P:C - The Christian Occupation: Sanitation Engineer

One of the most memorable stories from this week was when I cleaned up trash at a carwash. You would think for a place that stands for cleaning and newness there wouldn’t be so much trash. However, the opposite was true. Off to one of the sides by the forest and bridge there was a hill that was composed of trash and dead leaves. I enjoyed cleaning the place and setting an example for the community. It made me think of my life and others.

Christians should have mostly/all clean lives that help others to do the same, but so many have hidden places where all this junk and trash from the world gets thrown over the years and simply ignored. After a while, others notice and it no longer is a secret. God always knows and wants us to have places that are clean and free of trash. Even if we think it’s hidden, others will notice and that will affect our ministry as well as our example.

For this reason I enjoyed and was exhilarated to go and serve where no one else would, to clean the garbage out of a community. I am ready for God to clean my life and use me to go clean out the garbage in others’ lives.

P:C - Flying to Face Your Fears

I was born into a family that, while it certainly worked to not be prejudiced against any group of people, ended up fostering a (I would say fear, but that’s not quite it.) discomfort – for lack of a better word – toward German people. My grandfather fought in World War II, and we were told not to talk about Germans around him. This even extended to my friend who was an exchange student from Germany. Anyone was free to visit my grandparents’ house with us, but I was told, “Maybe it would be better if you didn’t bring Katy.” So that was that. Subconsciously, this discomfort was solidified by a computer game my mother liked to play. The whole idea was that the player is invading a German fortress, and every time you opened a door there would be someone on the other side who would yell, “Guten Tag!,” and then they would start shooting. I know it’s ridiculous, but this is what wormed its way into my head.

Recently, God stopped me and said, “You’re going to be my warrior.”

I responded, “Okay. Sounds good. Let’s do it.”

So I started applying for different missions trips. I applied for one to Poland, but got rejected, which entirely broke my spirit. I thought, “Why would God call me to this, but then turn me down when I tried to follow His call?” I thought maybe I had misinterpreted His call entirely.

Not long after that, the opportunity to travel to a little German town known as Mainz arose. I said, “Oh, no, God. You are not calling me to that.”

Well, needless to say, God laughed a little and said, “Oh, yes, I am.”

So I applied, and, of course, was accepted.

To make a long story short, I came to Germany and fell in love with the country. I fell in love with the people. I finally opened my heart and was filled by some of the kindest, gentlest people I have known. I think this was God’s way of saying, “If you’re going to by my representative you have to love all my children, just like Me.”

In the end, I found that these people of whom I had lived in fear turned out to be just as beautiful as I thought they were scary. Even though it took me getting on a plane and flying straight into my fears, God was able to open my heart to see people exactly how He sees them: beautiful and Divinely created.

P:C - The Power of Prayer

Saturday night was actually almost the toughest night for me during Project Camp because I was getting more and exhausted, and on that day I thought I wouldn’t be able to talk or be hospitable to anybody anymore. I could only pray that God would guide me through the whole evening and would speak and care through me.

When I got on the bus to drive to the tent in the city, an elderly woman asked if I wanted to sit next to her (because I was standing in the aisle). So I sat next to her, and, for some reason, I felt that I should invite her for dinner at the tent, but when we got out of the bus she was so moved so quickly in a different direction that I didn’t get the chance to say a word. So I just prayed that if God wanted me to invite her that He would let us meet again somehow, and all of a sudden, while I was heading toward the tent, I saw her again. I came next to her and asked her if I could invite her to dinner. She was kind of surprised and asked if she looked “like that,” so I explained to her what we were doing. She said she was sorry but she had to work and on Sunday she had to visit her mom who was in the hospital and really sick. The lady asked for my name, and I gave her a flyer. She said if I wanted to I could visit her some day at the nearby store where she worked, and then we left.

Although this was such a short encounter, it was really intense, so I kept praying for her during the evening and made plans to visit her during the next week. At the end of the evening, after we had eaten, listened to music, and to a sermon, one of our staff members came to me and behind her was the lady I met on the bus. She handed a bag to me and seemed to be in a hurry again, so the only thing I was able to say was that I would visit her during the next week, and then she was gone. I was so surprised and did not know why she handed that bag to me. When I opened it I could hardly believe it. I felt hot tears come to my eyes. In the bad was a beautiful bouquet of roses. Only a little while later did I realize that there was also an envelope in the bad. When I opened it and read the note I was really touched. She wrote that she read on the flyer that this was obviously a Christian event, and asked if I would include her and her sick mom in my prayers.

I have never experienced anything like that. She really was like an angel to me on that day. To me all of this was like Jesus trying to show me: “Sarah, I see you where you are and how exhausted you are. I just wanted to encourage you and send you these flowers!” It really was so amazing. Again on that evening I was able to see how Jesus guided me through the whole evening and never put me under pressure. This was so wonderful. During the whole week I realized more and more that it was not about me, but about Him, and I was able to realize every single day how He lived through me without me doing or trying to produce anything. I am so thankful for that.

By now I have visited the woman of the store again and was able to listen to her about her sick mom and comfort her. She still has a rough time to go through, worrying about her mom, but we are staying in touch, and I am really excited to see what God will do in her life.

P:C - A Little Child Shall Lead Them

I had the opportunity to spend the afternoon one day at the university, watching some of the German kids pass out bananas and water to the students as they passed by. I was a little surprised at the patience of the students listening to the sales pitch and even more surprised by some of the conversations they had with people whom were genuinely interested in what the kids were doing. I think I was most impressed by the kids’ willingness to approach the college students. At that age I practically idolized college students and probably couldn’t have been paid enough money to try and convince them to come to church at the big ten in front of City Hall.