On Wednesday, with the start of Lent, the Taize community in Aschaffenburg began welcoming the community to evening prayer in the church of Saint Agatha.
Though we dutifully planned the prayer service and shared the work of setting up the chapel, we weren't really sure what would happen at 7:45. Would anyone come? Would we start laughing in the middle of one of our songs, as we had done during the previous week when we prayed in our apartment?
Thankfully, people came (8 people, to be exact, which Amandine guessed in our bet over dinner), and we didn't laugh! After several days of praying three times a day with only five voices to carry the tune of the Taize songs, few sounds could have been sweeter than that of eight extra voices lifting our prayers to God.
Since Wednesday, we have continued to wonder whether people will join us, and we will probably be wondering the same thing when we organize our last evening prayer service at the end of March. We are happy that Thursday and Friday brought more voices to fill our choir, but there will probably be some evenings when we pray alone, and that will be okay. Consistency and presence is an important part of our ministry here. Our group will not be in Aschaffenburg long enough to make a significant difference in the community through volunteer work, but we can continue to welcome people to our prayer and to let them know that, whether they can join us or not, a small corner of their town is filled with light and song every evening, from now through March 22.
Speaking of volunteer work....On Thursday, we made our first visit to the "social cafe" in Aschaffenburg that provides low-cost meals to people in need. Johanna and I helped serve pastries and wash dishes, while Amandine and Lena helped cook. Franziska, on the other hand, was nowhere near food as she was whisked away to helped sort clothes a the secondhand shop run by the same charity that runs the cafe.
In case this week didn't include enough firsts already, today we made our first visit to the refugee home in Aschaffenburg. The "home" is really a cluster of buildings that were once used by the U.S. Armed Forces. Apparently, nearly all the property surrounding that cluster of buildings also used to belong to the U.S. Admittedly, it was quite strange to look across the street at the Burger King and think that that part of town used to be filled with people from my country while some of the people who live there now have fled from countries that my country has tried to help (or is it "help"?).
This morning, our time at the refugee home was not about work, but about learning (next week, we will start our work). One of the social workers talked to us about refugees to Germany and the process of attaining refugee status. For the most part, it sounds like an expensive, arduous process that drags on for months and, sometimes, years. At the end of the wait, some people are sent home after being picked up by the police at--get this--five in the morning. I know some people are early-risers, but deporting before dawn just doesn't seem necessary.
On a happier note, one of the women who lives in the refugee home made us feel truly welcome by preparing coffee for us, and she expressed an interest in joining us for prayer next time we come around. Today, our midday prayer in a spare room only brought one person (an employee) who stayed for five minutes, but we were happy the she could take even a little time out of her day to share in our singing.
Indeed, this journey is really not about numbers,..even if our choir does sound better with more people. :)
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