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Tine Look reporting from the Czech Republic |
As an EVS Volunteer for Atlantic Bridge, I am used to the
term "Building Bridges" - but how can this idea come alive? Last
weekend (29th to 31th March) I experienced it with a group of 20 people
from all over the world.
A team of youth leaders from the Mennonite church Dresden
and Ian and me (volunteers of Atlantic Bridge) organised a youth events for
Czechs and Germans! Moreover, two Chinese and one Japanese joined us, who are
studying at the university in Dresden! We called it "The Peace Weekend"._
On Friday evening I arrived with four czech youth in
Dresden. The German youth group already had prepared a great meal for us and
while dinner we had some time to get to know each other. For the evening we
prepared some games with the theme of *"Peace between
cultures".* Next, we used the evenings on Friday and Saturday for worship
songs and hearing a small devotion about the day's theme.
The topic for Saturday was *"Peace between God and
humans"* . We started the day with the story of Brother Andrew, a Dutch
man, smuggling bibles throughout communist europe! - but we didn't just hear
the story, we also made it come alive, because the leaders from Dresden
prepared a really cool city game in the Old Town of Dresden!! The idea behind
it was that we had to smuggle bibles in small groups from one historical place
to the other. On our phones we got questions and hints about where the next
place would be!! This game was a big success, also because of the wonderful
weather God gave us! :-)
In the evening we cooked a traditional czech meal: Svičkova!
On Sunday we used our chance to present some pictures in the
Sunday service of the Mennonite church.
All together it was a successful weekend, even though the
language difference was a barrier sometimes and we had to sleep in sleeping
bags. We as leaders learnd more about leading intercultural groups and also the
youth gave a good feedback for the weekend. A czech said :
I wish I can be on more events like this. It was
super exciting and encouraging.