Today I would like to tell you briefly about a few of the individuals I’ve gotten to know during my time thus far at Neustart. I have changed their names, and have withheld certain details of their lives when appropriate to protect their identities.
Juliette is in her early 20’s and is from a country that borders Germany. She is one of the few who speaks English, and so that is the language we normally use to speak with each other. She is deeply passionate about justice and wants to change the world. She also would like to finish school and one day become a journalist, or…
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Since coming to Berlin, it has been difficult at times to remember exactly who I am. The instant I stepped off the plane in Berlin, everything changed from how things had been for the previous 22 and a half years. For the first time in my life, I moved to a new place. For my entire life I had lived in the same house in the suburbs of BaltimoreCity. Many of my childhood memories were made in my neighborhood. I went to school, attended church, and made lifelong friends in BaltimoreCounty. When I was 18 I attended York College of Pennsylvania and lived on campus there. This could be considered…
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Back in December I got my first haircut in Berlin. This made it around 4 months since my last haircut, and for me that is quite a while to wait. I had put it off for a number of reasons: being intimidated to speak German with the barber, not knowing what kind of barbershop I wanted, and feeling like I didn't have time to go. There were probably a few other reasons as well. Rather than finding an English barbershop, or a German one which would have helped me practice my German, I got my hair cut at a Turkish one. My reasons for doing so are related to the concept of Gospel-Centeredness.
The…
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This past Friday was my first "official" day of ministry work. I've been doing some ministry where I can among my classmates and other places, but this was my first work in a specific location with a scheduled start and end time. And it was the beginning of what brought me to Berlin in the first place: ministry with prostitutes and trafficked women. Let me tell you about my first day.
My shift was scheduled to begin at 8 PM and wrap up around 1 AM. From 8-9 would be setting up the cafe, and from midnight-1 would be cleaning up. For clarification I am volunteering at Neustart Cafe, which…
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When my roommate Jeff and I moved into our Berlin flat, we knew that we would want at least one more person, maybe two. Jeff had a comfy single room to himself, and I had a massive room to myself, which is equal in size to our living room. The layout of the flat is that we have a small kitchen, a small bathroom, and a small bedroom all in a row between two larger rooms. Jeff was perfectly happy with his room, but mine was definitely too big for just me. For just two people the flat felt kind of lonely, and if one of us wasn’t there then it felt even more so. And neither of us is especially…
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