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Tryon Youth Travel to Germany
Youth from the Congregational Church in Tryon, NC, and Neue Pauluskirche (New Paul’s Church) in Essen, Germany, have been in mission together.
In 2004, the group from Essen came to Tryon to visit a different country, forge new friendships, and serve people in need. Together the youth from both churches loaded and unloaded furniture for Thermal Belt Outreach Ministries and in Atlanta worked in a food pantry, a community garden, and a ministry that delivered meals to needy people. The German youth and their chaperones also served an authentic German meal during a special program at the Congregational Church.
On July 17-29 this year, 11 Tryon youth and their chaperones traveled to Germany for the second half of this exchange. From July 18-24, they stayed with different families in Essen and worked at the Franz Sales Haus, an institution for the mentally challenged. They also invited residents from the Franz Sales Haus to join them on a day trip to the Neanderthal Museum and to the city of Köln. Other activities during the week included visiting a coal mining museum, seeing the musical Starlight Express, and attending the Shabbat at a Jewish synagogue. At the synagogue the youth also joined German and Ukranian Jews in their celebration of the kiddush.
On Sunday in Essen, the youth from both churches helped present the worship service at Neue Pauluskirche. Peter Schmidt, pastor of the church, did a meditation in German and Bob Barrows, pastor of Tryon Congregational, did one in English. Lance Smith, director of Christian Education and Youth at the Tryon church, played the guitar, and Emily Barrows of Tryon read the Bible and sang a solo during Holy Communion.
After the service, the chaperones and youth of Tryon Congregational served an American Thanksgiving meal of turkey, cornbread dressing, cranberry sauce, corn relish, and a pumpkin dessert.
On July 25, a group of 33 Germans and Carolinians traveled by bus to Berlin, where they stayed in a youth guesthouse and worked in the Berliner Stadtmission. There they organized and sorted clothes that had been donated for the homeless, painted several rooms, loaded furniture, and worked in the garden. They also had pportunities to explore Berlin, visit the Checkpoint Charlie Museum (where they learned about daring escapes over the Wall during its 40-year history), and interact in “rabbinic discussion” at the new Jewish Museum.
In planning this trip, the group learned that volunteering is an unfamiliar concept in Germany. In fact, the staff at Franz Sales Haus was amazed that people wanted to do this work for free. Herr Justus Könemann, director of the Haus, plans to use this missions project as a model for future needs.
The special friendship between Neue Pauluskirche and Tryon Congregational is rooted in an exchange that took place in 1992-1993, when the Evangelical Church of the Union, Rhineland, sent Peter Schmidt to First Christian UCC in Burlington to serve as an associate pastor of the church at that time.
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