Guten Tag!

Liberty Friez and Kayden Schmitcke pose for a photo with other members of their mission group.

The previous Mystician Editor, Kayden Schmitcke, and I recently arrived back from a two-week long mission trip to Stuttgart, Germany. Apparently, it is the month of mission trips. 

We went with an organization called Couriers for Christ located in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Twice a year, Couriers picks a city in Europe, contacts the local missionary, and plans a campaign. These campaigns include distributing custom John and Romans and planning an evangelistic meeting for the end of the trip.

Kayden and I went over to distribute John and Romans to the residence of Stuttgart and the surrounding towns. Each day of the campaign, we were separated into teams and were given certain areas to distribute.

The first week or so, it rained nearly everyday, cutting our distribution days short. We took the time to explore a bit of Leonberg—the town we were staying in. A group of us would spend time in the mall, explore the streets, and visit local bakeries. One evening, we wanted coffee so we went on the hunt and ended up (accidentally) in a club where we were glared at by the locals. That was fun. 

We had two free days. One, we visited the Liechtenstein castle, the foundation of which has been standing since 1380. We checked out the castle shop where Kayden and I came home with each of our own a sword letter opener. We spent the other day shopping in a touristy part of Stuttgart where we found souvenir’s to bring back. 

Germany is quite different from America. The food there is amazing with heavy regulations on what can be sold. It was like eating food for the first time. Everything is smaller there—houses, streets, cars, portions. Speaking of streets, they are NARROW. Most can only fit one car despite being two-way streets. Cars themselves are a luxury and status symbol. Most people walk or bike since everything is so close together. Plants are everywhere. There is no house, lawn, or sidewalk that does not have plants growing somewhere. Our homes feel bare compared to the variety and denseness of German flowers and plants. The feel of Germany is a mix of modern and old. You can find a robot lawn mower mowing the lawn of a home that has been sitting there for 80 years. Glass highrises could be found by cobblestone paths.

The people, well, they are just like us North Dakotans. Stubborn, keep to your self sort of people. It didn’t take much to fit in. It felt like North Dakota other than the language.

It is amazing, though, how fast one can pick up the language. After only 10 days, there are a few words and sentences that have just soaked in. “Keine,” “bitte,” “verboten,” “danke,” “geschenk,” “habe,” “ein,” “hallo,” “guten morgen,” to name a few.

Overall, it was an amazing trip. Germany is a beautiful country and it is definitely worth the visit.