Christian Social

A few weeks ago my friend Baraa invited me to attend a German course with him, which he said was a very social gathering of international students. I brushed off the idea because I didn't feel like hanging around a group of international students stuttering their ways through the German language. But, this week he told me that some of the group also meets on Thursday evenings for dinner and a small Bible passage discussion. I've been feeling a need to be more social, so I decided that I should go and have some fun. The interesting thing about Baraa attending these student missionary gatherings is that he is Muslim. But, he explained to me that he studied world religions in college (at a college which he says is one of the oldest colleges/universities in the world, and I believe him since he is from Egypt) and that he is constantly searching for answers in all religions and sciences.

Upon entering the room where the social was taking place, Baraa and I were immediately met by an international display of welcoming faces. A few Chinese students had prepared dinner that evening and it tasted absolutely fantastic! I found the soup fascinating: it was tomatoes and egg in a clear broth. Surprisingly tasty.

After dinner we all introduced ourselves and then talked about something we had lost in our lives which had been very dear to us. Everyone had something interesting to talk about on this subject. Happily, most people had re-found what had been lost. For my part, I showed them my corse/how keychain. I explained how my friends had stolen him but I thought he was lost, and how happy I was to have him returned to me.

Once we had cleared away the dinner dishes, we relocated ourselves to couches. The leader of the student missionaries is studying to be a teacher, so as most teachers like to do, he lead us in a game before our reading of John 15. It was the Hot/Cold game. You know, the one where an object is hidden in the room and the rest of the group says "Hot" or "Cold" to lead the searcher in the right direction. Three people searched quite successfully for their prize candies hidden under a metal pot. After the game, Bibles were dispersed among us in German, English, and Chinese. The reading presentation was entertaining because a Chinese man read the German Bible, and then a German woman read the Chinese Bible. Our group of 16 was then split in to two smaller groups for more intimate discussions of the passage.

I admit that I have never been attracted to small group discussions of Bible passages. I am more attracted to having theologically educated pastors preach because I find their insights more trustworthy. But, I kind of liked this group. It was special. It wasn't like Sunday school where we all know the "correct" answers and interpretations. And it wasn't like college religion courses where we all ask the most far out there and impossible questions. No, these were people who have read the Bible and understand what is being said, but wonder how the words are actually supposed to work in our depraved human lives. I didn't contribute anything to the discussion because I identified with both the people asking the difficult questions and the people giving the traditional responses.

Logic would make me believe that as people grow older they have more answers than questions, but the opposite is true. As a child, the world was just made up of things like trees, streams, dogs, old people, and peer people. Now, I get shown thin sections on slides of tree cores in the lab, wonder about the chemical contents of streams, ponder the thousands of breeds of big and small dogs, dread the thought of being a shriveled up old human being, and stand in awe at how complex the personalities of my peers have become. The world was once black and white, yes and no, true and false. Where did this simple world go? Now I question everything under the Sun and beyond. We try to give the answers we think are true or what we want to be true. But, as it goes in the realm of academic science research, the only answer we can really settle on is this: we need more information to draw a definite conclusion.

But, I digress from my summary of the evening. The big group came back together after about half an hour of small group discussion. We proceeded to have a general social time. I was amazed at how late it had gotten, so I only stayed for a little while before making my exit. I found out that Baraa also lives in Erlangen-Bruck, so we chatted our walk home in the cool Spring weather.