Ash Wednesday Day (by Ash Stemke)

Sooo...Today is Ash Wednesday -- in GERMANY.  In addition to it just being a day that I share a name with, it's also the beginning of the season of Lent, a time of remberance.  Religiously speaking, we remember our baptisms, when God chose us to be his children.  We remember communion, where we are week after week refreshed from our sins.  But most of all, we remember God's gift to us in the death of Jesus, His Son, Who died on a cross to forgive all of our sins.

In light of all this rememberance, I figured I would mention a few highlights of today/this week that I am certain I will remember for years to come:

I remember...
...the anticipation of coming to GERMANY.  Of traveling to Europe for the first time.  Of riding on the largest airplane I've ever ridden on.  The loooooooooooooooong flight.

I remember...
...getting delicious ice cream three days in a row from a wonderful, little, surprisingly-Spanish-speaking shop in Erfurt.

I remember...
...watching the UNC vs. Duke basketball game (beginning at 2 am because of the time difference) off of the slow, expensive hotel internet on several different bootleg websites (which one by one got shut down) and eventually just the the CBS Sports cartoon-animated "game tracker" online.

I remember...
...living, working, and eating at a CASTLE with a REAL MOAT (although it had no water).

I remember...
...worshiping in two different German Churches.  While it is quite easy to doze off during a sermon in a foreign language, the services followed similar structures to the ones we were used to in America.  Singing hymns in German is fun too!  However, large stone churches in Europe are rarely heated (as was the case with the City Church in Wittenberg that we did Ash Wednesday worship at today).  I'm not used to sitting in church wearing two jackets and a pair of gloves!

I remember...
...the wonderful cathedrals all over GERMANY!  I'm pretty sure that out of the 453 pictures I have taken so far, over 100 of them were taken inside churches.  Part of this is probably due to the fact that I (along with Larura, Max, and others) are very passionate about music and have been fascinated by the MASSIVE ORGANS in every church we've visited.

A (not-so) quick aside --- Today has been one of the best days on the trip so far for me, which is ironic (or whatever the opposite of "ironic" is) because it is Ash Wednesday.  In addition to being the day named after me (okay, maybe me after the day) (okay okay, maybe neither), I led the group in morning devotion before leaving for Leipzig this morning.  In Leipzig, my musical-nerdyness was allowed to run wild beacuse of our visit to St. Thomas Church, which is the church that Johann Sebastian Bach was music director at for seventeen years (he wrote most of his music while working there).  There is a statue and a museum in his honor and his remains remain (haha...okay bad joke) buried in the church's altar.

And last but definitely not least, I will remember my brothers and sisters in LCM that I have spent so many wonderful hours with on this trip. 

Happy Ash Wednesday!
Love, Ash

P.S. My middle name is Wednesday.

P.P.S. Not really.