Leipzig is a lovely little city, and I mean little. There are half a million people living here in what must be about 4kmX4km. It's both really small and really flat, which means that very few people own cars (apparently at church there were about 50 people and only about 6 of them own cars). There are cycleways everywhere and thousands of bikes parked outside of everything. The other thing you notice is that the streets are really wide. Outside my hotel, unless you run, you have to walk half way across the street on the first green man, then the other half on the second. I'm not joking. The majority of people stop halfway. It's only 3 lanes on each side, but the roads are crazy wide. Apparently the Russians did this so they could move tanks about. Don't quote me on that, my Italian friend told me that and you know what they say about.. just kidding.
Anyway, it seems like a great place. The people are very different from Stuttgart, but they seem nice. Also I've already been exposed to some Swabian bashing (Stuttgart is Swabisch - it's a region like Bavaria), apparently they're renowned for being tight-asses. So there you go.
Eventually I walked to church (another 2kms or so) with Tom-tom guiding the way. And the guy at the door was very friendly and great. I then sat down and an Aussie girl Mimy (pronounced m-eye-me) came and sat with me saying the dude at the door said she should. She's from Sydney it turns out and is best buds with one of the staff-workers at ECU, UOW. The guy who lead the service is another Aussie from Canberra who went through Moore College.
The service was very good (I do have a couple of minor complaints but they're so minor and hair-splitting I don't want to say them), with lots of Bible being read. The sermon was an attempt to expound a passage (I don't say attempt in a negative sense, I mean... the guy wanted to get what he was saying from the Bible, a refreshing change at this point in my life). We read Psalm 148 out loud, and the slide transition came at an amusing point:
Let them praise the name of the LORD!
For he commanded and they were created.
And he established them forever and ever;
he gave a decree, and it shall not pass
----- new slide ------
away.
Praise the LORD from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all deeps,
etc
So the service was good, that's my point.
As for Mimy, she didn't leave my side from 6pm-11pm. She was fantastic. She has already planned a few outings for her and Ally when we arrive, she has got me going to a Bible study this week plus anything else that might be going on. She introduced me to a bunch of people, she took me along to Bereans, which is a group that runs once a month after the evening service to talk about the sermon in some more depth, and finally she walked me home and got another guy to come along who lives right near my hotel, and organised for him to come and pick me up for Bible study on Wednesday - awesome!
But it wasn't just Mimy, a bunch of people introduced themselves, and I had some nice chats. I also now have 3 email addresses other than Mimy's of guys who are happy to help me find an apartment remotely, and one of them is going to keep an eye out for word-of-mouth ones which become available. One of the three was disappointed that my hotel was already booked for the week and said next time I should just stay with him and save the cash. He share-houses with a few guys from the universitat. So that was really nice too.
As for this Bereans thing, it was a really solid discussion. Several of the people obviously know a lot about the OT and church history as well. People were concerned with being theologically correct, but the discussion was gentle and well handled. And they were obviously concerned with godliness above all. It was really nice. In fact the only unhelpful person there (out of about 15) was the minister who couldn't stop himself from making what I could only call ridiculous jokes that disrupted the flow of the discussion. But they all seem fond enough of him (and far too impressed with his jokes) so I'm happy to give him the benefit of the doubt.
In case you haven't noticed, I was really really impressed. Leipzig English Church appears to be a very nice place to go with really nice genuine people. I look forward to moving to Leipzig and becoming a part of it.
Oh - and on our walk home we went past the new Town Hall (which ironically in German is called the rathaus), which is the site where Luther debated Johann(es) Eck.
Posts
That sounds awesome Tony. I think it's Moore college or else Sydney Uni have sent a mission group to that church before, last year I think. There was an article in Southern Cross a couple of months ago. So they hmust be somewhat in line with Sydney Anglican teaching which is probably a good thing....
ReplyDeleteLove Bec
Hey Bec,
ReplyDeleteYou're right it was Moore. They were very happy with the visit and spoke highly of the whole thing. I went to a Bible study on the Wednesday and was very pleased with the whole thing. It seems like a really great church.