Auf Wiedersehen, Deutschland!
Wow, a lot has happened the past three months, so let’s catch up! Starting with the biggest news: our fourth son Wilhelm was born on June 30th! God has blessed us with another beautiful, healthy boy, and we are so thankful and excited to have the newest addition to our family! And Wilhelm is lucky to have the best three older brothers who want to love and protect him.
The summer semester at the Lutherische Theologische Hochschule officially ended on July 12th. During the semester, Eric took four Übungen: Latin II, History of Israel, Luther’s Catechisms, and The Gospels and Acts of the Apostles. For a refresher on the class structure at LtTH, check out our “End of Winter Semester” post! Latin II completed teaching the fundamentals of the language and also introduced how to translate classic Latin texts such as Cicero, Seneca, and Augustine (into German of course). The History of Israel class provided a survey of the history of the people and nation of Israel from Abraham to AD 70 (the siege of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple). Luther’s Catechisms was a detailed study through Luther’s Small and Large Catechisms and comparing those Catechisms to the Reformed Heidelberg Catechism and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Lastly, The Gospels and Acts of the Apostles read through all four Gospels and the Book of Acts using the modern edition of Luther’s translation of the Bible, and the class studied the theology of the five books. It was an educating and illuminating year at the Hochschule, and it will serve Eric well in his continued studies at CTSFW!
The summer was also full of birthdays again (especially with the addition of Wilhelm’s in June). Johnathan turned 2 years old in May, we visited the Opel Zoo in Kronberg (right next to Oberursel). It is a lovely zoo built on the side of the mountain looking over the valley into Frankfurt, and there are many great exhibits, including many animal petting and feeding encounters. We also surprised the boys with a trip to Legoland in Günzburg! We stayed in one of the Lego-Egyptian themed villas at the park, and everyone had a blast playing on the Duplo playground, riding all the rides, and looking at the amazing Lego models. Susan and Samuel also came in first place with the firetruck ride (Susan was eight months pregnant!).
After leaving Legoland, we made a brief detour to the beautiful city of Augsburg, which played a significant role in the Reformation during the sixteenth century. We visited St. Anne’s Church where Luther had preached in 1518 and where there is currently the Lutherstiege museum. We also went to the Rokokosaal im Fronhof, which stands in the place where the Imperial Diet at Augsburg was held. There, on June 25th, 1530, the Augsburg Confession was presented to the Diet and the Emperor. It is always a joy to visit these locations where history was forever changed!
We also made many other wonderful memories this summer. We walked through the charming Altstadt in Idstein with its colorful half-timbered buildings. We roasted marshmallows and made smores with our neighbors, which is a very American tradition, and some of our neighbors had never roasted marshmallows before—let alone ever had a smore! We picked some of the tastiest strawberries in the fields south of Oberursel. And our friends threw Susan a surprise baby shower! We even had the opportunity to meet with Eric’s first German teacher from high school, who was born and raised in Kronberg and was in Germany to visit her family.
To end our time in Germany, we celebrated Samuel’s fourth birthday! We went to the Freizeitpark Lochmühle in Wehrheim. The park was full of fantastic playgrounds, fun rides, and a cute petting zoo of farm animals. It was a great time! And the next day, the Hochschule community came together to sing happy birthday to Samuel and share in some pizza, cake, and ice cream.
But now, we had to say good-bye to Germany—our home for the past year, where we had so many adventures and made so many memories, the land where our son was born. We arrived back in the United States Monday night (July 29th). It is a bittersweet time, full of excitement to be back in our home country and reunite with our families, friends, and dogs, but also full of sadness as we had to leave the friends we made and the life we had built in Germany. We have been extremely blessed with this study abroad program. We are so thankful for the community at the Lutherische Theologische Hochschule, for the professors, the staff, the students, and the residents on campus. Their friendship, hospitality, and support were enormous blessings and made it possible for our family to make a life in their home country. We are also immeasurably grateful for everyone back in the States who prayed for us, supported us, visited us, and checked in on us. Thank you to everyone across the world for everything that you have done! We truly experienced the Lord’s love and benefits through your hands.
And with that, all else we can say is: Tchüss, Deutschland! Tschüss, zusammen! Bis wir uns wiedersehen!
„Du wertes Licht, gib us deinen Schein,
lehr uns Jesus Christ kennen allein,
dass wir an ihm bleiben, dem treuen Heiland,
der uns bracht hat zum rechten Vaterland.
Kyrieleis.”
Soli Deo gloria!
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