it against Christian ideas.  I've always felt that if our ideas are so strong and true, then they shouldn't cower in fear in the face of other religions or beliefs which is why I wrote my first book Passport of Faith: A Christian's Encounter with World Religions; the book I am still the most proud of.

The religious stories and myths that people tell do help them makes sense of the world and often reflect past events.  The Ancient Greek myth of the minotaur (half man half bull) and the maze where he killed his captives reflected the suffering that the Athenians had suffered under the brutal invasions of the dominant Cretans that captured Athenians and sacrificed them.  The minotaur story was a way of demonizing their enemies and asserting their power through story.

Even a monster as goofy (but super-cool) as Godzilla helped a society understand its past and form its future.  Godzilla was a monster created as the result of nuclear radiation.  This giant lizard creature comes out of the sea and wrecks havoc on Tokyo--making trains and buildings look like pathetic little toys.  He inflicts massive carnage on Japanese cities.  What's up with that?  Well, he entered the Japanese consciousness less than a decade after Hiroshima and Nagasaki were completely disintegrated by American Atomic bombs.  Godzilla was a way for Japan to deal with the trauma of having two cities completely obliterated.  Think of how 9/11 has scarred the United States.  Now imagine Houston and Denver just disappearing from the Earth in a blink of an eye.  That is something that needs to be processed.  And that's what Godzilla did for Japan.  In following movies he became a defender of Japan against other terrible, destructive monsters.

In the Bible, there is a story about a funny, strange prophet named Jonah.  It was written in a time of insecurity. As always, Israel was surrounded by hostile bigger powers and these foreign peoples were demonized.  But as is often the case with the Old Testament (Jewish literature), what looks like a typical, traditional story is actually subverted and taken in a completely different direction.

The way the story should go is that the prophet Jonah should go preaching to the people of Israel to follow their God.  Instead God asks the prophet to go preach to the evil people of Ninevah.  But they are not the chosen people and they are evil, so Jonah flees.  As we all know, his attempts to escape are futile and he is even swallowed by a whale who pukes him up on a beach.  When Jonah finally gets to Ninevah, the people actually obey him (as opposed to Israel which often does not), and Jonah then pouts about it. He's NOT happy that people listened to him and will be saved from destruction.  He was hoping for a Godzilla-like ending, a Tokyo-smashing finale.

The attempt at creating myth to demonize the other is totally subverted in the Jonah story.  And that is often how the Bible works--it parallels the ancient myth structures and then completely takes it into a different direction.  And of course, they are often far more layered than traditional religious stories and myths.  For instance, Jonah very obviously foreshadows the arrival of Jesus who also will spend 3 days in the belly of the Earth before having his message widely accepted by Gentiles, thus bringing the act of God's redemption for all peoples into a more concrete and expansive phase.

Marco now will be living in a city with every kind of religion imaginable--and lots of people that completely ignore religion.  So we (he and I)  learn about Gods & Monsters and the way they point toward a deep, human need to understand truth and have a concrete moral compass upon which to base one's identity and choices.  So there's a place for Perseus, Medusa, Jason, and Godzilla.  We don't demonize because that would be violating the spirit of the Book of Jonah.  We are not called to run toward Tarshish with our fear, and condemnation, and demonization, but to go toward Ninevah with a great message--a hopeful message.

Now if only we could find deep, existential meaning in the ideas, philosophies, and behavior of "the Blob."

Our New Home from Above

Yesterday we signed on a new home.  It's in the Berlin suburb of Nikolasee.  It's a gorgeous area, full of green areas, parks, lakes and lots of lovely things to remind you that nature is all around.  All three of us love it.  If you look at the picture above, our home is where the yellow tack is located.  Just above that is a green "S" which is the train station and the location of the town's cute downtown center.  It looks like a college campus.  Although it looks far on this google photo, the distance from our home to that train station/center of town is a 3 minute walk.

To the left of the photo is a picture of  the large lake Wansee that even has beaches.  That is about a 10 to 15 minute walk and the Nikolasee lake is just 5 minutes past the "S" in the center of the town square.  Just to the right of the yellow thumb tack is a large park which you can see if you look closely.  So on our bicycles we are about 5 minutes away from two large lakes and a park.

After living for the past decade in a place with 35,000 neighbora and not even insects to go collecting with Marco, we are feeling pretty happy to have nature in our lives again.  Psychologically and physically it's a very important thing---and spiritually also.

Care for a boat ride on the small lake by our house?  It's only 9 Euro for 4 people.

More photos of the small lake by our house.  It would have been even prettier from the other side and with a decent photographer.

Here's where Jamie and I can take walks everyday if we want.  Does someone want to come over and baby sit Marco?  We'll miss Grace, Lolo and Louh Ge not watching Marco.  Well school starts soon so...

So Long Jael!

On Thursday it was time to say "goodbye" to our Gateway Berlin Intern Jael Tang.  For those of you that listened to the Gateway Berlin Radio podcast, you got to hear from Jael as she helped co-host the show.  Jael was here for nearly 3 months and traveled all around Germany learning about the different kinds of churches and ministries that exist in the Church of God here.  I know she absolutely fell in love with this place---it's kind of hard not to.  She was sad to go and we were sad to see her go.

She did a fantastic job of integrating into the culture.  Coming from a place like Singapore, you kind of have to learn to navigate different cultures----something we explore in the upcoming Episode 2 of GB Radio.  She had a great spirit about being involved and was willing to help out anyone.

She's also a cheeky one----a little smart aleck---so she fit in real well with this Three-Worlds/Berlin team.

Jael was also a good jeh-jeh (big sister) to Marco while she was here and he was sad to see her go.  Jael will go back to the Anderson University School of Theology and finish her Master's degree.  Of course she is welcome here anytime.

Thanks for setting the bar so high for future interns Jael!

When Music Was Good

Let's go back to 1980 when I was a kid---and African-American music was still super awesome.  I loved this song as a kid and still love it now.  It's too bad that so much African-American music is now dependent on computers and technology doing away with a lot of the beautiful voices, harmonies, and great musicianship. I have a whole rant about this that I promised to go into at Chinatimesonline.com but I may save it for an episode of GBR.  It's a sad thing that we've lost musicianship from R & B.  It's a big deal.  At least to me.

German CHOG Teen Camp-Photos by Marco

A group of teens by the bonfire as the sun gets ready to go down at 9PM.

The blue tent where services are held.

Getting ready to sing a song.

Finally---a nice blurry photo.  He takes after his Dad.

We went to visit the German Teen Camp last Sunday.  It was an easy 1 hour 20 minute ride to Braunschweig where we were met by Pastor Victor and his wife Ute.  He is German, but from Argentina (lots of German immigrants to Argentina), so the bulk of the day was spent speaking in Spanish. I have loved that about Germany.  This language I never get to speak is suddenly everywhere.  Victor and Ute are absolutely wonderful and I always feel very at home at their place.

After lunch we drove by the camp for 9-12 year olds.  It was out in the German woods, but the whole thing was built to look like an old Western town, complete with saloon and jail and all of that.  It was so cute.  The kids and counselors are camping out in the Wild Wild West.

From there we went to the Teen Camp where I got to re-connect with a lot of the teens, college kids, and seminary students I have become friends with over the past 4 years in Germany.  They still remember all the stories I told when I have spoken to them on previous visits.  It's amazing.  I'll see many of these kids in September and October when I attend some upcoming conferences.  That will be great.  We've invited them all to stay with us in Berlin anytime they want.  Our home will be very open to youth.

Marco had a blast playing with the kids---getting soaked---and enjoying nature.  He was pretty sad to have to leave the camp behind.  I think he is very ready to be settled and have friends to play with.  Poor guy.  Always stuck with Mom and Dad.

The drive out to the camp was lovely.  The roads in the country were so gorgeous---the classic European scenery.  I was salivating at the thought of being able to drive up and down the roads of Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria in the coming year.  That will be awesome.

Jael--our Berlin intern for the summer of 2010 has been helping at the camp and did an awesome job.  Everyone loved her.  Unfortunately, today is her last day.  We will be taking her out for a farewell dinner about an hour from now.  I know she is very sad to say goodbye to this awesome place with all the great people--and we are sad to see her go as well.  It won't be the same without her.  Oh well---Jael, you are always welcome back.

The Search Continues...

Well, I hope you enjoyed the "latest" episode of Gateway Berlin Radio.  The 2nd episode is already in the can, but it won't be posted for a couple of weeks yet.  Sound quality should be better on Episode 2.

The weather finally cooled for a bit here in Berlin.  It dropped to 71 degrees from the high 90's where it has been since we arrived.  What joy, what bliss to feel my favorite weather---cloudy, cool, with the threat of rain.  Marco's from Hong Kong so he prefers the heat.

Meanwhile, we are still busy looking for our new house or apartment.  We've seen a lot of places.  We lost one that we all really loved.  Oh well.  Now we've found another that we all really like and are officially applying for it.  I don't know if we'll get it or not.  We're prepared for whatever happens.  There's another that's come online that looks interesting.

It's going to take a while to really set up home here.  My guess is that it won't be until October that wherever we live will be truly settled and feel like home.  But that's okay.  We are wayfarin' strangers.   So that's fine.

Marco sure has been patient with all the upheaval.  He's doing great.

Tomorrow we take a train ride to Braunschweig where we meet up with some friends.  This will be my third time there.  I really like the church there and the pastor.  We will have lunch and then head off to the youth camp.  We'll see the Philips and Jael and the rest of the team at the camp.  It's "visitors" day so that's why we are getting to go.

I know a lot of these kids and the youth counselors from previous trips to Germany.  I think it was last year that I was the main speaker at the youth conference.  That was very fun.  The German kids were just a total blast.  So it will be nice to reconnect with them.  And there's quite a few Spanish speakers among them, the pastors, and the youth workers.  It's fun to be able to finally use my Spanish again since that rarely happened in Asia.  Here it is becoming quite common and that makes me happy.

We'll take some of our usual blurry photos of the youth camp and maybe score some interviews.  Keep us in your thoughts as we look for the right home.