Welcome to a journal blog with pictures and videos of my Continuing Education Trip to Berlin, Germany.  I begin with some appreciated, delightful departing advice from family and friends. 

[videos and pictures couldn't be included in this post - will figure out how to share them]

  1. "Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it."
  2. ―Mary Oliver
  3. My daughter, Kennadi, wished me Safe travels and hoped I would find the trip enriching. Her words filled me with purpose and anticipation for the journey ahead.
  4. "Your assignment, should you accept it, is to notice seven items of any type you've never seen before. "Lorraine
  5. "Pay attention to everything, and don't ignore any inner messages! Keep looking for the good—small things. "Aliah
  6. "Enjoy the time away. Let God deposit something new in your spirit. Relax and enjoy," Tyrone said.
  7. What a fantastic opportunity! I will be interested to hear what you discover. Carol
  8. "I'm so proud of you. God has blessed you with favor. I will continue to pray for safety. I'm not sure about going to the Nazis camp. It would be educational to know you. You look at every opportunity to learn and teach us, especially me. Take pictures if you can. Most of all, stay safe, "Judy said.
  9. "I'll be praying for your safe arrival and your safe return. Right now, I don't feel that leaving the United States is worth it for any reason. And that's my personal feeling. Those are different people, so different when you leave the United States, and I can't say if that's a good or bad thing. I've been to China, I've been to Japan, and I've been through the Philippines, but I have never gone through London or Germany. I pray you have a good time. Take lots of pictures, and come home safe, my friend." Lonnie
  10. "Oh, there is an amazing ice cream/gelato/sorbet place in Wittenberg. The only place I've ever been able to find dark chocolate sorbet!" Sue

My flight departed about 45 minutes late from LAX, heading to Kennedy (JFK) airport in New York. I like flying into and out of New York JFK more than La Guardia because, between the two major New York airports, JFK seems more manageable, a bit cleaner, and a little less congested to me

During the first hour of the flight, I nodded on and off. Still, most of my time was divided between playing two concentration puzzle game apps I downloaded on my phone in anticipation of the long flight, reading, or listening to three books I brought on the trip. The phone games I played were: 

  1. Fun Difference—I'm currently on level 38, and the object of the game is to observe similar pictures on the screen and then find the Difference between them.
  2. Connection-in this game, you are given sixteen words, and the object is to select four words that have a standard connection: For example, love-dear-baby- boo = words used to describe someone you care about.
  3. With the delayed departure of the flight from LAX  I arrived at JFK and was pleasantly surprised to hear that my British Air flight from NY to London was also delayed for 2 hours. So I did not miss my connecting flight to London.I was not surprised by British Air's delay from New York to London because I read it earlier in the week in an AP News report: "In the news today: Detentions of European tourists at US borders spark travel fears, and London's Heathrow Airport closes for the day after a fire at a nearby electrical substation."

Unfortunately, this might mean I probably won't be able to do the activities I planned for Sunday, which include: seeing the Berlin Wall and visiting a Nazi concentration camp. I was also just informed that my British Air connecting flight from London to Berlin has been canceled for Sunday, and I'm being rebooked on a flight that departs from London on Monday morning.. Books I am reading on the trip:

 

  1. Fire in the Whole by Robert G. Calahan
  2. James, by Percival Everett, and 
  3. A Good Cry poem by Niki Giovanni The quote below is taken from one of her poems. 

"It's usually cold in winter. But spring blooms everything. They all like the summer. The autumn sneaks up on us. But I'm lucky Friendship doesn't have a season… is there smiling no matter what the weather… is there wishing me well…no matter the season… Friendship is all the time. I'm glad (YOU ARE) there." All the Time By Nikki Giovanni 

In my other blogs, I will comment more about the other books and the insights I am gaining from them. 

My friend Aliah advised me to "Pay attention to everything, and don't ignore any inner messages! Keep looking for the good—small things. "

I have been fascinated with the word for as long as I can remember. While checking in for my British Air flight and then again on my flight, I overheard British Air flight attendants use the word, Rubbish. Immediately, I had flashbacks, or possibly I was triggered, as that word reminded me of so many things. It's a very British word that is used to describetrash, waste, and unwanted or discarded matter. Things that are no longer desired are deemed worthless in the eyes of the beholder.  

I was first exposed to the word  Rubbish. in my native country of Jamaica. Jamaicans incorporated this word as a part of the vocabulary obtained from the British, who, under the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth, had colonized, raped, ravaged, and left in ruin the people of Jamaica who had been stolen from their native country and culture of Africa and brought them to be slaves.  Rubbish. was a household word I grew up hearing in Jamaica and America when my family migrated there. I wonder if, as in American History, where a black person was considered 3/5 of a person, the British people under the leadership of Queen Elizabeth thought the black people in Jamaica were  Rubbish.and thus felt justified exploiting and colonizing them? Many years ago, the motto of a wealthy trash company in Los Angeles named Waste Management was, "One man's trash is another man's treasures!" Rubbish is a re-discovery of a new word I made today.

 

Sunday, March 23, 2025

It feels like I have been traveling a whole day, and I still have not arrived at my destination in Berlin, Germany. But I am much closer than I was 11 hours ago.

My morning began still enough for London. With less than two hours of reading on the flight, we were served a warm egg sandwich and the drink of choice.  I was fascinated by the electronic globe on the screen before me during breakfast. It displayed an overview of the earth, highlighting where the flight departed and its final destination, London Heathrow. I could also see my final destination, Berlin, Germany, which appeared close to London. Praise the Lord, the end, or is it the beginning, is near.  Also, pictured on the screen were other countries surrounding London and Germany, such as Copenhagen, Stockholm, Prague, Budapest, Moscow, Athens, Baghdad, Madrid, Rejkavik, Murmandk, Monaco, Ankara, Pristina, and New Delhi, to name a few. I could not help but think of how enormous and expansive, diverse, beautiful, and all-encompassing the world is, and yet we often attempt to shrink it into our limited and narrow worldview. 

Omg—did British Air know I am a pastor? There was a collection on my British Air flight. The flight attendants brought around what could have been a collection plate and envelopes (see picture) to raise money for projects in England supporting children and young people living with disabilities in the UK and to provide educational books for young people in India. The program is called "Small Change can make a big difference!" 

I commend British Air and the people of England for this program and wish it the highest success in ministering to the less fortunate. Still, the cynical side of me wants to ask why they are collecting small change when they are sitting on Billions of ROYAL dollars, most of which they earned on the backs of the people colonized, including the people from India under the rule of the British East India Company from the late 18th century and late under direct British Crown Rule of Queen Elizabeth know as the British Raj from 1858-1947. Use the money the people you colonized and exploited earned for you and set them free from the poverty that you help create.

 

Monday, March 24, 2025

In many ways, Monday was a continuation of Sunday, as I had unfinished business to take care of before actually meeting with the group I am in Germany to study with. The schedule for Monday was:

10:30 am Meet at Berlin Airport then 

11:30 Visit the Berlin Cathedral  

Noon Panoramic bus tour of Berlin

1:00 pm Lunch at Potsdamer Platz

2:00 Continue Panoramic View of Berlin

4:00 Depart Berlin for Wittenburg 

6:00 Check-in @ the College of Wittenburg introduction, social time, and Dinner. 

Despite the group's schedule, I was determined to visit the Berlin Wall of the Berlin gate. I had given up hope of visiting a Nazi Concentration camp on this visit, but since the Berlin Wall was not on the group's agenda, I was resolute to get there prior to meeting with the group. You may ask why I could not make it to either of my two desired sites on Sunday. I will attribute it to at least two or three things. 

  1. Exhaustion from jet lag after traveling for what seemed like an eternity on Saturday into Sunday.
  2. Language: These are the few words in German: Hallo, Guten Morgan, Guten Abend, Auf Weidersehem. I assumed it would be as easy to get around in Germany as in   Switzerland and Portugal. After all, I did my homework, and according to (https://www.german-way.com/travel-and-tourism/public-transport-in-germany/ "Public Transport in Germany and Europe is usually excellent. Even medium-sized towns have good public transportation networks that use buses, trams, and urban/suburban rail lines to move people around. Because most public transportation systems in Germany are regional, a ticket for the S-Bahn is also valid for a streetcar or bus. "Granted, purchasing a ticket is relatively simple, but it ain't that simple after that. 
  3. Misinformation was the third reason. My difficulty began when I tried to find out which train to take in which direction to get to the Berlin Wall or the Berlin Gate. In addition, unlike Switzerland and Portugal, where signs appeared in multiple languages, including English, everything on public transportation in Germany was in German.  Even the Native Germans seemed not to know how or were unwilling to share directions with me. 

This experience made me think about recent and past proposals by American politicians to make "English" the language of America. While I disagree with this direction, accommodation for non-German-speaking people seems limited. Now, I am aware that apps like Google Translate provide these services, but I wanted help from a human. 

But on at least three occasions, I asked for help; on each occasion, I was pointed in the wrong direction or given misinformation. I have often said I would rather someone say, "I don't know," instead of giving me the incorrect information. What about human nature makes it difficult to say, "I don't know?" Is this conditioning by the society in which we live? Is this cultural?

Anyway, Monday morning rolled around, and my mission was to find my way to the Brandenburg Berlin Gate, which has come to symbolize the Cold War division between East and West Berlin. Some say that Germany has been reunified since the fall of the wall. 

As the songwriter Sam Cook and the author Kenneth C. Davis say, "I don't know much about history!" To speak definitively on a unified Germany, I am fascinated by building and tearing down walls. The Old Testament book of Nehemiah focuses its attention on the leadership of Nehemiah in unifying the people of Israel to restore the walls of Jerusalem. During the time of Nehemiah, I imagine a city without a wall was susceptible to all kinds of things, including possible invasion from enemies or 'immigrants' crossing them. 

The walls of Jerusalem had been in ruins for many years, so many years, that the people had grown accustomed to seeing them that way. Isn't it strange how comfortable we can become even with the ruin in our lives and even around us? Another point for consideration is that, for the most part, the people of Jerusalem failed to say anything about the torn-down walls until Nehemiah proposed restoring them. Also, the truth of life is that some people around us can be silent all the while we are in "ruin," but as soon as we decide to do something to change our condition, they have something to say.

 By sheer determination, I finally made it to Berlin Gate. The Brandenburg Berlin Gate was visited, viewed, walked through, and touched! The historic Adlon hotel  (see video) was near the Berlin Gate. It's said to be rather $$$$ and an exclusive place to sit in Germany. One of its claims to fame is where the late Michael Jackson stayed in 2002 and dangled his son out the window. After meeting up with the group, we were also taken on a scenic tour of Berlin. Please pictures and videos of the two days. 

Later in the evening, I read a few chapters of one of the books I brought with me—the Fire in the Whole by Robert G Callahan II. I found myself reverting to the words on the pages and resonating with the images the words were painting. Fire, on the whole, as Callahan's says, is about embracing our righteous anger with white Christianity, complicity with racism, and reclaiming wholeness.  

He caught my attention and held my attention from the opening lines of chapter one. "What am I telling you? Is your anger holy?  He then wrote as if he was describing my childhood and most of my adult life when he said, 

"Growing up in the church, I was never taught that anger was something that could be appropriate, right, and healthy. Anger I learned could only evince a lack of self-control, immaturity, and unhealthiness."  

He goes on to say, "When God's ears burn with anger at injustice, ours should, too. God created us with this emotion for a reason." 

Here are some of the other quotes in chapter one that spoke to me.

"traveling the path of deconstructing my faith has caused me to doubt whether I ever actually witnessed Christianity living and breathing in the modern world with my eyes.'

"I never chose to question my faith. For me, it was the inevitable result of spiritual trauma stemming from right-winged Christianity's complicity with racism."

"How did some of my white friends and even family develop such a different understanding of Christianity than me? 

"Can Racism and nationalism influence be extracted from evangelical Christianity?"

"Do white evangelicals not see racism in the church, or are they ignoring it?"

"is it too late for the church to be saved?"

"Are advocates of this toxic National Christianity theology even saved or Christians?"

"What about Christians who claim not to see the problem?

"truly, can anyone be so naive?" The cognitive dissonance is bewildering

Reading Calahan's words, which described thoughts I have struggled with for the past 20 years, fed my insomnia. But after finishing a few chapters of the book, I eventually went back to sleep. 

Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Tuesday's schedule was as ambitious as Mondays had proven to be: 

0700 Breakfast

0900 Drive to Whitesburg and visit Martin Luther and Melanchthon's home. 

Visit Castle and City Church

Introduction to Luther Garden and Luther World Federation Wittenberg Center

Private worship Chapel service. See the video and picture of the remainder of the day.  

See you next time. 

 Kenneth Davis