Demonstrations and Deliberations

Last night was the largest demonstration here in Leipzig since 1989 just before the wall came down. They expected "tens of thousands" of demonstrators and about 60,000 counter demonstrators. 4,000 police officers were called in from all over Germany, with about 1,000 police vans.  The demonstration was an "Anti-Islamization" protest against all the refugees coming into Germany. 

As the demonstrators and counter demonstrators marched around the ring of the city, passing by our church, The Ring Cafe, twice, a group of about 60 people were meeting inside the church deliberating.  It was the first night of a four-week series of presenting some of the hard questions of our faith and having a discussion time at the end.  Last night the pastor talked about the question of the existence of God. 

As I sat beside Jim in the group, listening to the pastor speaking in German and hearing the protesters chanting as they passed by our large plate-glass windows, I noticed two young men sitting a bit a part from anyone else.  During the question time one of the young men asked a couple of questions.  Though I could not fully understand what he said, I could instantly understand his body language.  After one of his questions, the pastor asked if he understood his answer and the young man rocked his hand back and forth signifying that it didn't quite answer the question.

After the meeting, I felt a great compelling to go over and talk to them.  I mentioned this to one of our German friends and said, "I don't speak German, but I can at least introduce myself and maybe they even speak English."  Sure enough, they did speak English.  Both are university students.  They had been walking by the church because they had wanted to be part of the counter demonstration, and they saw the signs telling about the evening's discussion and decided to come on in.  Jim and I ended up talking to them for about 30 minutes.  It was an incredible time.  They were very skeptical, yet open to discussion. 

Please, pray for Dirk and Kristjan (Christian) that they will continue to wrestle with their questions and that they will come back next week.  Pray that the Spirit will create a hunger and thirst in them that will lead them to God!