Seeing the Fruit

by Patricia Higgins

On yet another beautiful, sunny, windy, chilly morning, we awoke on our last day in Berlin.  After packing to depart (and after Jeff’s usual early-morning run), we met up in the Scandic lobby to coordinate the day.  Departing either on foot or by Uber, we took another long look at Rich’s “hometown,” grateful for our days there and our times together. The footsteps of the walkers were frequently punctuated by bursts of song (mostly initiated by Marvin), with a little chorus joining in.

At the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedachtniskirche, we attended morning worship in the New Church, a large modern sanctuary dominated by a grid of square, mostly vivid blue stained glass windows and a stylized golden crucifix in which Jesus was the cross. The service was all in German, of course, and was interrupted only by one individual whose behaviors reminded us that mental health challenges are everywhere. With help from a Tripodi translation, we understood the pastor’s sermon on Johannes 15:1-8 to be her expression of challenges to ministry, yet the gift of sometimes “seeing the fruit.” We participated in communion together with the congregation, some of us having a first experience of a wafer for the host and for all of us, white wine as the cup.

After worship, most of us returned to the same cafe as for our first meal in Berlin, a lovely and delicious bookend.

Our travels from Berlin to Wroclaw, Poland were accented with a few experiences that were memorable: a bus ride for the first hour instead of the train (due to track repairs) to Frankfurt(Oder); a long walk to the right track; broken “lift” and the need to drag heavy suitcases up a long flight of stairs; a beautifully-appointed high-speed train for the remainder of the sunset trip to Wroclaw; a frenetic scramble for taxis from the station in Wroclaw to our guesthouse; a lost-but-found phone (miracles!); our 10:00 pm dinner together before hitting the beds in our appointed rooms.

The minor glitches that we overcame were a reminder that there may be more unexpected experiences ahead, but our reliance on each other will be the key to getting through them. In all of this, we are grateful for our group’s graciousness, cohesiveness, alertness, and care for one another as we begin a very different aspect of our Shoah travels. Special thanks today to Rich, Cedric, Jeff, Marvin, Katelyn, and Diana. We especially look forward to times set aside for us to reflect together on those experiences that will undoubtedly require such moments of pause.