By Deaconess Deborah Graf, Trinity, Reading

[Editor’s note: This story was printed in the August issue of Steeple Notes, the newsletter of Trinity Lutheran Church, Reading. Another story about the trip from one of the youth participants will appear in the November issue of Partners in the Spirit.]

On June 13 a group of eleven high school youth met at the synod office to travel to experience life in one of our companion synods. They hailed from all over our synod territory — from outside Reading to Mountain Top.

The first part of our trip was spent in the Borna area just outside Leipzig, and the second half was spent in the Loebau/Zittau district, which is situated on the Polish/Czech border.

My husband, Peter, and I accompanied them as we saw many sights including the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig and the Wartburg Castle where Martin Luther translated the Bible, and took a short trip into Poland and the Czech Republic.

Led by two youth ministers from Germany, we visited schools, participated in youth group activities, and hiked around castle ruins.

Why do we do this? I think a comment from one of the German youth sums it up well. “All my preconceptions about Americans have been wiped away.”

Everything he had seen on television or read in the newspaper was simply not true about our group (no, we are not all like the people on MTV’s “Pimp My Ride”). His simple example was ketchup. He assumed all Americans ate everything doused in ketchup.

At dinner one night, when one of the German youth proceeded to put ketchup on her pizza, the Americans exclaimed, “EEEEEEWWWWW!!,” appalled at the thought. Preconception gone.

The youth exchange was a time to experience how God’s Kingdom extends beyond our national borders and to get a glimpse of the feast to come. What a blessed journey it was.

[In addition to Deborah and Peter Graf, participants from the Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod were Jason Kates (St. Andrew, Allentown), Christie Kaufman (St. Paul, Mountain Top), Jessica Keinert (Jordan, Orefield), Sarah Keinert (Jordan, Orefield), Linda Jo Lonaberger (Advent, West Lawn), Gillian Marx (Jordan, Orefield), Lorien Moura (St. Paul, Mountain Top), Nettie-Rose Reynolds (St. Paul, Easton), Catherine Rusuitti (St. Paul, Mountain Top), Nathan Solt (Huff’s Union, Alburtis), and Elizabeth Ziegler (New Jerusalem, Hellertown).]